It was more than 20 years ago.

I can't even recall who was features editor then.

I pitched a Sunday features story on the S-R's Dorothy Dean.

Now, Ms. Dean was not a real person. But that did not matter because this was going to be written for April 1st.

The idea was to invent a colorful biography for the Spokane culinary maven. Crime, sex, journalism -- now it can be told!

The features editor said "Go for it."

And that's what I was going to do. Until a woman who worked part-time here at the paper (she had once been the food section's Dorothy Dean columnist) got wind of the plan. She approached the features editor in tears. Don't do it, she pleaded.

Tears. I'm not making that up.

Nobody really understood why she felt that way. But we backed off. They story did not appear.

I still feel somewhat insulted when I think of what this woman must have imagined the story would be. If anything, the April Fools piece I had in mind was going to be good for the casserole legend's image.  Oh, well.

I recycled the idea in a vastly scaled-down way on April Fools Day in 2007. We used a photo of Rita Hayworth as Dorothy's archival picture.

Some babe.

Here's that column item, which someone posted on a blog: http://maryslibrary.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/04/spokanes_doroth.html

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