In 1997, in the early days of Backwoods Home Magazine ( a little publication out of of Gold Beach, Oregon), the publisher used fillers when the classified ad pages came up short. He’d ask one of the writers, John Silveira, to come up with jokes or something. One night, desperate to wrap up the classifieds, he asked John for a couple of jokes. Instead John offered to place a couple of humorous fake ads. The publisher agreed.