Bodett.com BioBodett.com BlogBodett.com BookshelfBodett.com

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Wait, Wait - Don't Laugh

There was a popular bumper sticker going around Alaska some years ago -- ALASKANS FOR GLOBAL WARMING. Here in Vermont we're having the winter that wasn't and I'm wondering if you can find one like that for this part of the country. Of course, having a "Vermonter for Global Warming" sticker on your car might get you beaten senseless with a hacky sack around here. And probably for good reason.
Although I still don't understand why we're not supposed to laugh at completely awful things anymore. I thought that was what laughter was for -- to relieve the emotional pressure from a disaster whether present or impending. If you've ever witnessed anyone fall from a roof or a ladder you will have noticed that a good part of the time they laugh on the way down. I've done it myself. It's not laughter based in humor or irony of any kind. It's steam-valve laughter -- as if you didn't laugh your gallbladder would explode. It's the laughter of being one hundred percent utterly screwed. I don't know why global warming got me thinking about that.
As long as we're on the subject of laughing so your gallbladder won't explode, I'll be on the panel of this weekend's Wait-Wait, Don't Tell Me along with Charlie Pierce and Sue Ellicott. Charlie has the best laugh in radio today, and Sue will bring her classy wit to bear on all the week's news absurdities. I will make sure everyone's water glasses are kept full. If you're not familiar with the show, check it out at npr.org .

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You should post more often.

9:36 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

© Current Tom Bodett
All Rights Reserved


Reproduction or distribution of any article or portion of this website - such as copying and
pasting into an email to send to all your crummy friends, or harrassing pregnant women,
or for implementation as a flotation device -- is strictly prohibited without written
permission from Bodett.com. We mean it. Don't do it.
Steps will be taken. Oh yes. Steps will be taken.
(Unless you really want to, then go ahead. We don't care.)