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THINGS THAT MAKE US LAUGH

You don’t want to be drinking a cup of hot tea when something or someone makes you laugh.  I’m sure you don’t need to know what happened when that happened to me this morning, but I will need to wash my red placemat. Fortunately I wasn’t chewing on one of my chocolate chip cookies at the time.

I guess what happened would be called a snort. It’s not one of the action words listed in my Thesaurus, however, but there are such choices as chuckle, giggle, snicker, chortle, guffaw, roar and cackle. None of those seem to fit although they all come under the heading of laughter.

All of us don’t agree on what is funny and some of us laugh a lot more often than others. Kids provide a lot of laughs but sometimes when we are laughing, the parent may be screaming. And what kids find funny with each other often makes adults roll their eyes and think, “I don’t get it.”

I was thinking the other day about the old Road Runner cartoons and the Three Stooges movies. There is a great deal of violence in both and yet it’s hard for most of us to stop laughing while watching the characters bash each other over the head. And it’s really interesting that we can also recognize that those actions are not appropriate to do in “real” life.

We think about kids and animals and cartoons and comedians and standup comics and clowns being able to make us laugh, but many other things do the same. It always seems that art is serious and music is many other things but not funny. Not true and I don’t mean just because someone doesn’t draw well or the singer is off key. There are funny pieces of art to be found in galleries and museums and also songs that make us laugh.

What causes us to laugh may be accidental or the intent may be to make you fall off of your chair because the comedian is so funny, or the humor may be designed to make us simply smile.

Enjoying humor requires intelligence and sophistication. Yes, even if it is slapstick. The very earliest humans certainly couldn’t communicate the way we do and probably didn’t find running away from a tiger to be funny.  Our appreciation of humor has developed over the years.

But, whatever it is that makes us laugh, we should just be happy that we have been given the gift of knowing how to produce a grin, giggle or guffaw.  Even a snort.

COMING NEXT:  Hobbies Should Be Fun

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IDENTIFYING VOICES CAN BE FUN

Chances are that you and your friends haven’t sat around lately talking about your voices unless one of you has bronchitis or is an opera singer. By the way, hot tea with honey, which I am drinking now with my chocolate chip cookie, is soothing for a sore throat.

Picking voice talent for radio commercials was once part of my job as an advertising copywriter. It was great fun and offered some surprises, especially when booking men. Sometimes a deep, lush voice made me think of a tall, handsome man. But when the talent arrived to record, he might be short and only cute. It didn’t matter because this was radio.

One time I had to find a voice to fit a funny monster toy. I had no idea who the man was that I had booked until he walked in and I saw that he was famous for playing a monster on television.  I chose talent from sound tapes sent to me by agents.

What got me started thinking about voices was a phone call. I was calling, I thought, a man who does home repairs, but I made a mistake and called the phone of his grown son. I know them both well and they both have the same name. One is Junior. The call was one of those French farces where everything gets mixed up, because I thought I was talking to his dad. After I got off the phone, I realized that although he sounds much like his dad, his voice is quite a bit deeper.

Many of us sound like one of our parents but none of us sound exactly like another person. Voices are as unique as fingerprints and are often used that way for security identification purposes. But then, you probably know that.

My mother and I sounded so much like each other that my dad could never tell the difference when he phoned home. In fact, dad hated telephones and never asked for someone and never said goodbye. He just started talking when he heard a voice and hung up when he felt the conversation was over. It was just his telephone manners; he was really a very sweet, well-mannered man under other circumstances. His telephone style made for some very confusing conversations.

Some people just have a knack for hearing the differences in voices and others do not. It just happened that I can distinguish. As soon as I was old enough to answer the phone at home, I knew who was calling even if I had heard the voice only once before. My mother was president of a women’s business association and she got a lot of calls from different women. It was rare that I didn’t know right away who on the other end of the phone call. This difference in voices is very obvious between singers, of course, and the same can be said of professional speakers such as actors.

Identical twins can be the exception. It might take voice printing to figure out if they sound the very same.

Anyway, you might try identifying voices.  It can be fun and challenging.

COMING NEXT:  Things That Make Us Laugh

 

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on October 21, 2012

IDENTIFYING VOICES CAN BE FUN

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SEEK AT LEAST A LAUGH A WEEK

Here’s a little “food for thought,” which is an idiom, or by now is probably a cliche–laughter is almost as good for you as a chocolate chip cookie. Well, I just made that up about the cookie, but then if you know me at all by now, you know that I often make stuff up just to try and get you to laugh. Sneaky, right?

I’m eating my cookie right now and drinking my tea while I look through a book that is dog-eared from my over-use of its idiom information. The book was published by Scholastic in 1996. You’ll see idioms, cliches, phrase, sayings, and expressions all over my book, “Ticked Off And Tickled About It.” That’s because they tickle me.

I recall one day when I told my daughter-in-law that I couldn’t do something or other because I had “other fish to fry.” Since she knows I don’t do much cooking, she said, “I didn’t know you cook fish.” She didn’t grow up with mother in Oklahoma where idioms flew fast and furious. When I got the idiom book, there was not one phrase in there that I hadn’t heard.

I started to tell you about a food event I attended not too long ago, but I’ve gotten sidetracked because I looked up phrases on eating and food and found “easy as pie,” “eat crow,” “eat humble pie,” “eat your hat,” “eat your heart out,” “eat your words,” “egg on your face.”

Under Food, I saw “feast or famine,” “feel your oats,” “finger in every pie,” “from soup to nuts,” “full of beans,” and of course, “food for thought.”

Now I must confess that every chapter heading in my “Ticked Off” book is an idiom. They are probably a cliche which is an idiom that has become very well known.

My feeling about the use of cliches is the same as my thought about why travel to some obscure city, in the middle of who knows where, when you can go to Paris, Rome or Venice. More people go to those three cities because they are the most fun places to visit so they are well known. (Sort of cliche traveling.)

About the food event I meant to mention–It was all about eating healthy foods and I agree that’s very important, but people eat hamburgers and hot dogs not only because they are cheap, but also they are a lot more fun to eat than lettuce and rutabaga, unless dished up by a great chef. So maybe that’s cliche eating.

That’s just how we humans are–we know a good cliche when we see one and we know they are more fun than and old, obscure idiom. So “throw caution to the wind” and help yourself to a chocolate chip cookie. Or even a trip to Paris!

COMING NEXT: Wishes, Lies or Dreams?

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AN APPLE A DAY HELPS THE KIDDIES PLAY

I just finished washing fourteen apples to take to my reading class (of 14 first graders) this afternoon. Now I’m enjoying my first cup of tea and a chocolate chip cookie. I’m glad you’re joining me.

You may be wondering what apples have to do with a reading class when the teacher is taking them to the students rather than vice versa. Good question.

My students are from economically disadvantaged families and they are very happy to get a piece of fruit at 3:30 after school. So, I bribe them a little to get them to read. And anyway I’m sure you know that a hungry child is generally not as good a student as she could be.

I did some worksheets on fruits and vegetables. The first one was on apples, of course. Two of the boys had never tasted an apple. Many of the children had no idea that you could make pies, sauce, jelly, etc. using apples.

One little boy is determined to create another apple by putting his apple seeds in a cup of water. He will not hear of any other way of getting a tree to grow. He just understands that apples come from seeds and that seeds need water. He doesn’t yet get the soil and tree part.

The wicked witch had it right in the story of Snow White. Kids are really drawn to the bright red apples. They’ll eat any apples I bring but they prefer the really red ones. Those of course are usually more expensive.

I take the apples in a basket that the kids like. It has a handle and red and white checked fabric inside. I told them that it is my Little Red Riding Hood basket. Only one child understood what I meant. Seems that Little Red is a little old-fashioned.

I have the kids clean their hands with diaper wipes before they pick up an apple, but soon I see that they have placed their half-eaten apple on the carpet while they toss a Nerf ball around. They have been told to lay the apple on the table on a napkin, but they forget. No one has gotten sick and I’ve been giving them apples for months.

And now I have just one more thing to say on the subject. These kids are the apples of my eyes.

COMING NEXT: Seek at Least a Laugh A Week

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FIVE HORSE TALES

It doesn’t take much to make kids laugh. That’s what I was thinking about while I was sitting here with my tea and chocolate chip cookie. I have a large “toy” horse that is covered in a bright multi-color Pendleton fabric. I took it to my reading class one day and hid it under a make-shift circus tent. The next week, there was just a chair under the tent and the next week there were several Teddy bears. This all ties into worksheets that I have been giving the fourteen first graders. The kids were very eager to see what was under the tent. All I’d do is pull away the tent at the end of class, after they have guessed what is under it, and when they see, even just the chair, they whoop and are delighted.

I thought back to when I was a child, in the 1930’s, and a man came around the neighborhood with a pony and a little dog. A parent would pay for a photo of the child wearing a cowboy hat while seated on the pony. As a child, it was thrilling. I’d love to show you the photo but I’m not computer-savvy enough to download it.

When I was in high school, I went to Colorado with two friends and the parents of one. Somewhere there was a full-size fake horse rearing up on his back legs and each of us girls had our picture taken sitting on it. I don’t recall doing that but I also have that picture.

After I was married, my husband and I went to a small ranch in Wyoming that had horses for visitors to ride. Before we went, we took riding lessons on Western saddles. We went on trail rides in Wyoming and it was fun. The cowboy who guided us was named Curly. It’s true.

After we returned, we began taking riding lessons on English saddles. Big mistake because there’s no saddle horn to hang onto. One day in the ring with a bunch of other horses and riders, we were suppose to canter (for the first time). In case you don’t know about that, it’s the step just before you gallop (that’s fast). I was on a 17 hand high horse (that’s big) and suddenly he moved about two inches to one side. As I went to correct, he moved more the other way and off I went, sliding right down the side onto my head (covered by a helmet). Fortunately it had rained a lot the day before and the horses had chopped up the ground so it wasn’t so hard as it might have been. The lenses popped out of my glasses and I’m no more brain damaged than I was before I fell, but without glasses, I thought I was blind.

I don’t ride horses any more. There’s no gearshift and no brake pedal. I can put up with reins instead of a steering wheel but I want to be able to control how fast I go and when I can stop.

It seems that just about everyone has some horse tale to share. I’d love to hear yours.

COMING NEXT: An Apple A Day Helps The Kiddies Play

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OVER-LAUGHING IS THE GOAL

Hello. I’ve been waiting for you. In fact, I was a little early so I’m on my second chocolate chip cookie and my tea is a bit cold. I’ve been sitting here wondering how many cookies I could eat before it would be over-doing it.

I never tell you anything you don’t know. We just share our ideas. But, have you given any thought to excesses? I think there are only two things in our lives that we can’t do to excess. Tell me if I’m wrong.

We can over-eat, over-drink, over-spend, over-dress, over-exercise, over-sleep, over-state, over-step, over-work, and a whole bunch of other “overs.”

The two things we can’t over-do are loving and laughing. I can’t take care of the loves in your life, but I am hoping to get you to the place where you almost over-laugh. I don’t mean hysteria. I just want you to start looking at life in a different way, one that will show you the humor in many problems.

I haven’t been able to find a statistic that shows the average amount of time an adult laughs during a day, but I bet it’s not very long. I had to stipulate that we’re talking about adults because most children laugh a lot during a day. Well, at least the elementary age kids. Things get more serious by the time they are in middle school.

We, as mature humans, are so hungry for laughter that we spend hours watching shows that we hope will make us laugh. We idolize Ellen, Tina and Oprah for many reasons, but a biggie is because they make us laugh and do it without insulting people or using horrible language. Their job is not telling jokes; they understand that humor comes right out what goes on in our lives. That’s the place for you to look as you go through your day.

I believe if you read my book, “Ticked Off and Tickled About It,” that you will begin to see how to find those funny moments for yourself. Also if you keep visiting me here, we’ll continue to keep looking at how humor can be found in everyday problems.

In case you haven’t read my book yet, let me explain that it is not a textbook. It is a book of 40 humorous essays that came right out of problems I’ve experienced.

I really look forward to your ideas about putting more laughter in your life.

Meantime, I’ve decided eating a third cookie might be over-doing it but the idea of downing all that chocolate just gives me the giggles.

COMING NEXT: FIVE HORSE TALES

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DISASTROUS ADVENTURES IN COOKING

I may have to cut our meeting short today because I’ve got to get to a real bakery and stock up on chocolate chip cookies. As I have confessed to you in the past, I don’t like to cook so I eat packaged cookies. That’s got to change.

I’ve been reading a delightful book that is filled with references to bread (and other goodies) being made in a charming bakery in Seattle. It’s a novel but the author was a professional baker.* As I read, I can just imagine the wonderful smells that are wafting through the air. She doesn’t mention chocolate chip cookies specifically but I bet they were there along with the muffins and biscotti cookies.

When I read about food, I think maybe I’ll begin to cook, but when it comes time to haul out one of my dozens of like-new cookbooks, I remember dozens of things I need to do more urgently. Writing this blog, for example.

I learned about cooking when I was quite young. (Notice that I didn’t say, “I learned to cook.”) I recall making carrot cake cupcakes. The recipe called for a teaspoon of salt but my reading skills were as bad as my cooking skills at that time, so I added a tablespoon of salt. My dog, Lucky, would eat anything so I gave him a muffin. He looked royally insulted and wouldn’t even lick the muffin.

My best friend and I decided to make a chocolate cake from one of her mother’s recipes. It called for a half cup of coffee. We added a half-cup of ground coffee. We were at her house and there was no dog to tempt. (By the way, we were middle school age at the time.)

Shortly after I was married, I tried to broil steaks in an oven. It’s a wonder we didn’t die of smoke inhalation. Some friends dropped by unexpectedly and when I heard the knock, I was sure the firemen had arrived.

Years later, we had different friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. When I went to check on the turkey, I found that I hadn’t turned on the oven. We had dinner about midnight. (I was too young for a senior moment.)

My grandmother owned a boarding house and that’s where my mother grew up. The meals were meat baked or fried, potatoes baked or mashed, vegetables very much as they came out of the ground and some kind of simple bread. Desserts were probably the fanciest food grandma prepared. So that was the kind of food mom grew up on and it is the kind of food my family eats. I have tried gourmet dishes over the years but no one ever begs for them to be repeated. (Thank goodness. I wouldn’t want to have to prepare them again.)

I’ve got to go now. I drank my cup of tea with you today without a cookie. You can’t expect me to hold off any longer without my cookie fix. I’m off to the bakery.

*Author of book: Judith Ryan Hendricks
COMING NEXT: Over-Laughing Is The Goal

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HERE’S HOW I DO NOTHING

Okay, you’re right–If I’m going to do nothing, I have to even give up drinking my hot tea and eating a chocolate chip cookie. We know that’s not going to happen. But I did want to confess to you that there are things I don’t do that generally fall under the category “a woman’s job.”

If you’ve read anything I’ve written, you already know that I don’t cook if there is any way out of doing so. But you may not know that I also don’t sew and I don’t do gardening.

The Public Schools and my mother did their best to teach me to sew. In school, I made a blouse that was too small and a skirt that was too big. Mom let me pick out material and patterns for me to make. By the time she couldn’t stand seeing them un-sewn, they were wrapped in cobwebs. Well, the goal was too high–Mom could tailor a suit. How could I live up to that?

My Dad was the gardener. All he had to do was look at a seed or a bulb, add a dash of water, and carry the results off to a gardening contest and come back carrying the blue ribbon. I, on the other hand, said that giving me a house plant to tend was like handing over the poor thing to Murder, Inc.

One time friends gave us one of those a-plant-a-month gifts. Each plant was dead by the time the next one arrived four weeks later. I did try to keep the lovely leaves and blossoms on the stem, but they would not mind me.

My husband and I have a beautiful yard. He picks out the plants and a gardener takes care of them. I sit and admire them–not just the plants but also the marvelous work of the gardener and the great plant choices of my husband.

“Boy, is she spoiled.” I can hear you thinking that through my magical internet.

Well, I do take care of the dishes that get dirty from the take-out food we eat. And I pay the water bills that are high because of all the water that goes on the plants. I show my husband where I keep the needles and thread when he has to sew on buttons. My biggest job is going to the market to buy the ready-prepared foods, produce and paper products. I do this as little as possible.

More to my defense–I raised a wonderful child and I had a full-time job all of my life. Now I write, although that is more for my own fun than for yours. (Wow, she’s also selfish.)

It’s okay with me if you share recipes or gardening tips but just be aware that they are not going to be used by me. Hopefully other readers here will enjoy them. (See, I know how to share.)

COMING NEXT: DISASTROUS ADVENTURES IN COOKING

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HOW TO DO NOTHIN’

“Boy, I’d sure like to do that,” the big teenage boy behind the counter of a printer, remarked to me. I was handing over pages of my children’s book with the title, “How To Do Nothin’.” The book came into being because, day after day, in the class I teach to young kids, “nothin'” would be the reply when asked what they did in school that day. Judging by their expertise in reading, I was often inclined to think that maybe that was an accurate answer.

The book shows all the exciting activities a boy, Robbie, experiences, but when asked by his grandma what he has done, he always responds, “Nothin’.” Since publishing the book, I’ve been told by many parents and grandparents that they receive the same answer too often.

So why am I bringing this up? Well, I’m sitting here with my tea and cookie doing my all-important(??) thinking and remembering the conversation (??) I had with my ten-year old grandson on the phone last night. Somehow I believe that to use the word “conversation,” there has to be an exchange of ideas. I really don’t think that “nothin’,” “I don’t know”, “I guess”, “It’s okay”, as replies to my statements and questions really can be called conversing.

There are several websites on this subject. I have a link with the PBS website on my website http://www.nothin-kids-book.com where you’ll find an excellent article.

The subject of my next blog is communication and talking. I hope you’ll join me for that one.

Meantime, let’s think a bit about the feelings we have at the end of a day. A lot of adults believe that they have done nothing if it was a usual day. What I mean by usual is, did you stay at home involved in things you do most every day? Please don’t dismiss those important activities of getting the kids off to school, washing dishes, dusting, cooking, etc. as worthless, which would be nothing. I’ll bet if you try, you will think of many entertaining stories you could pass along to your family around the dinner table. And, doing that is what encourages your children and even other quiet adults to begin to share their stories of what happened during the day.

When I was growing up, I always had breakfast with my parents and we shared our dreams. My dad always won the prize for the craziest ones. I’ve often wondered if he didn’t make them up just to entertain us.

If you don’t have a ready audience at home, that’s why I am here. I would love to hear your stories. Pull up a chair, reach for a cookie and click on comments below.

COMING NEXT: Here’s How I Do Nothing

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