Most years, as the winter gloominess lifts, there comes a day when I think, “Hey! Things are just fine! I feel good!” Although I worry just a little that I’m being premature here—in Central Illinois it’s entirely possible to have a whole winter’s worth of snow and cold weather in the first month or two of spring—for me this year, that day was yesterday.
In fact, today I’m just a bit manic—enough that I think Jackie was finding me something of a pest, although she bore up well. (It’s worth mentioning here that my manic—as manic as I ever get—is really quite calm. Let me put it this way: an average person on a day with an ordinary mix of good and bad news probably goes through swings of emotion that cover my entire annual range.)
Jackie and I have been re-watching the TV series “Chuck,” and last night we got to the episode where Chuck and Sarah have finally gotten together—the episode that ends with Chuck suggesting that he’s found the song to be Sarah’s favorite, a song by Nina Simone. I don’t have a recording of her version, but I some years ago grabbed a recording posted by fellow occasional Wise Bread writer Nora Dunn performing “Feeling Good,” which is still there at Nora’s site, and which I commend to your attention.
Ha! I say, Ha! A bit manic?!? You make Sam Kinison look like the Dali Lama meditating!!!
See, Chuck, this is where your style of humor falls down. The truth about my mild affect is much funnier than this sort of lame whopper. If you could be bothered to put in a little effort, you could do so much better.
Perhaps funny in an annoying Spaulding Gray sort of way, but not really funny funny. Nah. My stuff is funny enough. There’s only so much I can do with the humorous opportunities you provide. The burden is on you. You have to be much funnier. Think of the funniest thing that has ever happened to you, which would no doubt something related to working for the Hotel Motorola where you can check out any time you want, but you can never leave, where you were thinking to yourself this could be Heaven or this could be Hell. One or the other. You choose.
Something can be false and still be funny, but there’s a reason that people say, “It’s funny because it’s true.”