Category Archives: Humor

Happy Father’s Day, Atticus Finch

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Byron
My Dad
Atticus Finch

This will be the first Father’s Day without Byron, who was a wonderful loving father and grandpa. He is deeply missed. But, his humor and his sense of fun remain with us, so there will be laughter and many smiles as the family remembers and celebrates him.

It will also be the 29th Father’s Day without my own Dad. It’s hard to believe that he’s been gone that long. He’s still so present in my everyday life! His humor, too, remains with us, and his timeless wisdom still guides us each day.

In anticipation of this Father’s Day, I asked myself who is my favorite literary father. Atticus Finch, from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, immediately popped into my mind. I wrote about him in a post from June 2007, when I finished listening to the audiobook version of the book, narrated by Sissy Spacek (now my all-time favorite audiobook!).

” I was captured by his intelligence and integrity, his compassion and humanity, and his complete and unconditional love for his children. He reminded me of my own father in many ways, and he must have helped set a standard for the husband I would meet and marry years later…”

I wonder…who is your favorite literary father?

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

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I will admit that I did not care much for A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain. It was on my list of 50 classics to read in 5 years, and was the book that came up for my Classics Club Spin #28, however I labored to get through it. Mark Twain had a wicked sense of humor, and that was the part of the book I enjoyed the most. If it had just been a comedy, with the fantastical adventure of going back in time to the world of King Arthur, I would have gotten a big kick out of it. But it was overall a much more serious book, touted as a critique of the political and social Institutions of the time. I’m afraid I’m suffering from burnout from the political and social institutions of our own time, and it was clear from this book that not much has changed since Twain’s America.
I found it tedious with the tedium lifted by episodes of brilliant humor.

from the publisher:

Hank Morgan is the archetype of modern man in 19th-century New England: adept at his trade as a mechanic, innovative, forward thinking. So when a blow to the head inexplicably sends him back in time 1300 years and places him in Camelot, instead of despair, he feels emboldened by the prospect placed before him and sets out to modernize and improve the lives of his fellow citizens. But, in order to do so, he’ll need to contend with brash nobles, superstitious nincompoops, and a conniving, blowhard wizard.

While time travel has become a common trope in storytelling today, in Twain’s time it was truly a novel idea; all the more imaginative when you consider how it’s used for satirical effect. A thinly veiled critique of the political and social institutions that impede progress and a scathing condemnation of the naiveté that allows them to thrive, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court saw Twain’s biting wit and sharp tongue honed to a fine point.

I had both a Kindle version of the book and the audiobook which was narrated by Nick Offerman. He did a great job with his narration, and that was a plus in my experience with the story. And as I have discovered over time with my negative responses to certain books, it was simply not a good time for me to read it. I might like it much better at a different point in my life. But to quote my wise son (at age 3 or 4), “maybe so and maybe not.”

Reading Cures

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My family has long claimed that watching the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice (with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle) is a great cure for whatever illness puts you on the sofa for a week or more. It used to be sold in VHS format on six cassettes, so one episode a day was the prescription, and it made being sick a bit less miserable.


Nowadays, we can just stream the whole series at once, and can also watch our other favorite version — the one with Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth Bennett — and although not in the one-a-day format, they also help one feel slightly less miserable while fighting a miserable cold.

And audio books also are a great prescription for one who is fighting a nasty cold. It’s particularly soothing to listen to something out of the ordinary and quite humorous such as Paul Gallico’s view of our human species as seen through the eyes of the cat world, in The Silent Miaow. And there’s nothing better than listening to another book in a captivating mystery series by Deborah Crombie.

But the best medicine of all, for someone who hasn’t been sick in years and years, is all the well-wishes from friends and family. I want to thank you all for your kind wishes and sympathy as I fought this really mean modern viral form of a nasty cold!

Stay healthy, my friends!

First Book of 2019

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This book of poems by Judith Viorst is delightful. I’m Too Young to Be Seventy, and Other Delusions, is full of poems that are both humorous and poignant. She nails the aging process in every way, from the physical changes, to the relationship changes. From children growing up and the arrival of grandchildren. From the unavoidable realization of limited instead of limitless time.  I decided that since I am turning seventy later this month, I should return the library book and buy a copy for myself.

As you probably know, Judith Viorst writes wonderfully humorous books. My family loved her book for children (of all ages!), Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  It was originally published in 1972, when my son was 6 months old. We read it to him, and then to our daughter, many times, and the well-worn book now sits on my grandson’s bookshelf. It’s amazing to realize that she has been a part of my life for almost half a century!

As Time Goes By

I wake on Monday,
Eat lunch on Wednesday,
Go to sleep on Friday,
And next thing I know it’s
The middle of next week
And I am shaking mothballs
Out of the winter clothes
I stored for the summer
Five minutes ago,
Because snowstorms follow
The Fourth of July
Faster than faxes,
Faster than e-mail,
Faster, maybe, than the speed of light.

You want to slow down time?
Try root canal.
Try an MRI.
Try waiting for the report on the biopsy.
Or try being a child on a rainy morning
With nothing to do,
Wishing away the hours, the days, the years,
As if there will
Always
Always
Always
Be more.

This First Book of the Year 2019 is also part of my year-long celebration of turning 70 years old.

 

THANK YOU, Sheila, from Book Journey, for hosting this fun event at the first of each year!