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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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WW:
A great many of them do come off the top of my head, but many more of them are carefully stacked in what I hope is an almost endless memory bank. I have a very good ear for words and a good eye for absurdity. And sometimes even a halfway-decent sense of humor. I also remember things like this for decades. I have almost total recall for jokes and puns when I am provided with a stimulus. In this case it was Morton salt, who knows what it will be next.
I'd be willing to bet that something reminds me of a joke at least 25 times a day. Most often in a situation where I can't tell it, but at least I amuse myself!
There's apparently an hereditary factor at work. My father was the source of many of my jokes, including the Morton salt one. And two weeks ago I was sitting in the hot tub with the kids, teaching them to sing,
When the moon hits the sky
Like a big pizza pie,
That's amore.
Sasha (just turned four) laughed and said, "No, Daddy, when the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie, tha's a more B."
In addition to my father, the other person in my life who gets a large amount of credit (some might say blame) for the development of my sense of humor is Bennett Cerf. That man collected jokes the way some people collect pennies. And a hell of a lot of them were puns.
I revel, as do all punsters, in the quick one-liner that comes almost unbidden to the lips, but I also like and have a lot of fun with shaggy dog stories. I actually have enough of them to put together a book, which I keep threatening to do. I can also tell them pretty well, also. Like my daughter, shy I am not.
TEd
PS
What is "My Word"?
T.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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You're lucky, Ted, that you remember jokes and puns. I hardly ever remember a single joke.
"My Word" is a BBC radio quiz game I used to listen to when I used to listen to NPR before I went cold-turkey and stopped listening to the radio at all because my theshold for hearing anything at all painful was extremely lowered after the 11th. "My Word" was great fun. Sometimes the panelists would trace the origins of famous sayings, and their stories were full of clever puns for which they were awarded points. Your stories are right up there in their league.
Best regards,
WorldWeary
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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your word is most obviously paronomasiac-- you most definately are one!
and i couldn't remember it, but i could find it in my funny little book of words that i unearthed.. because it had a punny picture.. about cadillacs, i mean Cattle Acts.. which i am sure you'll be able to explain to everyone here!
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member
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member
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Maybe someone here can I confirm or deny a long-standing suspicion I've had [yes, I've been too lazy to work it out myself]: is the word salary related to the word salt ? I've heard that Roman soldiers used to get paid partially in salt, because it was a valuable commodity.
alexis
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confirm
yes.
AWAD: GOOGLE!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I was wondering when this would come up. The Cattle Acts are a direct result of Wyoming's being the first state to enfranchise women.
How's that? you ask. Quite simple, really. The women of Wyoming became incensed that their men were spending so much time herding sheep, which meant they weren't spending time "herding" women.
So they got together, piled into their Ramblers, and passed the Cattle Acts. These acts authorized leasing Wyoming open range to cattle ranchers at a ratio of five to one over sheep; their hope was to wean their men from there sheep habits. Didn't work though. My great-uncle Tate made a fortune selling footstools to cattle ranchers.
Then he blew his entire fortune. He invented and spent a fortune marketing a new kind of compass, called Tate's Patent Compass, but it never worked properly. Hence the phrase, he who has a Tate's is lost.
TEd
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old hand
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old hand
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Cattle acts? That's bull! My uncle Ebenezer used to live in Denver, where he made stretch limos from Lincolns. He didn't make his fortune selling the cars, but by selling tickets to watch him cutting the cars in half in order to install an extra center section. People loved to come to see the Continental divide. He later moved to Utah and opened a Rambler dealership, Ogden Nash.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sir:
This is to inform you that you will be receiving a summons to small claims court, where I am sueing you for the damages to my keyboard caused by snorting coffee out through my nose.
Sincerely
Plain Tiff
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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where I am sueing you for the damages to my keyboard
Boy, you've named him for sue?
Wow.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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the word salary related to the word salt
And by the same token, to the phrase worth his salt.
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