Sometimes Joking is No Laughing Matter

 What?

Can't take a joke?

It's the battle cry of those who actually want to make other people feel bad by disguising their insults as "Just a joke."

When was the last time you heard that one?

Some people are just dense. They mean no harm when they don't get a joke's punchline. It just flew over their head like a flock of flamingos into the sunset.

Then we have people who just don't have a sense of humor. 

They're out there milling around the population like bumps on a log, looking for something to get angry about. 

Anything short of praise pisses them off.

To be capable of understanding humor and separating that from hate seems to be quite the challenge in our stressed-out society. Politicians weaponize humor to troll their opponents.

People who don't get offended by jokes, regardless of how vile, are deemed "good sports." They'll take jokes about themselves in stride and laugh at the drop of a punchline. They are generally good-natured and just want to have fun. There're just not enough people like that these days. 

The difference between a merry prankster and outright troll is vast. We love comedians but loath trolls, especially when they are going after us like rabid skunks.

Just for fun here's some other words for "playing a joke."

* Pulling someone's chain.

* Fooling around.

* Pulling someone's leg.

* Playing a prank.

* Jesting.

* And making a monkey out of someone.

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A sense of humor is a blessing, if you ask me. Think about being able to laugh regardless of the weary world around you that is often devoid of humor. I agree with Reader's Digest that Laughter is the best medicine. And that each one of us should be able to joke about life without negative consequences.

As it Stands, "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" - George Carlin

The Art of Diversion Exposed

If I wasn't able to divert my thoughts, I'd go crazy.

When daily Trumpian antics become too much, I direct my attention towards more pleasant things. 

Like watching an NBA playoff game. Or a baseball game while quaffing a good stout beer and rooting for the Dodgers.

When life becomes so tedious or serious concerns dominate your attention for hours or days you need a break. It's time to recharge your batteries with some positive ions. Participating in activities you enjoy should be a no-brainer.

Unfortunently that's not always the case. Not everyone can sit down in front of a TV and watch their favorite sport as a diversion for a whole host of reasons. Time is a big factor in making it hard to divert your attention. Availability can be a hurdle.

This is key.

The art of diversion involves a vivid imagination. One that allows you to soar above the idiocy surrounding you and to go places unrestricted by reality whenever you feel like it. In a blink of an eye your sipping exotic beverages on a beautiful beach in the Meditterean somewhere.

You have to be careful not to let on your diverting your attention when confronted by teachers, bores or bosses. I recommend a facial mask of apparent interest regardless of how you feel at the time. A stoic face also works. 

I've been practicing the art of diversion all of my life. It's a passive agressive way of getting some satisfaction without getting into a confrontation. When my math teacher in high school lectured me on division and multiplication, I escaped by imagining him doing a belly flop (he was quite heavy) in a pool the size of a dog bed. It was that easy. And fun. Of course, I failed math but that's another story.

You might even compare my approach to diversion with the hilarious 2013 movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" based upon James Thurber's most famous short story.

To summerize, Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), an employee at Life Magazine, spends day after monotonous day developing photos for the publication. To escape the tedium, Walter inhabits a world of exciting daydreams in which he is the undeniable hero.

I know. That's going a bit too far. We all can't live in a dream world and get away with it like Walter. However, a good imagination will always serve you.

As it Stands, hopefully I diverted you long enough to be entertained today.

America Has Slid into a State of Idiocracy

It's fair to say Trump's efforts to establish an autocracy in the United States has led to an idiocracy where low intelligence is esteemed.

Neil deGrasse Tyson's repeated warnings that our nation is turning into an idiocracy has come to pass with Trump's accession to The White House for a second attempt to destroy our republic. 

To be perfectly clear, an ideocracy is a form of government or social system where abstract ideas or ideologies, rather than practical considerations or evidence, are the primary guiding principles. It's essentially a society where beliefs and doctrines dictate laws, policies, and social norms.

In essence, an ideocracy is a society where the power and authority of an ideology or set of beliefs are paramount, influencing all aspects of life and potentially leading to a rigid and often authoritarian social structure.

Sound familiar?

If you're living in America today, you're learning all about ideocracy. Depending on how old you are you may have seen the cult classic Idiocracy when it came out in September of 2006, giving you a heads up on the younger generation. It was a social parody that never got a wide screening because 20th Century Fox was uneasy with it. 

Who knew it would someday come down from the screen one day and become our reality?

Here's what passes as presential in these dark days:

* Trump mocks the recently deceased Pope infuriating one billion Catholics worldwide. 

Then he publicly denied posting a picture of himself on his Truth Social account dressed up as the Pope and knew nothing about the photo's mysterious appearance on the internet.

* After watching an old movie about Alcatraz in his Mar-a-Lago lair Trump was inspired to restore the infamous prison to its former state and enlarge it. Why? No one really knows. Apparently, Trump is turned on by all the suffering and the fact Al Copone was held there thrilled him. "The great Al Copone, they called him," he recently told a gaggle of MAGA media reporters.

* New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Trump in the Oval Office and bluntly told him Canada "is not for sale," despite Trump's assertions that it should become the 51st state. What was Trump's idiotic reply? "Time will tell. It's only time. But I say never say never." 

* Asked if he has to "uphold the Constitiution" Trump told NBC News, "I don't know."

The nation has been on a slippery slope since Trump slithered into our politics promoting hate, lies, and misinformation. He has cultivated a cult of idiocracy that is rapidly turning into a deadly autocracy. 

In less than four months Trump has managed to sow chaos throughout the country by ignoring the Constitution and dismantling government agencies that Americans desperately need.

The idiots in this country decided they wanted one of their own in power. Trump has liberated their conspircies and promised them paths to power though him. And he's working hard to fulfil that future shock every day.

As it Stands, it's up to sane Americans now to flip this script and run these idiots out of our besieged government before the damage is permanent. We must keep pressure on them by exposing lies and fighting back against their assault on the rule of law in the courts. Democrats - at the very least - must take the House in the midterms. A blue Senate would be a bonus for the republic. Anything is possible when you stand up to idiots.

Walk on the Wild Side: Sniff Like a Dog

People have always admired dogs' super sense of smell. 

That's why we use them for multiple societal tasks, from tracking down lost people, to sniffing out hidden illegal drugs.

They know when we are happy, sad, or sick thanks to their amazing snouts.

(Photo - my dog Mollie gives me backyard tours of things to smell every day.)

Here's a fun fact, dogs have two dedicated, separate routes in their snouts for sniffing and breathing making them natural detectives.

They can use their highly sensitive olfactory organs to locate substances that we never thought had an odor: cancer cells, minute quantities of TNT; three-day old footprint left by a missing person.

Would you like to have a dog's super sniffing power? C'mon don't tell me it wouldn't be interesting. We may not have the same internal snout system, but all is not lost. We already have the equipment, a nose (albeit not as sophisticated as a dog's).

Recently, John McGann, an associate professor at Rutgers, published a review in the journal Science reminding us that human do, after all, have an olfactory bulb. Swedish professor Matthias Laska has extensively demonstrated that in detecting some odors, such as amyl acetate (which smells like a banana), we are plenty sensitive.

Our experience of the flavor of food is mostly due to smell, experienced through the back of the mouth - retronasal olfaction - instead of through the nostrils.

There's no way humans will ever achieve the mastery of smell that dogs enjoy but there are some ways you can improve your sense of smell.

 I recommend reading Alexandra Horowitz's book, "Being a Dog: Following the Dog in the World of Smell."

The author set out to improve her sense of smell by following a dog's lead, as well as that of some olfactory experts, among them a perfumer, a sommelier, and a pair of animal trackers. Dog's excepted, few of these experts were born noses.

Her advise seems pretty simple and straightforward - Stick your nose in it. Consider a dog's daily behavior and contrast it with the frequency with which you see a person with nose smashed against a surface, inhaling calmly and confidently. No comparison. Humans just have to get closer to the source in order to bring more odor molecules into their noses.

It's a worthy read if you love dogs and wish you could improve your sense of smell. Don't worry, you don't have to follow people around sniffing their butts to recognize them when they come into a room!

As it Stands, there are so many odors we don't stop to take the time to appreciate like the smell of freshly mowed grass or the advent of spring.