Puns are the best

Puns have strength because humor, for me, is all about the subversion of expectations.

Language, in its rules and usage have built in expectations. It is taking those formal structures and looking at them in a new and surprising way in which puns have power. It may seem subordinate humor, but I take great joy out of it.

A secondary consideration is that in punning, there is no object to the joke. There is no one to feel bad as the pun is not at the expense of anyone. It is neutral and self-contained. The only person you have to apologize to is the one who heard the pun in the first place.

On the Psychopath Test by Ronson: I Think I'd Pass

I got this for a friend because I joke that she is a psychopath, and she read it and liked it and passed it back onto me.

The book isn’t just about psychopaths, though it is the frame the whole book hangs on. It is more a look into the various people who try to peer into other people’s minds and try to know them – from the creator of the psychopath test to criminal profilers to the compilers of the DSM.

Overall, Ronson is an engaging writer, putting it all together in a readable, conversational manner. The problem is that he is so focused on some individual examples and hits the surface on a lot of things, but doesn’t establish the depth really needed to draw grand conclusions.

Three Quick Looks 7.5.2017

A people’s history of Chicago

Coval’s poems here both pay homage to and extend the work of Zinn.

Though there are poems honoring more well-known historical bits of the city, several of the later poems become more person centered on people you’ve never heard of. It is the voice of the people of the city – more akin to oral history like Studs than Howard.

Imagine wanting only this

The fire isn’t

Only found in Peshtigo

It is everywhere

The best we could do

Go to encounter

Other challenges than you

And hatred will die