Perspective

A newspaper we read reported that an Austrian attorney vacationing in Florida was bitten while sharkfeeding, and died. However, a member of my nuclear family is now studying law, so that’s not funny. Neither are anthropologist jokes, by the way, for the same reason, so please: anthropologists: no funny accidents!

OTOH, Gamma and I were looking at a map that accompanied the article. It was a a simple world map, showing where sharks commonly ate people. The United States was red on the map, as was Australia and so on. I explained to Gamma that land sharks were a big problem in the United States, and Australia, and told her about the old SNL skit. She laughed politely.

6 responses to “Perspective

  1. I tried to tell my wife (who’s not American) about that same SNL skit and got a similar reaction.

    Then, like an idiot, I said ‘You had to be there’ so I could feel even worse.

  2. Jann

    Seems I’ve heard lots of jokes about teachers and nurses, and not very nice ones at that.

    One needs the right attitude: “water off a duck’s back,” as they say.

  3. Jann

    This is what I really wanted to post; one more try:

    Seems to me I’ve heard a lot of jokes about teachers and nurses, and not very nice ones at that. And in Buffalo, where the two major ethnic groups are of Polish and Italian descent, one hears a lot of jokes about “Polacks” not being smart (but wait a minute, my daughters are half Polish), and Italians being somehow “connected.” In fact, I believe it was a former governor of New York who got into trouble for telling a joke about a Polish person who took a duck to a cock fight, an Italian who bet on the duck, and the duck winning (that’s how you knew the Mafia was there). I thought the joke was funny, but I guess some people didn’t.

    You just have to develop a thick skin: “water off a duck’s back,” as they say.

    We’ll see.

  4. mig

    Complete this joke: A lawyer and an anthropologist walk into a bar…

  5. Bauke

    The antropologist walks into it, because the lawyer already passed the bar…?

    Nah, I’m no good at telling jokes… :-)

  6. My husband and I tried to explain to our kids why the land shark was so funny and it just didn’t translate well across the generational divide. IMHO, that’s a loss to all mankind.