The March 19, 2007
PinFeed Almanack
Lighten Up

  During hiatus, The Almanack has been considering slogans, like:
  
      Earth is a state-machine.  Finite.
  
    or maybe:
  
      Software, like sex, is free for normal use.  Custom work, heavy duty and 
      high volume will be accomodated for a fee.
  
  C'mon, it's geek humor.  If you post it on the Internet, SOMEONE will laugh
  at it.
  
  We had a bit of vacation, which included time for browsing web-sites and 
  watching re-runs of M*A*S*H.  Dilbert.com and Hawkeye Pierce (among others) 
  deliver the message that the Almanack needs to lighten up.  Not 'get a life', 
  that implies someone who's obsessing, needs some outside input, some varied 
  interests, some impurities to help the bubbles rise.  We are decidedly impure.  
  Beer, yo-yos, lawn mowers, politics, ancient history and philosophical rants
  are not signs of obsessive-compulsion.  AADHD, maybe.  
  
  Scott Adams may not make us all contented cube-dwellers, any more than Alan 
  Alda makes us want to freeze and bleed on a Korean battle-front, but they do 
  make us happy laughing at ourselves.  In the process, they set a pretty high 
  standard, which may be why so few of us even try:  if I can't be as funny as 
  Seinfeld, why bother?  But if I had to be as funny as Seinfeld, it wouldn't be 
  fun.  Play for money isn't play anymore, it's work.  
  
  Jokes at work don't have to be very funny.  In fact they can be really stupid, 
  as long as they're not mean, they'll get a laugh.  Well, ok, they can be 
  mean, as long as they're mean to someone who can take it, celebrities, pols, 
  bosses, big-shots.  In fact, it's better if they're mean, about someone famous 
  who is mean.  So let's have more jokes-at-work, preferably mean ones about 
  someone we all know, who would dismantle us with prejudice if we confronted 
  them on even terms.  
  
  The Almanack will start it off with a list of scenes-we'd-like-to-see:
  
      - Ann Coulter and Karl Rove doing the limbo, in drag.
  
      - 40 ayatollahs dancing to 'Hava Nagila'.
  
      - The Fortune 500 CEOs giving up their stock options.
  
      - Paris Hilton taking the SAT.
  
      - Toyota Prius as the IROC car for next year.
  
      - '300 - the Musical'.
  
  All right, Saturday Night Live does it better.  Loosen up, and post a few of
  your own.
  
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