{"id":110764,"date":"2021-09-02T08:42:42","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T12:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110764"},"modified":"2021-09-02T10:29:46","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T14:29:46","slug":"laughing-at-midnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110764","title":{"rendered":"Laughing at Midnight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have been known to tell rather long & elaborate anecdotes\/jokes.  Once, a friend during one of my epic recitations excused himself and took refuge in the restroom.  To save you from a tale of unexpected length, please find the \u201cpunch line\u201d (actually a cartoon) directly below.  If you are of the mind, the entertaining back-fill follows after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Note the Piquant Tartness at the First Taste, Subsiding Subtly to a Delicate, Gracious Nuance…”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background detail: Saturday afternoon I hosted a wine tasting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgive me.  I am old.  There are two principle reasons why my sleep could be disturbed in the depth of the night. The first is a terrifying nightmare that totally unnerves me. Like:  I have blown off two of my three courses the spring trimester of my Senior year.  There is no way that I am going to graduate in June!  What am I going to say to my parents?  I won\u2019t be graduating with my class!!  I awake from my slumber (at midnight, or near).  In my anxiety I have acquired a coating of perspiration. Awakened, rubbing my eyes clear, I remember that I rec\u2019d my B.A. from Union in June 1971 \u2013 witnessed by my parents! {Side note: since high school, I have been beset by academic nightmares of this type my entire adult life.}<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then there is a second reason to disrupt a night\u2019s rest.  My bladder has reached the limit of its endurance, and must be relieved.  And it is here that the central point of this exposition spins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in the loo<\/em>, and this happened around midnight, an image of an old cartoon returned to my mind. Do not ask why.  Maybe it’s related to the wine tasting on Saturday?  But there it was. The cartoon had taken up residence in my brain.  A cartoon that I had seen nearly 50 years ago.  I started to laugh.  Like, really laughing.  It\u2019s past midnight and I\u2019m in the bathroom laughing (laughing mostly <\/em>in my head because I didn\u2019t want to alarm sleeping Sandy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I returned to bed, re-positioned my pillows to no gain.  The cartoon was embedded in my head.  I had to stifle my laughter. I reduced it to a steady giggle that burbled like a hot mud spring.  I had to find that cartoon! This is the internet age!  I\u2019ll find it! Who was the cartoonist?  Savage?  Brian Savage? Attempts to fall back to sleep were fruitless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sleep not arriving, I retreated to my desk and laptop downstairs and I got busy googling <\/em>(in black & white films of yore I\u2019d be in full pajamas, bathrobe & slippers.  I was in plaid boxer shorts, a Grumpy t-shirt & barefoot).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian Savage\u2019s cartoons appeared in both The<\/em> New Yorker<\/em> and Playboy<\/em>.  In a few minutes I found the cartoon.  Just seeing the drawing sent me into a paroxysm of laughter.  I wouldn\u2019t find the caption \u2018til later that day; but the drawing alone was priceless.  No caption was really needed!  And if it had turned necessary I knew I could write a caption in a blink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great cartoon is music\u2026<\/em> a combination of melody and lyrics (line drawing and caption).  Savage\u2019s talent is that his drawings standing alone are worthy of study and can set a grin on your face.  Dave Berg at Mad<\/em> Magazine had that talent.  As does Bill Watterson \u2013 creator of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a great caption can take a drawing to a different level of laughing pleasure.  A great caption confirms and extends the humor of the image.  And so it was when I returned to my desk at 5:30AM, still in full giggle mode, I was able to locate the original caption!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved it!  And yes, I could riff off the text.  But why?  Why look to improve on a Rogers & Hammerstein tune? Just laugh!  Laugh as I did at midnight.  Or maybe you won\u2019t find this cartoon as funny as I do.  At least it\u2019s better than getting poked in the eye with a hot stick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been known to tell rather long & elaborate anecdotes\/jokes.  Once, a friend during one of my epic recitations excused himself and took refuge in the restroom.  To save you from a tale of unexpected length, please find the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministry-of-jokes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110764"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110769,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110764\/revisions\/110769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}