Occasionally it’s appropriate and fun to illustrate a point of view with an anecdote about a historical personage.
Honoré de Balzac, the French novelist of the early 19th century, liked the high life even though he had a low income. Finally, an old and stingy uncle died and left him a lot of money. Balzac informed his friends as follows:
“Yesterday at 5 AM both my uncle and I passed on to a better life.”
Anecdotes about Winston Churchill abound. He and Lady Astor feuded for years. One day she saw him imbibing his favorite Scotch and said, “If I were your wife I’d put poison in it.” she retorted, “And if you were my wife, I’d drink it.” Some transparency: This was a vaudeville gag of 100 years earlier. Maybe the lady and the prime minister were not plagiarizing but only borrowing.
And then on this side of the Atlantic, there is the legendary Dorothy Parker. She was recovering from a minor operation in a hospital. There was a knock on the door and a voice asked, “May I come in? Ms Parker responded, “Who goes there—friend or enema?”
Tags: humor, jokes, laugh for health, laughter, Life Enrichment
