Category Archives: humor

The singer-songwriter Tom Chapin (with help from John Forster) has written a very insightful (and funny) song called “Not on the Test” about all the things that you won’t find on standardized test.

You find the song at National Public Radio’s site.

I particularly liked a few verses, such as:

“Each box that you mark on
Each test that you take
Remember your teachers –
Their jobs are at stake
Your score is their score
But don’t get all stressed
They’d never teach anything
not on the test.”

And

” Debate is a skill
That is useful to know
Unless you’re in Congress
or talk radio
Where shouting and spouting
and spewing are blessed
‘Cause rationale discourse
was not on the test.”

Peace (in multiple choice options),
Kevin

I know I am on a Comic Strip kick lately and I can’t explain it, but the artist (Tim Rickard) who does the strip called Bewster Rocket: Space Guy (it makes fun of the whole sci-fi genre, along the lines of Futurama) is doing something very interesting with the storyline. The main character, a goofball Brewster, has been sent into a Third Dimension — the Comic Page.

The artist superimposes Brewster “outside” of the story narrative and comic boxes and the character is both observing the storyline and commenting on the comic characters that he “see” in the other comic strips around him. It is very funny, in a post-modern kind of way.

(from http://www.comicspage.com/brewster/brewster.html)

Peace (in the third dimension),
Kevin

You might notice I read through a lot of magazines …

In the recent Time magazine, there is a very funny back-section feature by Evan Eisenberg that pokes fun at the idea of a Google-Universe (it all started with the Big Search) by offering up possible future Google products.

Here are a few that made me giggle:

• Ex-Search — Find out if they are seeing anyone
• Oogle — Stare for hours without seeming rude
• Beagle — Find your lost dog
• Fruedgle — Search your unconscious mind
• Gray Matter — Map the death of your brain cells in real time
• Blobber — Impose your consciousness on the rest of humanity — it’s easy, fast and free!
• Garble — Translate ordinary speech into legalese, adspeak, Bushspeak and dozens more
• Walkie — Use your mobile phone in real time to decide which foot to move next

You can access the real article here.

Peace,
Kevin