Let's Laugh

When the kidney doctor told me I needed dialysis, I said, “No, just let me die.” Then I reconsidered. For over a year now I’ve been sitting in that big chair three days a week with needles stuck in my left arm while my blood is pulled out, scrubbed, and pumped in again. I am getting a lot of reading done.

One day a week I work through The New Yorker, holding the magazine and turning the pages with my right hand, tricky as the glazed pages tend to stick together. But this is a great magazine.

Cartoons in the April 19 issue made me laugh. I can’t reprint them on this blog. First, I don’t know how. Second, they are copyrighted. But maybe, since I’ve said such nice things about it, the magazine won’t sue me if I quote a few captions.

A man, all dressed up to go hiking, sits in a big easy chair before a tv. Caption: “Where the Appalachian Trail crosses The Path of Least Resistance.”

A fat woman in a dress shop to a salesperson: “I want that dressing-room mirror fired.”

A dejected man faces his doctor, who says, “Sometimes it helps to turn a question around. Why not you?”

All those cartoon characters could be me. Reminds me not to take myself too seriously.

But another cartoon was one I wish could be printed on tee shirts and passed out to all those nuts who go to “tea parties” with placards saying they don’t want government interfering with their lives.

A house is on fire, flames leaping out the window. A man stands in front with a bucket of water. As firemen approach with a big hose, the man puts up a hand to stop them, saying, “No, thanks – I’m a libertarian.”