These remarks, when directed at the wrong person, can prove to be costly. Take, for example, this conversation between two editors. As always, names are withheld to protect the guilty.
Editor one: "You know Im very sensitive about two things: my age and my weight." Editor two, trying to be nice: "Theres nothing wrong with your weight." Editor one: "You mean theres something wrong with my age? Are you saying Im old?" That unintended unkindness cost our well-meaning editor a lunch blow-outwhich, of course, we innocent by-standers enjoyed.
Just the other day there was pizza all around because of a careless comment. There was a discussion about the dangers of advanced age pregnancy, and someone volunteered that her mother was 48 when she was born. To which the carelessnot to mention hard of hearingeditor remarked, "What? You were 48 pounds when you were born?"
I am in the process of filing a demand for pizza with the proper authoritieswhoever that may beagainst one editor for what my fellow (hungry) editors agree is an ethnic slur. The question was: what do you call a Chinese prostitute? The answerand I will use the benign form: tongue-in-cheek. His lame excuse is that he was simply repeating a text joke; but, like libel, I insist that perpetuation of a bad joke is also a crime punishable by pizza.
Next to food, humor is the best defense against stress. When youre daily beseiged by scandal in government, sickening political posturings, examples of gross waste of national resources, shame-faced lying by public officials, senseless killings and the like, not to mention bad grammar and inane press releases, a good laugh takes away the urge to press the delete key and vanish everything away. On bad days, even a corny joke can make the load lighter.