can we convince him to run as a Republican?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has announced he is running for president in the current White House race. Nader, who many Democrats say siphoned off enough votes from Al Gore in the 2000 election to hand the victory to George W. Bush by a razor-thin margin, made the announcement Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."


I think I speak for many people when I say "shut up and sit down, Ralph!"

Because it beats the hell out of watching the Oscars... some thinking.

Spent most of today working (except when I was out walking, because it was a total not-spring-yet-but-hinting day) and then terri_osborne and kradical came over and helped me move furniture, and then we went out for dinner (mmmm, hunan lamb) and now there is more working. Today the editorial brain got to drive, working with a client who doesn't quite have his chops down yet but is 3/4 of the way there, and that's one of the best clients to have, because you (well, I) feel like I'm really teaching and contributing.

Which doesn't quite segue into my other comment for this post, and yet does, so just work with me here, k?

I can't tell a joke worth a damn. I can amuse, I can be funny, I am told that I have a wicked way with a one-off comment. But it's all out of conversation, not performance. I am crap at jokes or funny set-stories, and I don't even try any more.

Maybe that's why I adore performance comedy*. Low-brow, high-brow, punnage, physical comedy, improv... when well-done it's one of the most marvelous and human forms of human expression**, up there with music and dance. And it requires just as much training and dedication to the art, and an almost insane willingness to fail, and try again, to make it work.

That's probably why I put aside the freelance work last night on to watch 'History of a Joke' on the History channel. Interesting stuff, from the historical aspects to the discussions of the various forms and formats from professional comedians being dead serious about their craft. Yes, even Robin Williams, something I wasn't sure was possible.

It was also interesting to hear the discussion of "why women aren't funny." Um. I could make a list, and it would be long, of all the damn-funny female comedians out there, then and now. So why don't guys think women are funny? I can only make a guess -- Yes, guys, she is talking about you, you do exactly that, and it is damn funny. Stop being so damn threatened, unclench your rectum, and let yourself laugh***.

Some people claim that female humor is different from male humor. I would say rather than there's observant humor and situational humor, and women tend more to the former and men more to the latter, but every time you try to prove that, there will be a comedian who will totally break the mold. And be funnier'n hell with it (there was a woman who was cruder than The Diceman, a few years back -- and absolutely hysterical. I don't know what happened to her [or The Diceman, for that matter] but she took crude to new lows and made it work for her)

So, it's not just that I, as a woman, am not 'funny.' It's me personally, LAG, who can't tell a decent joke. Can you teach someone who isn't naturally funny to tell a joke? Probably, the same way you can teach someone to write a technically solid sentence, or craft a scene so that the information is presented properly (look, a connection to the first part of my post! Yay me!). But I don't think you can teach someone how to be funny, any more than you can teach them how to come up with a compelling story or a three-dimensional character. This will no doubt get me heat from some folk, but nothing in my experience has shown me otherwise. You have to have the ability inside you first, and then hone it with work, and practice, and the willingness to have people stare at you blankly when you didn't get the delivery right. If you don't have 'em both, the talent and the training, then you're never going to be top of your game.

Even Robin Williams still works it.


*I also don't trust anyone who can't laugh at themselves. Not "I crack myself up" funny but the inability to take yourself too seriously. Because, really. Have you looked at our species recently?

** sarcasm is not humor. sarcasm is sarcasm. you can use sarcasm as part of humor, but it doesn't stand alone. IMO and E.

*** see *