Thoughts of Late

Last night I read an article in the Reader's Digest about humor and gender. It concluded that women have more sophisticated senses of humor and that men, though finding some of the same things funny, will laugh at just about anything as long as it "looks" funny. I suppose that may be the case generally, but it seems to me that 90% of the stuff people think is funny out there just isn't... like, for example, comics in the newspaper.

What ever happened to funny, clever jokes in comics? Why can I read through an entire page of comics and never even chuckle? Did Bill Watterson and Gary Larsen use all the good jokes, and then after retiring their work take all the cleverness with them? (Actually, I have to say here, parenthetically, that Scott Adams is rather clever and very funny, but as for the vast majority of stuff... eh.) I'm really hoping that someday my ten-year-old niece becomes a syndicated comic writer, because her stuff is actually funny, like her adventures of Forgetful Man, a rather scatter-brained superhero. Her art is subtle and her writing clever ... two elements commonly missing in today's comics.

The other evening we celebrated my dad's birthday with a surprise party at Chuck-a-Rama. It was wonderful--he was very touched. And to top it all off, I had the opportunity to shake hands with someone I really admire, someone who affected the way I taught seminary at Provo High and whose quotes about Scripture study lined the walls of the classroom, with quotes like this:
"[The scriptures] are an instrument by which you can receive revelation. If you knew how to work the instrument, and if you had properly prepared your heart, you could take it into your hands, open it just about anywhere, and receive customized guidance from the Lord."
The author of this statement, and the man I was so thrilled to meet, is Elder Gene R. Cook. The above quote comes from his book Searching the Scriptures. When I shook his hand he asked if he knew me (that is, if I had met him before), I told him no, but that I used his book a lot and also his talk that is on CD called Thirteen Lines of Defense. In that talk he speaks about how to protect yourself against immorality. It is a classic. He then asked if I was married and had children. I said yes, and he said, "Keep it up." What a great man.