Inappropriate Laughter Anyone?

I'm not really sure if talking about this is going to get me a 5150 commitment, so I'm a little nervous.  However, I'm really curious if this ever happens to anyone else.  Not that I really think you'll admit it, but here goes…

The first time I remember this happening, I must have been about 9 years old.  An adult was talking to me about something really serious and just about the time that her voice rose and she broke into tears, I had a very strange reaction that I couldn't control.  I burst out laughing.

I wasn't laughing at her or her situation.  Actually, I am and always have been very empathetic.  I've only recently become pathetic, so don't get the two confused.

I don't know what came over me or why I laughed.  It may have been a nervous reaction.

Some years later, it happened again when a good friend told me her dog had cancer.  Needless to say, we're not friends anymore.  It's sad because I really did like her dog and I was upset that she had been diagnosed with cancer.  It's just that I had a bizarre involuntary reaction to the news.

I don't know what causes me to laugh inappropriately at times like this.  In a way, I think in the back of my mind I'm hoping that the person is not serious with their tragic news and that there is going to be a hilarious punchline somewhere.  Or maybe I'm just crazy.

There is a reason I was thinking about this today and had reason for concern over it.

I had to take my dog to the vet and I was fairly sure that the doctor was going to recommend that we go ahead and put her down.  She's 15 years old and not doing so well with the age. 

Going into the vet's office I was all kinds of worried.  First of all I was really worried that I was going to have to say goodbye to Norrie.  I was also worried about having to possibly explain death to Walter.  And then, in the back of my mind, I was worried that when the vet told me the bad news that I would have a jerky reaction and burst out into the inappropriate laughter.

Well, the good news is that it didn't happen today.  I didn't get bad news from the vet and there are treatment options for Norrie.  And since I didn't hear any devastating news, I didn't break into laughter and humiliate myself.  So, for today, things worked out.

Have you ever found yourself laughing when you really didn't find anything funny at all? 

This Might Give You Nightmares

This little guy is watching the “Dramatic Chipmunk” video for the first time…

Note: It’s not a lemur though, it’s a Tarsier

Wikipedia says:

“Tarsiers are prosimian primates of the genus Tarsius, a monotypic genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes”. Although the group was once more widespread, all the species living today are found in the islands of South East Asia.

Literate Cat Says:

Thousands of Headless Rats Arrive In London – Yum

Customs officers have seized a shipment of thousands of headless rats that were headed to London area restaurants.  The rats had been smoked so they would taste better.  Yum!

The load of rat corpses were found at Tilbury Docks, in London when a customs officer was inspecting a shipment of synthetic hair and happened to open a box containing giant cane rats.

The rats came from Ghana and are said to be considered a delicacy in that country.  Hmmm.. I have friends from Ghana.. gonna have to ask them about this.

Experts fear that the shipments of unrefrigerated meat, aside from just being disgusting, could carry diseases such as the Ebola virus, TB and cholera.

January Is Almost Over

So how many of your New Year’s resolutions did you keep this year?  I have kept all of mine so far this year because I used this strategy to avoid failure:

 

 

Delete Your MySpace Account Day!

On January 30, Tom may have a lot less friends.  It's International Delete Your MySpace account day!

On Wednesday, users who are fed up with spam, loud music and eye bleeding page layouts are urged to log in one last time to delete their MySpace accounts.

So, we'll see what happens.  Right now the leaving MySpace movement hasn't quite caught on, but maybe a load of MySpacers will take a page out of the disgruntled Digg users manual and call it quits on Wednesday.  Time will tell if this gains momentum and if MySpace users really are ready to delete those accounts and let the spammers have the place.

Do You Suck At Photoshop?

I admit it.  I suck at Photoshop.  This guy is pretty good though, and you’ll love what he does with this cat, even if you don’t use Photoshop.

Help Feed The Homeless

Here’s a good way you can help feed the less fortunate homeless people you see.

A Little Alibi

A man in the UK who is described as a serial sex offender was recently arrested again and accused of exposing himself to women.

Well, when he went to court he had a little alibi.  His lawyer tried to persuade the court that the man would have been too embarrassed to flash the women because he has a small penis. And, get this, the jury was presented with pictures of the guy's unit as proof.

The jury didn't buy it and the guy was convicted of seven counts of outraging public decency and sent to prison for 20 months.

How To Hide A Castle

Apparently, if you'd like to hide a castle in England, you can be semi-successful at this by building it behind stacks of hay. Also, keeping your kid at home when it's the day he's going to draw a picture of his house at school is a good idea.

A farmer in the UK built a castle on his property without anyone but his family knowing about it, but now his castle may get slated for demolition.  He didn't play by the rules and the planning council is pissed.

He's hoping his castle, conservatory, marquee structure, wooden bridge, patio, decking and asphalt racetrack won't get destroyed because there is a law that says if no one complains for four years it can stay, and it's been there for more than four years.  However, the council says that he didn't have permission to build it and the fact that it was hidden kept anyone from complaining.

The farm is located in a "green belt" and new constructions were restricted.  The man and his wife would have been unlikely to get permission to build the castle, so they just hid the construction with piles of  hay.

The whole thing is likely to be demolished.

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