May 31, 2024 - Knowing About Radios
One month into Marine Corps training in San Diego, Calif., we were preparing for a ten-mile march in 100-degree weather when a jeep drove up with a large radio in the back.
"Who knows anything about radios?" our drill instructor asked.
Several hands went up, and anticipating a ride in the jeep, recruits began listing their credentials. Everything from a degree in communications to a part-time job in a repair shop was declared.
The DI listened to all the contenders, then pointed to the most qualified. "You," he barked. "Carry the radio."
May 30, 2024 - Picking a Winner
The bookie slowly counted out the money into the old lady's wrinkled hands.
"Lady," he said, "I just don't understand. However did you manage to pick the winner?"
The old lady patted her white locks in place. She looked a little bewildered. "Really," she said, "I don't know myself. I just stick a pin in the paper and, well, there it is."
The bookie took a deep breath. "That's all very well, lady," he cried. "But how on earth did you manage to pick four winners yesterday afternoon?"
"Oh," replied the old lady, "that was easy. I used a fork."
May 29, 2024 - Parental Nagging
Constant nagging didn't seem to provide any relief from having to clean up the bathroom after each of my three teenage children.
After I cleaned it one day, I resorted to posting a sign that read: "Please leave the bathroom as you found it."
I noticed the bathroom was in the usual mess after my son used it, so I called, "Brian, how did you find the bathroom?"
After a brief pause, he replied, "Straight down the hall, first door on the right."
May 28, 2024 - 4 Year Old Rider
Mother asks little Johnny, as they wait for the bus, to tell the driver he is 4 years old when asked because he will ride for free.
As they get into the bus the driver asks Johnny how old he is. "I am 4 years old."
"And when will you be six years old?" asks the driver.
“When I get off the bus," answers Johnny.
May 27, 2024 - Disaster Encounter
"Oh, No!" the father gasped as he surveyed the disaster before him. Never in his 40 years of life had he seen anything like it. How anyone could have survived he did not know.
He could only hope that somewhere amid the overwhelming destruction he would find his 16-year-old son. Only the slim hope of finding Danny kept him from turning and fleeing the scene. He took a deep breath and proceeded.
Walking was virtually impossible with so many things strewn across his path. He moved ahead slowly.
"Danny! Danny!" he whispered to himself. He tripped and almost fell several times. He heard someone, or something, move. At least he thought he did. Perhaps, he was just hoping he did. He shook his head and felt his gut tighten.
He couldn't understand how this could have happened. There was some light but not enough to see very much. Something cold and wet brushed against his hand. He jerked it away.
In desperation, he took another step then cried out, "Danny!".
From a nearby pile of unidentified material, he heard his son. "Yes, Dad," he said, in a voice so weak it could hardly be heard.
"It's time to get up and get ready for school," the man sighed, "and, for heaven's sake, clean up this room."
May 24, 2024 - Home Early
Little Dewey burst through the front door with a smile on his face. Surprised, his mother asked, "Why are you home from school so early?"
Dewey said, "They let me go early because I was the only one who could answer a tough question."
"Oh, really? What was the question?" his mother asked.
"'Who threw the eraser at the teacher?'"
May 23, 2024 - Proof of Identity
My friend Bev and her husband were reshingling their roof. As soon as they started, they realized they needed more supplies, so Bev grabbed the checkbook, jumped into her car, and drove the 45 miles to the nearest lumberyard.
After gathering the items she needed, Bev went up to the cashier and wrote a check. "I really need to see a photo ID," the clerk said.
"I don't have one on me," Bev replied.
The cashier called over the manager, who examined the check. Then the manager looked up and asked Bev, "Who is the Avon lady in your town?"
Puzzled, Bev responded, "Maxine Thompson."
"Take her check," the smiling manager said to the cashier. "Maxine is my grandmother."
May 22, 2024 - I can't come in to work today because . . . .
- "My son dropped the car keys in the toilet and I sent him in after them. Now I'm waiting for the plumber."
- "I have to buy some new skis. I left my old ones in a tree."
- "My computer is down. I'm trying to cheer it up."
- "I have a sick kid. The adult goats, however, seem to be doing fine."
- "I'm having car trouble. The trouble is I no longer own a car."
- "I won a sauerkraut and sausage eating contest yesterday. You don't want me there today. Trust me."
May 21, 2024 - Reasons Why My Children Do Not Need More Toys
~ They started off as babies who found my Tupperware drawer much more fascinating than their toy box.
~ The days I change the paper towel roll in the kitchen bring great excitement as they claim their new sword or telescope.
~ Their current toys are only exciting when I either reorganize them/put them neatly away or when I start my garage sale pile.
~ Who needs toys when jumping on my bed like the five little monkeys brings tears of laughter?
~ They are content to look at the clouds and find shapes - most recently Caleb claimed he saw Thomas the Engine. Really - just shouted it out while in the car.
~ To make one of them want to play with a toy, all I have to do is give it to the other one. Suddenly, that item becomes the best thing in the whole entire world.
~ The days I mop the kitchen floor and move the chairs into the living room are cause for adventure as they build tents and "dark, dark rooms."
~ A flashlight brings amusement to all for hours.
~ And my personal favorite - the other day they literally fought over who got to play with the fly swatter. I really wish I was kidding.
May 20, 2024 - Fish Fight Story
Doug was describing a 30-pound bass he'd caught recently, after fighting it for three hours.
Bill interrupted the story saying, "I saw the picture you took of that fish. You're lucky if it even weighed 10 pounds."
Doug replied, "Well, a fish can lose an awful lot of weight during three hours of fighting!"
May 17, 2024 - Parking Space Sign Language
After driving up and down several lanes, I finally found a parking spot at the shopping mall. I noticed another man driving very slowly in the same direction, and, since he was closer, I gave him the "Are you going to park there?" look.
His responding gestures were very complicated. First he shook his head. Next he pointed at me, then at the parking space and then at himself, his watch and the mall. Finishing off, he frowned, raised his palms upward and shrugged. Once I parked, I walked over to the driver to make sure he didn't want the space.
"You must be single," he replied. "If you were married, you would've known that was the universal sign for 'Go ahead and take the spot. I'm waiting for my wife.'"
May 16, 2024 - On Company Time
Boss: You got your hair cut on company time.
Susie: It grew on company time.
Boss: Not all that hair.
Susie: I didn't get it all cut.
May 15, 2024 - You Might Be An Engineer If…
* You know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.
* You chuckle whenever anyone says "centrifugal force."
* You've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.
* It is sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you are working on a computer.
* You frequently whistle the theme song to "MacGyver."
* You have a pet named after a scientist.
* You laugh at jokes about mathematicians.
* You can translate English into Binary.
* You can't remember what's behind the door at the lab that says "Exit."
* You avoid doing anything because you don't want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.
* You consider ANY non-engineering course "easy."
* When your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely that, according to Heisenberg, it could be anywhere in the universe.
* You'll assume that a "horse" is a "sphere" in order to make the math easier.
* The blinking 12:00 on someone's VCR draws you in like a tractor beam to fix it.
* The salesperson at Circuit City can't answer any of your questions.
* You can't help eavesdropping in computer stores... and correcting the salesperson.
* You go on the rides at Disneyland and sit backwards to see how they do the special effects.
* You have a habit of destroying things in order to see how they work.
* You've even calculated how much you make per second.
* Your favorite James Bond character is "Q".
* You understood more than five of these jokes.
May 14, 2024 - Ticket Explanation
Her car was speeding along Interstate 80 at well over 80 miles an hour when it passed by a State Trooper. Obviously, the officer was compelled to pull the young female driver over and he asked to see her license. After looking it over, he said to her, "It stipulates here on your license that you should be wearing glasses."
May 10, 2024 - You Know You're a Northerner When…
~ you know the 4 seasons - winter, still winter, not winter and almost winter
~ you have more miles on your snow blower than your car
~ driving in winter is better, because all the potholes get filled with snow
~ you feel warm and toasty at minus 26
~ you find minus 40 a mite chilly
~ the trunk of your car doubles as a deep freezer
~ somewhere in the area is a piece of frozen metal with bits of your tongue stuck to it
~ you thought "Grumpy Old Men" was a documentary
~ men think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightgown with only eight buttons
~ your dog wears boots too
~ the mayor greets you on the street by your first name
~ if you don't go out for lunch you miss the sunrise and sunset
~ there is a sign outside of McDonalds that says: "Park dogteams in back"
~ if the school district had snow days, no one would ever have to go to school
~ you live in a house that has no front steps, yet the door is one yard above the ground
May 9, 2024 - Stage Mothers
A stage mother cornered the concert violinist in his dressing room and insisted he listen to a tape of her talented son playing the violin.
The man agreed to listen, and the woman switched on the tape player. “What music’” the violinist thought. A difficult piece, but played with such genius that it brought tears to his eyes. He listened spellbound to the entire recording.
"Madam,” he whispered is that your son?"
"No, she replied. "That’s Jascha Heifetz. But my son sounds just like him.."
May 8, 2024 - The Rules of Bureaucracy
1. Preserve thyself.
2. It is easier to fix the blame than to fix the problem.
3. A penny saved is an oversight.
4. Information deteriorates upward.
5. The first 90% of the task takes 90% of the time; the last 10% takes the other 90%.
6. Experience is what you get just after you need it.
7. For any given large, complex, hard to understand, expensive problem, there exists at least one short, simple, easy, cheap wrong answer.
8. Anything that can be changed will be, until time runs out.
9. To err is human; to shrug is service.
10. There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over.
May 7, 2024 - New Brain Study
A South American scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that anyone with insufficient brain activity reads e-mail with one's hand on the mouse.
Don't bother taking it off now; it's too late.
May 6, 2024 - Charitable Giving
A large, well built man visited the church and asked to see the pastor's wife, who was well known for her charity.
As he spoke to her he said in a voice breaking with emotion, 'I'd like to draw your attention to the terrible plight of a poor family in this neighborhood. The father is dead, the mother is too ill to work, and the nine children are starving. They are about to be turned out into the cold streets unless someone pays their $400 rent that is past due'
'How frightful!' exclaimed the pastor's wife. 'May I ask who you are?'
The enormous visitor wiped his eyes with his handkerchief and wailed, 'I'm their landlord’
May 3, 2024 - Future Price of Roses
The young man ahead of my father at the flower shop was taking an unusually long time to place his order.
When the clerk asked how she could help, he explained that his girlfriend was turning 19 and he couldn't decide whether to give her a dozen roses or 19 roses -- one for each year of her life.
The woman put aside her business judgment and advised, "She may be your 19-year-old girlfriend now, but someday she could be your 50-year-old wife."
The young man bought a dozen roses.
May 2, 2024 - Urgent Code 33
It was April 1st, and in a small midwestern town, two rookie policemen were patrolling the downtown business area. They decided to stop into the local coffee shop for a coffee and a donut. The time was 11:55 AM.
Three minutes later, they got a call on their police radio: "Code 33 in progress, man in bank dressed as a banana."
Well, there was only one bank in town, in fact, it was just across from the coffee shop. A code 33 was an "armed robbery" but it was also just 11:58 AM and the two rookies decided it was the dispatcher playing a joke on them just before lunch. So they continued enjoying their coffee break.
At 12:01 PM, they got a second call on their radio, "Repeat, Urgent, code 33 in progress, man in bank dressed as a banana."
Realizing it was past noon and the dispatcher sounded frantic, they rushed across the street -- but arrived 30 seconds after the banana split.
May 1, 2024 - Child Leashes
Funny, moving, or perhaps even graphic, the point of them is the point you make with them.
While watching my grandson's baseball game, I saw a young mother with her toddler on one of those child leashes.
She was talking with another mom about an incident that happened earlier that morning.
Her little chihuahua was sick, and she had raised people's eyes as she walked into the vet's office with her dog in her arms and her child on a leash.
All I could think was, "What's wrong with this picture!"
May 2024
