r_vecchio | TM #177 Who has made you smile recently?

Dewey told me a joke last night that was actually pretty funny. I guess that made me smile in the “I’m amused but I can’t be bothered to laugh out loud” sort of way. It was one of his better ones. Uh, heh, actually, Benny might quite like it.

Dewser: Do you know why Eskimos always do their laundry in tide?

And I just kinda looked at him like he was crazy ‘cause we’d been talking about- jeez, what were we talking about? Uh, something about Japanese women and how they don’t like other people hearing them, y’know, go to the toilet so the government did- wait a sec.

Okay, so Dewey said I started wrong. Apparently Japanese women don’t like other women hearing them doing their thing, right? So they, so they flush the toilet repeatedly to uh, well, I can only imagine to drown out the noise of them…doing their thing. Anyway, the government- got pissed off ’cause the water went, the water bill went through the roof so some guy - don’t know his name, some guy invented a machine to- that simulates the sound of flushing to- look, I can’t explain it with Dewey interrupting me all the time.

Basically, we were talking about some stupid story and by ‘talking about’ I mean, Dewey was subjecting me to the now usual ear-bashing I’ve come to expect since - coming back to Chicago. Seriously, that man never shuts up. Is a little P & Q too much to ask?

Yeah, you were supposed to read that, moron. Take the hint!

Anyway, where the hell was I? I feel like I’m baby-sitting…

Alright, so he’s telling me about the weirdo-esses across the Pacific and all of a sudden, he just leaps into the joke, like one follows on from the other. Now I don’t see any connection between shy Japanese women and over-hygienic Eskimos and God knows, I’m not gonna ask. So I just look at him kinda strange and he looks back like he’s waiting for somethin’.

When that something doesn’t come along, the uh, goofy grin drops a little, I mean, you almost wouldn’t notice but when you’re close, yeah, I saw it. Then comes the punch line.

Dewser: Because it’s too cold out-tide!

And heaven help me, that actually brought a smile to my face. I think my sense of humor has taken a huge, damaging blow in recent weeks.

Oh, apparently he was waitin’ for a drum roll.

Like I can read minds.