Comments on: Funny Bones, 1916

By: bfwebster

bfwebster — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:52:13 +0000

Great selection! What I enjoy about these posts is that they help to puncture the usually-unspoken assumption that we in the present day are somehow more clever and funny than people were 50, 100, 150 years ago. ..bruce..

By: Eric Nielson

Eric Nielson — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:47:29 +0000

I really liked the editors reply.

By: Stephen M (Ethesis)

Stephen M (Ethesis) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:54:07 +0000

Those made me smile, though I can well imagine handing Miserly a full dollar change

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:02:50 +0000

As a frequent straphanger, I have perfected the art of standing on the toes of comfortably seated young men, so “Mistaken Identity” makes me grin wickedly.

By: Ray

Ray — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:40:11 +0000

“The Editor’s Reply” sounds like it could have come straight from my father – delivered without cracking a grin.

and “He Never Did it Before” could have come from my faither-in-law – delivered while laughing at his own wit.

and “Proving It” is just priceless.

By: Jami

Jami — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:37:52 +0000

Ah Ardis, I’ve missed visiting. You’ve filled my heart with punshine!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:41:46 +0000

Fight club!

Fun passage, Researcher.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:53:53 +0000

No Other Place to Stay (the penitentiary joke) is very Dickensian. Think Nicholas Nickleby, for example, and the lovely Squeers family. And about the two little fighting boys (Proving It), I recently read this passage in a family history from around that era:

All of the recesses for a full week or ten days in the first grade were taken up with what you would call an elimination contest. You were challenged, and you either became a mamby-pamby sissy if you didn't participate, or you participated in a round-robin elimination tournament-of-sorts wrestling match. And you wrestled somebody and somebody wrestled somebody else and somebody wrestled somebody else, and everybody challenged anybody they wanted to challenge. And finally you established a pecking order, all the kids that you could lick and all the kids that could lick you, and knew where you stood.