There are different kinds of jokes. I’ve been accused of favoring the corny kind. Not sure where that comes from.

To get a quick summary of humor on this site, click here: http://www.rfsblog.com/blog/category/humor/.

I think I like jokes because of the element of surprise. A really good joke is funny because the ending is not what you expected from the story.

Alternatively, a joke is often a play on words. Puns and other word-play jokes are funny because your mind has to reconstruct what you heard and substitue a different understanding of a word or phrase.

In either case jokes are great for making your mind look at the world a little differently.

For example:

Outstanding In Their Field A driver was speeding down a winding country road. He came around a corner and was shocked to see two farmers standing and talking in the middle of the road! He swerved to avoid them, went into a ditch, up over the embankment, and flew into the field. One farmer said to the other: “That was sure lucky. We got out of that field just in time!”

Were the farmers lucky?

If nothing else, the joke makes the point that perspective colors everything we do. When you woke up this morning, it was inside a context that you will use to interpret your day. You interpret the world from your perspective whether you’re at work, in the car, on vacation, or in your own back yard.

It takes a conscious effort and a lot of practice to see the world from someone else’s perspective. Most people never try.

As silly as it sounds, jokes help you gain a little perspective. If you listen to (or read) a lot of jokes, you find yourself trying to figure out the punchline. They train your mind to anticipate something besides “the expected” result.

In addition, humor is good for your health. Every year there’s a new study showing that humor helps us live longer, live happier, recovery faster from surgery, stay married longer, take things in stride, and lost weight! Really.

So, in more ways than one, jokes can give you a different perspective on the world.

The next time you’re in a book store, spend a few bucks on a book of jokes. It will be good for you!

No tags

Q: What did Batman say to Robin before they got in the car?

A: “Get in the car, Robin.”

No tags

My second biggest pet peeve is when someone gives you information that BEGS for an explanation or additional information, but they don’t give you the context.

A perfect example:
“Sao Paulo (Brazil), the world’s second-largest city, has a population of just over ten million.”

Okay, maybe I’m just one of those people who needs to hear the other shoe drop . . . but what’s the largest city?

I recently got a letter from my credit card processor. They’re making a change to the Transaction ID field.

Why? Because the current Transaction ID field “was originally developed with a maximum numeric value of 2,147,483,647.”

WHAT?

2,147,483,647

How do you possibly come up with that number? Especially with that 7 at the end. That number begs to be explained!

If they had simply said 2.1 billion, I wouldn’t give it a second thought.

Consider this: Is your message lost because someone is trying to fill in the blanks?

Notice the difference in how your mind reacts to these two statements:

• Louisiana has the third highest homicide rate in the US.

and

• Louisiana has the third highest homicide rate in the US, behind the District Of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Notice how that second example fills in a blank? Now, truth be told, it may not matter who is first or second, depending on the conversation you’re having. But if you leaving it hanging out there, the brain has to wonder. When you fill in the blank, the brain can get back to processing the information that does matter.

Just a thought.

- – - – -

BTW, I did figure out the reason for 2,147,483,647. The 7 had me stumped.

At first I thought it was a limitation based on computer processing numbers (e.g., 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, . . .). But I dismissed that because it is not divisible by two.

Then I filled in the real sequence. For computers, the real sequence starts with zero, so it’s: 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, . . .).

Now that makes it legitimate to have a number rounded very nicely to 2,147,483,648 (take 1 and double it 32 times).

0
1
2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
512
1,024
2,048
4,096
8,192
16,384
32,768
65,536
131,072
262,144
524,288
1,048,576
2,097,152
4,194,304
8,388,608
16,777,216
33,554,432
67,108,864
134,217,728
268,435,456
536,870,912
1,073,741,824
2,147,483,648

That explains 2,147,483,648. What about 2,147,483,647?

Well, if the first number is 1 and you count them up, the 2,147,483,648th number is 2,147,483,648.

But if the first number is 0, then the 2,147,483,648th number is 2,147,483,647!

- – - – -

Reading a memo shouldn’t be this hard. It’s the third most difficult memo I’ve ever dealt with!

No tags

If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?

No tags

It’s finally here.The Promotion Monkey newsletter — Monkey Business — is finally here. Please sign up today.

Signing Bonus

When you sign up today, you will receive our super-bonus inaugural mailing. This includes

• A 12-page Promotion Monkey Newsletter
• A 60-minute audio CD on creating spinoff products and marketing them on the Internet
• Printed PowerPoint slides to accompany the CD presentation
• A free handout on building Community Resources (the newsletter and audio CD will explain why you need this)
• A free handout on resources to get you started with modern Internet-based promotion techniques
• A free copy of the book Relax Focus Succeed^® — A Guide to Balancing Your Personal and Professional Lives and Being More Successful in Both

The Promotion Monkey Newsletter by itself is worth $40. The audio CD sells for $30. The Relax Focus Succeed^® book sells for $20.

So, even if you cancel after one month, the Promotion Monkey subscription will easily pay for itself!

“If you’ve got a salable product or service that you can sell online, the Web is a gold mine. Karl Palachuk’s proven, no-nonsense advice will help you get your share of the gold. Subscribing to the newsletter will be like investing in a stock that’s guaranteed to pay large dividends.”
– Michael Larsen, Literary Agent
Author, Guerrilla Marketing for Writers
and many other books

- – - – -

Thank You to everyone who expressed an interest in the Promotion Monkey Newsletter.

Please give it a shot. The price isn’t very high, and I think you’ll find a lot of useful information in it.

Sign Up Today!
www.promotionmonkey.com

No tags

A man walks into a pet store and asks the proprietor, “Have you got any kittens going cheap?”

“No, sir,” replied the owner. “All our kittens go “Meow.”
 

No tags