Humor An empirical investigation into the comparative advantages of purchasing from Ford and Upgrading from Apple 24 Jun 2010 I carried out a controlled experiment yesterday. I started my iPhone upgrade to iOS4. I then went and bought a new car from Ford. It took me less time to do that than to upgrade the iOS, at a ratio of 3:1. It took me 4.5–5 hours to upgrade the… Read More
Humor Me in Spanish 5 Jun 2010 I just love seeing my ideas in another language, not because I speak or read them (I am Australian. We don’t even speak English well. We’re submonoglots), but because it always looks so much more intelligent in French or, as in this case, Spanish. Eduardo Robredo Zugasti has noticed my… Read More
Humor Systematists have a strange sense of humour 24 Mar 2011 Some funny new names seen recently: Aussiedraco, a new pteranodontoid pterosaur genus from Australia [1]. Pronounced “ozzydrayco”, one can only hope someone finds a new species and calls it oioioi. Pantydraco [2] – It’s behind you! Pinkfloydia, a new genus of spiders from Western Australia [3] A word of advice:… Read More
How sad. I was at the performance at which Marceau for the very first time (in his account, anyway) spoke aloud on stage about his work, still in makeup (as Bip, of course) immediately after his performance. He was thoughtful and articulate about his work, and as I learned later that evening at the green room reception for him, a gracious and shy man in the face of too much adulation.
Hey Jonathan, take it easy… He had a long life, in which he made us laugh. I’m sure he’d be happy to see that people remember him with laughter, even when saying farewell. I can’t help but remember a movie by Mel Brooks, a silent movie, which was about the efforts of Brooks to make a silent movie. When he phoned Marceau to convince him to join, Marceau said “No”… which was the only spoken word of the whole movie 🙂
In the face of death, and one after a long and productive life, humour is not unwarranted. This death is not a tragedy, just the passing of time. I’m sure he’d appreciate it (although I suspect he’d heard all those jokes before, with the possible exception of the one in comment #2).
A human life ends and you people crack jokes? No, we pay respect to a great artist by acknowledging the joy that he brought to all of us in his remarkable life, few human beings have done more