Accidental Blogger

After writing a slightly snide comment about the mushiness of Valentine’s Day yesterday, I thought of making amends today.  Although my husband and I do not celebrate the occasion, many of my dear women friends (and sometimes, my kids) send me heart warming V-Day greetings in one form or the other.  Most come in as e-greetings bearing balloons, bears, hearts and flowers. Among those I received this year, one contained the following joke:

A man riding his Harley was riding along a  California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said, "Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish."

The biker pulled over and said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want."

The Lord said, "Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports required reaching the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things.  Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind."

The biker thought about it for a long time.

Finally, he said, "Lord, I wish that I and all men could understand women; I want to know how she feels inside, what she’s thinking when she gives me the silent  treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing’s wrong, and how I can make a Woman truly happy."

The Lord replied, "You want two lanes or four on that bridge?”

My friends tend to share jokes via e-mail not just on Valentine’s Day but through out the year.  Some of the jokes are about women as they see themselves and many are devastatingly funny.  But many are "guy" jokes (not the misogynistic, cruel or sexually offensive ones) about the mysteries and vagaries of the female mind (like the one above) which also women seem to enjoy. Although most of my friends are cool, competent, straight forward, dependable people (and good drivers), they chuckle at mother in-law jokes, female air-head jokes and women driver jokes.  I may be generalizing here, but is it true that men tend to laugh more at the expense of others while women can laugh at themselves readily?  Jokes about men seem to be always about a man but women are collectively made fun of as "women." For example, when Bush does something stupid (which is often), other male lawmakers don’t automatically become targets of derision. But Hillary Clinton’s response to the Iraq war or pretty much any thing else, starts a debate about estrogen’s compatibility with leadership, even in the minds of other women.

Anyway, here is the best man/ woman joke I have ever heard – a wonderful crusty old man shared it with me many years ago.

A man with an incurable neurological problem is told by his brain surgeon that he needs a brain transplant. The doctor brings in two brains for his inspection.

Pointing to one, the doctor says, "This is a man’s brain. It costs $100,000."  Picking up the other one, he says to the patient, "This one belonged to a woman and it will cost you $25,000."

The man needing the transplant asks, "Why does the woman’s brain cost so much less?"

"Because it has been used," replied the doctor.