"Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone?"
"I haven't trusted polls since I read that 62% of women had affairs during their lunch hour. I've never met a woman in my life who would give up lunch for sex."
"Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other."
If you recognize any of the above quotes, you will almost surely enjoy this excellent site centered around the legendary American humorist, The Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. I particularly enjoyed an article by Mary Emma Allen on Injecting Humor into your Writing which offers the following six simple suggestions for developing a lighter outlook on life:
*Look at situations through the eyes of a child. They bring humor into your life.
*Consider whether a situation you're facing will cause hardship or laughter five years from now. Laugh at it now.
*Keep a smile on your face. People are more likely to treat you to laughter rather than frowns.
*Look at simple, ordinary incidents and use a "might have been" or "what if?" approach when you desire to find the "funny factor" to write about.
*Laugh at yourself and write about it. Don't put yourself down; instead see uplifting humor in the situation.
*Look for the brighter side of a situation and find that laughter will invigorate your life and your writing.
Just a great site all around for fans of the woman who spent her 25-year career dwelling on the positive side of everything from missing socks to her own terminal illness. To borrow one more line from Erma, "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'"
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I grew up on Erma Bombeck; she was one of my earliest heroes. Thank you for sharing the website!
The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank. :) I read that book to tatters in high school and borrowed so much from E.B.'s style that my lit teacher said I was skirting the edge of plagiarism.
I loved that book! There was one bit about a disastrous vacation Erma took with her husband which described their mattress woes. Their first bed had such a dip in the middle (they nicknamed it Death Valley) that they spent all night inhaling each others' exhale, and their next (opposite problem, they named it Bunker Hill) required them to strap themselves together to avoid rolling out of bed. That stays in my mind especially well because my husband and I actually had a similar experience in a Key West bed & breakfast.
*sobs with laughter* I am wanting to say something like, "See??? It's all fun and games, ERMA, until someone..." but I can't seem to complete the sentence. Until someone wakes up with a faceful of carpet? Until someone is actually-clinically asphyxiated by their spouse's breath? Help me out, here, did you and your husband encounter Death Valley or Bunker Hill? *G*
I'm not going to tell you. Some things are probably better imagined than described. ;)
Aww! You've reminded me of one of my favorite childhood memories, the years that my mother and a close neighbor spent freezing and re-wrapping a fruitcake which they alternately gave to each other year after year at Christmas. To dislike fruitcake--let alone to admit that you dislike fruitcake-- was something of a heresy in their circle, and their rebellion against the beloved southern holiday staple stemmed entirely from a gem of Erma's. I can't seem to google the exact quote, but the gist of it was "I don't like fruitcake. I have a distinct aversion to eating anything with the sole attribute of outweighing the oven in which it was baked." Thanks for the memory and the tip! :)