When I lived in Riga, Latvia until 1972, it was part of the Soviet Union, with its oppressive regime. Telling jokes was probably the way to laugh at our circumstances. One of them was about a guy who was expressing negative opinions about the government. When he was arrested and brought for questioning, he gave all of his answers according to the party lines. Surprised, the investigator asked him, “Don’t you have your own opinion?” The man answered, “Of course I do, but I disagree with it.” After being married for over 52 years, my wife Elfa still complains that I change my opinion about some subject a week after expressing it. To this my answer is very simple, “This week I know something which I did not know before.”
I was thinking about this while reading an article in The Wall Street Journal on April 25th titled “The Lockdowns Were the Black Swan” written by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. He was referring to the book titled “The Black Swan” written in 2007 by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. On line I read that “the book focuses on the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable outlier event – and the human tendency to find a simplistic explanation for those events retrospectively”. In his article Mr. Jenkins points out that, some officials made statements which might be surprising to hear today. “We started off sensibly. ‘This is not something [American families] generally need to worry about,’ said CDC’s Dr. Nancy Messonnier in mid-January. ‘It’s a very, very low risk to the United States,’ said Dr. Anthony Fauci a week later. Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, urged residents to go about their business normally as recently as March 11. As coldblooded as it seems, these were the right statements at the time.” And close to home on February 24, 2020m the NDC reported that “Nancy Pelosi Visits San Francisco’s Chinatown Amid Coronavirus Concerns.” She said, “There is no reason tourists or locals should be staying away from the area because of coronavirus concerns” “Come because precautions have been taken. The city is on top of the situation.”
Of course by now all of those people have different opinions. I just wonder how we (and many others) will change our opinions a month from now. There is a saying, “If I only was smart then, as my wife is now.” I want to finish by sharing with you another joke.
At the interfaith conference representatives of different religions discussed the subject, when does life begin. After a long presentation with quoting the Scripture, a Catholic priest concluded that lives begin at the embryo conception. The next was Protestant minister, who claimed that life begins when a child is born. While they were talking, the rabbi fell asleep. They woke him up with a question, “What is your opinion when life begins?” “My opinion,” answered the rabbi, while stretching his arms, is that life begins when children leave home and the dog is dead.”
P.S. I hope you find my jokes funny, since I am working on my next photo-story book, “42 Encounters with Laughter”. There are going to be 42 jokes with 42 images of people laughing. I’ve included four of them.
Enjoy and Share with a Friend.
