Nobody looks stupid when they are having fun. - Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler is an actor and a comedian and writer who performed on "Saturday Night Live" and then on her own sitcom, "Parks and Recreation".  She and Tina Fey have performed together a lot (and she calls Tina Fey her comic wife) and now Amy Poehler has a book out called Yes, Please and it is apparently quite funny and insightful.  I read Tina Fey's book, Bossypants a few years ago and really enjoyed it.  There is a certain suggestion (one of you pointed this out to me, as you know -- I just don't like to name you, because perhaps you don't want me to blurt out your name to the world on my blog) that women can't be funny and of course, just because two women (or ten or one hundred) are funny doesn't actually give the lie to the suggestion, because perhaps they are the "exceptions that prove the rule".  The theory is that women have not evolved to entertain men in this vein and that men have developed their ability to be funny in order to attract women.  I'm not sure if I can buy that.  Women certainly have to use all the tools in their basket in order to attract an appropriate mate!  Anyway, I thought the above quote was good simple philosophy that we could learn from.  It is so important to get past this idea that other people will sneer at you if you show enthusiasm or if you try something new or wear something outlandish or take a risk or do anything even slightly out of the ordinary.  You'll never accomplish anything if you let fear lead you.

We had lots of fun at school on Hallowe'en and there were lots of good creative ideas in costumes.  The Fine and Performing Arts department went as the Village People (the people who wrote and performed the song "YMCA" among others.)  I went as the leather man, and I was quite pleased with my costume.  (I wish I could remember how to post a picture of it because it really transformed me and I think I looked quite a lot like the guy I was portraying.)  The other people in the department were the construction worker, the cop, the cowboy and the Indian (we decided it wasn't cultural appropriation, since the Village People themselves said they wanted to explode stereotypes).  I think we really caught the spirit of the group and it is always fun to dress up.  Good for everyone who dressed up!  It was really great to see the two Czechoslovakian brothers (characters from the old Saturday Night Live played by Dan Ackroyd and Steve Martin).  They are great characters and are so funny and I hadn't thought of them for such a long time -- it's nice to think that characters like them can live on long past their brief time on television.