Comic Relief

My brother Phillip and I were talking about the mood-altering power of a good laugh when something I said reminded him of a scene in the movie "This is Spinal Tap." He popped the movie into his DVD player. We watched, chuckling so hard we almost doubled over. I think of the medicinal power of "Seinfeld" episodes (we all have our favorites, the Soup Nazi, the marble rye) and of the long-ago experiment of Norman Cousins, who kept cancer at bay by making himself laugh long and loud.

This photo makes me laugh whenever I look at it. There's a street in Lexington, Kentucky, called "The Lane." It's a very exclusive enclave, the sort of place that sniffs at actually needing a street name. Until recently the city went along with it; the street sign simply said "The Lane." But the new signs require some sort of designation to be printed in small type beneath the name. And that means that The Lane, that once la-de-da thoroughfare, is now a street called "The."

Every time I see this picture I have to laugh. Comic relief on a cold, gray morning.