Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle, don't grumble, give a whistle. And this'll help things turn out for the best.
Together now everyone: Always look on the bright side of life, always look on the light side of life [cue whistling].
This, of course, is the first verse and chorus of Monty Python's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
It's for all our readers, but mostly for Wallsend's Bruce Anthony.
Bruce lamented that Wednesday's Herald was "full of stories about individuals and local and national governments behaving badly, and looming medical and environmental catastrophes. Even Topics didn't give any laughs".
In our years [and years] in the news business, we told him that we came to find humour between the lines of the news.
And what about that giant marsupial in Topics on Wednesday? It brought a smile to our face. Granted, we did wax lyrical on the possible extinction of the human race.
But we did mercifully add that Australian philosopher Toby Ord reckons humans have the potential to live for millions of years.
At times, we see an absurd gallows humour in some aspects of humanity, but we do try to look on the bright side. You know, at least humans exist. What if we never existed at all. That'd be a bummer.
And don't forget that: Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true. You'll see it's all a show. Keep them laughing as you go. Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And always look on the bright side of life, always look on the right side of life.
Rudolph the Red
What we really think Bruce was missing was our jokes.
We didn't include any on Wednesday, after running jokes every day to keep spirits up in the pandemic.
Anyhow, Bruce is doing his bit to keep the humour going in Topics. He sent us this joke.
An American couple were in Russia as tourists. They headed for Red Square in Moscow, having arranged to meet a Russian friend there.
They first met Rudi back in Soviet days and often laughed that he still had faith in communism.
No sooner had the three met than sleet began to fall on the Square.
The American woman said: "Oh no, look at this sleet".
Rudi the Russian replied: "No no, this is still rain, not sleet. You haven't seen real Russian sleet yet".
The American woman looked doubtful, but her husband said: "Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear."
Non-Viral Joke
COVID-19 in Australia is like the Spice Girls. Everyone is doing their best but Victoria is ruining it for everybody.
A War Letter
Stewart Roach told Topics he read an interesting message in the Herald on Wednesday in the Hunter Remembers WW11 section [page 24] under the headline, "Newcastle War Prisoners".
In a card sent from a Japanese POW camp to his parents in Wallsend, Private David Bennett assured them he was safe and well, as was "Sid Wansey, from Newcastle".
"The Sid Wansey referred to went on to become the owner of the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate on his return from the war," Stewart said.
