I couldn't find my car keys. Then I saw them on the kitchen table. They were easy to find once I stopped looking for them.

We appear to be in ensconced in a period of disaster what with hurricanes and pandemics, oil prices, war and deficits. And while these things tend to weigh us down it's interesting to note that there is usually something really funny that happens while the disaster strikes. Usually we're too concerned about the ramifications of the disaster to notice the joke(s) within and it may seem poor taste to call out something funny, especially if a person's life was involved, but on the other hand poor taste is what we're all abut here on Lowbar. Some examples of what I'm talking about:

I'm still laughing at the thought of a Mississippi casino barge decorated as a pirate ship, becoming unmoored during Hurricane Katrina which then was caught up in the storm surge and decimated nearby residences by mowing then down. Sounds horrible, true but the visual impression that story leaves is quite funny.

Then there's today's news of a parrot dying in the UK. The parrot was in quarantine (which I think is S.O.P. for imported pets in the UK) and was being brought in from Suriname. The bird died of the flu and this may be the first case of bird flu in Britain. This could be a big story and the start of a larger outbreak in the UK. That part isn't funny but what is is that it was a parrot. If you're a Monty Python fan you know the dead parrot routine they do, it is one of their top ten bits and the first thing that popped into my head when I see the words "UK", "dead" and "parrot". How interesting/funny it will be if the UK is infested with bird flu brought in by a dead parrot. I mean if they're going to get in anyway (and they will) then I think one of the Gods has a great sense of humor.

And the last funny thing I can think of at the moment happened to me yesterday. I'm working for the House of Representatives in DC for a couple of weeks and I walked by the Capitol building over to Union Station for lunch. While trying to walk over there I noticed a lot of police out and hazmat trucks and a lot of streets were blocked off. I knew something was up but didn't find out details until I was back at my desk. Turns out a guy had a bomb in his car and the police were about to "disrupt" it. Before they did this they sent out a notice over the P.A. in the House office buildings that said: "You may hear an explosion. This is nothing to be concerned about and is all part of our ongoing investigation." That in itself was amusing and then a dude who I didn't know poked his head in my office and yelled "That's when you run like hell... when they tell you there's nothing to worry about." and then he left just as suddenly. There was only a tiny explosion by the way.

In sum -- as our society breaks down, calamity ensues, etc., etc. don't forget to notice the comedy that such situations reveal. Think of it as the small yin in the larger yang.