To build the new ballpark for the Washington Nationals,
D.C. has filed papers to seize land from the 16 property owners with whom they have not been able to settle on a price. Apparently the most recalcitrant of the property owners runs a Chinese take-out restaurant -- the city and the property owner are $500,000 apart in price for this small store, and each side is leveling recriminations at the other. The whole nasty proceeding is being described as a case of Eminent Lo Mein.
A pun is the lowest form of humor - when you don't think of it first.
-- Oscar Levant
I pun (the pun above is one of my own creation). More often than not, a pun is told by a man -- men seem to appreciate this particular form of humor more than women. I remember an English teacher in high school (male) used to tell puns all the time. At the time I was not a punster, but somehow, over the years, I have become one. I don't even know how it started.
A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
-- Charles Lamb
Puns evoke groans. Indeed, I feel most satisfied with a pun when it evokes a groan. I feel fortunate that Kathy finds my puns endearing, even as she groans at them.
A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Shakespeare might have used more puns than anyone else. Does this mean that I'm in good company, or that this is one of his few shortcomings (along with
Pericles)?
