Humor

BOONSBORO - Often barefoot, with suspenders anchored to their pants, the Mennonite comedy team of Ted & Lee TheaterWorks presented its unique brand of New Testament humor Sunday at Boonsboro High School. "Wow, you know what I think? I think you should cut your right hand off," actor Lee Eshleman, who was playing the role of disciple Andrew, told his partner Ted Swartz as Swartz' Peter plucked out a tone-deaf song on the guitar based on the "Sermon on the Mount. " "It's causing you to sin," Eshleman quipped.

By LISA GRAYBEAL Staff Writer, Chambersburg CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Since he was a kid in Kentucky, James Brewer has been known as the one to go to for a good laugh. "To me there's not enough humor in the world...That's what makes the world go 'round. You have to have fun and laugh," Brewer said, his accent revealing his southern roots. Author of 14 paperback books, including his latest, "Whole Grain," Brewer delights his readers with jokes, witty one-liners, and short lyrics.

Even as I write these words, an awful realization is creeping across the world of humor: Barack Obama isn't funny. Not that he doesn't have a sense of humor himself, the problem is that he is proving terribly difficult to make jokes about - much to the chagrin of late-night comedians, political cartoonists and, of course, me. Jimmy Kimmel described him as "too polished. " There's nothing to hang your hat on. He's not Al Gore (nerd), Jerry Ford (clumsy), Dennis Kucinich (Martian)

Great care at hospital To the editor: During my three day stay at Washington County Hospital, I was impressed not only by the competence but especially the compassion shown by all departments toward myself and other patients. At all times I was treated with respect, dignity and usually a sense of humor. I never realized before that humor and compassion were so closely related. Four people I must mention by name: Mike from Community Rescue Service, Tom on 7E, Bernie in the CAT Scan Department and Dr. Sanjay Saxena.

HAGERSTOWN marlob@herald-mail.com Remembered by friends, family and colleagues as an energetic man with a perpetual smile and a quick wit, Thomas Curtis Sager left a mark on his community that many say will live for years to come. Tom Sager, 89, died Tuesday at Coffman Nursing Home after a bout with pneumonia. "Fortunately we were all here last weekend to visit with dad," said his son, Steven Sager. "My sister Susie sat by his bed and sang 'You are my Sunshine' which was the song he always sang to her at bedtime when she was little.

Grant Haines survived polio as a baby, was given last rites after contracting meningitis during World War II, recovered from malaria and overcame cancer about 20 years ago. Despite that, he lived to age 95, the same age his mother lived to. "He had about everything you can think of," said Doris Haines, his wife of 57 years. Grant grew up in Winchester, Va., attending Handley High School and graduating from Shenandoah Valley Academy in 1936. Despite a slight limp from a bout with polio, he was athletic and lettered in football and basketball.

William S. “Bill” Higgins Jr. was one of those people who made friends wherever he went. He lived his life with humor and a positive spirit that attracted people. “He wanted to get to know people,” said only child Amy Higgins Ryan of Hampstead, Md. “In airports, I'd bury my nose in a book. He'd get to know people, he'd know their life story,” said Susan “Susie” Higgins, Bill's wife of 43 years. Bill met people through work, church, volunteer activities, when out for dinner, in the neighborhood - anywhere people were.

"What a joy to be able to sit in a movie theater and watch the awesome 'March of the Penguins' for 90 minutes. Incredible. " - Martinsburg, W.Va. "I would like to know why every event sponsored by the City of Hagerstown involves alcohol sales and a visual image of beer being served on our town streets. Why can't those in charge realize that any place promoting that type of lifestyle will surely fail? Perhaps that explains why the downtown is such a dead area. Please, City Hall, change this policy.

katec@herald-mail.com A couple of 6-week-old mutt puppies were dumped last year at Blake Shelton's 460-acre farm west of Nashville, Tenn.,. He named one of them Austin, the title of a song from his debut album. "Austin" - the song - spent five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's country music charts. Shelton calls the other pup Ol' Red, the tag borrowed from the song of the same name. Shelton's "Ol' Red" video helped to carry that CD to its gold status. It also garnered Shelton a nomination for Country Music Television's Flameworthy Breakthrough Video of the Year.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- From stocks to mortgages to lost jobs, Anirban Basu mapped out the economy Tuesday with a ream of charts and dollops of humor. Basu's analysis and irreverent bluntness is a staple of the annual Washington County Economic Summit, which the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Commission co-sponsor. At Tuesday's summit at Fountain Head Country Club, Basu -- the chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore consulting firm -- riffed on: o Cumberland, Md.: "The hottest housing market in these here United States," as he called it. A chart of nine hot metro housing markets had Cumberland at the top, with median house sales up about 22 percent from 2008 to 2009, as Washington and Garrett counties got more expensive.