Humor

There's a bit in the new "Night at the Museum" movie where "The Thinker" comes alive to catcall a nearby hottie of a statue. "Hey baby, check out the gun show goin' on over here," he struts, flexing his killer biceps. "Boom, Boom. Firepower!" The scene sends my fourth-grader and her friends into hysterical fits of laughter every time they re-enact it, complete with New York accent just like Rodin's naked guy. But why, of all the schtick in that movie - and in their lives - does it crack them up, along with so much other playground humor?

MERCERSBURG, Pa. -- James Buchanan High School's class of 2009 left behind laughs as its legacy -- from a fake marriage proposal to a tractor's arrival at the prom. The class T-shirts included not only a list of the 171 graduates, but also a multiple-choice test: The thing that is not tested at JBHS: a) PSSA b) 4Sight c) the water Krystal Leasure, Rachel Barrett and Tressa Donahue, all 18, said the aging building's shortcomings, including the brown water, are frustrating, but they found the atmosphere to be better than other schools.

HAGERSTOWN -- The Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream plant in Hagerstown plant will close at the end of 2011, laying off 460 workers in phases beginning in 2010, a plant official said Tuesday. The Frederick Street plant will transfer production to other facilities owned by Unilever North American Ice Cream, the Good Humor-Breyers parent company, Supply Leader Ken Wells said. Unilever decided to close the Hagerstown plant after "careful and extensive analysis" showed it could achieve "greater efficiencies" by transferring production to another plant, Wells said.

FUNKSTOWN -- Playing off the politics and wit of Saturday's White House Correspondents Association get-together, Washington County's Democrats dabbled in humor at their annual dinner on Monday. Del. John P. Donoghue, D-Washington, joked about Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown claiming to be the father of Donoghue's son P.J. U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen, D-Md., quipped that he won't get involved in a paternity suit between the two men. Washington County Commissioner Kristin B. Aleshire, a Democrat, cautioned people not to overbid on George W. Bush playing cards in the silent auction.

I was sitting on our deck last Saturday grading essays when our dog suddenly decided to get affectionate. She jumped up, put both paws on my legs and began to sniff the papers in my lap. Before she could take a bite, I scooped the papers out of range. Whew. That was a close one. What would I have told my students? "Sorry, my dog ate your homework. " The automatic "A" that would come along with that statement would not disappoint, I'm sure. Perhaps I'd even have offers to dog-sit for free: "And while we're watching your dog, Mrs. Prejean, we'll teach her that paper tastes yummy or how she can have fun ripping it up and spreading it across your yard.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - The Trinity Players, a ministry of the Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) in Waynesboro, will present the musical "Once Upon A Parable" at 4 p.m. today and 10:45 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 7. Performances will be in the church's Harbaugh Hall at 30 W. North St. Admission is free. "Once Upon A Parable" is a musical for young voices by Allen Pote and Tom Long. It features a group of storytellers who capture the humor and contemporary nature of some of Jesus' most familiar parables.

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)

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Even confined to bed with heart problems, Carol Pospisil had a sense of humor. Her sister, Eileen Leisure said that when Pope Benedict XVI visited Washington, D.C., Pospisil's hospice pastor, "Dr. Dave," took Pospisil's rosary beads with him to the capital to get them blessed by the Pope as he rode past in the Popemobile. As Pospisil watched the Pope and the throngs of people on television, she called Dr. Dave on his cell phone to give him a message: She could not see him in the crowd.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- A fire that caused $300,000 damage to Oakland United Methodist Church along W.Va. 9 east of Charles Town the day after Easter has not dampened the spirits of church officials. They injected humor into the situation Monday afternoon as they surveyed the damage inside the sanctuary. "Well, I think Joe wanted a new drum set," Executive Pastor H. Kent Tice said. Debris was scattered around the sanctuary in the area of the pulpit and a tattered wall stood as evidence of the fire's path.

Editor's note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail publishes "A Life Remembered. " This continuing series takes a look back -- through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others -- at a member of the community who died recently. Today's "A Life Remembered" is about Larry William Craig, who died Feb. 25 at the age of 68. His obituary was published in the Feb. 27 edition of The Herald-Mail. Back in 1980, Larry Craig came into Linda Irvin's photography studio to arrange for some pictures.