Hit it, Rockapella

Call it residual paranoia from being mugged in Chicago, but if I’m walking by myself at night, I am constantly looking around to see who’s walking nearby. Tonight on my way home from the Tube, I noticed a man walking about twenty feet or so behind me. He was walking faster than I was so he quickly caught up to me. As he passed by I realized I had nothing to fear from this man because, this man you see, well he was eating a banana. And I am willing to bet a large amount of money that no one has ever been mugged by a person eating a banana.

Danny Wallace. You probably don’t know that name right now, but I’m guessing you soon will. Or at least you soon should. Because Danny Wallace is a funny, funny man. When I find a person whose humor I think is original, witty, and intelligent, I have to find everything they’ve written and read it within a span of about two weeks. It happened with David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs and now it’s happening with Mr. Wallace, a British BBC radio/tv personality, author, etc. I first read his column in a weekly London magazine, The Shortlist. In fact, he is the author behind the amusing story about the Subway sub I plagiarized on my blog; but when I did that, I had no idea the extent to which his humor extends. (He is also at the top of the list as to why I think British humor is better than American humor, but that’s another story.) This summer, a movie starring Jim Carrey is being released called Yes Man. Danny Wallace wrote the book the movie is based on (I’m telling you this so I can yet again say ‘I knew about this way back when’). Basically he decides that he says No too much in life, and to become a better person he says Yes to everything for a year. Hilarity ensues. In addition to making me laugh out loud in public places, his book really does make you stop and think about the choices you make in life. How merely saying Yes to something as small as a homeless man asking you if you have any spare change can be life altering.

"When you think about it, probably some of the best things that have ever happened to you in life, happened because you said Yes to something. Otherwise, things just sort of stay the same."

I highly recommend this book (as well as his other two books which I have not read yet but am willing to bet are just as side-splittingly funny) and I’m sure they will soon be on the front display table at Borders just in time for the movie’s release. Also, I might just have to start posting his weekly Shortlist column so that you can also read his opinion about eating McDonalds more than once a week, people who arrive on time to parties, and drinking beer at 10 in the morning. You’ll thank me for this.

On a completely unrelated note (as usual), I would like to thank my sister for sending me the link to a YouTube list of Sesame Street’s 50 “Greatest Hits.” It was great to see clips of Captain Vegetable, the Teeny Little Super Guy, Richard Pryor saying the alphabet, and Smokey Robinson singing “U Really Got a Hold on Me” to a letter U. It was NOT, however, great to see (a first time for me due to the fact that it aired in 1982 and I was only 1) the clip of everyone explaining to Big Bird that Mr. Hooper had died and wasn’t coming back. I may or may not have cried. (To be fair, I was technically only “tearing up” until I heard Bob’s voice quiver and Maria’s eyes well with tears. Then it might have turned into actual crying.)

*music – A fine word like ‘waffle’ would turn out just awful, Oh W’s grand as can be