HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2004-02-12, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2004. PAGE 5.
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Come on now, lighten up!
We found it! We couldn't track down
the Loch Ness monster, the British
Columbia Sasquatch, Osama Bin
Laden or the Frigidaire full of little green men
in Roswell, New Mexico, but by cracky, we
found Nucleus Accumbens.
That's the scientific name. We ordinary
mortals know it better as 'the funny bone'.
Turns out the mysterious something that
makes people break into a grin is not a bone at
all. Nucleus Accumbens is a region of the brain
that has long been linked with happiness and
drug-induced euphoria. Scientists at Stanford
University have managed to glean new
knowledge of that region through the use of
sophisticated brain imaging techniques. The
brains they imaged belonged to human
subjects in a lab who got to look through a
series of cartoons, some funny, some not.
Turns out that laughter is not just a one shot
gag-reflex. A joke or a humourous situation is
like a little Good Time Charlie, skipping
through our brain and turning on the lights in a
whole interlacing network of darkened cranial
suburbs.
A shot of humour illuminates the language
centres in our brain while it throws open the
doors of perception and memory.
The scientists also suspect it has a palliative
effect on long-term stress levels.
So we've found the funny bone. If this was
archaeology it would be • like finding the left
baby toenail of the first pterodactyl.
Humour is an immensely mysterious beast.
We all enjoy it; we know next to nothing about
it. •
Why are some jokes funny only to men and
Ontario is facing its worst police scandal
in many years and its former
Progressive Conservative government
has to take some of the blame.
In allegations that sound like a crime movie,
six officers in Toronto have been charged with
offences including possession of cocaine for
trafficking, assault, extortion, threatening
prospective witnesses, perjury and theft.
Four others have been named as co-
conspirators, but not charged, and officers are
said to have taken payments for allocating
drug dealers territories in which they could
operate unimpeded and stopped a man at
gunpoint on a highway and threatened to kill
him if he provided information against them.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it
found evidence of criminal activity among
more officers, but charged only those with the
strongest cases against them, many others
were antagonistic, destroyed documents and
refused to co-operate, and many more knew of
the wrongdoing and condoned it.
A video also has been found in which two
Ontario Provincial Police officers joked they
would lure native Indian demonstrators into a
trap baited with beer, suggesting racism is still
alive and well among some officers.
These are the most serious allegations
against police since they helped a Tory
government win an election in 1963 claiming
organized crime had failed to win a significant
foothold, when months later it was found here
with both feet firmly planted and government
sought "police state" powers to curb it.
The Tory government under premiers Mike
Harris and Ernie Eves from 1995-2003 is
partly to blame because it consistently turned a
blind eye to police failings.
The vast majority of police are honest, but
dozens of officers are convicted of crimes from
robbery to impaired driving every year, and
murder less often. But Tory governments never
expressed a word of concern at the number.
others only to women? What's the connection
between jokes and health? Between humour
and marital satisfaction? Why do the French
think Jerry Lewis is a comic genius while the
rest of the world thinks he's a repulsive idiot?
Most of all...what is Canadian humour all
about?
Don't laugh. It's a serious question that
scientist Richard Wiseman is trying to answer.
Doctor Wiseman is a. Brit, and he's
perplexed by the Canadian sense of humour.
Consider: last year Doctor Wiseman and his
colleagues tracked down and isolated the
funniest joke in the English language.
Here it is:
Two hunters are out in the woods when
suddenly one of them falls to the ground. He
doesn't seem to be breathing, the whites of his
eyes are showing. Panicking, the other guy whips
out his cell phone and calls emergency. "I'm in
the bush! My friend is dead! What do I do?"
The operator says in a calm voice, "Okay
now. Just take it easy. We can help you. First,
let's make sure he's dead, okay?"
There is silence, then a shot. Then the guy's
voice comes back on the line and says: "Okay,
now what?"
Doctor Wiseman and his colleagues tried
They did not even record how many officers
were convicted, arguing offenders should not
be classified by their occupations, although
government should know how many assigned
to protect the public commit crimes.
Liberal and New Democrat governments to
be fair also failed to keep records of
convictions against police, but the Liberals
stood up to them enough so that 2,500 officers
demonstrated for the resignation of their
attorney-general in 1989 and uniformed police
booed NDP premier Bob Rae at a baseball
game in 1993. There has never been such a
police protest against Tories.
People often have been released after
serving years in jail because police
investigations were found flawed and
taxpayers forced to pay huge compensation.
When police have been tried, their colleagues
have been allowed to intimidate witnesses. At
a trial of four officers accused of manslaugh-
ter, uniformed police blocked the corridor,
Muttered racial, ethnic and sexual insults at
those who tried to pass and ostentatiously
packed the front three-quarters of the seats.
Police also swore at reporters and photo-
graphers and linked hands to prevent them
getting near a van in which the accused left.
One advocated sneeringly "run 'em down."
Final Thought
The world belongs to the energetic.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
that joke on people from all over the world and
it came out number one - except among
Canadians. Doctor Wiseman doesn't know
what to make of that.
"It's possible you guys don't have much of a
sense of humour, but that doesn't seem
likely...the other possibility is that the joke
isn't that great and the fact that you didn't find
it funny shows you've got a sophisticated sense
of humour."
Whatever, Doctor Wiseman is now
embarked on a new experiment seeking the
funniest joke in Canada (Stockwell Day? Mel
Lastman? Your country needs you).
I think he should save himself the airfare and
stick to Old Blighty. For me, and for millions
around the world, British humour, from The
Goon Show to Monty Python's Flying Circus
to Billy Connolly, represent the gold standard
when it comes to humour.
Particularly Monty Python. The Pythons
saved my sanity in the 70s when they did their
antic scramble across my TV screen. The
Ministry of Silly Walks. The Dead Parrot.
Hell's Grannies.
A magical time, and a time that is alas,
passed.
If I ever doubted that, a recent item in the
news confirmed it for me. It told how John
Cleese, the head loon of the Monty Python
crew was awarded $30,000 for 'pain and
suffering" by a London court. Cleese had testi-
fied that he felt "bewildered and disoriented
and to a certain extent scared" after a British
newspaper said he was no longer funny.
Come on, John....where's your sense of
humour?
At a trial of other officers, police took the
names of all reporters present, which is
unheard of in an Ontario courtroom and
implies they might hold it against them.
Police commonly have worn buttons
expressing support for comrades facing
charges and police chiefs leaped to say they
support and have confidence in charged
officers before their trials.
When police were charged after a car chase
in which a pedestrian was killed, their
colleagues took out newspaper ads declaring
"the charges are not in order and at variance
with the facts" before the trial took place —
much of which is contempt of court.
Many officers have refused to answer
questions, hand over documents or otherwise
co-operate with the Special Investigations Unit
set up by the Liberals in 1990 to look at
incidents involving police that result in serious
injury and death.
None of these brought a word of reprimand
from the Tories, who allowed police to get
away with so much they may have encouraged
some to think they can get away with anything.
Letter
THE EDITOR,
We, the Blyth Legion Ladies Auxiliary are
grateful to the town workers of Blyth for the
terrific job they did removing the snow from
the streets of Blyth this past weekend.
The Blyth ladies Auxiliary had the pleasure
of helping to bring the Tommy Hunter Show to
town. It was nice to hear the compliments
about our sidewalks being so easy to walk on.
We would like to say hats off for the hard
work. Some of the visitors to town do
appreciate it very much.
Yours in comradeship
Brenda Finlayson
The Blyth Legion Ladies Auxiliary
Secretary.
4 decades of music
In my life, I've loved them all.
— Lennon/McCartney
Feb. 9, 1964 and I, a tow-beaded child,
still a long way from adolescence, was
about to experience my first crush.
It was a Sunday night and time for The Ed
Sullivan Show, a regular family event in our
household, but anticipated this time because of
one of the attractions, a group from England
my teenaged brother said we had to see.
Vividly, these 40 years later I recall sitting
inches from the screen of our console
television, cross-legged on the floor. Then in
wide-eyed wonder I watched as Ed introduced
The Beatles.
I see the camera pan over them individually,
and hear myself say as it focused for the first
close-up on Paul McCartney, "Oh, Mommy,
isn't he cute?"
To be quite truthful, while I had my
favourite, when it came to The Beatles, I loved
them all. Therefore, what I have come to
understand over the years, is that I have
extremely good taste.
I've always believed that sometimes
innocence allows us to see things of value,
without truly understanding it. Even now for
me to pinpoint what I think it was about the
group or their music that captured the minds
and souls of my generation, would be difficult.
What I do know is that my certainty that their
impact went beyond boyish good looks has
been proven time and again.
Paul Barker, a social science professor at the
University of Western Ontario said the
Beatles' arrival set the stage for a revolution,
not only in popular music, but also in society.
"It was clear that individually and collectively
the Beatles were something special."
"But it was more than just presence. The
songwriting and singing made the Beatles
different."
So different in fact that their music is used in
classrooms to develop appreciation, such as
that of Indiana University which, since 1982,
has offered an in-depth song-by-song study of
the Beatles "remarkable" music.
The group has received its share of high
praise from well-respected musicians of the
'older' generation. For one, Frank Sinatra
referred to Something as the greatest song ever
written, while Yesterday, according to the
Guinness Book of Records has become the
most recorded song in history, with over 3,000
versions.
In their brief history together, by the end of
1970 it was over; the Beatles managed to
become the best-selling musical group of all
time. Also, regarding charting position,
Lennon and McCartney are the most
successful song writing duo in history.
But as noted, it's not just about their musical
ability. Barker said the Beatles signalled the
emergence of "a generation that would try new
things and dared to challenge the conventional
wisdom."
From those first hairstyles, which our
parents would even now laugh to think they
had ever considered long, through the
psychedelic era to innovations in the studio the
Beatles took us through a time of significant
change, when not just music- but society
matured.
Recognizing their 40th anniversary, said
Barker gives the Beatles generation a chance
to reflect upon the group that defined them, as
well as offering an opportunity for younger
people to enjoy something they missed, "much
to their misfortune." For someone who was
there, I can only say Fm happy to have grown
up with them.
Tory politicians encouraged lawbreakm