Happy New Year

Soon we can all say good riddance to 2016. If that’s not something to celebrate, then I don’t know what is. Here in the U.S., we have a tradition of getting drunk with the television on. On New Year's Eve, we get the added bonus of watching a live broadcast of a big shiny object as it steadily descends from the top of a tower to the bottom, where it then becomes super sparkly. 

It is pure spectacle.

"I can't stop cheering. It's so... shiny."

It's also a little weird if you think about it.

With that in mind, here are some New Year traditions from around the world that may also seem strange:

Spain

In Spain, if you want to have good luck in the coming year, you have to eat twelve grapes (either all at once or in rapid succession) at the stroke of midnight. However, if you choke and die, that’s considered bad luck.

Chile

It is common for people in Chile to spend the night in the cemetery on New Year's Eve, sleeping near the graves of loved ones. So if you think the party that you’ve been invited to sucks, remember: at least you’ve got a toilet and you’re not surrounded by rotting corpses. 

Denmark

Danes often break plates to celebrate the New Year, a tradition that I suspect may have originated at the very sneaky suggestion of a consortium of dinnerware manufacturers. Their industry is no doubt highly lucrative this time of year. 

As you can see, these plates are all at least 25% off.

Switzerland

The New Year's tradition in Switzerland is to drop ice cream on the floor all day. Why? Because fuck ice cream. And floors. My guess is that the makers of fine Swiss ice cream got wind of the dinnerware racket over in Denmark and wanted a piece of that action. 

Mr. Clean may have been in on it, too.

Mr. Clean's mafia connections have never been proven.

Belgium and Romania

In both of these countries, there is a tradition to talk to one’s cows at the new year. If they respond, you will have bad luck for next twelve months. Also, one hell of a hangover. On the bright side, you may have also befriended a talking bovine with which to share many magical adventures. 

South Africa

In parts of South Africa, people throw furniture out their windows to celebrate the new year. Out with last year's trash to make room for something new. College students, take note: all the free used furniture you can take, and it's literally falling from the sky. The only catch is that you have to go to South Africa to get it. Winter break 2018! 

Colombia

The New Year's tradition for many Colombians is that if they want to do any traveling in the coming year, then they should carry around packed suitcases all day. It makes you wonder how many of them get left in bars that night or mixed up with somebody else's. There are probably some funny stories in there. Actually, the idea of having a suitcase on New Year's Eve isn't even that crazy of an idea, because you never know where the evening will take you. Of course, in the U.S., if you accidentally leave your luggage somewhere, somebody's probably calling Homeland Security.  

Happy New Year!

Wherever you are in the world, I wish you a happy new year. Thank you for taking the time to read my work. 

A long time ago, I made the resolution of not making any more resolutions. Personally, I think it's better to set some realistic goals for yourself instead. Resolutions are for quitters. Instead, pick something that you want to be better at by the end of the year or something that you hope to accomplish. You could even make a list. If, by this time next year, you have achieved at least one of those things, then you'll indeed have something to celebrate. Besides, a little bit of pride is good for you. 

May your lives be filled with beauty, knowledge and laughter. 

Cheers!

Generation/Degeneration

If there’s one thing that the Fresh Prince got right, it’s that parents just don’t understand. Children tend to see the world differently than the previous generation, due in part to the fact that the world itself is often quite different by the time they come to know it as adults. Change is the only constant.

In 1991, historians William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote a book called Generations: The History of America’s Future, which is a fascinating look at generational patterns in American history. They claim that since the average American tends to live around eighty-eight years or less and that every twenty-two years or so, a person enters a new phase of being, then an individual human life can therefore be thought to consist of four parts: youth, rising adulthood, midlife and elderhood.

The authors further contend that American history can be conceptualized in precisely the same manner. That is, it can be more or less neatly divided into eras of approximately eight-eight years, each of which consists of four distinct phases that happen in a recurring order. Strauss and Howe refer to these as "turnings," but they can be thought of much like seasons, and the social climate during each of these seasons tends to affect people who are roughly the same age in very similar ways, which is precisely what defines them as a generation. Whatever it was, they all lived through it. 

This would mean that Generation X is this cycle’s version of the Lost Generation, and it's probably not a coincidence that Millennials seem to have a lot in common with the G.I. Generation. According to the authors, the former two are Nomad generations, having not been afforded the stability that other generations take for granted, whereas the latter two are thought to be Civic generations because of their proclivity to come together for a commonly perceived good, particularly in times of distress. 

Do they look lost to you?

According to this four-part recurring pattern, it would seem that we have the most in common with our great grandparents, but since few of us ever have the chance learn from them directly, we tend to make the same mistakes repeatedly...

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to see a pattern in all of this. 

What's So Funny?

Ever wonder why everyone else around you is laughing, but you're not? 

It's probably you. 

Actually, here are seven reasons why we laugh, brought to you by science:



Humor Makes You Healthier

Even supervillains know that you have to laugh. Seriously, it's like the first thing they teach you in bad guy school. Then they make you pick an arch-enemy.  

"It's good to be here at the Sandusky Mariott...
For today's TED Talk, I shall explain... how to destroy Superman!"

Laughing has been proven to relieve stress, boost a person’s immune system and burn calories. As a result, people who laugh a lot tend to live longer (that is, until everyone they used to laugh at is dead). People who spend their days laughing also tend to enjoy their lives a lot more. If you don't believe me, give it a try sometime. 

Of course, while it has often been said that laughter is the best medicine, you may want to see a doctor about that rash. By the way, I don't recommend that anyone ever types the word "rash" into an image search engine. Trust me on this one. It doesn't end well.


Jokes Make You Smarter

The basic formula for just about any joke is to offer some familiar context plus the introduction of an unexpected element, which leads to a new perspective of that which is otherwise familiar. In other words, comedy shows us new ways of seeing what we think we already know. When the brain processes a joke, an intellectual incongruity is resolved by creating a new neural pathway. 

Over time, this network builds, and its complexity and interconnectedness is one of the primary factors in determining a person’s intelligence. Comedy connects the dots. 

There's a reason we're called smart asses.


It is How We Make Sense of the World

Just as babies develop an awareness of their surroundings, they begin to laugh. Even at this age, humor requires a familiar context, which is then interrupted by a sudden, unexpected contrast. As noted by scholar David Misch, this is just as true with advanced forms of comedy as it is with peekaboo. A skilled practitioner of the form sets us up to expect one thing and then presents us with something else. This leads us to make connections where they did not previously exist, which causes us to incrementally adjust our perceptions of the world. 

After all, what is peekaboo if not a sudden disruption and reconstruction of one’s perception of reality? And couldn't the same be said for just about any joke that surprises us with the punchline?



Humor is a Social Tool

Anthropologists believe that laughter first developed in ancient humans as a way of signaling that a moment of tension had passed. It was a way of letting others know that everything was going to be ok. From there, we developed language… and eventually poop jokes. In this sense, laughter was a precursor to other forms of verbal expression, just as it is with infants.

Some anthopolgists believe that social laughter, on the other hand, initially developed as a way for intelligent beta males in the primate world to say, “Hey, we’re cool. right? It was just a joke..." This type of laughter was a way of easing interpersonal tensions, and it is thought to have helped forge the first extra-familial bonds that would lead to civilization and to the development of more advanced forms of communication... like text messaging.

It Is How We Deal With Personal and Cultural Anxieties

Consider how much you can tell about a person by his or her sense of humor. In fact, for a lot of people, this is one of the primary criteria that defines their friendships. We tend to gravitate toward people who share a similar sense of humor, because what makes a person laugh can be both a reflection of the various ideologies to which that person subscribes, as well as an indicator of his or her life experiences.

Furthermore, the things that make us the most anxious tend to surface in the comedy that we are drawn to, whether sex, growing up, death or politics, as just four examples. When people laugh together at something, they form a broader coalition, an inside group who agrees to an alignment of perspectives, at least temporarily. When a joke touches on an anxiety that is familiar to us, it offers catharsis through the resolution of the punchline while simultaneously allowing us to recognize that we are not alone in our deepest hopes and fears. 

Comedy is pretty serious stuff. 

Despite the recent outbreak of scary clown sightings,
it is still not ok to go around punching clowns at random.

Comedy Forms Part of a Larger Discourse

Understanding humor can tell us a great deal about what it means to belong to a certain culture at a particular time and place. Comedy, whether today or a hundred years ago, is a reflection of the culture from which it emerges. 

What do you suppose industrialization was doing for the
rural south in the 1920s (when this movie was made)?

This explains why some jokes hold up better than others, while certain humor just doesn’t translate from one culture to another. Comedy is part of a much bigger conversation about what people deem to be important (and not). It is a way of separating intellect from emotion in order to address bigger social problems, and it forms part of a larger system of checks and balances that is a crucial component of any functioning civilization. Even monarchs had court jesters, and in cards, the joker trumps the king... because the joker is wild, unpredictable.

This one knows karate chops.

Sweet, Sweet Brain Chemicals

Since early humans didn't have the physical advantages of other animals, our frontal lobes developed as a way of coping with a hostile environment. Our ancient ancestors survived by seeing patterns in the natural world and attempting to make sense out of them. As a remnant of this evolutionary process, modern humans still have a built-in reward system for when we find patterns in things. Our brains release endorphins as a way of saying, "Good job, brain. Keep up the good work." 

Yes. They are essentially the brain's form of Scooby Snacks.

In a joke, when the pattern of the setup is suddenly disrupted by the punchline, our bodies release adrenaline as part of the "fight or flight" response. In PET scans, the brain lights up like a Christmas tree when a person is processing a joke. As the neurons fire away, the intellectual incongruity is resolved through a new understanding (i.e., getting the joke), and our brains are flooded with more of those sweet endorphins. In terms of neurochemistry, this is why it feels good to laugh. 

It could also be this brain juice cocktail that explains why the ability to make each other laugh is often such a valued characteristic in the people with whom we surround ourselves. 

It's good to feel good. No joke.