Mostly 30s and 40s pop culture, especially radio. Having too much fun, feeling like the cat that swallowed the canary. E-mail janman30@yahoo.com .
Thursday, August 30, 2007
The Rand Girls, Ayn and Sally
A friend has changed his e-mail name to "randfan." He hastened to add that he meant Ayn, not Sally. That's too bad. I ain't smart enough to understand Ayn and all that stuff she wrote. But I sure appreciate Sally and her fans and bubbles.
All of us, at one time or another, have experienced the strange physiological reaction of zygomatic stimulation and subsequent larynx strain.
This strain upsets the respiratory system, which results in deep, noisy gasps. The mouth opens and closes as the lungs struggle for oxygen.
The struggle for oxygen causes the face to turn various shades of red and strange, unique noises emerge from deep within.
What is this strange, physiological reaction I am describing? It is laughter!
We normally associate laughter with humor. But, gelotology, the study of laughter, suggests another trigger for laughter called the incongruity theory.
This theory suggests that laughter arises when logic and familiarity are replaced by things that don't normally go together--when we expect one outcome and another happens.
Generally speaking, our minds and bodies anticipate what's going to happen and how it's going to end based on logical thought, emotion, and our past experience. But, when circumstances go in unexpected directions, our thoughts and emotions suddenly have to switch gears and laughter emerges out of the tension between what we expect--and what actually happens.
This phenomenon is what you will encounter at 'Thought & Humor's Blog with well over 1 million hits...
I would rather see Sally Rand fans on the net than those dreary, objectivist Ayn Rand fans, preaching about how to be utterly selfish.
Oddly enough, I used to have a web site about a big Rand fan, Robert Heinlein. He loved Ayn Rand's libertarian themes and wrote about them himself, and he loved Sally Rand, with whom he went to high school. Her one vice, he said, was big, fat textbooks.
ReplyDeleteAll of us, at one time or another,
have experienced the strange
physiological reaction of zygomatic
stimulation and subsequent larynx
strain.
This strain upsets the respiratory
system, which results in deep,
noisy gasps. The mouth opens
and closes as the lungs struggle
for oxygen.
The struggle for oxygen causes
the face to turn various shades
of red and strange, unique noises
emerge from deep within.
What is this strange, physiological
reaction I am describing? It is
laughter!
We normally associate laughter with
humor. But, gelotology, the study of
laughter, suggests another trigger for
laughter called the incongruity theory.
This theory suggests that laughter
arises when logic and familiarity are
replaced by things that don't normally
go together--when we expect one
outcome and another happens.
Generally speaking, our minds and
bodies anticipate what's going to
happen and how it's going to end
based on logical thought, emotion,
and our past experience. But, when
circumstances go in unexpected
directions, our thoughts and emotions
suddenly have to switch gears and
laughter emerges out of the tension
between what we expect--and what
actually happens.
This phenomenon is what you will
encounter at 'Thought & Humor's
Blog with well over 1 million hits...
I would rather see Sally Rand fans on the net than those dreary, objectivist Ayn Rand fans, preaching about how to be utterly selfish.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, I used to have a web site about a big Rand fan, Robert Heinlein. He loved Ayn Rand's libertarian themes and wrote about them himself, and he loved Sally Rand, with whom he went to high school. Her one vice, he said, was big, fat textbooks.