Where Angels Fear to Tread

So sometimes I find completely inappropriate things wildly hysterically funny. Like a fool I will laugh out loud or say something cynically perverse. Take for example a trip I made to Macomb a few years back. I was in town visiting friends and getting intoxicated (It's a college town. One can almost take for granted that any visit to such a place would involve getting intoxicated). The bars had just closed and a number of us piled into a car to find another location where we could continue to get intoxicated as it was only three in the morning and only one or two sheets to the wind. So we drive past the dorms and behold the flashing lights of ambulance light up the sky (and scare the crap out of all of us to a small degree as any flashing light is initially associated with the police and well its a college town and you know how that goes). So once the realization hits me that it is not a police cruiser, but rather an ambulance parked at the dorm I start to giggle. Then I say, "It's Friday night in dorm land and time for the regularly scheduled overdose." One of my female friends starts hitting me. I mean really hitting, raising bruises punches not just a get your attention hit. She says,"That's a person in there Rich!" Just like that it dawns on my that I'm laughing at somebody's tragedy. It's not some sort of Hollywood I had a problem, I went to rehab and now I'm on the cover of People magazine sort of thing. It could be have been death or terribly damaging to internal organs. It could be the start of lifelong dependency. It could be the thing that gets the kid kicked out of school and here I am laughing at the irony of the situation.

So then today I See the news: The VP shot a man in a hunting accident. I start to giggle. I mean think about it. There had to be an ungodly number of secret service men around. This is one of the best protected people in the world and he goes and shoots a man in the woods. Then there is the "he died in a tragic hunting accident" thing we have seen in a hundred novels. Want to imply that a character may have been murdered. Kill em off in a tragic hunting accident. Want to imply that a character may be shady? Have em accompany someone who dies on a tragic hunting accident. I can't help laughing all of this stuff is in my brain.

But then I think about the fact that a man was shot. That is pain. The man he shot is 78 years old. Even if the wound is superficial, at his age it will take a long time to heal and have a greater chance for infection. Infection can be fatal. This isn't just injury or an Elmer fudd image of a bald old man shooting a gun a half dozen times and missing, but rather this is life threatening injury. So now I have to go feel guilty about laughing.

In Summary: College towns are for drinking. The Vice President Shot a man. I still think it is a little funny and that is probably a character flaw.

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