2008/02/21

Ha-Ha Happy

Why do people laugh? One anthropological theory says that perhaps it was originally a sort of alarm system, alerting the other lemurs (or whatever we were), that there was no real danger; false alarm, etc. Although I don't completely support this theory, I can see the logic in it. Often, after a false scare, we tend to react in laughter, partly to ease ourselves, and partly to ease those around us.

But laughter is a response to many things. Humour is the dominant source in our modern culture, and the other possible causes (nitrous oxide, for example) tend to be discounted immediately.

However, there is yet another form of laughter -- that of happiness and celebration. People laugh when they're happy. But people don't seem to get that whenever I laugh. Is my laugh particularly malicious or something?

Anyway. If you hear me laugh at something you say, it means I'm entertained. I'm not the sort who would [openly] laugh at someone else's idiocy or ignorance. Unless it's already been established that I *really* don't like the person. Then maybe. hrmm....

Fun fact of the day: I've secretly had astigmatism for a while (in the order of years), but the Chinese optometrists didn't bother to mention it to me. Or didn't bother to test for it. The cheap bastards. And they wonder why North Americans are so hung up on proper procedure and regulations.

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