Anything about Barbie dolls is going to be funny, right?

That's whatI thought when I got the latest bit of humor floating on the 'net.

Thought you would get a laugh from this! my friend said.

She hasn't sent me much email and clearly hasn't gotten a response from me to some electronic chain mail or she would have known better.

Just saying you think you know what kind of reaction I'm going to have is enough to make me have the opposite one.

But this--

It's in the form of a press release from Mattel, Inc. (which could probably be construed as libelous, now that I think of it). A whole new collection of Barbies designed based on women in North Carolina.

Raleigh? Sure, why not.

Chapel Hill? I can picture that--a college girl, right?

Cary? Well, okay.

Wake Forest? Huh?

Goldsboro? Where?

Fayetteville? Now wait a minute--a soldier girl? Didn't we already do that?

How about Lumberton? No way.

Way.

Each is worse than the other. Actually uses terms like "white trash" and "recently paroled" and others I won't repeat.

Someone clearly put a lot of time and thought into this document--why? It's fairly equal opportunity slander -- the poor and wealthy are both ridiculed, whites and people of color, Republicans and Democrats. It makes me wonder what "type" the author is. But not enough to ask or want to get to know.

I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out why people do things like this, trying to focus on the positive parts of people, to love the person, hate but try to understand the behavior. But it's hard. Getting an email like this, first thing in the morning from someone I like and respect is quite a blow to my positive bone.

I don't watch TV, haven't seen a late-night talk show or a comedy performance in more years than I can count. But I remember that the humans do have a propensity to ridicule other humans and call it comedy.

There’s a big debate going on about evolution and intelligent design.Sometimes I wonder if either one happened.

© copyright Maggie Wilson, 10/6/2005