“…I was astonished (original meaning = struck by lightning) by something Bob Mankoff … said in a Charlie Rose Show interview. He said he thought of “humor as a necessary counterweight to the hegemony of reason.” I use that as a running theme for the short lighthearted essays in the book. I look at evidence from various fields, including linguistics, anthropology, psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics, all of which adds counter-weight to the increasingly, demonstrably, inaccurate view of human reason that generally dominates our discourse. Humor and much science can help us overcome some of the most egregious errors of the Enlightenment.”
— Jag Bhalla, from an interview over at Bookslut in which he discusses “the genesis” of his new book about idioms called I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears.
Also, I can’t end this post without mentioning that I learned from this interview that in Germany, “to live like a maggot in bacon” is a phrase meaning to live in luxury. I love Germany.
