Size 7

This is probably more funny to me than it will be to most of you, my readers. But I found it so funny at the time that I almost busted a gut trying not to laugh out loud.

There's a Monty Python skit (Quiet Ron, and bear with me) where John Cleese answers a phone and all you hear is his side of the conversation. The conversation was nothing but Cleese responding 'yes' to the apparent questions coming from the caller. The reverie was only interrupted once.

Cleese was responding, and I'm including the interruption for brevity's sake, "Yes...yes...yes...yes...yes...yes...size 7...yes...yes...yes...yes" and so on until he hung up. Or the skit ended, I don't remember which.

One day at the Shop me Pops answered a phone call. And I tell you true his entire end of the conversation was Yes...yes...yes...yes...yes...yes...yes... and so forth. From back at my workbench in the old barn, near enough the office that I could of course hear, all I could think was, "If he says size 7 I'm going to lose it."

There you have it. Funny for me, and hopefully at least enough to bring a smile to your face.

How To Read This Blog

I don't know whether to laugh, although that seems the best response. The very fact that it exists suggests all sorts of jokes, because it sounds like the start of a comedy skit, something along the lines of The Argument Clinic. I simply can't wrap my head around the idea. Can there actually be such literary supplements?

Whelp, in this great narcissistic age we live in, indeed there can. While trolling around Amazon this morning I found a book on how to use self help books properly. I am not making this up. Here it is.

Now, I want to stress that I do not mean in any way, shape, or form to disparage anyone seriously in need of help in overcoming any given problem. But how to read self help books effectively? Shouldn't the self help book itself guide you on whatever manner you need aid? Certainly no author genuinely interested in helping someone work through an issue presented it with, "Here now, in trying to help you effectively solve a problem I've written a book on how to overcome it. You won't be able to understand or implement any of its ideas or basic concepts, but there you are." Why wouldn't a self help book strive to be anything except helpful on its own terms?

To be fair, I have not read the book. There's at least one other on the subject too. But I stopped searching after that. Some things I'm not sure I want to know the answer.