On Sat, 18 Jan 2003 12:33:39 -0500, Roger Turk wrote: > A dog face soldier during WW2 started drawing cartoons of the daily > conditions that soldiers faced on the front lines during the war and put > them in a humorous light. The main characters were two disheveled, unshaven > dog faces, Willie and Joe. The creator of these characters was another dog > face, Bill Mauldin. Bill Mauldin's ability to put intolerable conditions in > a humorous light made intolerable conditions more tolerable and were a boost > to morale.
> An American characteristic that used to amaze Europeans was the ability of > Americans to laugh at themselves and their foibles. Even at funerals, > eulogies contain references to humorous aspects of the deceased, not to be > irreverent, but to recognize the human qualities of the deceased. > A current master of making commonly occurring situations humorous is Jay Leno. > With no apologies, > Roger Turk > Tucson, Arizona The popular patriotic song "Yankee Doodle", which became the favorite marching song for the Americans in the American Revolution was written by a colonel who was a surgeon in the British Army. The song was intended as an insult. The manuscript was found by the Americans in the composer's tent, which had been hurriedly evacuated and abandoned by the British colonel because of the American's over-running the British encampment. When the song was found, some Americans who could read music started whistling the tune and some others started to sing the lyrics. They all laughed at themselves and marvelled over the British colonel's great talent for poking fun at the Americans. They liked the song very much and they adopted it as their own. Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser: http://browser.arachne.cz/
