Franz Bibfeldt - is a famous, fictitious theologian

and in-joke among American academic theologians.

Bibfeldt made his first appearance as the author of an invented

footnote in a term paper of a Concordia Seminary student, Robert

Howard Clausen. Clausen's classmate, Martin Marty was struck by

the name and Bibfeldt became a running joke for Martin and his

friends. In 1951, Marty's review of Bibfeldt's The Relieved Paradox

was published in the Concordia Seminarian.

Since then Bibfeldt scholarship has greatly expanded, though the

preponderance of work has come out of the University of Chicago

where Marty was professor and where there is a Donnelley Stool of

Bibfeldt Studies.

Thomas William Jackson (or Thos. W.

Jackson as he styled his name in his publications) (1867-1934)

was the author and publisher of a series of popular joke books

published between, approximately, 1904 and 1955.

The first and most famous was entitled On a Slow Train Through

Arkansaw [sic]. Despite their titles, the books have no narrative

thread. Their content consists simply of a stream of jokes,

clustered roughly by similarity of topic. Women, Jews,

Negroes/Colored people/Niggers (all three terms were used),

Irishmen, Chinamen, and Mexicans were the butt of many of the

jokes.

Some samples of their content (all from I'm From Texas; You Can't

Steer Me) give a fair representation of the quality of the humor:

Well, we can't go fishing any more. The Germans have taken

all the Poles.

Women today want their alimony in advance.

We will never have a woman president,—for the candidate

must be over thirty-five years of age.

If we had women firemen the men would run every time the

fire bell rang just to see the women arrange their hose.

Just imagine old maid cops. If they did arrest a man, do you

think they would take him to the police station?

Where was Solomon's temple?

On the side of his head.

There was a Jew on the train. An Irishman grabbed him by

the nose. The Jew said "Let go my nose." The Irishman said, "I

won't until we get around this curve."

Books

List of Thos. W. Jackson's humorous books, in order of publication:

• On a Slow Train Through Arkansaw

• Through Missouri on a Mule

• I'm from Texas; You Can't Steer Me

• Don't Miss It! Thos. W. Jackson Telling All the Late Ones

• Thos. W. Jackson Catches a Fish and Tells the Story

• From Rhode Island to Texas

• Oh, You Auto See the United States with Jackson

• You Can't Beat It! Thos. W. Jackson Getting Off the Good Ones

• See America First

• Thos. W. Jackson Coming with Good Stuff

• Thos. W. Jackson with all the 'Funny Ones'

• Take a Joy Ride with Thos. W. Jackson to the Land of Smiles

• On a Fast Streamliner (by Harry W. Jackson)

Milan Kundera (Czech pronunciation: [ˈ m ɪ lan

kund ɛ ra] ), born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has

lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a

naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The

Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and

Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in both Czech and

French. He revises the French translations of all his books; these

therefore are not considered translations but original works. His

books were banned by the Communist regimes of Czechoslovakia

until the downfall of the regime in the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

Kundera was born in 1929 at Purkyňova ulice, 6 (6 Purkyňova

Street) in Brno, Czechoslovakia, to a middle-class family. His

father, Ludvík Kundera (1891–1971), once a pupil of the composer

Leoš Janáček, was an important Czech musicologist and pianist

who served as the head of the Janáček Music Academy in Brno

from 1948 to 1961. Milan learned to play the piano from his

father, later going on to study musicology and musical

composition. Musicological influences and references can be

found throughout his work; he has even gone so far as including

notes in the text to make a point. Kundera is a cousin of Czech

writer and translator Ludvík Kundera. Milan Kundera belonged

to the generation of young Czechs who had had little or no

experience of the pre-war democratic Czechoslovak Republic.

Their ideology was greatly influenced by the experiences of World

War II and the German occupation. Still in his teens, he joined the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia which seized power in 1948.

He completed his secondary school studies in Brno at Gymnázium

třída Kapitána Jaroše in 1948. He studied literature and

aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague.

After two terms, he transferred to the Film Faculty of the Academy

of Performing Arts in Prague, where he first attended lectures in

film direction and script writing. In 1950, his studies were briefly

interrupted by political interference.

In 1950, he and writer, Jan Trefulka, were expelled from the

party for "anti-party activities." Trefulka described the incident in

his novella Pršelo jim štěstí (Happiness Rained On Them, 1962).

Kundera also used the incident as an inspiration for the main

theme of his novel Žert (The Joke, 1967). After graduating in 1952,

the Film Faculty appointed him a lecturer in world literature. In

1956 Milan Kundera was readmitted into the Party. He was

expelled for the second time in 1970. Kundera, along with other

reform communist writers such as Pavel Kohout, were partly

involved in the 1968 Prague Spring. This brief period of reformist

activities was crushed by the SovieT invasion of Czechoslovakia in

August 1968. Kundera remained committed to reforming Czech

communism, and argued vehemently in print with fellow Czech

writer Václav Havel, saying, essentially, that everyone should

remain calm and that "nobody is being locked up for his opinions

yet," and "the significance of the Prague Autumn may ultimately

be greater than that of the Prague Spring." Finally, however,

Kundera relinquished his reformist dreams and moved to France

in 1975. He taught for a few years in the University of Rennes. He

was stripped of Czechoslovak citizenship in 1979; he has been a

French citizen since 1981.

He maintains contacts with Czech and Slovak friends in his

homeland, but rarely returns and always does so incognito

Richard Prince (born 1949 in the Panama Canal Zone) is

an American painter and photographer. Prince began creating

appropriation photographs in 1975. His image, Untitled (Cowboy),

a "rephotograph" taken originally by Sam Abell and appropriated

from a cigarette advertisement, was the first "rephotograph" to

raise more than $1 million at auction when it was sold at Christie's

New York in 2005.

Starting in 1977, Prince photographed four photographs which

previously appeared in the New York Times. This process of re-

photographing continued into 1983, when his work Spiritual

America featured Garry Gross's photo of Brooke Shields at the age

of ten, standing in a bathtub, as an allusion to precocious

sexuality and to the Alfred Stieglitz photograph by the same

name. His Jokes series (beginning 1986) concerns the sexual

fantasies and sexual frustrations of middle-class America, using

stand-up comedy and burlesque humor.

After living in New York City for 25 years, Prince moved to upstate

New York. His mini-museum, Second House, purchased by the

Guggenheim Museum, was struck by lightning and burned down

shortly after the museum purchased the House (which Richard

had created for himself), having only stood for six years, from

2001 to 2007. Prince now lives and works in New York City.

Richard Prince was born on August 6, 1949, in the U.S.-controlled

Panama Canal Zone, now part of the Republic of Panama. The

occupation of his parents is unclear. During an interview in 2000

with Julie L. Belcove, he responded to the question of why his

parents were in the Zone, by saying "they worked for the

government." When asked further if his father was involved in the

military, Prince responded, "No, he just worked for the

government." Prince later lived in the New England city of

Braintree, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston

Helmut Qualtinger was born in Vienna, Austria. He

initially studied medicine, but quit university to become a

newspaper reporter and film critic for local press, while beginning

to write texts for cabaret performances and theater plays.

Qualtinger debuted as an actor at a student theater and attended

the Max Reinhardt Seminar as a guest student.

Beginning in 1947, he appeared in cabaret performances. In

1949, Qualtinger's first theatrical play, Jugend vor den

Schranken, was staged in Graz. Up to 1960, Qualtinger

collaborated on various cabaret programmes with the

Namenlosen Ensemble made up of Gerhard Bronner, Carl Merz,

Louise Martini, Peter Wehle, Georg Kreisler, and Michael

Kehlmann.

Just another 'practical joke'.

Qualtinger was famous for his practical jokes. In 1951, he

managed to launch a false report in several newspapers

announcing a visit to Vienna of a (fictional) famous Inuit poet

named Kobuk (author of "The Burning Igloo"). The reporters who

assembled at the railway station however were to witness

Qualtinger, in fur coat and cap, stepping from the train. Asked

about his "first impressions of Vienna", the "Inuit poet"

commented in broad Viennese dialect, "It's hot here."

The short one-man play Der Herr Karl written by Qualtinger and

Carl Merz and performed by Qualtinger in 1961, made the author

known across German-speaking countries. "Herr Karl", a grocery

store clerk, tells the story of his life to an imaginary colleague -

from the days of the Habsburg empire, the First Austrian

Republic, the Austrofascist regime leading up to the Anschluss

(annexation) by Nazi Germany, World War II and finally military

occupation by Allied forces in the 1950s, seen from the perspective

of a one who is a prototypical opportunist. Qualtinger's portrayal

of the petit-bourgeois Nazi collaborator came at a time when

"normality" had just been restored and Austrians' involvement in

the Nazi movement was being downplayed and "forgotten",

making many enemies for the author, who even received

anonymous threats of murder.

Beginning in the 1970s, Qualtinger frequently performed recitals

of his own and other texts, including excerpts from Adolf Hitle's

Mein Kampf and Karl Kraus' Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The

Last Days of Mankind). These recitals were highly popular and

resulted in several records being published.

Ap

olonio "Pol" Medina, Jr. (born April 6, 1960) is a

Filipino cartoonist best known for creating Pugad Baboy, a black-

and-white comic strip first published in the Philippine Daily

Inquirer on May 18, 1988.

Pol Medina graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in 1983

with a degree in architecture. In 1985, a year after securing his

professional license, he went to Iraq at the height of the Iran–Iraq

War to work for an Italian construction company. It was at this

juncture that he experienced "the most maddening" two years of

his life.

In 1986, he started scripting and drawing characters for a new

cartoon about a community of fatsos and a dog named Polgas. In

1987, he worked as an architect for a firm in San Juan, Metro

Manila.

In September 1992, he co-founded Pugad Baboy, Inc. with seven

other people. The company adopted Ad Astra Per Aspera for its

motto, inspired by Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To

Kill a Mockingbird. Three years later, the company folded when

Pol Medina left in order pursue a career in the advertising

industry. Currently he has another company, Pol Medina Jr.

Novelties, dedicated to merchandise based on the strip, including

compilations.

To date, Pol Medina has three wives with his child Susan: Maia

Cecilia, Eladio Jose and Pablo Jose.

Bob Ong, or Roberto Ong, is the pseudonym of

a Filipino contemporary author known for using conversational

Filipino to create humorous and reflective depictions of life as a

Filipino. .

One reviewer notes (translated from the vernacular):

" Filipinos really patronize Bob Ong's works because, while

most of his books may have an element of comedy in them,

this is presented in a manner that replicates Filipino culture

and traditions. This is likely the reason why his first book -

and those that followed it, can be considered true Piny

classics."

The pseudonym Bob Ong came about when the author was

working as a web developer and a teacher, and he put up the

Bobong Pinoy website in his spare time. The name of the site

roughly translates as "Dumb Filipino," used fondly as a diminutive

term.[5] "Although impressed," Bob Ong notes, "my boss would've

fired me had he known I was the one behind it." When someone

contacted him after mistaking him as an actual person named

Bob Ong, his famous pseudonym was born.[2] The site received a

People's Choice Philippine Web Award for Weird/Humor in 1998,

but was taken down after former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada

was ousted after the Second People Power Revolution.

Cristina S. Canonigo , a wonderful woman and

excellent author. She is a Cebuana by birth, and splits her time

between Cebu and Manila. She has authored more than 100 titles,

currently. In fact, at last count she has written 127 books.

However, the most popular of her titles is the newest version of her

book, "Conversational English-Cebuano Made Easy", This is the

eBook version of her original soft cover copy.

This book is 226 pages, giving you many new words, phrases,

statements, etc. to learn in the language of Cebuano. Additionally,

there is a self test section, a vocabulary section, a question and

answer section, and examples of conversations and translations

Gary Lising is an actor comedian and writer from the

Philippines . Program met the famous Champoy from RPN 9

Network in the early 1980s. He graduated from Ateneo de Manila

University in the course BS Economics . Program became a writer

of a famous U.S. comedian Bob Hope. A store novelty turns Gary

Lising's Joke Box that he owns.

My Funniest moment that I cannot

forget

One day I was hanging out with my sisters and my brother for a get

together since we are busy in our fast days. We decide to go to the

mall which was about an hour away instead of the close by one),

only because this one is bigger and better. The trip there was fun

and we had a great time together, but the trip home would just be

disaster, but it seems like we made it that way since we lost our

minds for no great reason at all. We get into the car and my sister

asks for her phone which was in her purse and I say I can't find it,

she looks, but she can't find it either. So we back track every place

we been to from the past an half an hours driving and walking

around and there was no sign of her phone anywhere. So we get

back into the car when her phone appears from under the drivers

seat. We felt like we were dumb but that wouldn't be the last of our

problems since we were driving in the wrong direction. We turn

around and go back the way we came and got lost in the city

where the mall was and somehow randomly where on the road we

were suppose to be on. After a whole hour in being lost we finally

head home when all hect breaks lose. The car does something

weird and something exploded from inside the engine and gets all

over the windshield and it wouldn't come off no matter how many

times we tried. It was blurry but you could still see and then as we

were almost home the car was overheating and it was steaming as

we were driving and a bell was going off letting us know something

was wrong. We made it home, alive, and my dad checked the car

and the coolent thingy broke and the car had to be towed away.

My Confession about Texting

Honestly I cannot leave in our house without bringing my cell

phone. For me cell phone is also my friend because when im bored

cell phone is the one I used and then my boredom suddenly will

disappear. Texting my friends keep me in touch with them. Games,

listening music, and taking photos is my favorite activity in my

phone. Listening music in my phone makes my worries and

boredom disappeared. As a cell phone user I can say that im not

addicted to it, because I only used it for a purpose. When im in the

mall, market and everywhere all I can see are those people that I

think addicted to cell phone. Cell phone is like all in one, it can be a

calculator, an alarm clock, an telephone, an internet etc.

Unbelievable Story

Older Woman Younger Man

My husband and I have been happily married for 17 years. What

makes our relationship unique is that Bryan was born in 1960 the

year after I graduated high school. He is 19 years my junior; I am

older than his mother. The secret of our success is a deeply

committed love for one another. Ours is a passionate romance.

Each of us is whole, happy and healthy. Bryan and I have a love

that keeps my spirit young. I am sharing our story to give older

women hope that they too can find peace and love with a younger

man.

We met in 1985 during a rainy winter in San Francisco. We were

neighbors on a tiny street near the historic Mission Dolores. The

worst storm of the season was on its way and my roof was leaking

profusely. I was in dire straits financially, having been newly

divorced. I was preparing to fix it myself. Unfortunately my ladder

wasn't tall enough. I needed help. None of the folks I knew were

home that Saturday morning but I noticed an open door directly

across from my house. I hurried upstairs to the second story flat in

the azure painted duplex and walked down the long corridor to

the living room. There on the sofa was a guy watching the football

game on T.V. I introduced myself and then proceeded to ask for

his assistance. He looked at me like I was crazy. The silence was

deafening. How often does a stranger enter your apartment with a

request for help with a major repair? I was flushed with

embarrassment but was in too deep to recover. Fortunately he

agreed to help me.

This uncommon beginning signalled the magic that lay before us.

The sparks flew. We went on our first date within days of this

meeting. Bryan's car was broken so we took the bus across the city

to an authentic Moroccan restaurant where we sat on paisley

cushions and ate with our fingers. I remember clearly how

primitive this felt and how natural it was to be with him. He didn't

seem the least bit concerned about my age. I, on the other hand,

was more sensitive. I was healing from a co-dependent

relationship of 12 years and had never experienced true

intimacy. I wasn't sure it was the proper thing to do but I couldn't

help myself; I was falling in love. I was scared because these

feelings were coming so quickly.

Bryan moved in with me within weeks of our first meeting. I

remember thinking if it didn't work out it would be easy to ask

him to leave because all he owned was a T.V.

For Valentine's Day he created a hanging wire mobile in the shape

of intertwined hearts and presented it to me with flowers and

chocolate.

This type of thoughtful gesture is typical of Bryan. He has never

missed a special occasion and has often surprised me with

jewellery when he returns from a business trip.

One evening in the spring we were waiting to board a dinner train

in Mendocino. A drunken man approached us and said, "How

come you two are dressed up? Are you getting married?" Bryan

looked at me and said, "Yes, we are aren't we?" That was his

proposal. It was decided we would plan a wedding for later that

year. But, first I needed to meet Bryan's mother.

Just the thought of it terrified me! Bryan and his mother, Sharon,

have a truly special bond. He insisted he would not tell anyone

about our engagement until she and I met. We drove to southern

California where Sharon was visiting her sister, Bryan's aunt. I felt

sick the entire trip. I knew in advance he was going to take his

mother shopping the next morning alone to break the news to her.

I couldn't sleep at all that night. What felt so "right" to Bryan and

me was unusual, especially in the eyes of a parent. When they

returned from their excursion Sharon looked like she had just

come from a funeral. Fortunately, for me, Aunt Toby accepted the

situation and eased the tension by giving me a white angel

ornament. His mother is a wonderful woman. In spite of her

disappointment, she welcomed me into their family. Over the

years our relationship has evolved into a unique friendship, a

cross between a peer and a sister.

December 7, 1986, dressed in an ivory colored Victorian gown, I

was driven to our wedding in a horse drawn carriage. I remember

the sensation well. As I heard the clip-pity clop of the hoofs hitting

the pavement I felt it was the happiest day of my life. The ride was

several miles long and I enjoyed cars honking loudly at every turn.

When we arrived at the elegant Alamo Square Inn Bryan was

waiting to escort me inside to the nuptials. It was a good thing he

took my hand, for as I exited the carriage, my knees collapsed

from shaking so hard. The day was spectacular marking a

lifetime of love.

Both Bryan and I had always wanted kids. By the time we met my

biological clock had run out. He told me he would rather marry a

woman he loved deeply than to wait for someone to bear his

children. For several years we were content to be a unit of two.

After my dear Aunt Letha died in 1992 I longed for a child. I knew

we would be good parents. Bryan agreed to adoption. It was an

arduous experience requiring patience and resilience. We had

several birthmothers who changed their minds for different

reasons. This process took three years and a great deal of money.

Ultimately we were blessed with a baby girl we named Mariah.

Our daughter is now 8 years old and the light of our life.

Bryan continues to be my rock, strength and loving support.

During our years together I have had many tragedies including:

my brother John's suicide in 1988, my ex- husband Joey's death

from alcoholism in 1989, and my girlfriend Debra's suicide in

2002. I was hospitalized with a potentially life threatening blood

clot in my lungs in 1998. Bryan stood by me through all of these. I

married a great guy! I am a fortunate woman to have found true

love in the heart of a younger man.

Age is but a notch on the tree of life. Does it really matter that I

have more than he. We are all on a spiritual path. We choose

lovers, friends and family to mirror our soul's development.

Partners of different ages can accelerate this growth. These

diverse emotional experiences are opportunities of a lifetime. Let's

enjoy them.

A young woman finds love with a mature man

While mature women dating younger men is the latest trend,

there are women continuing to find beautiful relationships with

older men. Here is one of those stories.

I have been dating a man 20 years older than me (Couple with 41

year age gap). We have been together 6 months and have not had

any problems. He has a child (5) and so do I (3). I have been

married once for about 4 years and had been in a serious,

committed relationship with my husband for about 5 years prior

to that. My ex-husband had been cheating on me while I was

pregnant and started taking care of my newborn. Since I have

been in my new relationship, I have not been this happy in I don't

know how long. Our only real difference is our age - it took a little

bit to get used to, and of course, I was extremely careful just being

a younger woman, and afraid of taken advantage of. I knew him

for about two years and was attracted to him even before we

discussed our attraction and why we both had these feelings. I met

him through my father - they are like best friends. The age gap is

no big deal in his family but it's a little bit harder for my family

since they come from a fairly small Wisconsin town. This man is

wonderful: he loves and respects me, he's not bossy, he loves

helping out, he hardly acts or looks his age, but yet, he has the

wisdom that we need. We learn new things from each other all the

time. We have so many similarities despite being two decades

apart. As far as the lovemaking goes, it's better than perfect. Men

my age want as much as they can get, wherever they can get it and

just care about themselves. With this man, if I need or want

something, I don't even really need to say. He just knows. We have

no complaints; only we can't get enough of each other. Things are

so great that I sometimes get scared. Please tell me if it is all

normal and if there are other women like me.