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Swivel – 2006

Volume 3

2006

Annual

Jeanne M. Lesinski

Before I start, I have to admit to being confused by humor, which at least I do know is a very individual construct. I don’t watch stand-up comedians because I can’t enter into the proper frame of mind, David Letterman’s smug face makes me want to hurl (hard objects at the TV), and bitter sarcasm makes me anxious for the state of the world.

Before I start, I have to admit to being confused by humor, which at least I do know is a very individual construct. I don’t watch stand-up comedians because I can’t enter into the proper frame of mind, David Letterman’s smug face makes me want to hurl (hard objects at the TV), and bitter sarcasm makes me anxious for the state of the world. On the other hand, I like the impromptu sight gags and puns of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the situational humor of a Garrison Keillor monologue, and clever word play (including bad multilingual puns) wherever I find them. So why did I choose to review a journal with the subtitle “The Nexus of Women and Wit”? I guess I was challenging these women to make me laugh. Some of them succeeded so well that I was laughing aloud, and in one case, searching out my teenager daughter with, “Let me read this to you” (Susan E. Butler’s poem “Walk Not This Way”). “At Ten Thousand Waves Spa, Santa Fe” by Julie King is humorous in a pursed lips, arched eyebrow kind of way, while “Quick Fix Sestina” by Kelle Groom cleverly solved the mystery of how to use the words spa, skin, nude, doughnut, breathe, and drool as the form’s repeating end words. Some of the black-and-white photos, cartoons, and black ink drawings stand on their own, yet others compliment the nearby text, often adding subtext. Some day, I’d like to be a matriarch as portrayed in Kipling West’s cartoon, “Tarantula Grandma.” The most dangerous piece in this issue is Lauren Weedman’s story “A Fatty-Gay Christmas.” Whatever you do, do not—as I did—read it aloud to your family at dinnertime.
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