Humor
Among his friends and professional colleagues, Leon Eisenberg was known for his humor and friendly wit which he shared in lectures, publications, and even as Recording Secretary for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (sometimes in the forum of haiku).
Collecting his humor is difficult (often it was in personal e-mails), but many agree that a few typical scenarios recurred:
- Several persons of different social backgrounds involved in a difficult, odd, or even humorous situation, usually with a Jewish psychiatrist or a rabbi .
- A very wise person involved with something very unusual .
- A well-known historical event .
- Poetry (often haiku)
Close friends (and fans) described his stories as customized for each occasion (so they never tired of hearing the same stories repeated because, with customization, they never were the same story or joke).
Read more about this topic: Leon Eisenberg
Famous quotes containing the word humor:
“Affection, indulgence, and humor alike are powerless against the instinct of children to rebel. It is essential to their minds and their wills as exercise is to their bodies. If they have no reasons, they will invent them, like nations bound on war. It is hard to imagine families limp enough always to be at peace. Wherever there is character there will be conflict. The best that children and parents can hope for is that the wounds of their conflict may not be too deep or too lasting.”
—New York State Division of Youth Newsletter (20th century)
“Humor is not a mood but a way of looking at the world. So if it is correct to say that humor was stamped out in Nazi Germany, that does not mean that people were not in good spirits, or anything of that sort, but something much deeper and more important.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so philosophical that he could see the toothache in his own humor.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)