At the time of this
writing, the victory of Barack Obama has utterly electrified
the world. He is perceived as fresh, candid, charming,
personable, etc.--so much so that there should be a warning
sign on his lapel: "I Might Be Dangerous To Your Health."
Why? Because it is critical to our well-being that Patrick
Chappatte continue to make us laugh, and it is critical to
Chappatte's craft that vanity reign in high places, thus
supplying him with the raw material of his craft.
Allow me to elaborate. "The specific remedy for vanity is
laughter," Henri Bergson taught us in his seminal essay on
the subject, "and the one failing that is essentially
laughable is vanity." And laughter, of course, is the best
medicine. That is not only a cliché; it is an
established scientific fact. The latest annual powwow of the
American Physiological Society heard a major report from
researchers who had conclusively proved that "the
anticipation of a positive humorous laughter experience also
reduces potentially detrimental stress hormones." The same
researchers had already rocked the physiology world two
years earlier with their finding that "simply anticipating a
mirthful laughter experience boosted health-protecting
hormones." In other words, just looking forward to a hearty
laugh actually lowers your stress hormones and boosts your
anti-stress hormones.
We in the newspaper business certainly know stress (and, yes, vanity), and I attribute my ruddy good health to the fact that two days of my working week start with choosing a Chappatte cartoon for publication in that day's International Herald Tribune, and that the past two years&emdash;the period covered in this volume, the third collection of Chappatte's work for the IHT&emdash;were unusually rich in vanity. (Memo: Ask the American Physiological Society whether it's possible to OD on beta-endorphins.) So if you find that Obama is denying you vital laughter therapy, just leaf through these pages for a quick fix. We guarantee it works. If it doesn't, send in your receipt with a certificate of non-laughter from your local physiologist, and we'll send you to the next annual meeting of the APS. Researchers there will give you a mirthful laughter experience. Yes they will.
"Partly
Cloudy
2007-2008: Cartoons from the Int'l Herald Tribune"
Globe Cartoon / IHT Publisher, Geneva,
November 2008, Page 3