Mr. Joyce Takes on the World

Snow Falls in San Francisco A holiday memory By Riley Joyce It was my first Christmas in San Francisco, and I was alone. I couldn’t afford to fly back east, so I was marooned in SOMA. I didn’t know anybody in the city at that time, save for my roommates. They were all heading elsewhere, so I had the run of the house; which was a mixed blessing. Then again, since none of them really celebrated Christmas (or even bothered to decorate) I was probably better off on my own. While I’m not a massively religious person, I don’t pay lip service to the sacred. While I may not understand other people’s beliefs, I’ve grown to tolerate them. My faith is, “believe as thou wilt, as long as it harms none.” Yeah, I paraphrased that from the Wiccans. What can I say? I’m a Mr. Potatohead when it comes to religion. I’ve had an on-again-off-again relationship with the Unseen World for several decades. My attendance at Grace Cathedral was the most recent, and the most profound. I had started attendin...

The Black Box Joke An essay by Riley Joyce There are some jokes that will always be with us; such as the simplest “knock-knock” joke, or the banal banana peel slip. For many of us, Mad Libs, “knock-knock” jokes, and bad puns are the earliest forms of humor we’re exposed to as children. They are safe, clean, and use a simple form of logic. Even when we tell bawdy barroom jokes over drinks, there’s a certain “surprising, yet inevitable” formula at play. On some unconscious level we know what direction the joke will take. But on a conscious level we want to be surprised. We don’t dare give away the punch line, unless the old cliché, “stop me if you’ve heard this one,” is invoked. While this type of humor isn’t the most sophisticated, it doesn’t have to be. It just has to work. A little laugh from a basic set up, followed by a punch line. They are simple, effective, and based on some sort of reason. The antithesis of this would be the Black Box Joke . This is a phrase that I’ve coined...