Gregory Geboski wrote:
> I have to admit I have trouble with “humorless” as a
> criticism, since it’s the number two putdown (after “political correctness”)
> thrown at leftists, those party poopers always unable to find the lighter
> side of oppression and injustice.
Back in the fall of 1956, my first semester as a teaching fellow in the English Department at the University of Michigan, it took me only about 8 weeks to be come utterly nauseated by three cliches: the necessity of being "well rounded," the supreme importance of "a sense of humor," and how terrible it was that the real spirit had gone out of Thanksgiving, immediately followed by essays on "Putting the Christ back into Christmas."
As far as I can tell, the central meaning of "sense of humor" is "Don't let the other person's pain bother you so much."
Carrol