Laugh Lines

Today's post comes from the many articles I have published on handwriting analysis in my columns Write On! and Handwriting@Work. This one is on humor and reminds us that there is good stuff happening all the time and every where!

A sense of humor is the mental ability to recognize and appreciate the illogical, the absurd, or the impropriety in ideas, events or situations. A sense of humor always involves a violation of the expected.

Did you hear about the supervisor who had no sense of humor? It happened at the M&M company. A worker was assigned to inspect the candy as it came down the assembly line and throw out any of the bad ones. The supervisor fired the worker for throwing away all the W’s. - Source unknown

In handwriting, the humor stroke is identified as an initial flourish that blends softly with the following downstroke. It can appear before any letter but is most often used with capital m’s and n’s. Although other strokes and combinations can reveal a writer’s comedic side, this one is specific. Its placement at the beginning of a word suggests a writer’s light-hearted approach to life. If it appears only in the signature, the writer may poke fun at his/her own mistakes or challenges. Actor Meryl Streep has a clear humor stroke on the capital M in this signature.