This evening's specials, HICCUP.

On Saturday evening I served dinner to a father and daughter and I had somehow gotten the hiccups just before they were seated. I can usually get rid of them pretty quickly (the hiccups, that is), but I didn't have the time while running around the restaurant, so I stood at their table to recite the specials, and, hiccup, it was table 4 - right next to the kitchen and Harding (Chef/Owner), so I couldn't just give them my notes about the specials. I started off, and made it all the way down the list managing to hiccup in the middle of pretty much every dish. The father and daughter just looked amused. They even remembered some of the specials, despite the distracting, inappropriate punctuation that my spasmed diaphragm provided.

The other thing that had me giggling that weekend was the sermon at the Woodford Corners Congregational church for the Sunday morning service. The church was half empty that morning and Susannah and I suspected that it was because everyone was exhausted after putting on the church fair the day before and didn't want to get up for church. So the folks in church were the ones that maybe just attended the fair and then also the real go-getters who planned the fair, worked there all day, and gosh-darn it, they were going to be in church on Sunday to get their recognition. Well, it was a worthwhile morning to come to church, I think, if not just for the lovely job on the organ by my roommate Susannah's dad, then certainly for the comic value of the sermon. The church has two ministers and both were involved in delivering the sermon that morning. The first one got up in the pulpit and pulled out the "heavenly news". Apparently in this week's celestial newspaper there was a help-wanted advertisement for new members of the "God Team". It sounded like a pretty powerful position from the ad. You got to have dominion over all the plants and animals.... The minister pulled out his cell-phone and dialed the number: 1-800-god-team. God (the female minister in the back room) answered and they proceeded to have a long conversation about what it means to be a member of the god team and all the responsibilities that it involves.

We had just watched Keeping Mum a few nights before and as Susannah and I were riding our bikes to church that morning, she said to me, I keep hoping it will be Rowan Atkinson (who plays a minister in the movie...not for the first time - Remember Four Weddings and a Funeral?) delivering the sermon. He had taken it one step further in the movie to the point where he was actually delivering jokes as part of his sermon. The things that the church will do to keep people interested and amused...