Not So Funny... Very Funny

I have been sporadically reading "Not So Funny When It Happened." It is a book my cousin Debbie gave me in Australia when I was looking for a light read to go along with the ultra serious, but good " The World is Flat." Not so funny is a collection of short stories detailing travelling mishaps. You know, the types of things that aren't so funny at the time they occur, but as you look back in time provide for great laughs in hindsight. The short stories are about 3-7 pages in length and are from numerous different writers, including a couple of my favorites Dave Barry and Bill Bryson. It's a good book to have around for an occassional glance for a quick laugh.

But, my favorite story was from Nigel Barley, an anthropologist working in Cameroon who had an unfortunate incident of lost in translation at the dentist. The first person came to see him was not the dentist and "diagnosed" the problem and followed to take a pair of pliers and yank out his two front teeth. Needless to say, he was in a lot of pain and stunned. The "dentist" than came to do the rest of the work. Moral of the story, be careful when going to a dentist in Cameroon. This story and Nigel's writing style has me interested in reading "The Innocent Anthropologist: Notes From A Mad Hut" which details his entire experience in Cameroon.