These pages contain various things I’ve come across that I find amusing, or sometimes downright hilarious. Some came from the net, some from forwarded emails, some from newspaper clippings, or from other random sources. I’ve collected them here simply as this is the most convenient repository for such a disparate collection of items.

I’ve included a few web addresses in these pages giving sites where similar stories can be found – or, in one case, where an item turned up some months after I first came across it.

Enjoy, and should you come across an similar things yourself, please forward them to me!

• An Unwise Trombonist. The tale of an unwise trombonist who sought to enliven a concert, with spectacular but disastrous consequences. I was unsurprised to see this popping up on the Darwin Awards (for people who should remove themselves from the gene pool, and often make a good stab atdoing just that) sometime after I first came across it.
• Rules for a Cat. Is a cat's behaviour arbitrary and capricious? Not a bit of it - here their underlying code of behaviour is revealed...
• A Cat’s Diary. A cat frustrated attempts to unnerve his captors, and escapte their cruel clutches.
• A Winter’s Tail: Shakespeare's little known play about cats.
• Hindsight into the Future. Two complimations of history student errors for the teachers out there who despair of students who don't even have the grace to regurgitate correctly what they have been told.
• Nitrogen is not found in Ireland because it is not found in a free state. A complimation of science student errors for the teachers out there who despair of students who don't even have the grace to regurgitate correctly what they have been told.
• Letter from the Smithsonian. This is a very widely circulated letter (sadly a hoax) from the Curator of Antiquities to a rather unusual archaeologist.
• Lawyers' Questions. Yes, lawyers have to establish facts beyond possible doubt, leaving no room for loopholes. But surely the answers to some of these questions can be taken for granted? Or are the lawyers displaying a certain lack of precision themselves?
• Military Questionnaire. When you buy a piece of consumer electronics, there is often a questionnaire attached asking where you bought it, is it your first purchase of this sort, etc. Well - when do manufacturers consider these questionnaires are no longer necessary, or perhaps have little faith that they will be answered correctly? This questionnaire did, genuinely, appear on the McDonnell-Douglas website. Just not for very long.
• Repair reports to 'Squawks'. Some very literal-minded US Air Force maintenance crews answering the (foolishly) stated problems with the aircraft appropriately, if unhelpfully.
• Manufacturers' Warnings. Just what law suits have been filed against some of these poor companies? The mind boggles.
• See Dick Defenestrate Jane. Academics can have a strange sense of humour; frustrated academics can have a very strange sense of humour.
• Resumé writing tips. What you think is a witty remark assuring your prospective employer of your overwhelming suitability of a position may not be taken quite that way by anyone else. Least of all the prospective employer.
• Apollo 11. They left American soil & airspace, didn't they? A job for customs officials then. This is true...
• Using a barometer. Too much intelligence in a student may not be a bad thing, but do pity the examiners.
• Gilbert & Wagner. Wagner could write comic operas - think of Die Meistersinger. So a collaboration with that author of witty English operattas was surely an obvious decision?
• The US Constitution. The events of the 2000 US Election brought forth a whole multitude of humorous comment on the internet. Here are some of the most widely disseminated items.
• Al Gore, George Dubya, and the Queen of England. How govern, and how to surround oneself by intelligent advisors.
• Human Resources: Heaven and Hell. From the point of view of a Human Resource Director.
• Human Resources: organising the office Christmas party. How do you organise an office Christmas party without offending anyone?
• Who needs water? Rowing clubs don't expensive equipment - and facilities like a river a strictly optional. All that's required is a little space and some imagination. This is a downloadable MPEG file of around 750K - it will take 2-3 minutes to download with a typical 56K modem. [with apologies to Honda, but this magnificent clip cannot be allowed to evaporate into the internet's afterworld.]
• Multi-national Survivor. An international version of the popular TV programme confirms national stereotypes...
• Cows and general world order. Different paradigms for world order, described with the help of a pair of cows and their milk.
• Excuses for absences from school. From parents who themselves appear to need some schooling.
• Over-forceful crossing-out. Pages from a manuscript of Max Reger's, with some rather extreme crossings out.
• Women's fitness. The Royal Canadian Air Force's 'XBX' guide to fitness and physical exercise for women (1962). Oh dear... They wouldn't get away with something like this nowadays... [This is a 1MB .pdf file: you must have Adobe Acrobat installed and properly configured to view this priceless booklet.]
• Technology orientated humour.