BR Fridays: "Is It Just Me?"

Whoopi Goldberg's humor is not for everyone, and that's okay. I just finished reading her book "Is It Just Me?: Or Is It Nuts Out There?" It is a book about a need to return to civil behaviour. You know? Manners. She talks about why it's not okay for you to walk up to a pregnant lady and rub her belly. When you are driving a car the ONLY thing you should be doing is driving the car. Everyone needs to take a beat and remember what it was like 30+ years ago when people said "Please" and "Thank You" and no one thought it was okay to heckle or throw shoes at the President of the United States. 

It's an incredibly funny book, mostly because everything she says is true. You don't have to be affiliated with any political party, or religion, or whatever to understand that when people are kind and civil to one another life is just better for everyone. I enjoyed it. I needed a laugh and something that would take me away from my life for a bit. Also, it was nice to read that someone else has seen the things I have seen out in the world and is shocked by the rudeness of some people. 

I didn't get to enjoy the first 20 minutes of "Les Misérables" Christmas Day because the husband of the woman sitting next to me COMPLAINED that he didn't want to see this movie he had just paid for. Dude, I was trying to hear Hugh Jackman sing the soliloquy and Anne Hathaway sing "I Dreamed A Dream." I almost stood up and hit him. "You don't want to see this movie?!? Buddy, I REALLY don't want you to see this movie! None of us who paid to see this movie want you to see this movie!! GET OUT!!!" I did not say this, of course, but, I thought it....really loudly. He eventually left and I did a mental happy dance.

I enjoyed the book for exactly what it was: an observation of how the basic civility in society has gone downhill and the tiny things people can do to pull that sled back up to the top of the hill. Think of it as Emily Post meets the 21st Century but, ya know, funnier. 

*Disclaimer: This is Whoopi after all and there are a few--maybe 10 total in the whole book--cuss words thrown in so, I warned you.