Anyone whose life circumstances or job description puts them in close touch with mortality may develop a particularly morbid sense of humor as a way to decompress: Megan Wolff, a doctoral student in the history of public health, says that she and her colleagues often swap stories about their favorite disasters—how many died and whether their deaths were shockingly quick or horrifyingly slow. “Everybody will always name their favorite disaster right off the bat, and they’re pretty chipper about it,” she says. “My colleague is hugely excited about a flood in which thousands were killed. I’m excited about the Spanish Flu.”
Wolff also leads historical tours of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, telling the stories of immigrants who lived in the famous 19th-century urban ghetto. Her audiences are especially fascinated by details of the filth and disease that were facts of life back then—the outhouses built for eight that served dozens or hundreds, the surgeries that took place on kitchen tables. Pigs served as the Sanitation Department—not a bad strategy, except that when their garbage supply ran out, they’d go after small children.
PS: see, told ya….
Fulbright says that increasingly, she hears from heterosexual guys who have trouble getting aroused unless they look at or imitate porn.
