I very seldom seem to have a good enough reason to justify a trip from the West Coast to the East Coast. When I do make such a trip, it’s usually for business and doesn’t allow for sightseeing or visiting with old friends. I should say, I’d never had a valid reason until I heard about your humor conference.

When I went to the map to locate Saratoga Springs, I realized with only a little bit more flying time, I’d be able spend some time with a very dear friend, Ann, in New Hampshire.

Ann and I were great buddies and used to teach together when she still lived in California. After she got married, she moved back to her New England roots and although we’ve stayed in contact, we hadn’t seen each other for 15 years.

All arrangements were made for my side trip. Ann and her husband planned to pick me up at the Manchester, New Hampshire airport.

In making plans with Ann, I mentioned that when we saw each other I would tell her she hadn’t changed a bit and then she could lie to me. However, I told her that I’d be coming from a humor conference and would have access to appropriate props, so... to help her recognize me, when I got off the plane I’d be wearing a red clown nose. What Ann did not know is that I had bought a bag of 12 clown noses at the conference.

The plane I took into Manchester was a puddle-jumper prop plane which only held about 40 passengers. Just before landing, I had a conversation with the flight attendant and this was the announcement she made for me over the PA system:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, may I please have your attention. We have a funny person on board with us today. Her name is Linda. Linda’s an M.D. That stands for Doctor of Mirth. She’s flying to meet an old friend named Ann. They haven’t seen each other for 15 years. Linda told Ann that she’d be wearing a clown nose so Ann could recognize her in the crowd. Linda has some extra clown noses and if anyone would like to help her play a joke, she’d be happy to give you a nose to wear off the plane.”

Hands went up all over the plane. Believe me when I tell you, I could have brought 40 clown noses and given them all out! Women, children AND men wanted to participate in the fun.

I stood by the exit as people were getting off the plane to hug everybody who went by wearing a clown nose and thank them for helping me. All the passengers were having a great time, even those wearing only their own noses! I exited last.

We had to walk downstairs out of the plane, walk a bit to get into the airport, take the elevator up to the next floor and walk down a long hallway before reaching the waiting area. By the time we reached this area, all the passengers were pretty much strung out single file. Those people waiting for passengers couldn’t see us until we rounded the corner and headed into the waiting area.

Ann had no idea what was about to hit her. The first woman off the plane was wearing a hat pulled down low, sun glasses and a bright red clown nose. She and I were about the same height and weight. When passenger #1 came into view, Ann started jumping up and down, waving her arms and yelling, “Linda! Linda! Over here!” Then, as I was told later, Ann turned to her husband and said, “Oh, my God. I can’t believe she really wore that clown nose.” Passenger #1 ran to Ann, grabbed her and they gave each other a big hug. When Ann stepped back, passenger #1 whipped off her sun glasses and flashed a big “Gotcha” smile.

Ann’s eyes flew open wide, her jaw dropped way down and she said, “YOU’RE NOT LINDA!”

Before Ann had time to recover from the first shock, a gentleman passenger wearing a red clown nose grabbed her in a big bear hug and said, “Hi, Ann. I’m Linda.”

Passenger #3, a very nice looking gentleman stepped forward, wrapped Ann up in another big bear hug and said, “He’s not Linda. I am. I just got back from Denmark where I had the operation!” And, so it went for 11 passengers.

When I finally appeared Ann was crying real tears of laughter... and she was loving every minute of it. We greeted each other with more hugging. She stepped away to take another look at me, probably to verify one more time that she was finally hugging the REAL Linda, then we hugged again. Suddenly, I heard applause. We turned to look and there standing in a big wide semi-circle were all the rest of the passengers giving us a standing ovation. The sea of faces were dotted with red clown noses.

How You Can Get Involved

In 1995, Chicken Soup for the Soul® won the prestigious Abby Award as the book that booksellers nationwide loved selling the most. The Chicken Soup for the Soul® series now includes 25 books that have sold over 35 million copies. These books include spirit-lifting stories from well-known folks like Erma Bombeck, Ann Landers, Art Buchwald, Maya Angelou, Jimmy Carter, Ken Blanchard, Michael Jordan, and Robert Fulghum as well as “just plain folks” who happen not to be well-known (until their stories appeared in the book).

I am tickled to join Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen in working on a sequel: Chicken Soup for the Laughing Soul. We would love to involve as many people as possible in this exciting and uplifting book.

We are looking for true stories that will tickle and touch readers... that will invite explosions of hearty laughter. And we’re looking for stories that make a heartfelt point with humor. We would welcome powerful and humorous stories that you’ve used in your own presentations, ones that you’ve heard in programs that you have attended or ones that you’ve read (if you are not the originator or copyright-holder of the story, please tell us who is so that we can obtain the proper permissions).

These could be stories of humor in business, humor in education, humor in health care, humor in the family, humor in religion, humor at work, humor in life. We’re on the lookout for how humor helped you to turn a negative situation around into a laughing matter... times where you were able to laugh at yourself (or needed to)... humorous stories that celebrate human creativity, resilience, and spirit.

You may submit stories in the following formats: (a) typed or word-processed; (b) copies of pages from a book or magazine (please include the author’s name, the title of the book or publication, and the page numbers so that we can secure the proper permissions). No copies can be returned, so please keep copies of anything you submit.

Chicken Soup
The HUMOR Project
10 Madison Avenue
Saratoga Springs, New York 12866-2288
fax 518.587.8771

Once we receive your material, we will give it to a diverse panel of readers. The 101 top-rated stories make it into the book. The author of each story that is selected will receive an honorarium. We’ll also include short bios (a great way to be "in the spotlight").

Previous books in the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series have contributed a percentage of all profits to such worthwhile causes as: Literacy Volunteers of America, Limbs for Kids, several prison projects, feeding the homeless, AIDS organizations, cancer research. A portion of the profits from this book will also be donated to charity.

So, there ’tis! We invite your participation in opening the hearts, rekindling the spirits, and tickling the funnybones of millions of people everywhere.

Jest wishes,

Dr. Joel Goodman
Director, The HUMOR Project, Inc.

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