On the other hand, humor also knows Nate. What about humor? How could a concept like humor know a human being like Nate? (Assuming Nate IS human; some who know him feel that remains an open question.)
Fair enough. Nate explains it by saying that he grew up in a neighborhood full of people who loved practical jokes. From toddlers to seniors, it seemed to be a cultural thing. For some reason, Nate Jadean wound up being a favorite target.
Whoopee cushion? Nate would sit on it. Candid camera? Nate would be filmed by it. Rocks in his car's hubcaps and blue cheese on the exhaust manifold when he got married? Nate's honeymoon would be both noisy and, um, aromatic. Yup. Humor knew about Nate. Frankly, Nate never did think it was all that funny.
But he knew about humor, even so.
(To see cool videos by the Bentley of web hosting, click on the Bentley)
Success Is The Best Revenge
Copyright 2005 by Nate Jadean
Back where I grew up ambitious and lean
Most of my schoolmates were not
They'd spend their time thinking up practical jokes
To play on poor, gullible Nate
Few went to college but off to the mines
We were black lung coal dusty people
Even thinking about one of their own getting clear
Made them that much tricksier around me
My Mom and my sisters still live in the holler
So I had no choice but go home
For Holidays, funerals and such
And of course the girls' weddings which weren't all that easy
When they married two practical jokers
The jokers would ask me every time I was back
Hey, Natie, have you turned all our coal
Into magical sparkly twinkly diamonds
Should we bow to Your Majesty yet?
Then came the day near Christmas one winter
Let's see, it was two thousand and two
When I had a surprise and a practical joke
To play in return on my brothers in law
We all gathered round the tree Christmas morning
The stage was all perfectly set
Mom handed out presents like she did every year
While my siblings took notes on who to thank
When the guys opened up the boxes I gave them
There was nothing inside them but coal
They took it good naturedly, poking fun at me
Assuming I was too broke to give them anything good
But when Mom and my sisters each got identical boxes
The jaws of my relatives dropped
Each lady was holding a diamond with a note
That said I'd pressed them by hand from raw coal
And attached to each diamond by a fine golden chain
Was a nearly identical key
Nobody breathed or blinked or made any sound
When I pulled open the curtain and in dawn's early light
There sat at the curb a new Bentley for each
To this very day neither one of my brothers in law
Understands anything about the business I run
But that's not the laughter I laugh late at night
When I think of the stunt that I pulled
Both men are still stunned, wondering how little Nate
Managed to pull off such a joke
To the point that in order to brag at all
They are forced to ask the little woman
Or even worse go to MOM
Just to get hold of the keys to one of the white hot new Bentleys
In order to be openly admired around town
Yup, it really is still coal country where I have my roots
But two rules I've mastered for sure
If you want your chuckles to last a lifetime
Revenge is a dish best served cold
And rule number two, most important of all
Success is the BEST revenge!
