You learn something new everyday.

And it is always better when accompanied by hilarity.

So, I am talking to Venus on the phone, in our usual style of gabbing away and then breaking off to talk to or holler at our children (she talks, I holler to be heard above the noise level here.) As she is talking to her son about what he should be working on I hear her say "Duke & June." I think, hmmm that sounds familiar. It takes about a minute for me to realize that Duke & June MUST be the generic version of Dick & Jane! I picture the black and white book cover, the most basic stick figures, living in row houses with sparse, dead grass and broken bottles in the gutters. This, of course, sends me into fits of laughter. At this point V has absolutely no idea what I am finding so funny, but laughs a bit at my obvious glee. So, I ask "Do they have a dog named Spit?" Takes her a bit, and she suddenly bursts into laughter.

Because I am a huge geek who finds the most simple things funny I run with this. Visuals pop into my head of Duke & June and their poor, ghetto adventures. Spit soon becomes a rat, Duke & June are going to the corner store to get cigs for their mother, and paying with food stamps. I am crying I am laughing so hard. It is still funny, hours later.

THEN, V tells me something that seems too good to be true. I am convinced she is pulling my leg. Apparently, in the story, Duke & June make a snowman. He has...ICE CUBES FOR EYES, A PRUNE FOR A NOSE, AND...plays the flute. Tears stream down my face, I am in disbelief, laughing so hard my stomach hurts, my jaws are sore, my cheeks throbbing.

Duke & June may not be as funny to anyone else, but to us, holy moly, that is some seriously funny shit.