I once attended a stand-up show in Amsterdam,             and not speaking a word of Dutch I just laughed     along with the crowd, letting myself get caughtup with the noise. It’s the logic of applause             and food fights. I can’t think about the bubonic     plague without getting anxious. When I watchPlanet Earth, I root for both prey and predator.             The border between humor and disgust blurs     neatly so it’s often hard to say. I was drivinghome from the grocery store last week             and saw that my neighbor had painted and hung     a new sign on his shed: THEEVES WILL BE SHOTand Kate asked, Who’s Theeves? In high school             a boy did a Gallagher impression after prom,     smashing watermelons on stage with a hammer,his fake mustache falling off mid-swing,             and then two weeks later his parents received a bill     for $30,000 to replace the pulp-smattered curtain.Or that time in second grade after we had             just moved when a quiet boy in my class asked     for a ride home. My mother, new to the city,got lost, and cross-stitched neighborhoods             in the fading light because the boy didn’t know     which was his, and he started crying, and my motherstarted to cry too, and we drove until the boy saw             a familiar park, and eventually we found it,     his house, and l1is mother was on the lawnwith two officers, and she’s crying, too,             and then the drive home after, my mother     whispering, Shit, Shit, Shit, and wiping her eyes.