i was going to hell long before you came around

I think it's pretty funny when uber religious people can't take a joke. Especially when it's not a joke even really about their religion, but really more of a mocking of some other social entity.

Before Easter a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses rang my doorbell to give me a flyer about their upcoming services. The picture on the flyer was a representation of Jesus, bound and bleeding, with crosses and soldiers in the background. The text read "Who is the greatest man who ever lived? Why is it important to remember him?" followed by information regarding the church and dates, etc.

Chuck got a hold of the flyer, which I of course left for house perusal on the hallway table, and wrote underneath "Who is the..." "LEON BROWN". It was then stuck to the fridge and left for our enjoyment.

Leon Brown in this case is not a baseball player, but instead the first trombone professor at UNT. Every year in the spring we hold an annual Leon Brown Trombone Day in his honor, which basically serves as a recruitment day for new trombone blood in the studios here.

The joke is of course on trombone players. We're a little zealous, we have our idols and our gods, and we like to lionize. It's not really a joke on Christianity if you look at it closely.

At our totally awesome and rocking party on Friday night, someone left us a note. The irony that the note was written on my cheesy cute notepaper with the chubby, red-cheeked cats dancing around the edges is not lost on me. The note reads "UM, because of this poster I can assure 'you' are going to burn in hell".

The handwriting's terrible, though, so until Chuck translated it for me yesterday I thought it said "Um, because of this note I can assure 'you' are going to Bain IM Hall" which doesn't make much sense except that Bain Hall is where all the music TAs and TFs have their offices. So, I was trying to put the IM in context, maybe 'instrumental music'? And wondering at the same time if Leon Brown was holed up in Bain somewhere waiting for his loyal followers to come to him and unleash the glorious new future.

At any rate, the Skelton House has been condemned to hell. Because of a joke on trombone players. We weren't going to Christian hell before because of the drinking, smoking, extramarital sex, same-sex relationships, vandalism, theft, eating of shellfish, coveting, taking various lords' names in vain, and other various and sundry terrible sins we commit on a daily basis, but this joke really is the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back.

I find that amusing.