The primary job of a therapy dog (canines that can be found in hospitals, schools, nursing homes, etc.) is to "allow unfamiliar people to make physical contact with it and to enjoy that contact, and to bring comfort to those in need." From the youngest of children to the sickly and elderly, the pleasure a therapy dog can bring a patient is often undeniable. At Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, ...

Are spasms funny? Mmm, maybe, depending on who you ask, and how intense a spasm actually is. Like, if I suffered from spasms, I'd probably be like, Don't make a joke about it, okay? So, okay, I won't. But you know what everybody loves? Gymnastics. That's just a rule of life -- people love gymnastics as much as, if not more than, Ray Romano. Gymnastics = safe. So check out this ...

Great question, right? If Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, and the rest of the Huxtable clan were reimagined as rubbery, dead-eyed Sims characters, what would it look like as they danced, once to the same song -- albeit in different orchestral stylings -- between 1984 and 1992? Well, the proof is in the pudding (PUDDING JELL-O PUDDING POPS ETC!). ...

"We'll make a family calender, only with none of our kids -- just with chickens." Just with chickens, says Linda Woodward, the matriarch of one family in Riverside, California. Consider it the ultimate case of empty "nest" syndrome (hey-o!), in which one middle-aged couple, Gary and Linda, in a slow trudge toward their sunset years, decide that dressing up chickens in tuxedos and ...

At Urlesque, it's very much not in our job description to wax political about the type of policies that have launched an astronomically popular anti-Obama sentiment amid the Tea Party and Birthers movements, many of whose members take solace in the chalkboards former morning zoo radio DJ Glenn Beck uses to prove that our President is a racist America is headed for disaster. But ...

In 1991, some people decided to get together -- the men dressed like Arsenio Hall, the women with enough shoulder padding to let them pass for Lawrence Taylor -- and create some art. Undoubtedly using somebody's enormous camcorder, these people dug deep into their sense of humor, reaching back to the post-diaper years, when farts and poopy defined "comedy of manners." So what did ...

L'shanah Tovah! That's Hebrew for "Happy New Year," which is what happens next week when Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah. After synagogue services, millions of our country's Chosen People (don't quote me -- it's in the Bible), will head home to dip apples in honey and get into arguments that won't amount to anything serious. As they say, "Another year in Jerusalem!" (P.S. Still don't know ...

On August 27, 2010, at Iowa State University, Tin-Shi Tam, an Associate Professor of Music and Theatre -- and, more importantly, the lady who makes the music in the bell tower -- performed "Bad Romance" at the strike of noon. It's funny for me because my only reference for bell towers is basically The Hunchback of Notre Dame, so I get a real kick out of the idea of a hunchback in a ...

"There's a lot that we can learn about growing old, becoming ill, letting go and dying by having our pets in our lives." (: "Our dogs are so good at living in the moment." "It doesn't matter how much you weigh, how much money you make, or what your hair looks like -- your dog values you." These quotes come straight from the mouth of Leta Koontz, Expert Village's (now eHow) ...

No one ever said acting was an easy profession. For every Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Sandra Bullock, there's approximately a millzies struggling actors, hungry artists happy to get a couple of lines in a cheesy soap opera or low-budget local commercial. Over at Funny Or Die, Dan Opsal has created a fictitious -- albeit frighteningly realistic -- "database" of acting reels from ...