Just because Hurricane Andrew turned houses into toothpicks and spread muck and misery everywhere, Dave Barry, the Miami Herald's resident jester, says there's no reason for people to lose their sense of humor.
Barry, a syndicated columnist who usually writes once a week, has been lightening Dade County's load with more frequent commentaries since Andrew came to town."Many of us haven't taken a hot shower in over a week . . . ," Barry writes in the column that appears today. "The result is that South Dade has turned into a giant B.O. Zone."
Barry suggests President Bush "order Air Force relief planes to fly over and strafe us with giant military canisters of Right Guard."
Hurricane Andrew also hit Barry's Miami home. Trees are down, the roof leaks, power's out.
"So I was in my yard, cutting and dragging trees, which is pretty much what I do these days, and I stopped to listen to the battery-powered radio, and the announcer informed me that there were 300 baboons on the loose.
"And I thought to myself: Of course! Loose baboons! The one inconvenience we have not yet encountered this week!
"If the baboons come to our house, they can just go on inside and help themselves to our rotting food and our water with bleach in it."
Barry is writing "whenever the muse strikes," said Bill Rose, his Herald editor. "Everyone needs a little relief. . . . His columns make everyone feel better."
Conspicuously absent from the hurricane aftermath is the spate of sick jokes that usually circulate nationally after a disaster.
Barry set up a Hurricane Humor Hotline on a telephone answering machine and only one person left a joke, which his office would not reveal.
"Everyone was in danger here," said Dr. Scott Segal, a Miami psychiatrist treating hurricane victims. "Everybody had the potential to be destroyed in this storm. People in the rest of the country (have) tornadoes, earthquakes. It's very scary when you know it can touch everyone."
But laughter in the face of disaster can be the best medicine, say therapists.
"It does help to have a sense of humor about this," said Beatriz Jorden, a counselor in Dade County. "Humor helps to relieve stress. Families that can laugh together get through difficult times better."