Joke birth

    What with the Mayan apocalypse and everything, I found myself a little prophecy-minded yesterday. I wound up with a bad case of Nostradamus on the brain. This caused me to play "The Best of Al Stewart: Songs from the Radio." (He had (still has, presumably) a delightful song called "Nostradamus.") And I kept working on this gag, something along the lines of "If YOUR name had been Mike OurLady, you probably would have gone all kookoo and prophetic, too."
    And I still kind of like the joke. But it reminded me strongly of what all the copywriters are doing these days with radio ads, which is having the announcer yell, "Weird!" in the place where a punchline should go as if that magically makes the ad funny. (Note to copywriters: it doesn't.) I just couldn't fix the joke, but another popped up in its place which I like even better: Edgar Cayce, Michel de Nostradame and John of Patmos walk into a bar. The bartender cheerfully calls out, "What's happening, fellas?" Boy was HE sorry!