Amusings

About the Book

Amusings is the first volume of humor by writer Theo May. Here the reader will find tales (Humoresques) with which he has regaled friends and family, including The Belt Story, Confessions of a Basketball Timer, and The Littlest Jingle Bell. Also in the book are various things from his career as a mathematics teacher, including the infamous collection of failed interviews as well as vignettes (Disciplines) of students running amuck in his classes. These culminate in an account of being fired from a college teaching position due to “moral turpitude”. The volume closes with the moving memoir To Build a Fire.

About the Author

Theo May Theo (Theodore, Ted, Teddikins) May grew up (if in fact he did grow up) in Verona, New Jersey. He was psychologically formed by the age of five. One day in his first grade classroom he began to spontaneously laugh out loud for no discernible reason. The teacher placed him in the cloakroom for a half hour as punishment. Ever since that seminal moment, he has worked diligently and tirelessly to make laughter socially acceptable. "But once in a while there have been occasions when I’ve been 'cloakroomed' again!" he said with a laugh. Mr. May taught mathematics for many years, and he called this "the ideal field to be in: no matter how many times I was fired, no matter how many interviews I botched, there was always a new interview, a new job available for me." He was also a professional organist in a career which spanned five decades: "For a shy guy like me who couldn't snag dates in high school, the organ works of J. S. Bach were the only other avenue to ecstasy open to me." But shortly after he began teaching, he married the singer and teacher, Dorothy, the girl of his dreams. "Then I had the best of both worlds!" he remarked with a gleam in his eye. They gave many concerts together while living in Medford, Massachusetts, and raising their two daughters, Gretchen and Heidi. Mr. May's dual careers ended shortly after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the 1990s. He now lives in The Boston Home (a skilled facility to help people with MS and other diseases), a place he describes as "the Magic Mountain with a perpetually ongoing writers’ colony." He writes using voice recognition software on his computer. As for this book, he has this to say: "My voice itself may be soft and weak, but the writing is strong and sure, thanks to one of the oldest of media wed to one of the newest." As always, he wants to assure us that his personal motto remains, “the situation is hopeless, but not serious.”