Not too hot

This morning my wife told me that she'd gotten too hot during the night. "Too hot, or just hot?" I asked.
    She chuckled. "Getting hot is too hot."
    I said, "I didn't get hot."
    She said, "You should count your blessings."
    I told her I have so many blessings, I couldn't count them. And I thought of a recommendation that a colleague from over twenty-five years ago wrote for me yesterday, on one of those networking websites.

Truly inspiring—that's what I have to say about Moristotle. Over the many years I spent working with him at IBM I had the great pleasure of listening to him as he taught classes and gave lectures on many technical writing topics. One didn't come away from these sessions simply being more educated, but more importantly, came away enthused and excited. Beyond that, Moristotle was an extremely accomplished writer. And he was a terrific co-worker and friend—always ready with a wonderful joke to lighten the day.
    It's been my absolute pleasure and honor to be Moristotle's co-worker and friend through our years at IBM.

Among my uncountable blessings is having former colleagues who still feel that way about me. This one must have had a disposition to find things humorous; I really don't remember being a teller of jokes.

Additional feedback

I asked another colleague from that time and place whether he remembers me as a teller of jokes. He wrote back:

I make a distinction between people who make humorous observations and people who tell jokes. I enjoy the company of the former, provided that their observations aren't strained or inappropriate. I wince at the latter. They are wannabe stand-up comics who hear rim shots in their heads every time they speak. You are emphatically not in the latter category.

And still more feedback

From yet another colleague of that time and place:

I do not remember you as a teller of jokes. Mostly, I remember you as being a very serious person. (Do Yale grads have a sense of humor?)

I have no idea how Yale graduates rate relative to other graduates when it comes to sense of humor, but I hope that Yale graduates who do have a sense of humor can use it to deal with the grim reality that George W. Bush, Dick Cheenie, and John Ashcroft also graduated from Yale.