As I think I’ve mentioned, I occasionally tell jokes in my culture class. I try to tell jokes that are peculiar to American culture. So, for example, a while ago I did a lawyer joke because I think they reflect an attitude about lawyers that is prevalent in the country. I try to tell the joke in Chinese and the students get a kick out of watching me flounder and then helping me out. This week I told a "dumb blonde" joke. The idea for obvious reasons is not familiar over here, although they do have the concept of a "hua ping," which is a beautiful woman with nothing inside. Same notion, different hairstyle. In order to introduce the idea, I talked about a euphemism contest that the web site slate.com ran a little while ago. They asked listeners for euphemisms for the word "stupid." Some of the sample ones were: "not the brightest bulb in the pack," "not the sharpest knife in the drawer," "his elevator doesn’t go to the top drawer," and my favorite, "the wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead." I took a while to explain each of these and then I asked them for some Chinese euphemisms. There seems to be quite a few about having something in your head, including "water in the head," and "ping pong balls in the head," then there is "your head was kissed by a pig," and my personal favorite, "his iq card is out of credit," which seems worthy of the best I heard at slate.