Westfield civic leader Lynn Boscher remembered for service, love of fun: Viewpoint

I don't know exactly when I met Lynn Boscher, but I can't remember a time when I didn't know him.

I suspect it was 1978 or 1979 when we met. I was in first grade at St. Mary School and became fast friends with Kerry, Lynn's daughter. I didn't know then, but this would be a lifelong friendship that I've been happy to continue now, nearly 40 years later.

Throughout these past four decades, our friendship has ebbed and flowed because of jobs, kids and other changes in life. But, ours has been the kind of friendship in which months can pass without getting together only to be able to pick up right where we left off. This, I have come to learn, was passed on from Lynn. He was a steadfast friend and always welcomed people into his life.

Lynn Boscher died on Feb. 12, surrounded by family in his beloved city of Westfield.

Everyone who knew him - whether it was for 60 years or 60 minutes - says the same things:

He was a good friend.

He had a kind word for everyone.

He was a great guy.

He was a family man.

He enjoyed talking about any subject.

He loved Westfield.

The latter describes the Lynn who thousands of people came to know. He was dedicated to his community in a way people admire.

A longtime Westfield Rotarian, he exemplified its mission of "Service Above Self." His wife Mary and children, Kerry, Mary, Edward, Michael and his late son Paul, lived that life with him. They watched Lynn give back in so many ways.

His fellow Rotarians said they would feel his loss.

"Lynn was the epitome of the Rotary motto of Service Above Self," said Jennifer Gruszka of the Rotary Club of Westfield. "There was never a time where he wasn't thinking of how to improve the lives of others - from helping with countless events to just making you smile. He was full of life, laughter, silly jokes, stories and love. Lynn was a dear friend and mentor, and will be deeply missed."

He was a member of the City Council in 2004 and 2005 and, despite not seeking reelection, continued to receive write-in votes as recently as the 2018 municipal election.

Longtime friend and former councilor Mary O'Connell mourned the loss of Lynn.

"I have known Lynn for over 40 years, and he was definitely one of a kind," she said. "He was ethical and direct.  He stood up for his ideals and dedicated himself in service to Westfield.  I respected him so much and admired his approach and take on local politics and government. Lynn did not have a mean bone in his body and worked very hard on many different levels to make our community a better place. I will miss him, and I think his death will be a great loss for our city."

Current Councilor David Flaherty touted Boscher's service and interest in the community.

"Lynn was a wonderful, caring man," Flaherty said. "He served Westfield as a business owner, city councilor, Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board member, Chamber of Commerce executive, Rotarian, and as an avid photographer for the Westfield News in his retirement years. He was very supportive of my efforts on the City Council and with the Boy Scouts, and he frequently asked about our Scouting adventures. He will be missed. My condolences go out to Mary and the family."

Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said, "Lynn was a very good guy. He was well respected in business, in City Council and in the community."

Lynn served as executive director of the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce from 2006 through 2010. Current executive director Kate Phelon said Lynn left some big shoes to fill.

"I am deeply saddened by the loss of my predecessor and fellow Rotarian, Lynn Boscher, as I have known Lynn well over 20 years. "He was so gracious and extremely helpful to me when I became the first woman president of the Westfield Rotary Club. I came to know his wife, Mary and a few of his children over the years.  He was a pillar to the community and will be missed my many."

Many people knew Lynn as a business owner from the years in which he and his wife operated the Travel Bureau of Westfield. He helped thousands of people plan trips, which was something he was an expert in since traveling and having a good time were among his favorite things.

Friends and acquaintances alike took to social media upon hearing of Lynn's death and remarked that in addition to the great loss for the city, they would personally miss the good times they had with him.

Lynn loved music and martinis and could often be found throughout the city listening to live, local music and sharing food and drink with friends and strangers, who almost always felt like friends after a few minutes chatting with Lynn. He spent his retirement photographing events for local newspapers, sharing his passion once again with his community.

Lynn will be remembered as someone who loved life, his family and his city. And that's the way he'd like it.

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'Black Monday' Writers Explain Their Rules for Off-Color Jokes

"We don't ever want to offend anyone," co-creator David Caspe tells The Hollywood Reporter of the Showtime comedy's frequently un-PC humor.

[This story contains spoilers from episode three of Showtime's Black Monday.]

Taking place as it does on Wall Street in the 1980s, it's no surprise that Showtime's Black Monday is populated by characters whose outlook and sense of humor ranges from mildly suspect to outright offensive. The opening scene of Sunday's third episode features the comedy's most risqué jokes yet during an exchange between traders Mo (Don Cheadle) and Keith (Paul Scheer).

First, Keith makes a casual reference to his foray into autoerotic asphyxiation, noting that he learned the technique from "my friend in that band, INXS." The line is a stinging reference to the death of INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, who died 10 years after the show takes place in what was ruled a suicide. Within minutes, Mo has fired back with an equally thorny reference, bragging that he's "as good as dating as Michael Jackson is at dating kids." Even by the politically incorrect standards of the show's period, it's a striking one-two punch of below-the-belt humor.

"It's just a gut feeling per joke," co-creator David Caspe tells The Hollywood Reporter of finding the balance between appropriately un-PC and genuinely offensive humor. "Inevitably, there are going to be some that hit and some that are too far, and you have to find the line. We don't ever want to offend anyone, that's not the business we're in. A lot of the time, it was trying to figure out: Who is the joke about, and is that punching up or punching down?" Decisions about what to include and what to cut were made collectively among the writing staff and actors, Caspe explains, "and generally if any one person in the group thought something was too far, then we just didn't do it. We figured if there's 10 of us talking, if it's too far for one person then it's probably too far for 10 percent of the audience watching." Of the INXS joke in particular, co-creator Jordan Cahan acknowledges, "that one's right on the border."

Given the collaborative and improv-heavy nature of the production, the actors often had as much of a say in which jokes made it in as the writers. Per star Cheadle, jokes were regularly thrown out for going too far. "Every day, every scene, every episode. You should hear the jokes that didn't get in. Things where I was like, 'Nah, we can't do that. I can't say that. That's too much.'" But while he's fully in support of political correctness in general ("I think being PC is just basically not being an asshole"), Cheadle also points out that the show's milieu demands a certain level of offensiveness. "If these characters were PC, it wouldn't make any sense, and it would be untruthful for the time."

Caspe and Cahan were conscious of the fine line they were walking in satirizing an aggressive, misogynistic culture without glorifying it, and developed certain rules to that end. Strip clubs are regularly referenced but never actually shown on screen, Cahan says, "because we worried that would make us part of the problem." A similar logic was applied to hate speech: "Which characters are allowed to say these things? We have these internal rules: Paul Scheer's character Keith is our most overtly misogynistic character from the pilot onwards, and that's really because it's a shield for him to hide his own sexuality. That was one way for us to reflect the era accurately, but do it for a character reason and not to be a bro show making jokes that we find distasteful."

Another way in which Caspe and Cahan drew that line was by having characters sometimes take an unexpectedly modern view on the period they're in. During the same scene as the INXS and Michael Jackson jokes, there's a specific reference to "the rape scene from Revenge of the Nerds," wherein Robert Carradine's character has sex with a female classmate while wearing a costume that leads her to believe that he is her boyfriend. Although depicted as consensual, the scene has since been re-examined as deeply problematic. "It's insane how inappropriate [that scene] is," Cheadle says. "These are popular movies for kids, and there's a scene where one of the guys sleeps with another guy's girlfriend in a Darth Vader mask and she thinks he's her boyfriend and he's not. He's basically raping her! This was family entertainment! One of the fun things about the show is to look back on that period and skewer a lot of those things, and hopefully people remember that and juxtapose it to where we are now."

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Revealed: The ten funniest jokes for kids

(And apparently children actually like 'dad jokes')

The children have spoken! And they have ruled that the funniest joke of all time is: 'Why was the sand wet? Because the sea weed!'

Beano asked 2,000 British children aged 7 to12 years old on which classic jokes have stood the test of time,

And they said the top ten were:

1.  Why was the sand wet? Because the sea weed!2. What do you call a blind dinosaur? Doyouthinkhesaurus3.  What did the policeman say to his tummy? Freeze you're under a vest4.  Doctor, Doctor! Help, I feel like a pair of curtains! Pull yourself together then5.  What's the fastest vegetable? A runner bean! 6. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? Frostbite7.  What's brown and sticky? A stick8.  What do you call a blind deer? No eye deer9. Why should you be careful when it's raining cats and dogs? You might step in a poodle10. Do you want to hear a joke about pizza? Never mind, it's too cheesy

And despite the reputation for cheesy 'dad jokes', two-thirds of the children chose their father  as the funniest person in their family.

The research was commissioned to mark the launch of Beano's new joke competition to find the funniest primary school class in Britain. Details are here.   

Mike Stirling, Beano's editorial director, said: 'Beano has always known how naturally funny kids are, so this national competition is the perfect way to shine a spotlight on the comedians of tomorrow.'

Beano also offers a free SPAG LOLZ programme for primary schools, using joke-writing techniques to teach Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar for Key Stages 1 and 2 of the curriculum.

Published: 31 Jan 2019

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No One Makes Fun of Their Kids Like Ray Romano

Photo: Vulture and Netflix

The credits of every episode of Everybody Loves Raymond would note that the show is based on Ray Romano's material. See, years before the show's premiere, Romano had made a name for himself for his own brand of family-man stand-up comedy. But, here's the thing about kids: You get older; they also get older. Unsurprisingly, on Right Here, Around the Corner — Romano's first special in nearly a quarter century, which premiered on Netflix last week and is made up of two back-to-back drop-in sets at New York City clubs — a highlight is the legend's material on his kids who are now legally allowed to drive. One joke in particular focuses on what one of his sons does with this newfound freedom — namely run out of gas in the middle of the freeway. The result feels both like one of Romano's classic jokes and wholly new.

This joke is the subject of this week's episode of Good One, Vulture Comedy's podcast about jokes and the people who tell them. Listen to the episode and read a short excerpt of the discussion below. Tune in to Good One every Monday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So, this really happened: Your son ran out of gas on the freeway, and you tried to deal with it on the phone. Can you walk me through the actual call?I was at my office when my wife called and said, "Joe's stuck in the middle of the 101. He's out of gas." Curses were exchanged. She goes, "Just call him." So I call him, frustrated and worried. I had so many questions, and there was no urgency in his voice. Just, "Yeah, Dad." That exact exchange, word for word, happened. "What's the traffic like?" And his response: "Behind me it's bad, but it's moving in front of me." He even said more that's not in the bit: "These people should thank me because I'm clearing up the traffic." He thinks they're ultimately getting home faster.

Once the crisis ended, when did you start thinking, Oh, this is material?I didn't want to let him know it, but I knew immediately that the line was hysterical.

How and where did you work out the bit?If I'm gonna work in Vegas or do a charity gig and I wanna get the rust off, I go to Hermosa Beach Comedy and Magic Club. They let me pop on. I like to write down bullet points, like, I have to get to that line; I wanna figure out an ending to it. Before I would do it in my house, in the mirror, whatever. Now I do it out loud in the car on the way to the club. I usually go with another comic, a buddy of mine. He drives, I take my paper out, and I just keep saying it till something clicks. And so, on the way to the club, I'm trying to figure out a beginning to it. I finally got to, Oh, this kid shouldn't drive. And just in the car, I came up with the part about my wife saying, "Maybe he'll become an astronaut." Which is fabricated. I make her sound a little like Edith Bunker.

Does your wife have that perspective?No, no, the opposite. My wife's harder on them than I am. I'm the guy who stayed home till he was 29. I'm the guy who tells her, "I lived at home until I was 29." And she's like, "Stop saying that in front of them."

You set up the point of the bit very quickly. "Why do we give 16-year-olds licenses? My son doesn't care about anything." What was the process of creating the setup?It just becomes, How do I get into this bit? It's that simple: I want to talk about Joe running out of gas. What's an organic way to get into that? I don't think, What's an issue I can be talking about? And I know where it's gonna go. But I say stuff before about how slacker he is. Like when he says, "I haven't showered in four days." The new one in my act is, "I can't tell if he's the stupidest kid in the world or the deepest." My wife wants them to move out, but then I'm gonna run out of material.

You were doing stand-up before you were married and especially before you had kids. But once they were born and you wrote those first jokes, did it feel like a breakthrough?There's a line after my twins were born, when I had a 2-year-old girl and twin boys and we were living in Queens in a little tiny house. I did the line, "I have a 3-year-old girl and twin 1-year-olds. Yeah, yeah, so I don't really care if you laugh or not, I'm just happy to be out of the house right now." I do that and that was what introduced me to the audience as "being a parent is great, but holy shit." And how trying it is and how tired you are. Then I would do bits about wanting to get out of the house. When you go even harder about how hard it is to have kids and how much they piss you off, the people laugh, but they almost feel guilty laughing about it. But they know deep down, Yes, that's how I feel. You love them, but oh my God, you want to get away from them sometimes. I think that set me off a little onto a nice hook there. Not a hook, but my …

A direction.Yeah, a direction. You know, first it was being married and talking about that, but I think the harried parent kind of got to another level for me.

What is it like for your kids, who have always known what they do can be part of your act?In the beginning, they weren't as conscious of the stand-up as they were of the TV show. Yeah, I mean, look, it's a weird way to come up. I don't want to get serious here, but when Raymond ended, I took it hard, but my kids took it even harder. The twins were 3 or 4 when it started, and they were 12 when it ended. That was their world, and there was a lot of anxiety for them. It was rough. I'm the only one that this has happened to; everything else is everyday life for them. I feel guilty — but they have a trampoline and a theater.

How do you feel about the fact that you can't just get onstage at a club without an audience knowing who you are?That's what I miss. It sounds stupid to say you miss this because this was the hard part. Nobody has ever seen you, they paid their covers, here it is. I don't know who you are, but I'm going to find out your persona when you start speaking. It's, Make me laugh; make me laugh. You have to win them over. That can never happen again. As I'm getting older now, people maybe have heard of me or have seen me peripherally somewhere, but they don't know; they're not fans of mine. And that was part of the reason I wanted to do it unannounced in the club.

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Chrissy Teigen jokes about starting a support group for people with 'little booties'

Pierre, SD (57501) Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High 2F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Snow likely. Low near -5F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.

Updated: February 4, 2019 @ 11:55 am

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A Grieving Father Hits Back At Louis C.K. Over Parkland Shooting Jokes

Photo: YouTube/Splash

A father whose son was killed in the Parkland school shooting has hit back at Louis C.K. for jokes the comedian made about the survivors late last year.

In leaked audio from one of C.K.'s recent standup sets, the 51-year-old poked fun at the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, saying that they're too young to be testifying in front of Congress.

RELATED: Louis C.K. Continues To Shock With Jokes About Masturbation, 9/11 Despite Backlash

"What are they doing? You're young! You should be crazy! You should be unhinged! Not in a suit," he said. "You're not interesting because you went to a high school where kids got shot.

"Why does that mean... I have to listen to you? Why does that make you interesting? You didn't get shot. You pushed some fat kid in the way and now I've got to listen to you talking?"

In a later set, Louis, who is returning to standup after admitting to several accusations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour, joked that he only said the Parkland stuff to distract from the sexual misconduct allegations.

RELATED: Jim Carrey Takes Swipe At Louis C.K. After He's Slammed For Mocking Parkland Shooting Survivors In Leaked Stand-Up Set

Parkland dad Manuel Oliver referenced C.K. and his off-colour jokes in a new video campaign for Change the Ref, a non-profit organization started by Oliver and his wife to help young people fight for gun control.

"Recently I heard this great line from a comedian. He said, 'If you want people to forget that you were jerking off, just make a joke about kids getting shot,'" says Oliver, who performs a standup routine of his own in the video. "And I thought, Jokes about kids getting shot... I can do that.

"Hear the one about the kid that walks into the school on Valentine's Day? Skinny kid, wearing headphones. Gets dropped by his dad. And he says, 'I love you,' and gets out of the car and walks into the school. And then gets shot to death a couple of hours later."

RELATED: Tig Notaro Offers Comedian A Gig After He Refuses To Work With 'F**king Creep' Louis C.K.

Oliver's son, Joaquin, was one of the 17 people killed in the Parkland shooting last year. "You guys ever heard dead baby jokes?" the father continues. "I got a dead baby. His name was Joaquin Oliver. He was gonna be 18. But now he's dead.

"And that's not a joke," he concludes before leaving the stage. At the end of the video is a message calling for people to stand up to gun violence.

Louis C.K. has yet to comment on the clip.

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Sterling K. Brown's Wife Jokes Their Kids Don't Care What They Do For A Living If They're Not On The Disney Channel

He's a newly-minted SAG Award winner, the first African-American man to win a Golden Globe for a TV drama, and the only black man to score an Emmy as a lead actor since the 1990s. Pretty impressive, right? But Sterling K. Brown's wife jokes their kids don't care what they do for a living if they're not on the Disney Channel, which is so relatable for parents of perpetually unimpressed kids.

Before his moving acceptance speech in the middle of the awards show, however, People reported that Brown and actress wife Ryan Michelle Bathe — parents to Andrew, 6, and Amaré, 2 — told E! Live on the red carpet that not only are their kids not impressed with Brown's fame (or clearly for that matter, his ability to make viewers cry just by looking at the camera), but they think the hoopla is a pain in the you-know-what.

"Because our 6-year-old has no idea what's going on — today he goes, 'Why is hair and makeup here?'" Bathe told the outlet. "'Well, we're going somewhere tonight.' ... [I said], 'SAG is tonight,' and he was like, '(groans).' He literally said, 'Another one?'"

If that isn't funny enough, People added Andrew was sure his dad couldn't possibly get another award. "No you don't, you already have the Golden Globe,'" Bathe explained of her son's reaction to his parents heading out over the weekend for a date night at the SAGs.

"Your kids keep you grounded, right?" Bathe added, according to Parents, noting that what would impress her boys would be for her much-honored husband, co-star of such big-screen movies as Black Panther, to actually take a step, well, sideways in his career — to the Disney Channel.

"Maybe Austin & Ally, or Bunk'd — he loves Bunk'd," Bathe chimed in, referring to two of Disney's classics that constantly play at my home, too. "Now if we were on Bunk'd, then he would be like, 'Y'all are really doing something!'"

This isn't the first time that Brown (or Bathe) has noted that his boys really aren't into the whole fame thing.

"Anything that takes me away from my kids, they're like 'Later!' for it," the Marshall actor told Today. "My son will say sometimes, 'I wish you weren't so famous, Daddy.' I say, 'Why?' 'Because I just want you to be at home more.'" Aww.

Clearly, this adorable and talented dad is on a roll, in both his work and his life. Film website IMDB.com shows he has a lot of movies coming up, and I can't wait to catch them.

Ari Perilstein/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

For the moment, though, he'd better step it up to get a little more praise at home. (Or, maybe, take fewer jobs away from home?)

Brown joked that their boys would probably spend the night watching their favorite shows on Disney Junior rather than watching dear old Dad potentially accept his award, People reported. Geez, a little respect for the award winner would be nice, but I guess just being "Dad" will have to do.

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Kerry Katona jokes about ‘calling social services’ to babysit her kids as she defends schools closing because of snowy weather

KERRY Katona joked that she "calls social services" if she needed childcare on snow days.

The mum-of-four made light of parents in need of childcare as schools close across the country because of snowy weather.

ITV

Kerry Katona made the joke while on Good Morning Britain today

Kerry told Good Morning Britain: "I have had to take my youngest to work and I'm lucky enough to be able to do that.

"I completely understand childcare is very difficult, especially when you work 9-5.

"Do what I do, just ring social services.

"I'm very privileged, blessed and really grateful I don't have a 9 to 5 job.

ITV

The mum-of-four was debating whether schools should shut for snow

"I embrace the snow and think kids should get out there."

While the 38-year-old stunned some viewers with her controversial comment, others agreed that children should be allowed to enjoy a day off school.

One said: "@GMB Kerry Katona? Honestly? How desperate are you ? Social Services are her option for child care apparently."

Another added: "Guarantee Kerry Katona hasn't got a 9-5 job so she can sit there being all funny and not give a hoot about childcare and snowdays.

ITV

Kerry burst out laughing after saying she'd call social services if she needed childcare

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"Shouldn't have a privileged celebrity giving there opinion on something that affects the normal working family #GMB."

Someone else said: "Kerry Katona is always on another planet! But get real people! Kids can't throw snowballs in school? WTF! #GMB."

The former Atomic Kitten star was involved in a debate on GMB about whether schools should be doing more to stay open during bad weather.

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Watch Sarah Silverman and Stephen Colbert read hilariously bad kids' jokes

Sarah Silverman and Stephen Colbert are among the best joke tellers in the US, and they've now challenged themselves by turning their hand to jokes written by children.

The pair deliver gags contributed by kids in the video below, and the results are hilariously bad.

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Tom Hanks teams up with Stephen Colbert to answer life's big questionsWatch Stephen Colbert mock Donald Trump relentlessly... to his face

Colbert reads out gags from the Bad Kids Jokes tumblr account, including: "What do you call a middle-aged, sad, grey hair woman? A teacher."

Silverman closes the brilliant section by saying: "What did the egg say to the other egg? Have an eggselent day."

Elsewhere, it was recently announced that Silverman will star alongside Breaking Bad's Dean Norris and Pushing Daisies actor Lee Pace in The Book of Henry.

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