humour: nature or nurture?

My family is in some ways, hugely, and appallingly (as many families are), dysfunctional. But one of the more positive traits that almost all of my immediate family members seem to share is a well developed, albeit quirky, sense of humour. Now is this something we were born with? Or something we learned, and then applied as a coping tool, or defence mechanism? No matter. I seem to have come by it honestly, as shown by the following e-mail sent to me by my eldest brother.

Names, by the way, have been changed to protect the guilty.

Folks:

The unbelievable has happened; Barbara's ('93) Aerostar and Kyle's ('93) Aerostar have produced a ('95) Aerostar.... (and you thought that 13 year olds were too young for sex (oops) and to produce an 11 year old.... too much)

The happy event was however, necessitated due to the fact that Kyle's Aerostar no longer passed the e-test and at 420,000 km retirement was imminent (some would say way past due....)

Our new addition to the family is now going through its nursing stages (e-test, safety, etc....) and hopes to be able to be a full addition in a month or less. In the meantime, we will wean and assist the soon-to-be retiree into its new lifestyle, as required by the MTO by September 2006. Jason [my nephew] is planning to give it one more trip (to Algonquin Park) in the middle of August.

Since neither parent ('93s) can figure out whether it's a girl (pink) or a boy (blue), they have (appropriately) chosen the colour green (you wonder....), a slightly darker green to distinguish it from its parents.

It has been requested (by the parents), to keep this a quiet affair (no party, no baby shower.... sorry), but when you're in the neighbourhood, come and have a look.

The new baby arrived with the following attributes:

187,800 km
air, cruise, power windows, power locks, power mirrors (all working)!
hitch
(very little) rust
very clean

Brgrds
Kyle

Snort.