Little Anne burst through the front door after school, her backpack bouncing and her face glowing with excitement.
“Daddy! Daddy! I got 100 in school today!” she shouted.
Her father looked up from the couch and smiled warmly. “Well, that’s wonderful, sweetheart,” he said. “Come into the living room and tell me all about it.”
Anne skipped in proudly. “Well…” she began carefully, “I got 50 in spelling, 30 in math, and 20 in science.”
Her father paused, doing the math in his head — and suddenly understood Anne’s version of “100.”
One afternoon, two girls were trying out for the school cheerleading squad. One was blonde, the other brunette. After their tryouts, both went home nervously, waiting for the results to be posted.
That evening, the blonde couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. She hurried back to the school to check the list.
When she saw her name, she squealed with excitement. She quickly pulled out her phone to call the brunette — but got no answer. Shrugging, she headed home, still thrilled.
The next day, the brunette called.
“Hey! Want to go check the results together?” she asked.
“Sure!” the blonde replied, and they agreed to meet at school.
The brunette arrived first and hurried to the bulletin board. She smiled when she saw that they had both made the squad.
A few minutes later, the blonde came rushing in. She scanned the list, spotted her name — and lit up.
“Yes! I made it again!” she cheered. “I made it last night AND I made it again today! I am on a roll!”
The brunette just stared at her.
One evening, a young girl sat at the kitchen table working on a school paper. After a moment, she looked up thoughtfully.
“Dad,” she asked, “what’s the difference between anger and exasperation?”
Her father smiled slightly. “Mostly a matter of degree,” he said. “Let me show you.”
He picked up the phone and dialed a random number.
When a man answered, the father asked politely, “Hello, is Melvin there?”
The man snapped back, “There is no one here named Melvin! Why don’t you learn to check numbers before you dial?” Then he hung up.
The father turned to his daughter. “You see? That man wasn’t very happy. We interrupted whatever he was doing.”
Then he said, “Now watch this.”
He dialed the same number again.
“Hello, is Melvin there?” he asked.
This time the voice exploded. “Listen! You just called here! I told you there is no Melvin! You’ve got a lot of nerve calling again!” The receiver slammed down.
The father nodded calmly. “That,” he said, “was anger.”
Then he picked up the phone one more time and dialed again.
A furious voice roared, “HELLO?!”
The father said sweetly, “Hi, this is Melvin… have there been any calls for me?”
That was exasperation.
