Amy Newmark - Chicken Soup for the Soul: Laughter is the Best Medicine: 101 Feel Good Stories

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Laughter Is the Best Medicine

101 Feel Good Stories

Amy Newmark

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The publisher gratefully acknowledges the many publishers and individuals who granted Chicken Soup for the Soul permission to reprint the cited material.

Front cover photo courtesy of iStockphoto.com/coolendelkid (coolendelkid)

Back cover and interior photo of raccoon courtesy of iStockphoto.com/Sonsedska (Sonsedska), back cover photo of giraffe courtesy of iStockphoto.com/prapassong (prapassong)

Photo of Amy Newmark courtesy of Susan Morrow at SwickPix

Cover and Interior by Daniel Zaccari

Distributed to the booktrade by Simon & Schuster. SAN: 200-2442

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data

(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Names: Newmark, Amy, compiler.

Title: Chicken soup for the soul : laughter is the best medicine : 101 feel good stories / [compiled by] Amy Newmark.

Other Titles: Laughter is the best medicine : 101 feel good stories Description: [Cos Cob, Connecticut] : Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC, [2020]

Identifiers: ISBN 9781611599992 | ISBN 9781611592993 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Laughter--Literary collections. | Laughter--Anecdotes. | Wit and humor--Literary collections. | Wit and humor--Anecdotes. | Embarrassment--Literary collections. | Embarrassment--Anecdotes. | LCGFT: Anecdotes.

Classification: LCC BF575.L3 C45 2020 (print) | LCC BF575.L3 (ebook) | DDC 152.43--dc23

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020931436

Changing the world one story at a time

www.chickensoup.com

W elcome to Chicken Soup for the Souls first-ever collection of humorous stories! Of course weve published thousands of funny stories over our twenty-seven-year history, but never before have we had a volume 100% devoted to them.

We had a great time putting this book together. I must have sounded like a crazy person cackling away in my office while I was selecting and then editing these stories. Even on the third pass through them I was laughing.

If laughter is the best medicine, then this book is your prescription. Turn off the news and spend a few days not following current events. Instead, return to the basics humanitys ability to laugh at itself.

Maybe you should even do a news cleanse for a few days! Hide under the covers and read these stories instead. Or read a chapter a day, or one story a day for 101 days. Whatever works for you. All I can promise is that these pages contain the antidote to whatever is troubling you. They will definitely put you in a good mood.

I dont want to ruin the surprise endings or the punch lines in these stories so Ill forego my usual in-depth review of whats inside. But rest assured that youll find stories about embarrassing things that you and yours have probably done, too, and youll also find stories that are so out there that you cant even imagine living through what our writers did.

No one is safe from our writers, from spouses to parents to children to friends to other relatives. And of course, the funniest of all are the stories they tell about their own mishaps. No one is holding anything back, and quite a few of our writers are telling their stories publicly for the first time ever and then running for the hills!

Chicken Soup for the Soul is often the place you turn to for advice on positive thinking, forgiveness, gratitude, self-esteem, raising kids, caring for the elderly, etc. This time, were not providing any of that this is just plain fun.

So enjoy your medicine. And let me know what you think, by shooting me an e-mail at . Im hoping this humor book is a big bestseller and we can make another one for you, because this is the most fun Ive ever had editing a manuscript. Its been a blast for our whole team.

With hopes that these feel-good stories make you feel as good as we do

Amy Newmark

Editor-in-Chief and Publisher

Chicken Soup for the Soul

January 23, 2020

Domestic Disasters

Home Alone

As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul.

~Yiddish Saying

A fter my husband left for work, I put our dogs outside and began my morning chores. I stopped mid-chores to use the bathroom. Although I was alone in our home, I closed the bathroom door out of habit. I switched on the ventilation fan, and made a mental note to have it looked at because it was making such a loud rattling sound.

Despite the old fans noise, I suddenly heard a loud thud against the bathroom door. It startled me to attention. Then it thudded against the door again.

I knew I had put the dogs out, and I was almost positive I had locked the front door. We live in the woods so I thought it could be an animal. Could a bear have gotten in through the sliding door in the back? Or worse, could it be a two-footed intruder?

Before I could logically consider my own questions, the door was hit for a third time. I was truly frightened. I watched a distinct shadow slowly pass by, visible through the little bit of space at the bottom of the door. There definitely was something out there, banging on my unlocked bathroom door, trying to get in.

I moved to the door and quietly depressed the button on the flimsy lock. It wasnt much protection, but maybe it could buy me some time. I strained to hear any clue as to the intruders whereabouts, but the noisy ventilation fan made that impossible. I thought about shutting off the fan to hear better, but I ruled that out because it might signal to the intruder that someone was in the bathroom.

I felt raw fear. I had no exit but through that bathroom door. I had to think clearly, but I was panicking. I told myself to slow down and think this through. Our dogs hadnt barked and normally they would alert us to an intruder. But maybe the rattling fan kept me from hearing their warning. After all, I had clearly seen that shadow.

I rested my ear against the door, but heard nothing. I needed a plan of action. I looked about the bathroom for something I could use as a weapon, but was frustrated immediately by my limited choices. I remembered a metal, alligator-type hair clip in the top drawer. It was strong, long, and tapered almost to a point at its end. Grasping it like a dagger, I raised it high in the air, testing its feel. I caught my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I looked like a desperate woman arming herself as best she could, but a woman who knew she was no match for a bigger intruder. I wanted to cry, but there was no time.