Laughing at Homework

I'm taking an introductory class on libraries.  One would think that after 6 years of working at one, I would be able to handle that.  Right?

Chapter 2 study questions. 8 of them. I'm on question 3 which asks, "How did Gutenberg's invention of movable type change reading and printing in Europe?"

I started answering the question.  I typed the first sentence and then the giggles hit me so hard I could barely keep going.  I would never have written this answer when I was in college the first time.  I guess age makes you less afraid to laugh at yourself and at truly ridiculous things.  Furthermore, I'm older than the teacher and if I want to laugh at the class, I can.  So there.

Here's what I answered:

      "Handwritten books often took a year to copy and were prone to mistakes.  Gutenberg’s invention of movable type made it much faster to reproduce errors.  You could quickly make thousands of copies with the same error in each one.  I am thinking of the Wicked Bible published in 1631 by Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the royal printers in London.  It lists one of the commandments as “Thou shalt commit adultery”.  They lost their printer’s licenses over that one.  (Sorry, that question cracked me up.)

            (Okay, straight face.)  Gutenberg’s invention allowed more copies of books
             to be quickly printed...."

(Lifting a glass)  Here's to a more mature outlook on the hilarity of life and a good laugh in the face of it all.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi