My brain has made me laugh at truly inappropriate moments. I have two anecdotes for the same reason. It really wasn't my intention, but my brain played a very nasty trick on me. It turns out that I was told that the mother of a student I was teaching a computer course to had died. Instead of expressing my condolences, I said, “Really?” And a smile spread across my face. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't be serious. I was laughing, and people were looking at me with a “what?” expression on their faces. Then I did it again when I told a girl who knew him and she asked me about him. She said, “Why are you laughing about that?” I really couldn't wipe the smile off my face, and it happened every time the subject came up.

Last year, I told a friend that the husband of a mutual acquaintance had died, and I did the same thing again. I couldn't keep a straight face, and she asked me, “Why are you laughing?” and I said, “No, I'm not laughing,” but I had to make an effort not to laugh. It was really embarrassing, but I don't know why I communicated that news with laughter and smiles. How awful