At a certain age， we think everything is serious. A little older<br >and we think nothing is. And then we think we ve learned to<br >discriminate. When we get to middle age， we realize that everything<br >is funny. It took me that long to get this insight.<br > Jessica Zafra found it the minute she started writing in my<br >paper. It is a style so well suited to the purpose you wonder what<br >makes her writing funny--how she writes about things or the things<br >she writes about.<br > The effect is said to be zany， but the writing is always<br >controlled. I read her without any anticipation of laughter but<br >seriously， and then die laughing but without missing her wisdom.<br > Is she the local Woody Allen， as Chitang Nakpil describes her?<br >I don t think so， except for the self-deprecatory pose she strikes， but<br >that is only the comic writer s trick to acquire the moral authority to<br >make more fun of others. The best or mem are rearty ~aug nmg at u~<br >when they make fun of those aspects of themselves we cannot deny<br >sharing or having in greater measure.<br > Jessica is herself. She knows the idiom of her generation better<br >than anyone writing today， yet she is not its captive. The idiona is<br >entirely in her thrall. She can write with it or above it.<br > She is incapable of a single awkward sentence， and she<br >negotiates twisting turns of phrase with the cool dexterity of a<br >professional racecar driver. Jessica s hands don t sweat as they clack<br > away on a PC with complete command of the language she is<br > turning into the finest comic writing here or anywhere else.<br > But I think it is dangerous to study humor too closely， so let me<br > stop there.<br > <br >