“As long as it’s fun and people like it, I’ll do it for a while,” Cathy Stern says of posting “corny jokes” every day on Facebook.
“I remember when President Trump announced the pandemic in March” 2020, recalled Cathy Stern, production manager for the Fairfax-based American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators. “Obviously, everything changed.”
Among other things, both organizations decided their approximately 45-member staff permanently would work from home.
“We had a really bad couple of days” at the office, said Ms. Stern, 60, of Warrenton. “Some things had gone on, and it was scary. Are you going to have a job? Is our next annual meeting going to go on? What’s going to happen next?
“For the first time in my life, there was no control. I was so upset and was just nervous and scared and probably feeling the same way most people were feeling.”
Around that time, a close friend emailed a video of funny family stories that lifted her spirits.
“It just made me laugh,” Ms. Stern said. “And I thought, ‘Gosh, OK, so I had forgotten we were going to laugh again,’ because, in reality that’s going to happen. And, I thought it would be nice to have an opportunity to just give somebody else a reason to laugh.”
So on March 18, 2020, Ms. Stern posted the first “Cathy’s Corny Jokes” video on her Facebook page. (“What do you call a pony with a cough? A little hoarse!”)
As of Wednesday, she had loaded a joke to the page for 413 consecutive days.
“I get them from all kinds of places — the internet, books, people send them to me,” Ms. Stern explained. “I just look up one a day, because it’s how I feel. It’s all about feelings.”
As much as corniness perhaps, the medical motto “first, do no harm” determines her choices.
“I want to make sure that every joke I send out, you could take it anywhere,” she said. “You could take it to church and it would be funny. You could take it to a bar. It’s just funny. There’s no agenda.”
Ms. Stern, who probably could teach a master class on the subject, added: “The crux of corny jokes is to find a way to be happy, even when it looks like you shouldn’t.”
People always ask when she plans to stop posting jokes.
“I’m like, ‘I don’t know’,” Ms. Stern said. “As long as it’s fun and people like it, I’ll do it for a while. I’ll know when it’s the right time. I’m not going to beat it to death.”
Cathy’s Top Five “Corny” Jokes
• Why is a pirate called a pirate? I don’t know. They just arrrrrrr!
• What do you call a pony with a cough? A little hoarse!
• What do you call an army made up of babies? Why, an infantry, of course!
• What do you call a pig that does karate? A pork chop!
• Did you hear the one about the butcher who backed into his meat grinder? Yeah, he got a little behind in his work!
• Age
60
• Home
Warrenton
• Work
Production manager, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators, Fairfax, 1999 to present; kindergarten assistant, C. Hunter Ritchie Elementary School, 1989-99.
• Family
Son, daughter-in-law, two grandchildren.
• Education
Fauquier High School, 1978.
• How long have you lived in Fauquier?
About 48 years.
• Why do you live here?
It’s the best place to raise a family. It’s where my best friends are. It has everything you want. Things are close, but it’s not in the middle of the city.
To me, it’s the perfect place to live. My neighbors are so down to earth and kind and loving. It’s completely safe.
• How do you describe this county?
Diverse. I think we’re open-minded. I think it’s forward-thinking.
In some ways, it has a lot of opportunities, from wineries to breweries. There are opportunities to take classes in cake-decorating and cookie-decorating. It has a tea shop. It has everything you’d want in a city, but you have the beautiful mountains and quiet. And, you can see the stars at night.
It’s just clean air and nice people.
• What would you change about Fauquier?
I would help neighborhoods become more diverse.
I think it would be great fun if I lived beside a family from another country I could cook with and grow things with and talk to. I just would like to know more people of other cultures and have them live in my neighborhood.
• What do you do for fun?
Cook; watch my grandson play baseball.
I love to visit with my neighbors. I love to entertain and have company over.
I’m very roughly learning to do a little bit of painting. I’m not very good at it yet. That’s OK. You don’t have to be good to have fun.
• What’s your favorite place in Fauquier?
Rady Park (Warrenton).
• What will Fauquier be like in 10 years?
I feel there are going to be a lot of people who are going to take the old houses as all of us older folks either move away or leave. I think younger people will continue the legacy of beauty in Fauquier County.
I think we’re going to grow. I think we’re going to become more diverse. And, that’s going to be fun.
I think we’re going to continue to be a family-type place to live.
• Favorite TV show?
“Chrisley Knows Best”
• Favorite movie?
“Sweet Home Alabama”
• Favorite book?
“Gone With The Wind” by Margaret Mitchell.
• Favorite vacation spot?
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
• Favorite food?
Oysters
• What is the best advice you have ever received? From whom?
My dad, when I was a kid, would say every morning: You have a choice today. Things are going to come your way, and it’s not the things that come your way, but how you look at them.
It’s your attitude. Life it is going to come at you whether you want it to or not. It’s OK not to hit the mark every time. And, it’s OK not to always make the right decisions.
But, if you can keep a good attitude, then it’ll work out.
• Who is your hero and why?
Lee Bell (a retired Fauquier County elementary school principal.) He expected the best. He set the example of what you need to do to be excellent and he was just excellent.
He was always fair. He was always humble. He taught humility in the way he behaved with us.
It didn’t matter if you worked in the cafeteria or whether you were the vice principal, he valued everyone on the same level. He valued every job on the same level.
He made education fun.
• What would you do if you won $5 million in the lottery?
I’d pay my kids’ house off, and anything that needed to be taken care of. I’d add to the college fund for my grandkids.
I would find a way to help people who are struggling in some way — give them a hand to help them up. There are so many families that need a break.
And then I would take my friends and family on the vacation of all vacations.
Have a suggestion?
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May 06, 2021 at 10:11PM
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Faces of Fauquier: She posts a “corny” joke a day - Fauquier Now
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