A librarian is working away at her desk when she notices that a
chicken has come into the library and is patiently waiting in front
of the desk. When the chicken sees that it has the librarian's
attention, it squawks, "Book, book, book, BOOK!"
The librarian complies, putting a couple of books down in front of
the chicken. The chicken quickly grabs them and disappears.
The next day, the librarian is again disturbed by the same chicken,
who puts the previous day's pile of books down on the desk and again
squawks, "Book, book, book, BOOK!"
The librarian shakes her head, wondering what the chicken is doing
with these books, but eventually finds some more books for the
chicken. The chicken disappears.
The next day, the librarian is once again disturbed by the chicken,
who squawks (in a rather irritated fashion, it seems), "Book, book,
book, BOOK!" By now, the librarian's curiosity has gotten the better
of her, so she gets a pile of books for the chicken, and follows the
bird when it leaves the library. She follows it through the parking
lot, down the street for several blocks, and finally into a large
park. The chicken disappears into a small grove of trees, and the
librarian follows. On the other side of the trees is a small marsh.
The chicken has stopped on the side of the marsh. The librarian, now
really curious, hurries over and sees that there is a small frog
next to the chicken, examining each book, one at a time. The
librarian comes within earshot just in time to hear the frog saying,
"Read it, read it, read it..."
-- Thanks to Tony Quon
Once upon a time there was a large and prosperous Kingdom run by a wise and powerful King. Then disaster struck in the form of a strange plague, which caused people to sicken and die horribly within a few weeks. The population of the Kingdom was declining rapidly. All the physicians in the land were called to the Kingdom, but none of them had any idea of what to do about this new disease.
The oldest of the physicians said that he had once heard that many years ago, when his grandfather was a boy, the Kingdom had been struck by just such a mysterious sickness. The pestilence had been ended with a magic potion prepared by an old sorceress. It was said that she was still alive, but her home was in the middle of the Dark Forest.
"The Dark Forest!" everyone gasped. They all knew that the Dark Forest was the most dangerous place in the region. Perhaps the most dangerous place in the entire world, for in the Dark Forest lived the Yellow Fingers, which grabbed any traveler who entered and would squeeze him to death. But no one could come up with another plan to save the Kingdom, so it was decided that someone had to defy the Yellow Fingers and find the ancient sorceress in the middle of the Dark Forest.
The King called his bravest Knight and explained the situation. Without hesitation, the brave Knight marched off into the forest ... and was never heard from again.
The King then called his second bravest Knight. The second bravest Knight hesitated for a moment before going into the fatal forest. But once he went in ... and was never heard from again.
So the King called his third and fourth bravest Knights, who took a bit more persuading. None of them ever returned from the forest. Finally the remaining Knights, who were not very brave at all, went into hiding.
The King was reduced to a state of despair. Then one of the King's young pages, came to him and offered to go into the Dark Forest and get the magic potion from the old sorceress.
The King was touched by the boy's foolish bravery, but he said, "Don't you realize that the Dark Forest is the home of the Yellow Fingers, and that many of my bravest Knights have perished there?"
The boy said that he knew all about it, but he was still quite sure that he would be able to accomplish his mission. In the end the King reluctantly agreed to let the page go. He was so desperate that he didn't know what else to do.
The Page walked off into the Dark Forest, and the King confidently expected never to see him again. Therefore the King was not merely surprised but very nearly hysterical with joy when, two days later, the Page came walking out of the Dark Forest clutching the formula for the magic potion that would save the Kingdom.
"How did you do it?" cried the King
The page just smiled, and said, "From now on let your Pages do the walking through the Yellow Fingers."
-- Thanks to Merl Whitebook, Troop 1, Tulsa, Okla
I remember it was about that time that Jim Sloane used to work in our Finance
Branch. Now that was a character. He was, in my opinion, an unusual
individual who was interested in some rather exotic subjects. The
most unusual thing about him was his pet, (rumoured to have been
captured somewhere in Africa) which reminded me of a piece of granite
with eyes, which he called Teddy. Teddy typically just sat there,
doing nothing, but sometimes it lifted a lower edge and sucked in
powdered sugar. That was all it ate. No one ever saw it move, but
every once in a while it wasn't where people thought it was.
There was a theory that it moved when no one was looking.
Bob Laverty, a Management Services employee, constantly ridiculed poor
Teddy, saying mean and nasty things about it. Laverty's pet looked
like an iguana, and to me, at least, was the ugliest looking thing
that you would ever want to see. He called this 'iguana' by the
unlikely name of Dolly.
Well, one day Sloane had had enough of these comments, and challenged
Laverty to a race. His Teddy against Laverty's Dolly. And to make
things a bit more interesting, he suggested a rather hefty wager on
the outcome, which Laverty quickly agreed to. Soon everyone got into
the act. Every one of them bet on Dolly. At least it moved. Sloane
covered it all. He'd been saving his salary for some time (for some
exotic project, no doubt) and put every penny of it on Teddy.
The race course was set in the basement garage. At one end, two bowls
were set out, one with powdered sugar for Teddy, and another with
ground meat for Dolly. Dolly started off at once and began moving
along the floor slowly toward the meat. All in attendance cheered it
on.
Teddy just sat there without budging.
"Sugar, Teddy. Sugar." said Sloane, pointing. Teddy did not move.
It looked more like a rock than ever, but Sloane did not seem
concerned.
Finally, when Dolly had 'ran' half-way across the garage, Sloane said
casually to Teddy, "If you don't get out there, Teddy, I'm going to
get a hammer and chip you into pebbles."
That was when people realized how truly different Teddy was. Sloane
had no sooner made his threat when Teddy just disappeared from it's
place and re-appeared smack on top of the sugar.
Sloane won, of course, and he counted his winnings slowly and
luxuriously.
Laverty said bitterly, "You knew the damn thing would do that."
"No, I didn't," said Sloane, "but I knew he would win. It was a sure
thing."
"How come ?", said Laverty.
"It's an old saying everyone knows. Sloane's Teddy wins the race."
--Thanks to Jim Speirs
Freddy Fish and Sam Clam were the best of friends, and did
everything together. One day, though, both perished in a freak
mishap. Freddy Fish went to heaven, and immediately looked
around for his best friend. Not finding him, he asked St.
Peter where Sam was.
"Sorry, he didn't make it in."
"You mean he's down there?" asked Freddy.
"Yes."
"Well, I want to go see him!"
"This is highly unorthodox," said St. Peter. "I'll ask the big guy."
Moments later St. Peter returned and said:
"You can go, but you can only stay for one hour."
"Great!" said Freddy, and grabbed his harp before anyone changed their minds. He went to the elevator, and went down.
When the elevator doors opened, Freddy saw a huge sign:
SAM'S DISCOTHEQUE
He went in, and discovered that it was run by his old friend.
They sat down and reminisced about old times, and had a few drinks.
Time flew by, and when Freddy noticed his watch, he saw that he had
fifteen seconds left to return. He jumped out of his chair, yelled
a goodbye to Sam Clam, and raced to the elevator.
The elevator doors opened in heaven with only one second to
spare. St. Peter was standing there with a stopwatch.
"You just barely made it," said St. Peter.
"I know," panted Freddy, out of breath. "But I have to go back there!"
"What do you mean!?!" asked an incredulous St. Peter.
So Freddy Fish says (* groan *):
"I left my harp in Sam Clam's Disco!"
-- Thanks to "The Giant Panda - B.J.O.D. Owner / Moderator"
Many years ago a traveler came to the ancient land of Day. As he traveled through the country side he saw many fields and pastures. The people working the land all appeared to be peasants, living in abject poverty. However all he passed seemed to be in good spirits. Asking a peasant how he could be so happy while living in such an impoverished state the man told him that this land was ruled by a huge, intelligent and
benevolent bear called King Mu. He continued to inform the traveler that while he was poor now he could, when he thought he was ready, participate in a kind of rite of passage and become a knight.
Asking what was involved in this rite the peasant replied,"You know the usual stuff, drinking till dawn, reciting sports scores from five years past, telling tall tales about women he had never met, discussing the advantages of the designated hitter rule, and many other things of similar difficulty." The traveler agreed that would be a grueling test indeed. "Tell me peasant, what are the rewards for passing such a test?" asked the traveler.
"Why, sir, when you are made a knight you receive all the goodies. You get things like a Royal Express card. No limit on those things you know sir. You can move to a nice Condo on the beach, and maybe even get a trophy wife to replace the one you got now."
"Amazing!", said the traveler ,"This I would have to see to believe."
"There's a test going on now in the capital." said the peasant.
So the traveler moved on down the road to the capital to see for himself if all was as the peasant had said. Passing through the gates and into the beautiful capital city he saw that the Festival of Testing was indeed in progress. In the center of the town, on a raised ornate throne sat King Mu, who was indeed a bear and looked that if he stood , would be at least twelve feet tall. Moving through the crowd the traveler saw three men standing before the throne. Two of the men looked to be in fine shape, clear of eye, with their collars buttoned down and wearing a neck scarf in a power color. Both had at some point in the competition won the honorary Rolex sun dial, which they wore on their wrists. The third man however, looked horrible. His eyes were blood shot, and as he stood holding his head, he looked like he was not to steady on his feet.
Rising from his throne the king approached the two men and placing a huge paw on each of their shoulders the king announced, " These two men I make knights and grant unto them all the privileges they deserve." Turning to the third man the king said, "This man did not however pass the test." With that he raised a paw and much to the traveler's horror struck the man down, killing him on the spot. At that point a king's aide brought forth a great shaggy dog , at least four foot at the shoulder, and presented it to the grief stricken family. Turing in shock and confusion, the traveler asked the man standing next to explain what had just transpired.
"Why, everyone knows," said the man, "there's nothing better, after a bad Day's knight, than the dog of the bear the hit you."
-- Thanks to Hugh & Terry Fitler
Three friars were banished from their monastery for various rule violations, so they decided to start a business together. They traveled around until they found a town that they liked, and opened up a plant shop. Their floral business was soon thriving.
One day, a woman was shopping at the friar's store, and while she was strolling down an aisle with her toddler, a large plant reached out, grabbed the child, and ate it. Needless to say, the women was quite upset at the loss of her child. However, the friars refused to believe that one of their plants could have done such a thing. The woman told all of her friends about the incident, and soon everyone in the town was in an uproar. They decided to kick the friars out of town. Every person in the town, except for a man named Hugh, gathered outside of the friars shop, shouting, waving sticks, and demanding that they leave. But the friars said "No. We're not leaving". So the townspeople gave up and went home.
Well, a couple weeks later, another woman was walking through the friar's shop, looking at plants with her baby, when a plant grabbed her child and ate it. She ran through the streets screaming that a plant had swallowed her baby. The townspeople were outraged, and again gathered outside the floral shop (except for Hugh), waving torches, and demanding that the friars leave town at once. But the friars said, "No way." and all the people gave up and went home.
A few days later, yet another woman dared to take her child into the floral shop. She held her infant tightly in her arms, but it was no use. A large ficus wrestled the child from her arms, and ate it.
When the townspeople heard of this, they were extremely upset. They again gathered outside the friar's store (except for Hugh), yelling and threatening bodily harm to the friars if they didn't leave town. But the friars said, "We're staying". So, the citizens gave up and began to go home. Just then, Hugh showed up. He walked up to the friars, and said, "Get out of town, now!". The friars immediately packed up all their belongings and fled that very day, never to be heard from again.
The moral of this story is: Only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
-- Thanks to Hugh B. Fitler,
There was once a rabbi who undertook a missionary-style trip to a South American rain forest country. He was to spend a year with a very primitive, remote tribe known only as the Trids. The rabbi knew that the only way to gain their acceptance would be to adopt all of their many tribal customs, such as dress, diet, studying their beliefs and so on. Much of this was difficult to learn for the city-born rabbi, but as the months progressed he grew in the many ways of the Trids.
One day, returning from an extended walk in the rain forest, the rabbi entered the tribal village to find the entire Trid tribe lined up side by side in the village commons area. Behind this line walked the tribal chief. One by one he would stop behind each tribe member and deliver a swift kick to the rear end. This, thought the rabbi as he watched, is one of the strangest rituals I've seen yet. But he knew that he must participate if he wished to win their confidence. Solemnly he took his place at the end of the line. The chief reached the end of the line and was just about to deliver the kick when suddenly he realized that it was the rabbi before him.
"I cannot do this thing", said the chief firmly. The rabbi was shocked. Wasn't he yet accepted by the tribe?
"Why not?" he asked.
The chief replied, "Silly rabbi! Kicks are for Trids!"
-- Thanks to Hugh & Terry Fitler
The armies of Alexander the Great were greatly feared in their day, but there was one problem that they had that almost defeated them. Alexander could not get his people to staff meetings on time. He always held the meetings at 6:00PM each day after the day's battle was done, but frequently his generals either forgot or let the time slip up on them and missed the staff meeting. This angered Alexander very much, to say the least!
So he called in his research guys and set up a project to come up with a method of determining the time at 6:00PM each day. There were no clocks in those days, at least none that could be carried around. (The smallest was a giant water clock) "Find a way my staff can determine the hour of the day, or at least when it gets to be 6 o'clock!", he said, "Cost is no object."
A study was instituted and, with several brain-storming sessions, came up with the following idea. In a land some distance away, there grew a bush whose berries contained a type of dye that changed color at 6 each evening. They found that by dyeing strips of cloth and issuing them to the generals, they could see when it was 6 by the color change, and could get to the meetings on time. Needless to say this pleased Alexander very much.
It was then turned over to the marketing group to come up with a name of this new invention as Alexander saw definite market potential in the strips. "It can be worn on the wrist and can be easily watched for the color change", said one junior executive. "I therefore propose to call it the wrist watch." This name was immediately hooted down as being too bland and obvious. Another man suggested it be worn in the navel and could be observed by looking down, therefore it should called the Navel Observatory. This idea was rejected out of hand as being too weird and too technical sounding for the general public.
Finally the senior vice president, who up to now had been silent, spoke and rendered his decision. "We shall call it a Timeband, and in honor of the Great Alexander, it shall be known as 'Alexander's Rag Timeband!'
-- Thanks to Hugh & Terry Fitler
Life was desperate in rural Holland. As far as he could remember, the
poor little dutch boy could remember nothing but hardships. Food was
scarce, his father was abusive, and there was nothing to do after
school but chores. Every day was another hardship. The boy loved to
dive from the windmill into the canal, but his father hated to find
that he had skipped out on his chores. Whenever he returned, his
father would beat him. However, if he didn't skip out, his fater
would find a reason to beat him anyhow. Life was nothing but
hardships, except for the secret escapes to practice diving from the
windmill.
Eventually the boy, now in his late teens, heard of a great contest in
far-away Atlanta. The best divers in the world, along with the best
of everything else would meet to decide who was REALLY the best. It
would be the perfect escape from the hardships of his mundane life.
He runs away from home, sneaks aboard a freighter in Rotterdam and
waits. No good. Of course, he is discovered. Beaten by the crew,
bloody, he is sent home to his unimpressed father, who finds new
hardships for him to endure.
A better storyteller than I could tell you of his next four or five
attempts to get to the Atlanta games, each of which failed, yielding
nothing but ever more painful hardships. The poor little dutch boy
stoicly endured each of them, perservering and enduring.
Eventually, he stows away in a cruise liner heading for the USA. He
isn't found until four days out at sea. The captain has the
discretion of calling for a chopper to take him back to the
Netherlands, or to let him continue the trip and let immigration in
Atlanta deal with the problem. The captain listens to the boy
describing how he's been doing difficult dives all his life, and how
demonstrating the perfection he's developed to the rest of the world
in Atlanta is his only chance to escape from the hardships of his
normal life.
The captain decides to let the boy demonstrate his abilities. If the
boy can execute a perfect dive from the top of the radar mast, he can
continue to the Olympics. So, the radar is turned off, and the boy
climbs the hundred feet to the top of the radar mast. He looks down.
He has never dived from a ship before. The gentle sway of the ship is
magnified by the height of the radar mast. He didn't expect this.
looking down, he sees ... pool, deck, sea, deck, pool, deck, sea,
deck, pool... he jumps! ... and misses! He crashes right THROUGH the
deck! Everyone runs for the stairs to see if he's OK. There's a
splintered hole in the B deck. Even the metal decks of the C, D, and
E decks have been burst. They find the crumpled body crumpled against
the very hull itself, and even that is dented.
Everyone is astonished when he sits up, dazed, but apparently unhurt.
The captain, horrified and apologetic, rushes forward. "My goodness! I
never should have asked you to try that! Are you OK? " The boy shakes
his head and answers:
"That's OK. I'm used to it. I've been through many HARD SHIPS
before."
-- Thanks to Greg Goss
A panda bear escapes from the zoo and is forced to live on his own.
It turns out that he really enjoys eating in nice resturants, but
of course being a panda with no job and no money he is unable to
pay his bill. Being, also, an exceptionally intelegent panda he
devises a scheme that lets him eat in any resturant he wishes.
One day he decides to try a particularly nice resturant but when
he asks the maitre d' for a table he's told, "I've hear about you.
Your the panda that never pays for his meal. We won't seat you
here." So, the panda leaves the resturant and sits on a bench
across the street from the resturant and contemplates his empty
tummy.
Some while later the panda sees the maitre d' leave the resturant.
The panda goes back and asks the assistant maitre d' for a table,
and is seated by the assistant who has never heard about the panda's
tricks. The panda has a wonderfull meal. (At this point
you may "shaggy dog" this story as much as you like, or the
audience will bear. Give details about the wonderfull meal the
panda enjoys)
Just as he finshes desert the panda is aproched by the maitre d'
who has returned to discover the assistant maitre d's mistake.
When the maitre d' demands payment the panda pulls a gun,
shoots the maitre d' and starts to leave. The assistant maitre d'
stops the panda and asks, "Where do you think you are going?"
"I'm leaving."
"You can't leave!"
"Sure I can."
"No you can't!"
At which point the panda produces the encyclopedia voulme "P", opens
it and tells the assistant, "Read this."
The assistant maitre d' reads aloud: "Panda, an animal indigenous to
China that EATS, SHOOTS and LEAVES."
-- Thanks to Dan O'Canna Lexington, Kentucky
There once was a man who decided he had to visit Australia once in his
life. He read up on everything he could find, visited all the
Australian web sites on the Internet and saved his money so he could
make this once in a lifetime vacation.
The day finally came when it all came together and he was ready to
leave. He boarded the plane and some hours later stepped off the plane
at Sidney International. Australia at last!
Unfortunately, on his first day sightseeing, he began to get a bad
headache. Thinking it was probably just jet lag he took two aspirin and
continued his tour. The headache didn't go away, however, so he asked
the tour guide where was the best place to go for treatment. "Sir,
you'll want to go to the emergency room at the Mercy Hospital", the
guide told him, "Its not far from here."
At the hospital, the doctor suggested he stay there overnight for
observation and he agreed. He was assigned a room and a nun who was a
nurse came in to see him. When he told her about his headache, she asked
him if he had tried their Koala tea. "Its made from the fur of the Koala
bear and has great healing properties", she said. He said he was willing
to try anything at that point and asked that she bring him a cup.
Presently, the nun came back in with a cup of liquid. He looked in the
cup and saw it had a mass of hair in the bottom. Feeling rather nausous,
he said he didn't believe he could drink the tea with all that hair in
the cup. "Couldn't you strain it out or something", he asked.
The nun was indignant. She said, "Sir, I'll have you know the Koala tea
of Mercy is not strained!"
- Thanks to Hugh & Terry Fitler
I was Abilene's sheriff. I think I was the youngest sheriff in the
territories. One afternoon, while I was playing 5-card stud in my
favorite saloon, I happened to glance out towards the street.
I saw a rope ride into town.
Right away I knew it was trouble. Nobody likes ropes. This one
had been riding all day. It looked as dry, and it probably smelled
as bad, as the old straw broom that One-Eye Judd has been using in his stable for the last five years. The rope headed straight for the saloon where I
was sitting, obviously hankering for good whiskey to wash away the trail
dust. I could see how the rope moved like a cobra, maybe 30 feet
coiled in the dust and ready to lash out. I checked my shootin' iron
under the table, trying not to be obvious.
The rope used its "head" to push the saloon's swinging door open. It
snaked its way across the floor to the bar, pulled itself up onto a
stool and called for a drink. The bartender was a new fellow from
Larame. He glared at the rope and said, "Are you a rope?" When the
rope answered, "Yes", the bartender said, "Get out. We don't serve
ropes in here." When the rope didn't move, the bartender carefully
reached over the bar, took hold of the rope's main coil with one
hand, while holding its "head" in a death grip with the other hand,
walked to the door, and threw all 35 feet of the noisome thing out
onto the street.
A couple of the men smiled, but nothing else happened. I relaxed and
picked up my cards again. Apparently there wasn't going to be
trouble. But then I heard someone bellow, "That stinkin' rope is
heading for the other saloon! Let's get him!"
I looked at my cards -- 4 jacks. Why does trouble always wait till
I draw a winner? I hurried out into the street, just as the rope
entered the other saloon. I could see how tired the rope was, really
dragging itself. I felt sorry for the poor thing, but I didn't let
the townfolk see this in my face. One man can't fight an entire
town, if you take my meaning.
In less time than it takes to load a six-gun, the rope came flying
out the saloon door and landed in a heap in the middle of the street.
Well, it was a rope. What else did it expect?
I knew this affair wasn't over. So I stood in the shadows and
waited. After a few minutes, I saw two other ropes slinking down the
far side of the street. They crossed over and began to talk with the
newcomer. I could hear most of what they said.
"What happened to you?" asked one of the local ropes.
The newcomer described what had happened in each saloon.
"Oh," said third rope, "obviously you don't know the trick. Watch me."
The third rope unravelled both of its ends until they looked like
paint brushes. Then the rope looped and twisted itself into a
tangled mess. I wondered how it could keep track of itself like that, or even know where its ends were; but it scooted handily across the street and
under the swinging door of the nearest saloon and up onto a barstool
inside. I was impressed. Can you slide 100 feet on your stomach with
your arms and legs twisted together? I guess ropes have the instinct
for it. I watched as the bartender approached and asked suspiciously, "Are you a rope?"
The rope replied, "Nope, I'm afraid not."
-- Thanks to Cathy Porter, NATIVE TEXAN, Webelos Den Leader, Pack 1087
A doctor was just starting out on his own, when he found that he just
had too much work to do. Now this man was brilliant, and had particularly
good peple skills. Once he got a patient, they would just not see anyone
else.
It seems that this man had been reading recently about the advances in
cloning, and decided to have a clone made of himself to do his work.
For years it worked perfectly. His clone took care of all his patients,
and he got to relax. However, the clone began to have some personality
disorders. it would insult patients, and treat them very badly. It
got soo bad that business was suffering. The doctor decided that he just had to get rid of the clone or loose his business.
So......one morning on their morning jog.... they jogged right over a
bridge. The doctor pushed the clone over to his death.
The doctor again began seeing his old patients, and things were going
exceptionally well, until a fisherman "caught" the dead clone body in
the river. When the police found that the real doctor was still, in
fact, alive, and that this was a clone, they didn't know just what to
charge the doctor for doing wrong. After much deliberation, they
decided to charge him for... Making an obscene clone fall.
-- Thanks to Cheryl Rogers