Re: Terminology Question - groups of paragraphs

In article <444CC147.C734C4D2@xxxxxxx>, nyra <nyra@xxxxxxx> wrote:

David Friedman schrieb:

In article <9sQQ6rlmw-B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
kaih=9sQQ6rlmw-B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kai Henningsen) wrote:

anghara@xxxxxxxxx (Alma Hromic Deckert) wrote on 22.04.06 in
<gt4l42lhbd3keekmqda0gc81drv0pcu7sc@xxxxxxx>:

My whimsy, therefore, has these huge diaphanous wings and it floats in
the shadows between the candle and the star - and arguing with it in
terms of "you know A is true if B can be assumed to be true" hangs
enough weight on it to pull it to the ground and never let it fly
again.

That sounds a lot like the old argument that flowers no longer look so
wonderful when you study the biology involved - to which I answer with an
uncomprehending look: surely they look *more* wonderful if you understand
them?!

But let me offer a really old joke here:

Two people are flying in a balloon. There's a complete cloud cover below
them, so they're completely lost. (This was pre-GPS.) They come to a
mountain - just the top is visible. As luck would have it, someone's just
climbed up.

"Where are we?" they shout. No answer. As the mountain recedes in the
distance, suddenly they hear, very faint, the answer: "In - a - balloon!"
Says one of them to the other, "This must be a mathematician. The answer
is typical: he took a long time arriving at it, it is perfectly correct,
and it is completely useless."

I wonder if that is an ancestor or descendant of the Microsoft version
of the joke--or parallel evolution.

Since balloons are possibly a few years older than microsnot ...

I've retrofitted modern jokes to an earlier context, and wouldn't be
surprised if other people have done it too.

I'm even aware of a german version where a malfunctioning balloon
lands gracelessly in an orchard. The owner of the orchard, upon being
asked as to the location of the balloon occupants says: 'In a balloon,
halfway up _my_ apple tree, in _my_ orchard.' Which i think is defined
as a scientific answer - precise, evidently true, and utterly useless.

Any idea how early any of these appear in print? If it's all oral
tradition I could believe that they mutated from the Microsoft version,
but if they existed before Microsoft was famous it's either the other
direction or independent evolution.

--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
Published by Baen, in bookstores now
.

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