Two times two is four; four times three is twelve
Twelve inches make a ruler
Queen Elizabeth was a ruler
Queen Elizabeth was also a ship
Ships sail in the sea
Fishes swim in the sea
Fishes have fins
Finns fought Russians
Russians are called "Reds"
Fire engines are always rushin'
And that's why fire engines are painted red.
I memorized this when I was about 10; I still remember it. For a guy with a poor memory (what's your name again?) I have some weird things in the mental attic.)
[T]he superstition that the budget must be balanced at all times, once it is debunked, takes away one of the bulwarks that every society must have against expenditure out of control. . . . [O]ne of the functions of old-fashioned religion was to scare people by sometimes what might be regarded as myths into behaving in a way that long-run civilized life requires.
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Thursday, August 02, 2007
4 comments:
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I learned almost the same one, except that it started out with "There are four wheels and eight men on a fire truck. 4 + 8 is 12..." and it skipped the one about the fire engines rushin'. I actually discovered it in my church bulletin (back in my churchgoing days), and the very last line tacked on was "and you should see how they're always rushin' in and out of church."
ReplyDeleteThanks for the trip down memory lane!
You're most welcome! And yours has a better start than the version I memorized.
ReplyDeleteMy neighborhood must have been more efficient: We just had it as
ReplyDeleteQ: Why are fire engines red?
A: Because the reds are rushin'.
I do remember a somewhat similar joke that began "All horses are black. Proved by blatant assertion." It went on from there to demonstrate that Alexander the Great had an infinite number of limbs and never existed in the first place.
Alexander the Great had an Infinite Number of Limbs
ReplyDeleteAll horses are the same color