… from David Weinberger’s comments, actually. Michael O’Connor Clarke shares this anecdote:
So this German Shepherd dog walks into a telegram office, takes out a blank form and writes:
“Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof.”
The clerk examines the paper and politely tells the dog:
“There are only nine words here. You could send another ‘Woof’ for the same price.”
“But,” the dog replied, “that would make no sense at all.”
Ha ha ha. And I love the zefrank reference in the title. I haven’t watched “The Show” in about a week. Thanks for the reminder!
The clerk was obviously barking up the wrong tree
I had a sad little moment when I was posting that joke.
I’d heard it before, but had forgotten it until it popped up in a listserv I follow. I think it’s a lovely, perfect little pearl of a gag. When I read David’s post about the opening joke thing, it just popped back to the front of my mind.
But then, while giggling to myself as I typed it into the comments, I realised it was a joke I couldn’t share with my favourite daily audience - my kids. They would have absolutely no idea what I was blathering on about. Telegrams? 10 word limits?
A tiny, strange little moment. A growing older thing.