Comprehension and Analysis
10th June 1989
From: maukh@warwick.ac.uk (Sunstorm the Intestinal)
Newsgroups: misc.misc
Subject: Comprehension and Analysis (Was: Shortest possible addresses)
Summary: An attempt to assess the analytical abilities of net users
Date: 10 Jun 89 22:05:41 GMT
In article <13848@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> dalex@eleazar.dartmouth.edu
(Dave Alexander) writes:
My little sister once sent a letter to my grandmother by addressing
it "Grandma Rainier, Oregon". Needless to say, it got there.
Funnily enough, I once sent a comatose penguin to my deranged Papa
Noo-noo (who, at the time, lived about three doors (and about as
many houses) away from me), with the words "Umbilical fangs? Not
likely!" flayed into the soft epidermal layer just under its left
wing .. backwards .. in Sanskrit (the wing was then stapled to the
torso of the aforementioned parcel). It never reached its intended
destination, and three months later an unripe guava was blown up by
unspecified members of the Papua New Guinean Anti-Exotic Fruit
Organisation -- a reincarnation of the now defunct Papua New Guinean
Anti-Miscellaneous Fruits Of An Exotic Origin, Such As Guavas,
Organisation.
A sad reflection on today's postal system, an unreasonable demand
upon a perfectly adequate one, or a chaotic meander through the
prose of some intermittently conscious greengrocer in Coventry?
This is the question which we must endeavour to answer. Other
subsidiary questions which you might consider are:
-
Why a penguin?
-
Why was the wing STAPLED to the torso of the article?
-
Why was the penguin sent at all?
-
Does Papa Noo-noo have any conception of the word "terrorist" and it's
incongruous relationship to the subject of `shortest possible
addresses'?
-
Does the penguin read Sanskrit? Backwards?
-
Is the victimisation and seemingly senseless slaughter of exotic
fruits (such as guavas) likely to be an increasing trend in emerging
Pacific cultures?
-
Does modern affluent (and effluent) Western society have any moral
obligation to the exotic fruit population? Penguins?
-
Is the suggested door-to-house ratio of 1:1 applicable to, say,
streets of houses that have three front doors each? What assumptions
does the author appear to be making?
-
A causal link between the non-deliverable status of the parcel and the
destruction of an exotic fruit is implied but no detail is given.
Does a viable explanation exist for this?
-
The evolutionary rate of terrorist organisations -- their names in
particular -- is currently very high. Would you agree this might not
be an instance of sedentary discontentment, interpreted on a
collective level? Do you understand the question?
Disassociate into groups of precisely three and discuss the issues
raised in this article. Time allowed: 60 minutes.