Muchas Gatos
Uncle Andrew
As I was going to Saint Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
And every wife had seven sacks,
Every sack had seven cats,
Every cat had seven kittens,
Kittens, cats, sacks, wives,
How many were going to Saint Ives?
I was singing this to myself in bed last night when Margaret popped up with, “I always resented the answer to that riddle. I mean, just because this guy met the man with seven wives on the way to Saint Ives doesn’t necessarily mean that he met them as they were leaving Saint Ives. They could all have been going to Saint Ives, and he just managed to catch up with them on the road going in.”
I thought about that for a moment, and had to concede that, had both sets of travelers been on foot, it would have been entirely possible—even highly likely—for the guy traveling alone to manage to catch up with the dude who had seven wives, 343 cats and 2,401 kittens in tow.
This is the kind of stuff you come up with when you are overly satiated—or possibly “saturated”—with too much Brazilian meat on a sword. Thanks again to Shawn’s Dad Jeff for the awesome dinner. 🙂
3 Responses to “Muchas Gatos”
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February 7th, 2007 at 4:05 am
Your wife has a point but the strict definition of meet is to come face to face. To join two adjacent objects.
A meeting is an event when people get together, face to face to discuss something. Etimology : Maten, Moot – Anglo Saxon. Assembly
February 7th, 2007 at 8:21 am
That’s a very intelligent and well-considered response to a blog post that I basically pulled out of the air. 🙂 Thanks for weighing in!
February 8th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Dammit, I HATE being out smart-assed by someone who can pull up the logical proof of how they’ve managed to out smart-ass me. 🙂
Mordechai, my hat is off. The fact that you managed to come up with a superb, and a superbly supported response to a semantic glitch that has been bothering me for years is quite impressive. I give. Remind me to never again pick nits when you’re listening in.
And welcome to UUDN.