CrossEyed: Umm, last I heard, Aesop was Greek.

Not according to the Chinese.

I understand that during the Warring States period you had to be careful taking your children to the local Buddhist Gardens because ruffians would sometimes hide plague bodies in the giant wooden vat of twine balls where the children would play.

Subby has a subpoena to go dig up China tonight.

Of course, it was well-known that if enough Mongol soldiers sent enough ears of their vanquished enemies to the Great Khan via mounted courier, he would give a million yuan to the local Horseless Orphans Sanctuary.

Nothing new under the sun.

wambu: Nothing new under the sun.



Microchip technology - that's quite a new thing, isn't it?

/Fancy a game of Travel Scrabble?

CrossEyed: Umm, last I heard, Aesop was Greek.

I thought it was a 1960s cartoon.

Masso: Ok, am I missing some in-joke or meme about a Chinese Aesop?

Yes. Didn't you know that "Chinese Aesop" is an anagram of "Nice ass, Hopee", obviously referring to Southwestern Native American derrière.

dittybopper: wambu: Nothing new under the sun.

[i44.tinypic.com image 500x383]

Microchip technology - that's quite a new thing, isn't it?



Simplistic literalism. How does that work?

mortimer_ford: Ten minutes later, the phone rings at Hershel's house.

..and rings, ... and rings... and rings

Yeah, that's the more likely ending to that story. I like the punchline on the redneck one. "Happy birthday!"

wambu: dittybopper: wambu: Nothing new under the sun.

[i44.tinypic.com image 500x383]

Microchip technology - that's quite a new thing, isn't it?



Simplistic literalism. How does that work?

You might want to go here, and zoom ahead to the 8:00 minute mark.

Barnstormer: Maybe it really is a "manufactured memory".

Remember when you were six? You and your brother snuck into an empty building through a basement window. You were going to play doctor. He showed you his, but when it got to be your turn you chickened and ran; you remember that? You ever tell anybody that? Your mother, Tyrell, anybody? Remember the spider that lived outside your window? Orange body, green legs. Watched her build a web all summer, then one day there's a big egg in it. The egg hatched...

That's a very, very, very old joke. It was probably told in every society that invented agriculture.

I'm sure the Ancient Chinese had a version of it as well as the Ancient Greeks, Indians, Japanese, Mayans, and what not. I have read many collections of historical jokes from my grandparent's time back to the earliest records of anecdotes and funny stories, including jokes from "Old Cathay" and familiar jokes pop up any century where somebody had the leisure and the literacy to write jokes down.

A lot of old jokes are impenetrably unfunny--there's no telling why anybody thought they were funny--perhaps even contemporarires found them groaners-- but a good joke like this passes from culture to culture and never dies, like the story of Cinderella (which does seem to have have originated in China), or popular sayings, which exist in thousands of languages provided they share common cultural memes such as fire-making, or buckets, or greedy mother-in-laws.