John Young Interpretation Society
At 05:05 PM 10/13/01 -0700, John Young wrote:
Pinging the WH is will shortly be a terrorist act warns Patriot, so better hurry before the bush hammers john henry.
Anthrac, quack, quack.
The John Young Interpretation Society proffers these notes especially to furriners: 1. John Henry --look it up, american folklore/song about man vs. machine, John H. lost to a railroad-nail driving machine. An industrial Kasparov vs. IBM. 2. Anthrac, quack quack, derived from Aflac, some sort of US insurance company, which uses a waterfowl in its adverts, the bird's quacking sounding like the company name. Quack is also slang for sham doctor. Nice multiple meanings there, soundplay, in this one. "Waitress, what kind of rhizome is that gentleman smoking?"
Optimizzin Al-gorithm <oa@acm.org> wrote:
1. John Henry --look it up, american folklore/song about man vs. machine, John H. lost to a railroad-nail driving machine. An industrial Kasparov vs. IBM.
Actually, he won (and it was against a steam drill, not a nailer). He just died from the exertion. "And they told the results to captain Tommy. Captain Tommy said, 'I'll be, mmm mmm mmm. Listen here folks. John Henry and the machine. The machine made eleven feet, four inches, the men shoulder's sagged. John Henry made fourteen feet, seven inches. The men whooped and hollered and Captain Tommy went over to congratulate John Henry. But John Henry didn't see his outstretched hand. John Henry fell over in the dust. John Henry had hammered on the mountain, and his hammer was strike and fire but he drove so hard that he broke his poor heart, that he laid down his hammer and he died." -- Riad Wahby rsw@mit.edu MIT VI-2/A 2002
At 02:53 PM 10/15/01 -0400, Riad S. Wahby wrote:
Optimizzin Al-gorithm <oa@acm.org> wrote:
1. John Henry --look it up, american folklore/song about man vs.
Actually, he won (and it was against a steam drill, not a nailer). He just died from the exertion.
I'd say dying counts as losing.
participants (3)
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David Honig -
Optimizzin Al-gorithm -
Riad S. Wahby