When one can play so masterfully with words

[Salikoko Mufwene]

A colleague just sent me this e-mail. I found it so funny I thought it might
entertain a few readers on this list.

Sali.
>
>THE RACING DONKEY
>
>>
>
>>A priest wanted to raise money for his church.  When told that there was
>
>>a fortune in horse racing, he decided to purchase a racehorse and enter
>
>>it in the races.  However, at the local auction, the going price for
>
>>horses was so high that he ended up buying a donkey instead.  He figured
>
>>that since he had it, he might just as well go ahead and enter it in the
>
>>races.  To his surprise, the donkey came in third!  The next day the
>
>>local paper carried this headline:
>
>>
>
>>PRIEST'S ASS SHOWS The priest was so pleased with the donkey that he
>
>>entered it in the race again, and this time it won.  The paper read:
>
>>
>
>>PRIEST'S ASS OUT IN FRONT The Bishop was so upset with this kind of
>
>>publicity that he ordered the priest not to enter the donkey in another
>
>>race.  The paper headline read:
>
>>
>
>>BISHOP SCRATCHES PRIEST'S ASS This was too much for the Bishop, so he
>
>>ordered the priest to get rid of the donkey.  The priest decided to give
>
>>the donkey to a nun in a nearby convent.  The paper headline the next
>
>>day read:
>
>>
>
>>NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN The Bishop fainted.  He informed the nun she
>
>>couldn't keep the donkey.  She sold the donkey to a farmer for $10.00.
>
>>Next day the headline read:
>
>>
>
>>NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.00 This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered
>
>>the nun to buy back the donkey, lead it to the plains where it could run
>
>>wild and free.  Next day, the headline in the paper read:
>
>>
>
>>NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE The Bishop was buried the next
>
>>day.
>
**********************************************************
Salikoko S. Mufwene                        s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
University of Chicago                      773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924
Department of Linguistics
1010 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html
**********************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/attachments/20010307/12b1eeac/attachment.htm>