LL-L "Literature" 2007.05.04 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  04 May 2007 - Volume 06

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From: Pat Reynolds <pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.05.04 (02) [E]

Lowlands-L List <lowlands.list at gmail.com> writes
>> Mark Dreyer wrote "who could possibly not know the origin of the
>shaggy dog story
and enlightened me!  The four scholars know this tale, it turns out, but
want evidence of anything known as a 'shaggy dog story' (with or without
canine) before 1946.

Many thanks,

Pat

--
Pat Reynolds

It may look messy now ...
        ... but just you come back in 500 years time (T. Pratchett).

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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.05.04 (04) [E]

 At 12:38 PM 05/04/07 -0700, David Stokely (?) wrote:

In its original sense, a *shaggy-dog story* is an extremely long-winded tale
featuring extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents, usually
resulting in a pointless or absurd punchline. These stories are also known
as *yarns*, coming from the long tradition of campfire yarns.

As in the following:

A man was so busy that he could no longer look after all his business
properly.

When he heard about the new science of cloning, he thought, "what a perfect
solution."  He would make a clone of himself so he wouldn't have to actually
train anyone, and all his customers that were happy dealing with him, would
be just as happy dealing with the clone.

So he went to the local university and had a clone made of himself.
Unfortunately, the clone, which was perfect in every other way, had one
major flaw.  The clone would from time to time become abusive with the
customers and start cursing them.

Eventually, this started to really affect the business, so our friend was
now worse off than before he hired the clone.

So he plotted to rid himself of the clone gone wild, and asked him to come
into the office which was on the 14th floor of an office building.  When the
clone arrived, the man pushed him out the window, where he fell to his death
below.

Down in the street below, the police quickly arrived, and, assessing the
situation, debated among themselves whether the clone was actually a real
human being and whether they could actually charge the clone's master with
murder.

Finally, they compromised, and laid a charge of making an obscene clone
fall.
*
*Ed Alexander

•

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