synonym jokes

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:38 PM -0500 3/21/01, David M. Robertson wrote:
>There was a restaurant in New York which advertised that it could
>supply any exotic
>food the customer requested.
>
>A panda came in and took a seat. The panda asked the waiter if they
>served bamboo.
>
>The waiter said, "Certainly. May I recommend our chef's specialty,
>bamboo sauteed in
>a lovely blend of olive oil, garlic, ginger and white wine, served
>over basmati rice,
>with a quarter of a lime for garnish."
>
>The panda said that it sounded good. The dish was presented, and the
>panda ate it
>with great gusto. When the waiter came back to give the panda the
>check, the panda
>pulled out a gun, shot the waiter dead, and calmly walked out of the
>restaurant.
>
>After the detective arrived and was given the story of the murder,
>the manager of the
>restaurant asked if he had any idea who had committed the crime. The
>detective said,
>"Well, from the M.O., I would say it was a panda."
>
>The manager said, "Yes! A panda. How did you know that? I hadn't
>even told you that
>the killer was large, hairy, and black and white."
>
>The detective said, "That's easy. It's classic panda behavior. Look
>it up in the
>dictionary. A panda is a large terrestrial mammal that eats bamboo shoots and
>leaves."

Very nice, but (to pre-empt Lynne) one more homophony/homonymy, not
synonymy, joke.

larry