A conundrum

[Wilson Gray]

One of my pet peeves is people who ask me whether they can ask me a
question, thereby asking me a question and precluding the possibility
of my refusing them permission to ask me a question. It is not
sensible to ask permission to ask a question by asking permission to
ask a question, given that the only way to ask permission to ask a
question is by asking a question without permission to ask a question.

A straightforward way out of this is to oblige people to ask questions
with asking for permission to ask a question.

--
-Wilson
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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