Re: Hippos

[Christopher Faylor <cgf-no-personal-reply-please at cygwin dot com>]

On Fri, May 20, 2005 at 05:46:54PM +0100, Dave Korn wrote:
>----Original Message----
>>From: Williams, Gerald S (Jerry)
>>Sent: 20 May 2005 17:39
>
>> Hippo anecdote:
>>I was the "mystery reader" for my son's kindergarten class this week
>>and the first book I read happened to contain a picture of a hippo.  My
>>son blurts out that "hippos are dangerous" which I had to confirm
>>(while discouraging such outbursts).
>>
>>I may be mistaken, but I think the other students and the teacher
>>looked at us both a bit funny after hearing that we considered hippos
>>dangerous.
>>
>>Sometimes too much knowledge is not a good thing.  :-)
>
>Rather than _explain_ that hippos are dangerous, what you should have
>done was *demonstrated* that hippos are dangerous.
>
>Dropping one on somebody from a very great height is usually a
>sufficiently effective demonstration of this fact to convince even the
>most hardened of skeptics...  :)

Dropping one on somebody is often hard to arrange.  What gets me is when
they hide in dark corners and then lunge out at you unexpectedly.  Hippos
are really masters of terror.

cgf