RE: Hippos

[Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu>]

On Fri, 20 May 2005, Dave Korn wrote:

> ----Original Message----
> >From: Christopher Faylor
> >Sent: 20 May 2005 17:57
>
> > 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
>
>   What scares me even more is when they do ballet.
>   Have you ever seen a hippo in a tu-tu?

Most kids have.  Disney's "Fantasia"...  Childhood trauma, and all that...
	Igor
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