From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!zeppo!wlk Newsgroups: net.jokes.d Title: Burma Shave ambiguity Article-I.D.: zeppo.323 Posted: Mon Sep 27 09:13:05 1982 Received: Thu Sep 30 08:22:54 1982 I just read the following in a list of Burma Shave jingles: My man won't shave Sez Hilda Huz But I should worry Dora's does My initial interpretation was based on reading the third line as but >I should worry? and I chuckled at the thought of Hilda having an affair with Dora's clean-shaven man. Later, however, I wondered if the third line should read but I >should worry! and Hilda was expressing anxiety over her inability, relative to Dora, to get her man to shave. The second interpretation is a better fit, I think, with the times and places I have seen Burma Shave signs. Also, the practice of saying "I should worry" to mean "I don't have to worry" strikes me as being confined to the northeast. But the first is funnier and is reinforced by the presence of the word "but". Should I worry?