From: utzoo!dciem!mmt Newsgroups: net.jokes Title: Shaggy Dog (THE) Article-I.D.: dciem.152 Posted: Thu Jan 20 17:17:15 1983 Received: Thu Jan 20 17:53:58 1983 THE ORIGINAL SHAGGY DOG (Paraphrased) In the Great Depression (the last one) a bum habitually slept on a park bench in Central Park, NY, using newspapers to keep warm. One day he saw a want-ad: "Lost, one very shaggy dog. Large Reward." with a return address in London (England). Just then, who should come wandering around but a very shaggy, obviously lost dog. He collared the dog, and thought about how he could claim the reward, since he didn't have enough money to buy a fare on the ship to England. Obviously, he had to get a job and work. So he did, and was quite successful. Eventually he became rich enough that he could afford to leave his job and go to claim the reward. He had to book two cabins on the Queen Mary, since they wouldn't let him take the dog in his cabin. But eventually (that term means 10 minutes in the normal telling of a shaggy-dog story) he and the dog arrived in England, and after more episodes arrived at the address in the advertisement, which he had kept all these many years. It was a big elegant house, with an old-fashioned bell-pull, which he pulled. A butler opened the door, looked out, and said: "Good heavens, no. Not THAT shaggy!" Good Night. Martin Taylor