Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-i Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!exodus!mhtsa!mh3bs!eagle!harpo!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:Pucc-I:ags From: Pucc-H:Pucc-I:ags@CS-Mordred.UUCP Newsgroups: net.jokes Subject: Ignore This Article Message-ID: <229@pucc-i> Date: Fri, 2-Mar-84 12:59:19 EST Article-I.D.: pucc-i.229 Posted: Fri Mar 2 12:59:19 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 4-Mar-84 00:20:56 EST Organization: Purdue University Computing Center Lines: 38 I once saw a "Test of Your Ability To Follow Instructions" which looked something like this: ------------------------------------------ Follow the instructions carefully. 1. Read the entire test before writing any answers. 2.... 9. 10. Ignore all the numbered instructions. Write your name at the top of the paper and turn it in. ------------------------------------------ Obviously, whoever made up this test had not thought it through carefully. Instructions 1 and 10 turn out to be the trickiest of all. By the time you read #10, you realize it is already too late to ignore #1. Even worse than that is deciding what to do with #10, which says, in effect, 10. Ignore instruction 10 (plus all the others). Write your name at the top of the paper and turn it in. Clearly, you should not do what instruction 10 says to do. Or should you? Do you write your name on your paper, or not? Do you carry out instructions 2-9? Should you ask a self-shaving barber or a non-self-shaving barber? -- Dave Seaman ..!pur-ee!pucc-i:ags "Against people who give vent to their loquacity by extraneous bombastic circumlocution."