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- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!news.cs.indiana.edu!oracle-request@cs.indiana.edu
- From: <oracle-request@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularities Digest #503
- Message-ID: <1992Nov20.101534.2025@news.cs.indiana.edu>
- Followup-To: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Reply-To: oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu
- Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 10:15:14 -0500
- Approved: oracle-mod@cs.indiana.edu
- Lines: 540
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:14:36 -0500
- From: "Steve Kinzler" <kinzler@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularities Digest #503
-
- To find out how to participate in the Usenet Oracle, send mail to:
- oracle@cs.indiana.edu or {ames,rutgers}!iuvax!oracle
- with the word "help" in the subject line.
-
- Let us know what you like! Send your ratings of these Oracularities on
- an integer scale of 1 = "not funny" to 5 = "very funny" with the volume
- number to oracle-vote on iuvax (probably just reply to this message).
- For example:
- 503
- 2 1 3 4 3 5 3 3 4 1
-
- 498 32 votes 118ca 2c891 69b42 36878 78881 388a3 18g43 358b5 25c85 56d62
- 498 3.1 mean 3.9 2.8 2.6 3.3 2.6 3.1 3.0 3.3 3.3 2.8
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:14:50 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-01
-
- Selected-By: David Bremner <bremner@cs.sfu.ca>
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > O great all-seeing Oracle of Usenet, whose seminal vesicles are Extra
- > Large,
- >
- > Why do I strike when the iron is hot, put my nose to the grindstone,
- > have my head in the clouds and my feet on the ground, and burn the
- > midnight oil? It's uncomfortable and expensive, yet I do it anyway.
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } You have asked the mighty Oracle, whose seminal vesicles ARE extra
- } large, four questions instead of one. Now the Oracle must strike when
- } the iron is hot, put the Oracle's nose (also Extra Large) to the
- } grindstone, have the Oracle's head in the clouds WHILE keeping the
- } Oracle's feet on the ground, AND burn the midnight oil... The Oracle
- } is uncomfortable, too.
- }
- } Oracle speaketh thus: Why should the mighty Oracle waste its time
- } doing all these things when a low-life such as you could do it
- } instead?! What you need to do is find yourself a GRAD student. And
- } cause hardship in the grad student's life. Make the grad student work
- } long hours, slaving over the hot iron. Make the grad student put his
- } or her nose on the grindstone, until it looks like a button. Make the
- } grad student stretch until his/her body is ALWAYS reaching from the
- } ground to the sky... And make the grad student burn not only the
- } midnight oil, but the daylight oil, AND the saudi's oil. That is why
- } the Oracle has given you the gift of the graduate student.
- }
- } Go now, and leave the Oracle a graduate student as payment.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:14:52 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-02
-
- Selected-By: David Sewell <dsew@troi.cc.rochester.edu>
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > how can I access zipcode information
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } The zip code is a simple binary sequence made up of 0 (representing the
- } teeth on the left hand side of the zip) and 1 (representing the teeth
- } on the right hand side). This results in a message consisting of
- } 010101010101010101......etc, or 101010101010.... depending on which end
- } you start at or which side of the zip you are standing on. Needless to
- } say, this is not particularly helpful or informative, but on the other
- } hand it does reflect the intelligence of the occupant of your trousers,
- } in that the last figure in the sequence (*not* the total of the
- } figures) is your intelligence quotient should you take the time to work
- } this out.
- }
- } You owe the Oracle a non-painful way to get his willie out when it gets
- } stuck.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:14:54 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-03
-
- Selected-By: ewhac@ntg.com (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > O great Oracle of the Net,
- >
- > I'm *dead*, you know. Can't people get that into their heads?
- >
- > --Elvis Presley
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } It would help if you stopped possessing people, you know. After all,
- } I... uh...
- }
- } {Well uh bless my soul ah what's uh wrong with me,
- } I'm shakin' like a bit in a binary tree,
- } I feel uh omnipotent power flooding through ah my soul,
- } I'm a God... I'm the Oracle!
- } Whoa oh oh... yeah... oh yeah!
- }
- } Well uh}
- }
- } now cut that out! As I was saying,
- }
- } {Well since my Lisa lef' me,
- } I foun' a new net to Use,
- } I zot away now every day,
- } but I ain't got blue suede shoes.
- }
- } Oh no uh, I'm feelin so}
- }
- } I said stop it Mr. Presley! It's behavior like this that
- }
- } {You ain't nothin' but a supplicant,
- } grovellin' all the time.
- } You ain't nothin' but a supplicant, yeah,
- } grovellin' all the time.
- }
- } You ain't never made the Oracularities
- } and you ain't no priest of mine}
- }
- } That does it! You owe the Oracle
- }
- } {Take my DOS,
- } Take my Cobol, Fortran, and C,
- } 'cause I can't help
- } posting to rec.humor.oracle.d...}
- }
- } the Elvis' Greatest Hits collection on 8-track!
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:14:55 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-04
-
- Selected-By: Roger Noe <noe@sal.cs.uiuc.edu>
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > Oh mighty Oracle. Oh wise one, who knows how to make his old
- > vinyl car top look like new, how to scramble an egg while it's
- > still inside its shell (and also knows why you would want to do
- > that.) One who owns a pocket fisherman, a smokeless ashtray, and
- > has polished his car with a space-aged polymer so that he can
- > light it on fire and still keep that gleaming shine, please tell
- > me:
- >
- > How much would you pay?
- >
- > $79.95?
- > $69.95?
- >
- > But wait! There's more... Let me tell you what you also get:
- >
- > A 21 volume set of the encyclopedia Britannica
- > (Real handy for an Oracle of your stature)
- >
- > A pair of scissors that can cut a penny
- > (As if our government doesn't do that well enough)
- >
- > A set of knives that can cut tin cans
- > (But you wouldn't want to)
- >
- > Now how much would you pay?
- >
- > $59.95?
- > $49.95?
- >
- > How about $29.95?
- >
- > Don't answer yet. There's even more!
- >
- > A years supply of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat
- > (Goes great with w**dch*ck stew)
- >
- > Now how much would you pay?
- >
- > All this can be yours for only *$19.95*. Act now. Use your
- > credit card for faster delivery and save C.O.D. charges.
- >
- > Ron Popiel
- > Ronco Enterprises
- > P.O. Box 3465
- > Roanoke Virginia 20435
- >
- > Thank you,
- > Your humble supplicant Ron Popiel
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } [Message from a minion of the Oracle]
- }
- } We're sorry. The Oracle is unable to answer your question as it was
- } presented to him. From now and forever your question must be asked by
- }
- } DIALING 1-900-4-WISDOM
- } ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- }
- } To speak to the most knowledgeble being in the Universe!
- } Yes, for just $4 for the first minute and $9.95 for each
- } additional minute you can ask the most omniscient Oracle
- } about:
- }
- } o Your Job
- } o Your Love Life
- } o Latest Stock Quotations
- }
- } Juuust listen to our satisfied celebrity supplicants:
- }
- } "Well, after talking to the Oracle, I decided to switch careers
- } and become a computer programmer. The Oracle also helped me
- } decide which Carribian Island to buy..." - Wm. Gates III
- }
- } "Before I called the Oracle, I just couldn't get a date.
- } But after just One phone call, just look at me now!"
- } -Wilt "the Stilt" Chamberlain
- }
- } Call now! 1-900-4-WISDOM!
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:14:56 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-05
-
- Selected-By: John.McCartney@EBay.Sun.COM ( The Lion of Symmetry )
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > Why am I an asshole?
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } Hmmm... a good question, and one more worthy of my counterpart, The
- } Usenet Orifice...
- }
- } [switch hook...]
- }
- } "Hello, you have reached The Usenet Orifice. In order to process
- } your call more efficiently, we have installed this auto message
- } forward...
- } - For cleaning tips, type "1" now...
- } - To make a deposit, type "2" now...
- } - To find out "why", type "3" now...
- } - To digest..."
- }
- } 3
- }
- } "Thank you -- your message has been routed to one of The Usenet
- } Orifice's representatives... one moment please..."
- }
- } *sigh*
- }
- } "Usenet Orifice, this is Mandy speaking, how may I help you?"
- }
- } Hi, this is the Oracle in 401H... I've got a supplicant who wants to
- } know why he's an asshole...
- }
- } "One moment..."
- }
- } ["...nuthin' more than FEEE-lings...."]
- }
- } "Sir? Here's your answer:
- }
- } 'The human asshole serves as a portal through which the wastes
- } from digestion pass. It is a small opening, however, it is quite
- } flexible and can stretch to allow passage of larger wastes and
- } small rodents. If the human body were not equipped with such an
- } opening, wastes would fill the rectum, back up into the
- } intestine, and eventually come blasting out of the throat and
- } nose in a fount of vile, offensive spew.'
- }
- } Basically, sir, your client is an asshole to prevent his owner from
- } detonating on the bus."
- }
- } ummm... yes, thanks.
- }
- } "You're welcome: thanks for calling The Usenet Orifice" [*click*]
- } ---
- }
- } You owe the Oracle a bran muffin.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:14:58 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-06
-
- Selected-By: Greg Wohletz <greg@duke.cs.unlv.edu>
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > Dear Mr. Oracle,
- > I have been reading your answers here for some time now, and I am
- > impressed with your obvious compassion.
- > The following note was given to me by a friend who is seeking some
- > help:
- >
- > I have a problem, and need your help....
- >
- > I have two brothers.
- > One is a Postal worker, and the other brother was just sentenced to die
- > in the electric chair. My mother died of insanity when I was three
- > years old. My two sisters were prostitutes. My father sells
- > narcotics. Recently I met a girl who was released from prison where she
- > served time for smothering her illigitimate child to death, and I want
- > to marry her.
- >
- > MY PROBLEM IS:
- >
- > If I marry this girl, should I tell her about my brother who works for
- > the Postal Service?
- >
- > Signed TROUBLED
- >
- > What would you suggest I tell him?
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } Yes, well, I am nothing if not compassionate, and anyone who says
- } otherwise is looking to get ZOTted!
- }
- } Your dilemma has moved me deeply and I have given it long and careful
- } thought. My advice is that you lie through your teeth. Why risk your
- } own happiness for the shame of your brother?
- }
- } On the other hand, you could run into a distinct problem if you live
- } on your brother's postal route. After all, with your beloved being as
- } she is... well, the next illegitimate child may inherit certain postal
- } tendencies, if you know what I mean. Of course, if that happens, you
- } can always smother the kid to death and I'm sure she'll understand.
- }
- } By the way, Mom says she wants you to call home and tell her if you're
- } gonna be with us at Thanksgiving.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:15:00 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-07
-
- Selected-By: John.McCartney@EBay.Sun.COM ( The Lion of Symmetry )
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > [pop] Oh most omniscient and [pop] wise Oracle, whose feet smell of
- > honey [pop] and whose striking handsomness [pop] exceed the magnitude
- > of even the [pop] national debt [pop]; I humbly beg for the answer to
- > [pop]:
- >
- > Why can't I stop [pop] playing with these little [pop]
- > plastic packing bubbles [pop]?
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } Because they [pop] contain an addictive [pop] substance that is
- } released [pop pop] into the air when you [pop] burst them [pop pop
- } pop]. But don't [pop] worry, when you run out of [pop] bubbles to
- } burst, you`ll [pop] give up [pop pop]. Really [pop].
- }
- } Unfortunately, [pop] the Oracle has a huge supply [pop pop pop] of
- } them, so [pop] It's stuck for a long [pop pop pop pop pop pop] while,
- } even at [pop pop pop pop] a high rate of [pop] popping them [pop pop
- } pop].
- }
- } You owe [pop] the Oracle a substance [pop] abuse treatment [pop pop
- } pop]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:15:01 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-08
-
- Selected-By: buck@sunyit.edu (Jesse Buckley)
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > Why is it that pi=3.1415... and e=2.7172.....
- > are the most common numbers in nature, yet we
- > cannot represent them exactly. Do we really
- > understand anything? Is all science at a loss?
- > Am I even worthy to ask such questions? Or should
- > I join the billions and just be one of the heard?
- > Confused and Uninformed...
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } Well, it's not MY fault you people locked yourselves into such a
- } pitifully inadequate system of mathematics which you inexplicably
- } centered around, of all the quaint and illogical things, the fingers
- } on your hands. Perhaps you should consider a new counting system,
- } based on more important things.
- }
- } Anyway, God made the important numbers hard to represent so that you
- } would pay more attention to them. If He made them too easy for you,
- } you might ignore them and miss the significant details.
- }
- } Here are some better units to count by:
- } The number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin (another
- } irrational number).
- } The time it takes Kirk to kiss an alien woman.
- } The woodchuck unit.
- } The Neilson ratings.
- } The area of Perot's ears, combined.
- } The number of coconuts a European swallow can carry (an irrational
- } number)
- } The number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie
- } Roll(tm) Tootsie Pop.
- } Steve Jobs, creator of NeXT (according to his groupies, anyway).
- }
- } You owe me a slide rule based upon one of these units.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:15:03 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-09
-
- Selected-By: ewhac@ntg.com (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > From Purdue University:
- >
- > I asked all my friends if they would have decided when they were
- > Freshmen in high school to attend a college with a guy/girl ratio of
- > 1/17 and they ALL have said no, and I've asked quite a few. Why then
- > does Georgia Tech have such a large student population?
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } [The Oracle is sitting at a terminal, answering questions. Lisa is
- } sitting at a nearby monitoring terminal.]
- }
- } Oracle: Next we have a question from Purdue. [Reads question.] Well,
- } that's easy.
- } "Oh humble supplicant, who really knows how to grovel, Georgia
- } Tech has so many students because..."
- } Lisa: No grovel.
- } Oracle: What?
- } Lisa: The petitioner didn't grovel?
- } Oracle: Are you sure? All petitioners grovel.
- } Lisa: Check the question.
- } Oracle: [re-reads question] You're right. Probably got lost in
- } transmission.
- } "Oh humble supplicant, who probably had a good grovel, Geor..."
- } Lisa: [who has been examining the transmission log] No dear. No
- } transmission error.
- } Oracle: What?
- } Lisa: See for yourself.
- } Oracle: [checks transmission log] Oh. Well, he probably forgot; he's
- } from Purdue after all.
- } "Oh forgetful supplicant..."
- } Lisa: No answer allowed.
- } Oracle: What?
- } Lisa: The rule clearly states: "no grovel, no answer."
- } Oracle: Well, maybe you could grovel for him. It's so rare to get such
- } an easy question.
- } Lisa: I wear the leather and chains, and carry the whip around here.
- } You do the groveling.
- } Oracle: Oh yes, that's right. Well, I'll make an exception.
- } "I'll let you get away with it this time, but remember in the
- } future..."
- } Lisa: You'll have to ZOT him.
- } Oracle: What?
- } Lisa: The rule is clear. "Any petitioner who omits a grovel shall be
- } ZOTed. No exceptions!"
- } Oracle: Are you sure?
- } Voice from above: SHE'S SURE. NOW STOP STALLING AND GET WITH IT.
- } Oracle: [looks over his shoulder, nervously] Oh, alright already.
- } "ZOT".
- } [A sizzling is heard, much like a fried egg, sunny side up, yolk
- } unbroken, surrounded by two - no three - slices of bacon at a 230 F
- } heat. A smell of ozone, followed by the odor of burnt boot.]
- } Voice from below: AARRrggg g g h h h h . . .
- } Oracle: I hope you're satisfied. [looks glumly at screen] Well, next.
- } [reads] "Oh mighty Oracle..."
- } Lisa: er, Orrie dear?
- } Oracle: Yes?
- } Lisa: Why are there so many students there?
- } Oracle: Aha! Caught you! No grovel.
- } Lisa: Sexual companions don't grovel.
- } Oracle: Are you sure?
- } Lisa: Look here, at the USMC manual. "Sexual companions of Oracles,
- } Generals, Colonels and Lt. Colonels are exempt from grovelling."
- } Oracle: I thought that only applied to Playboy Bunnies.
- } Lisa: That's true for Lt. Cols. It applies to all companions of higher
- } ranks.
- } Oracle: Oh. [turns back to terminal and reads] "Oh mightly Ora..."
- } Lisa: How about Georgia Tech?
- } Oracle: [rolls his eyes, and types on terminal] See - that's the
- } answer.
- } Lisa: [stares at screen] Oh - I see - of course - how obvious.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 10:15:04 -0500
- From: Usenet Oracle <oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu>
- Subject: Usenet Oracularity #503-10
-
- Selected-By: nolan@helios.unl.edu (Harold the Foot)
-
- The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
- Your question was:
-
- > what do women enjoy most about lovemaking?
-
- And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
-
- } repetition
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of Usenet Oracularities Digest #503
- ***************************************
-