A Whimsical Aside

People I hope recall that this blog is not about Jan Cox, the 20th century philosopher and mystic, per se. It is about demonstrating his precept for his students, about originality -- a means to grow despite the mechanical nature of our world. But here we digress, with an incident that reminds us of a joke Jan liked: the one which ends "he had a hat." It is a common joke but to make sure everyone gets this-- the set up is an old woman and her grandson on a beach. The boy is swept away, but then rescued and returned by a heroic passer-by. The woman says --- ....

Of course he, and we from his example, liked making up our own new jokes, and this is an old one. It came back when I read this morning, from a blog of the Royal Society, this item in the records of the Royal Society Journal Book for 7 January 1702:

‘Mr Molesworth said, that Mr Haistwell’s brothers servant having lately lost his Hat in a Storm, in an East-India-Voiage: some 30 Leagues off, the next day, in a calm, they took a Shark, in which they found the Hat.’