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Taking the day off. I’d certainly look foolish showing up for work if we then get wiped out by an asteroid next Tuesday.

For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain.
He heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them. (Jay Leno)

I would look a right tit. Sadly, there’s only a 0.01% chance of an Earth impact. And even if it hits our planet, it is only 250m across, so you are unlikely to be squashed by it, unless it scores a direct hit on your lawn. (If it does hit your lawn, it could be a real pain in the arse.)

Of course, I’m the one who’s laughing, because I don’t even have a lawn.

Krugman links to some donnish jokes about subprime-backed and commercial real-estate-backed securities.

“And The Lord Ben said, “Let there be helicopters!”
greenlander | 01.22.08 - 5:04 pm | #

"Helicopters? Try B-52s. Rolling Thunder II."
ugh | 01.22.08 - 5:13 pm | #

That's the whole joke. I read these remarks several times, looking for the ‘much needed comic relief’ which Krugman says they provide, but my sides remained unsplit. This is what happens if you spend all your life in universities. You start finding stuff like that funny.

Or maybe these economists fall about laughing every time someone says ‘helicopters’. I don’t know.

All comedy has the same deep structure, which is essentially a fat man falling over. If there is no fat man falling over, there is no comedy. And you, sir, are no fat man falling over.

I put my teeth in and comb what’s left of my rug for a night out in High Wycombe. Who knows what the evening holds in store? Maybe I’ll fall in love. Or perhaps I’ll get socked on the jaw. Yes, that seems more likely.

This is my own, my native land. And it’s a right dump. But suppose some German showed up and said, “Zis High Wycombe it is a right dump. And zese women- mein Got!! I haf seen better-looking livestock at the Arschdorf pig fair!”

I would say, “Look here, Fritz….”

GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER

Yesterday our greatest living writer.
Today our 207th greatest dead one.