Quotations, Memes and Jokes

[jack]

We may have a rival for worst, most obscure joke. Not in depth - anything requiring you to know who Tycho Brahe is, AND have a degree in set theory is worse - but in diversity, being based on basic physics, bad jokes, and zen buddhism.

A monk visited the great Joshu, and asked him "Two cats are sitting on a sloping roof. One has buddha-nature and one does not. Which one falls off first?" and Joshu replied "The one with the smaller Mu."

If you've got to this point it's not going to be funny regardless but since someone always asks, and I enjoy sharing knowledge, you should be aware that (1) The greek letter pronounced 'mu' represents coefficient of friction, so the cat with the smaller one slips more and (2) 'Mu' is a word used in some Buddhist traditions to 'unask' questions which are invalid or malformed. The famous parable -- I believe related to Joshu -- is that it was the response the question "Does a dog have buddha nature." I know I am very oversimplifying; if anyone wants to correct me, feel free.

Oh, I slay me. And coincidently enough, that's what Nick threatened to do when I told him my joke.

Comments

[naath.livejournal.com]

See, I knew that one. Because I have a lousy memory for jokes however I failed to recall it.

Generally I laugh at the yellow part and assume that it *must* sounds like something equivalent to the axiom of choice and that asking will just do my head in...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I believe the one reason I haven't been killed yet is that it's possible to laugh at a pun without fully understanding it. I thought "What's yellow, normed, and complete? A bananach space!" was funny before I knew what a Banach space was.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

This is how people learn stuff though, and (one of) the uses of humour... once you have the whole idea of "jokes" and "bananas" this gives you a pretty strong hint that a banach space is normed and complete... and probably sticks in your mind better than some ancient professor telling you!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I remember Siklos went off into a 10 minute riff in the middle of one of his lectures about a book (Anna Karenina?) the main character of which saw this great vase on the stairs of his girlfriend's house and immediately *knows* he will eventually break it; at the end of the book he's chasing after her, or running away or something, and does. The point was that knowing you'll make the mistake doesn't stop you, but makes you feel stupid afterwards. And there was a term in the equation he was teaching us he said we would always forget, and then when it didn't work, remember this story.

At the time I thought it was a wonderful aide memoir... but I've since forgotten both the name of the book, and the term (Jacobian?).

[satanicsocks.livejournal.com]

yes, I believe it was the Jacobian. Not sure it was Anna Karenina or not - I'd totally forgotten that spraff.

I liked the rabbit-tiger though... one, two, three, aw+!

[satanicsocks.livejournal.com]

Okay, second J confirms it. It was to remind us to not forget to put in the Jacobian when changing variables (I can't remember VC well enough to know if that makes sense or not) and the book was indeed Dostoyevsky's Anna Karenina.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Wow, good memory. Maybe his trick did work.

Rabbit tiger?

[satanicsocks.livejournal.com]

The rabbit with a tiger skin at the end of the lecture series- he put it (well, a picture) on an OHP and likened it to VC, in that it might look scary, but is really quite fluffy underneath.