Question 3

DURING A DISCOURSE SEVERAL DAYS AGO, I THOUGHT THAT YOU HAD SKIPPED A CERTAIN QUESTION NUMBER. I COULDN'T BE SURE. MAYBE I SIMPLY WAS NOT AWARE ENOUGH AND THAT IT WAS I WHO HAD SIMPLY FORGOTTEN IT. BUT THEN AGAIN YESTERDAY I NOTICED THAT YOU DID IT AGAIN, AND NOT JUST ONCE BUT TWICE -- YOU SKIPPED QUESTIONS THREE AND FIVE. I RECALL THAT ONE QUESTION HAD TWO PARTS SO THAT COULD EXPLAIN IT, BUT I AM PRETTY SURE THAT WAS NOT THE CASE FOR THE OTHER. ANY SIGNIFICANCE?

Oh, holy smoke!

You are constantly in search of some esoteric significance. My arithmetic is simply not good. It is as bad as Albert Einstein's -- do you know he failed in mathematics in his matriculation examination? I didn't fail in my matriculation examination -- but I must not cheat you, I must make it clear that I had not taken arithmetic in my matriculation examination. Otherwise there was no possibility of my ever passing!

Once I was in a car accident and one of my fingers was damaged very badly, and the doctor said it would have to be cut off. I said, "Okay, but then I will only be able to count up to nine!" So he took pity on me, and they didn't operate.

Don't try to find esoteric things everywhere....

When I was small, one day I came running home, very proud, exhibiting a book which I had got as a reward. My mother asked me, "However did you do that? How did you get it?" I said to her, "The teacher asked how many legs an ostrich had -- I said three."

"But an ostrich only has two legs," my mother said.

I said, "Well, all the rest of the class said four."