pnyikos

Although the theme itself is OT, two of the illustrative examples are
taken from paleontology and systematics.

I was saying to Harshman in a sci.bio.paleontology exclusive:

[...]


[...]

But then it wouldn't be in the genre of riddles that go "When is a
________ not a ______?" These revolve around plays on words, though
usually more pun-like than the ones I am using.

If you don't follow estabished formats for certain kinds of riddles
and jokes, you can get to sounding like you are socially isolated.
See illustrative example below.

[...]


Riddles and jokes don't have to make literal sense.


That's the whole point of riddles of this genre. Looks like you need
some coaching about genre jokes and riddles. For instance, I would
recommend that you NOT tell the following interactive "joke":

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"John."

"John who?"

"Stop playing dumb. You know my name is John Harshman."

If you say this to good friends, who are used to your quirks, you
might get some polite noises and gestures, but some of them might
think to themselves, "That's John Harshman for you."

Peter Nyikos

karel

Please remind me not to read your posts again.

Regards,

Karel

pnyikos

Why did you pick out an utterly atypical, one-of-a-kind post of mine
to make this request?

Peter Nyikos