There’s a routine on an ancient Monty Python record of an
imaginary game show, “Stake Your Claim,” that always makes me smile whenever I
hear it or even just think about it.
The point where I lose it is when “Norman
Voles of Gravesend” who claims he has written all “of Shakespeare’s plays and
my wife and I wrote all of his sonnets” is interviewed by the show’s host who
asks, “Mr Voles, these plays are known to have been performed in the early 17th
century. How old are you, Mr Voles?”
Chagrined, Norman admits that he’s only 43. The host
pounces swiftly, “Well, how is it possible for you to have written plays
performed over 300 years before you were born?” Trapped, Norman capitulates to
the inevitable, “There's no possible way of answering that argument, I'm
afraid. I was only hoping you would not make that particular point, but I can
see you're more than a match for me!” Click here
and you can laugh for yourself.
I think we’ve all known a Norman Voles or two, and
perhaps even voted (more than once or twice) for the gentleman. I love stories
that are the soul of plausibility until exposed to daylight where they turn to
dust as everyone averts their eyes to not embarrass or be embarrassed by what’s
happening.
We’ve all had a Mayan Apocalypse, or traveled a portion of life’s
highway with our own Harold Camping who learned that even a stopped
clock is right twice a day. Both of which brings us to Edgar Nernberg and his amazing if slightly ideologically
incompatible discovery. It would seem the past isn’t all that’s cracked up to
be.
The discovery should make him the talk of every Tim
Horton’s in Alberta and Saskatoon. Especially after it’s learned that beside
the fish was an unopened 60 million year old jar of tartar sauce. Aside from
some extra napkins, you really could not ask for more.
-bill kenny
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