Jan 2013
three specialists travel in their car
down Victoria, Australia
through rural Mildura
and they see fields
and a black cow standing in one
“Cows in Mildura,”
announces the astronomer
“are black”
“Tchk! Tchk!” says the logician
(Eminent Professor Emeritus)
“Some cows in Mildura are black”
“Let’s express it with precision,”
says the Mathematician
*“It is exact to say
there is at least one field
in Mildura
with at least one cow
of which at least one side is black”
down Victoria, Australia
through rural Mildura
and they see fields
and a black cow standing in one
“Cows in Mildura,”
announces the astronomer
“are black”
“Tchk! Tchk!” says the logician
(Eminent Professor Emeritus)
“Some cows in Mildura are black”
“Let’s express it with precision,”
says the Mathematician
*“It is exact to say
there is at least one field
in Mildura
with at least one cow
of which at least one side is black”
1....based on a joke told in Simon Singh’s “Fermat’s Last Theorem” (1997), mentioned in “You Talking to Me?”(2011) by Sam Leith
2. Speaking of precision, I am aware the word “eminent” may not be used as a noun, but hey! – this is poetry, where imprecision is precision…
2. Speaking of precision, I am aware the word “eminent” may not be used as a noun, but hey! – this is poetry, where imprecision is precision…
