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An old joke that I was thinking about recently: Two local government consultants - tasked with seeing if it'd be financially beneficial to dig a new tunnel so t

An old joke that I was thinking about recently: Two local government consultants - tasked with seeing if it'd be financially beneficial to dig a new tunnel so that cars don't have to drive up and down a mountain - dig two small holes on opposite sides of the mountain then stand at either end. The punchline, which I can't remember, is something about the two holes being, according to the two consultants, an MVP of a tunnel: "Just stand at either end of it."

quuxplusone 11mo ago
I don't know that one, but here's a superficially similar joke from somewhere among http://miresperanto.com/humuro.htm http://miresperanto.com/humuro.htm : When the British government invited commercial proposals for the digging of the Channel Tunnel between England and France, one man submitted a bid for only £10,000. “How can you possibly dig under the English Channel for only £10,000?” asked the project manager. “It’s simple,” replied the low bidder. “My partner takes a spade, goes to France and starts digging. I take another spade and start digging from England. We’ll both keep digging until we meet in the middle.” “Hm, I see. But what happens if, through a miscalculation, you two do not meet?” “That’s even better for you!” replied the bidder enthusiastically. “In that case you will have two tunnels!”
- gabriel666smith 11mo ago
  A perfect joke, really.
- smoser 11mo ago
  An answer to your puzzle in another post that is locked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42498953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42498953 The "alternate" 5x5 word square that satisfies all the clues without using the words from the first grid is: S T R I P C H I N A R E G A L A T O N E P A R E R Breakdown of the solution: Across STRIP (Remove the outer layer of, perhaps) — Counterpart to SCALD. CHINA (Region on a globe) — Counterpart to POLAR. REGAL (Like some movie theaters; e.g., Regal Cinemas) — Counterpart to ARTSY. ATONE (Command to a lawbreaker) — Counterpart to CEASE. PARER (Rhyme for Tom Lehrer /'lɛrər/) — Counterpart to ERROR. Down SCRAP (____yard; scrapyard is a common sci-fi setting) — Counterpart to SPACE. THETA (It goes something like this: Ꮎ) — Counterpart to CORER. RIGOR (Feature of liturgy, often; strictness/adherence to rubrics) — Counterpart to ALTAR. INANE (It's vacuous, in a sense) — Counterpart to LASSO. PALER (Fino is paler than Pedro Ximénez sherry) — Counterpart to DRYER.
  - quuxplusone 11mo ago
    Yep, you got it! :)

quuxplusone 11mo ago

I don't know that one, but here's a superficially similar joke from somewhere among http://miresperanto.com/humuro.htm http://miresperanto.com/humuro.htm : When the British government invited commercial proposals for the digging of the Channel Tunnel between England and France, one man submitted a bid for only £10,000. “How can you possibly dig under the English Channel for only £10,000?” asked the project manager. “It’s simple,” replied the low bidder. “My partner takes a spade, goes to France and starts digging. I take another spade and start digging from England. We’ll both keep digging until we meet in the middle.” “Hm, I see. But what happens if, through a miscalculation, you two do not meet?” “That’s even better for you!” replied the bidder enthusiastically. “In that case you will have two tunnels!”

gabriel666smith 11mo ago
A perfect joke, really.
smoser 11mo ago
An answer to your puzzle in another post that is locked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42498953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42498953 The "alternate" 5x5 word square that satisfies all the clues without using the words from the first grid is: S T R I P C H I N A R E G A L A T O N E P A R E R Breakdown of the solution: Across STRIP (Remove the outer layer of, perhaps) — Counterpart to SCALD. CHINA (Region on a globe) — Counterpart to POLAR. REGAL (Like some movie theaters; e.g., Regal Cinemas) — Counterpart to ARTSY. ATONE (Command to a lawbreaker) — Counterpart to CEASE. PARER (Rhyme for Tom Lehrer /'lɛrər/) — Counterpart to ERROR. Down SCRAP (____yard; scrapyard is a common sci-fi setting) — Counterpart to SPACE. THETA (It goes something like this: Ꮎ) — Counterpart to CORER. RIGOR (Feature of liturgy, often; strictness/adherence to rubrics) — Counterpart to ALTAR. INANE (It's vacuous, in a sense) — Counterpart to LASSO. PALER (Fino is paler than Pedro Ximénez sherry) — Counterpart to DRYER.
- quuxplusone 11mo ago
  Yep, you got it! :)