Robert J Bradbury wrote:
> On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Robert Owen wrote:
>
> > Mars Polar Lander Mission Status
> > December 5, 1999
> >
> > Another telecommunications strategy to hear from NASA's Mars Polar
> > Lander produced no results today,
>
> I can't decide what's more appropriate --
>
> The undertakers walking through the midevil town with a cart, banging
> their bell, shouting "BRING OUT YOUR DEAD"....
>
> or
>
> A bunch of short little midgets in funny costumes running around singing
> Ding Dong the probe is dead
> Our latest probe is dead
>
> Robert
> On one of those cold wet dreary nights in Seattle when only the
> darkest of humor can bring a smile to your face...
I enjoyed both, but I think I prefer Number 2 for being off-scale on zanyness. Of course we could press these same midgets, suitably costumed in motley, into a parody of "Three Penny Opera", where, tumbling pell-mell out of their minuscule V.W., they race about tearing their hair and rending their garments while singing "We've lost our dear old Lander, and we don' know what do do".
My niece, an attorney, lives in Seattle and she waxes lugubrious in a very similar manner.
Bob