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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Re: The wit and wisdom of MURPHY
Message-ID: <563@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 17-Dec-83 17:56:02 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.563
Posted: Sat Dec 17 17:56:02 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Dec-83 18:50:27 EST
References: <736@ihuxi.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 32

Some of the "Official Rules" (from "The Official Rules: the definitive,
annotated collection of Laws, Principles, and Instructions for dealing with
the Real World, Paul Dickson, Delacorte Press, 1978) -- from the
Murphy Center for the Codification of Human and Organizational Law:

Economists' Laws: (1) What men learn from history is that men do not
learn from history. (2) If on an actuarial basis there is a 50/50 chance
that something will go wrong, it will go wrong nine times out of ten.

Dyer's Law: A continuing flow of paper is sufficient to continue
the flow of paper.

Gammon's Theory of Bureaucratic Displacement: In a bureacratic system
an increase in expenditure will be matched by a fall in production.

Garner's Rule of Society: The society that scorns excellence in plumbing
because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in
philosophy because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good
plumbing nor good philosophy; neither its pipes nor its ideas
will hold water.

Harris's Law: Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.


There are lots more. To them, I add:
	If it looks like a law, it probably isn't; if it is a law,
it probably isn't valid; if it is a valid law, it must be this one.

-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt