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From: thb@unisoft.UUCP (Tim Bessie)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: The fisherman
Message-ID: <435@unisoft.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Mar-85 14:19:01 EST
Article-I.D.: unisoft.435
Posted: Wed Mar 27 14:19:01 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Apr-85 03:25:52 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Eunich's Soft Systems, Berkeley
Lines: 24


     Once upon a time, there was a fisherman who lived by a great river.
One day, after a hard day's fishing, he hooked what seemed to him to be
the biggest, strongest fish he had ever caught.  He fought with it for
hours, until, finally, he managed to bring it to the surface.  Looking
of the edge of the boat, he saw the head of this huge fish breaking the
surface.  Smiling with pride, he reached over the edge to pull the fish
up.  Unfortunately, he accidently caught his watch on the edge, and, before
he knew it, there was a snap, and his watched tumbled into the water next
to the fish with a loud "sploosh!"  Distracted by this shiny object, the
fish made a sudden lunge, simultaneously snapping the line, and swallowing
the watch.  Sadly, the fisherman stared into the water, and then began
the slow trip back home.
     Many years later -- 20, in fact -- the fisherman, now an old man,
was working in a boring assembly-line job in a large city.  He worked
in a fish-processing plant. It was his job, as each fish passed under
his hands, to chop off their heads, readying them for the next phase
in processing.  This monotonous task went on for years, the dull *thud*
of the cleaver chopping of each head being his entire world, day after
day, week after weary week.  Well, one day, as he was chopping fish, he
happened to notice that the fish coming towards him on the line looked
very familiar.  Yes, yes, it looked... could it be?  The fish he had
lost on that day so many years ago.  He trembled with anticipation as
his cleaver came down.  IT STRUCK SOMETHING HARD!  IT WAS HIS THUMB!