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From: ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: shaggy cat story
Message-ID: <4148@alice.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 17:52:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.4148
Posted: Wed Aug 14 17:52:04 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Aug-85 07:49:33 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 25

Four friends decided to try to get their names in the Guinness book of
world records by playing bridge in a balloon during a cross-country
flight.  They started in California and drifted across the continent
until they finally reached the East Coast.  While this was going on,
friends, acquaintances, and well-wishers would see their balloon
overhead and keep each other posted on its progress by sending
telegrams to each other.

These telegrams were a kind of electronic conversation.  As such things
will, this particular conversation drifted far away from its original
content.  In fact, several of the baloonists' friends who did not
previously know each other decided to go into business together
breeding kittens.

So they got together and found a bargain on some appropriate land,
bought it, and set up in business.  Unfortunately, they soon found out
why the land had been such a bargain: there was a highway slated to
come through and their farm was condemned.  As a result, they had to
move.

After they had moved to new quarters, someone pointed out that all this
could have easily been predicted by the laws of physics.

The reason is that the cables on a suspension bridge form a catenary
before the road is put down.