Monday, April 03, 2006

from Sputnik Sweetheart

by Haruki Murakami

"I'm always amazed how good you are at explaining things."

"That's my job," I said. My words seemed somehow flat and stale. "You should try being an elementary-school teacher sometime. You'd never imagine the kind of questions I get. 'Why isn't the world square?' 'Why do squids have ten arms and not eight?' I've learned to come up with an answer to just about everything."

"You must be a great teacher."

"I wonder," I said. I really did wonder.

"By the way, why do squids have ten arms and not eight?"

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I usually answer questions like that with a flip answer like "That's the way they were made." or "If they had 8 they would be an octopus."

8:43 PM  

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