---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 09:49:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Clay Williams <CWILLIAMS at BSCVAX.WVNET.EDU>
To: gobled at uidaho.edu
Subject: beware puns

>
> There was once a couple named Nancy and Mike Tate, and it was their life's
> dream to have a compass company. They finally saved enough money and
> started the Tate's Compass Company. Luck was with them, for the first
> contract they acquired was to manufacture 750,000 compasses for the Boy
> Scouts. Nancy and Mike worked feverishly day and night to meet their
> deadline, and finished just before the Boy Scout Jamboree was to begin. On
> the day of the Boy Scout Wilderness hike, each boy scout was given a Tate's
> Compass to help them find their way. Unfortunately, it was discovered a
> little too late that every single compass was made with the colored point of
> the needle facing the wrong way, so when one was facing North, the needle
> pointed to the South. Needless to say, all of the boy scouts got lost and
> it was the biggest fiasco known in Boy Scout history. The Tate's
> compass company went out of business, but from this experience came the
> familiar adage, "He who has a Tate's is lost."