Well, now that I've got everybody's attention, I guess I'll have to say probably not. It's just a fart joke, and "a fart joke now and again, is relished by the best of men" as Ben Franklin put it so well.

Anyway, there once was a young man who had a lifelong dream of being a topnotch Toyota salesman. So he landed a job in a Toyota dealership, and began selling up a storm, until disaster struck. He began to fart a lot, but even worse was the strange sound. The sound was "honda". He'd be expounding the advantages of Toyotas to potential customers, and all at once they would hear "honda, honda". So they'd leave and go buy Hondas.

Of course this could not continue, but he begged his boss just to be put on leave until the source of his problem could be found. He then got on the Internet, joined many medical chatrooms and described his problem. Finally one chatroom participant said yes, he had heard of one similar case, which had been solved by an elderly Chinese doctor. And as luck would have it, this doctor's address was in the Chinatown of our hero's city.

So the next morning the poor fellow rushed out of the house, went to Chinatown, found the address (little hole-in-the-wall place) and went inside.....only to find that he was in a dentist's office!

Just then the elderly dentist emerged, smiling with ancient wisdom. He cut short the young man's apologies, and asked what had brought him to humble office. When the young man explained, he was asked to open his mouth, whereupon the dentist said that there was an abscessed tooth which needed to be removed. Which the dentist then proceeded to do.

On the way home, the young man was pretty depressed that his main problem hadn't been solved, until he noticed that this problem had disappeared. Yes, from that day forward, the young man sold Toyotas like gangbusters. Still, there was the nagging question, what had happened? Finally he could stand the uncertainty no longer, and went back to ask the old Chinese gentleman. "It is really very simple" said the old man. "You see, abscess makes the fart go Honda."

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), August 05, 2000

Answers

ACK!

Ok, an octet of midgets get together for dinner at the steakhouse...

We/wee ate/eight meat/meet

-- helen (home@home.home), August 05, 2000.

Now where did I put those rubber bricks.....

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), August 06, 2000.

Next to the rubber chicken?

-- (sis@home.zzz), August 06, 2000.

Under the rubber ducky?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 06, 2000.