This morning's ODD NEWS brought us the tale of a man arrested for making coffee in his own home in the nude. A woman walking past his house looked in and saw him and duly reported him to the police. I've met some folks who probably should be arrested for making coffee and that's a whole different subject.

The articles (click the Google Button up top to see lots of copies of the reporting) brought to my mind a tale told to me by my mother in the early fifties. I don't really know what happening in the community prompted her telling this and I'm certain that there was a reason. I've looked and found a reference attributing the story to Mark Twain. He may have appropriated it from some other place. Jokes have a half-life of something like 6,000 years.

There was an Old Maid who lived along a river. One day she looked out her window and saw a group of boys swimming naked.

She then commanded her servant to "Fetch the sheriff!" Verily the sheriff arrived and ran-off the boys.

A short while later the Old Maid returned to her window but did not see any boys, so she walked outside to look up and down the river. Lo! and behold! she saw the naked boys swimming some distance away.

She then screamed for her servant to "Fetch the sheriff!"

The sheriff returned and drove the boys away again.

A little later the Old Maid went back outside, looked up and down the river, and saw no one. So she got her spyglass and climbed upon the roof of her house.

Atop the roof she looked one way and then another, up and down the river, until at last, far away, she spied the naked boys . . .