Bill's Notes

Robert Benchley's paradox roughly states, "There are two kinds of people in the world ... those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don't." What makes it so clever is that you prove Benchley right by disagreeing with him.

Donald Westlake once wrote a short story about a planet that became hopelessly divided on the topic of Benchley's paradox ... the anti-Bens and pro-Bens. It was cynical and funny and I read it in a magazine back in high school [Editor's Note: Liar!].

The "sandwich" controversy reminded me of it. I can see "pro-burrito" and "anti-burrito" partisans fighting it out on some dusty plain 1,000 years from now, after the sandwich decision is the only piece of writing to survive from our time (except for a single comic strip of Blondie) ... and they assume we must have worshipped the sandwich. Is the burrito really worthy of worship? Partisans will have to fight it out, and the winners on that god-forsaken plain will get to write the history.

*****


UPDATE: Oops. Make that I read it in college. Appeared in December 1983, well after my 1982 graduation date. IndustrialBlog intentionally distorted this complex issue regrets the error.