Re: Does Time Run Backward in Other Universes?
Don’t you think that the reason that you see a tiger more easily in the shadows than a rabbit is that the tiger is about 1,000 times larger than a rabbit? Just a thought.
From Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”, Part III “Fighting Each Other”
*During the 1st Zulu War (1879) in Glasgow Natal]
Ainsworth: Hello, Doctor, during the night, Ol’ Perkins here got his leg bitten sort of … off.
Dr. Livingstone: Oh, really? Well, let’s take a look at this one leg of yours. [prods with the tip of his pipe] Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes. Yes, well, this is nothing to worry about.
Perkins: Oh, good.
Dr. Livingstone: Eh, there’s a lot of it about — probably a virus. Keep warm, plenty of rest, and if you’re playing any football try and favor the other leg.
. . .
Perkins: So, it’ll, uh… it’ll just grow back again, will it?
Dr. Livingstone: Ah… I think I’d… better come clean with you about this. It’s, um… it’s… not a virus, I’m afraid. You see, a virus is what we doctors call “very, very small”. So small, it could not possibly have made off with the whole leg. What we’re looking here for is, I think — and this is no more than an educated guess, I’d like to make that clear — is some multicellular life form with stripes, huge, razor-sharp teeth about eleven feet long, and of the genus felis horribilis — what we doctors, in fact, call a tiger.
Ainsworth, Pakenham-Walsh, Perkins: [in unison] A tiger?
[Outside, the British troops and the Zulus cease fighting.]
British Troops, Zulus: A tiger?
[As the Zulus flee, the British troops collapse to the ground. Back in the medical tent…]
Pakenham-Walsh: A tiger, in Africa?
Ainsworth: Hmm?
Pakenham-Walsh: A tiger, in Africa?!
Ainsworth: Ah, well, it- it has… probably escaped from a zoo.
Pakenham-Walsh: Doesn’t sound very likely to me. *
Very nice. Based on a real person. I’ll, of course, expect my royalties…in gold.