The Man in the Street

You should be pleased, I said. I made you look as though you understood the meaning right away.

What are you talking about? said Pliny.

I made it seem as though you quickly got the pun, I said.

The pun being? asked Pliny.

The pun being a Chinese sort of pun, I said. The words painted on the wall were words meaning bright, and they were on a wall in Brighton, facing out to sea.

It wasn't all that good a pun, said Pliny.

It probably was in Chinese, I said. Anyway, in the poem, you got it. I thought you were into puns?

What makes you think that? asked Pliny.

I'm reading your Natural History at the moment, I said, and just this morning you made a frivolous pun.

Remind me, said Pliny.

"Cato thought that eating hare induced sleep", I quoted, " and the man in the street believes it gives a person charm for nine days".

Oh yes, laughed Pliny. It is a frivolous pun. Of course it only works in Latin.

Yes lucky Professor Healy put in footnotes I said. Lepos means hare, lepus means charm. Was that Cato's pun or yours?

I believe it was the man in the street's, said Pliny.

Oh well, I said, you follow it up with a joke of your own. Do you remember what it is?

Yes, said Pliny, I say that a cast-off horse shoe can be a cure for hiccups, for those who remember where they have put it!

So funny, I said.

Thank you, said Pliny. I try my best.