Retorts

Universal Laws

Stu Andrews's letter [August, 1992] reminds me of some other "laws":

Finagle's Law: The likelihood of something happening is inversely proportional to its desirability.

Knebel's Law: Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.

Friedman's Law: Never walk across a river just because it has an average depth of four feet.

Francis Cornford's Law: Every public action which is not customary, either is wrong or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time.

Frederick Terman's Law: If you want your track team to win the high jump, you should find one person who can jump seven feet, and not seven people who can jump one foot.

Reg Alteo, Southland