fool n.
 The
envelope was addressed to "Occupant" and emblazoned on the outside as follows:
"What four-letter word begins with 'f' and is guaranteed to catch people's
attention?" I tore it open.
Inside was an advertising circular entitled, "."All right then, I thought to myself, what four-letter word begins with 'f' and is guaranteed to offend people? "Fool," of course.Someone in my distant childhood told me never to call any person a fool. Most likely it was a Sunday school teacher, citing a passage from the Sermon on the Mount ("...but whosoever shall say, 'Thou fool,' shall be in danger of hellfire"). Good advice. And easy to take; although, at least in my case, "danger of hell fire" has nothing to do with the matter. It's just that, considering the way I fall for messages on the outside of junk mail and in view of the stunts I have pulled (see, for example, role-model), I am hardly qualified to call anybody else a fool. |