“Two old salts who had spent most of their lives on fishing smacks had an argument one day as to which was the better mathematician,” said George C. Wiedenmayer the other day. “Finally the captain of their ship proposed the following problem which each would try to work out: ‘If a fishing crew caught 500 pounds of cod and brought their catch to port and sold it at 6 cents a pound, how much would they receive for the fish?’
“Well, the two old fellows got to work, but neither seemed able to master the intricacies of the deal in fish, and they were unable to get any answer.
“At last old Bill turned to the captain and asked him to repeat the problem. The captain started off: ‘If a fishing crew caught 500 pounds of cod and—.’
“‘Wait a moment,’ said Bill, ‘is it codfish they caught?’
“‘Yep,’ said the captain.
“‘Darn it all,’ said Bill. ‘No wonder I couldn’t get an answer. Here I’ve been figuring on salmon all the time.’”
