This country was bounded to the West by a desert. One day a telescope built on one of the country’s mountains revealed what looked like sea far away beyond the desert which would have to be crossed in order to discover if there was habitable land on the coast. So the politicians got together and established a government agency to send some people through the desert. They called it the National Agricultural Frontier Administration, NAFA for short, and charged it with a dramatic task to demonstrate the vigour of the nation: it would carry out a “mission” to send people right through the desert to the West coast of the continent and bring them back safely, within a decade.
Ig Nobel Prize in Economics, the Vatican for Outsourcing Prayer:
With Roman Catholic clergy in short supply in the United States, Indian priests are picking up some of their work, saying Mass for special intentions, in a sacred if unusual version of outsourcing.American, as well as Canadian and European churches, are sending Mass intentions, or requests for services like those to remember deceased relatives and thanksgiving prayers, to clergy in India.
Student carries grad student to class to help with open-book exam:
A professor announces that the upcoming final examination is open-book and students may use “anything they can carry into the classroom.” One student takes the instructor at his word and struggles into class hauling a graduate student on his back; the graduate student then proceeds to write the exam for him.
God Still Ignoring Sports-Related Prayers:
CHICAGO—Responding to a flurry of prayers from Boston and Chicago, God reasserted his steadfast position that he is still ignoring all sports-related prayers through the 2003-2004 seasons.