Hot Air Ballon
A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced
altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and
shouted,
"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an
hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman below replied,
"You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above
the ground. You are between 40 and 41degrees north latitude and
between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.
"You must be a safety officer (Gladys)," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is
technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your
information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not
been much help so far."
The woman below responded,
"You must be a manager for southern rail."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman,
"You don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen
to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a
promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to
solve your problem. The fact is you are in exactly the same position
you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
or
Two women are on a transcontinental balloon voyage. Their craft is
engulfed in fog, their compass gone awry. Afraid of landing in the
ocean, they drift for days. Suddenly, the clouds part to show a
sunlit meadow below. As they descend, they see a man walking his
dog.
One of the flyers yells to the figure far below, “Where are we?”
The man yells back, “About a half mile from town.”
Once again, the balloonists are engulfed in the mist. One flyer says
to the other, “He must have been a Safety Manager.”
The other says, “A Safety Manager! How do you know that?”
The first says, “That’s easy. The information he gave us was
accurate, concise, and entirely irrelevant.”