One enemy decoy, built in occupied Holland, led

to a tale that has been told and retold ever since

by veteran Allied pilots. The German "airfield,"

constructed with meticulous care, was made

almost entirely of wood.

There were wooden hangars, oil tanks, gun

emplacements, trucks, and aircraft. The Germans

took so long in building their wooden decoy that

Allied photo experts had more than enough time

to observe and report it.

The day finally came when the decoy was finished,

down to the last wooden plank. And early the following

morning, a lone RAF plane crossed the Channel,

came in low, circled the field once, and dropped a

large wooden bomb.

****************************************************

"Memory Loss"

An agitated patient was stomping around the psychiatrist's

office, running his hands through his hair, almost in tears.

"Doctor, my memory's gone. Gone! I can't remember my

wife's name. Can't remember my children's names. Can't

remember what kind of car I drive. Can't remember where

I work. It was all I could do to find my way here."

"Calm down. How long have you been like this?"

"Like what?"

****************************************************************

"Desert Asylum"

A man was driving through a desert valley in which the only

inhabited structure was an insane asylum that had been

installed on a reconstructed ranch. The road passed right

by the main building, and right in front of the building was

a cattle guard.

(Digression: for those that have never been near a cattle

ranch, a cattle guard is an invention that allow roads to run

through barbed wire fences without needing gates. You

dig a pit in the road and lay train rails across it at two inch

intervals. Cars can roll over it, people can walk over it, but

cows, with their tiny little hooves, can't.)

So he crossed the cattle guard and awakened a jackrabbit

that bolted across the road. He swerved instinctual to the

left onto the shoulder, and hit a primordial spur that was half

buried in the dirt. His tire blew out with a bang.

He came to a stop, took off the hub cap, took off all the nuts

and put them in the hub cap, took off the tire, put on the spare,

stepped back to get the first nut -- and stepped on the edge

of the hubcap, catapulting all of his nuts down the cattle guard.

He was dumbfounded. And then he was despairing. He said,

"What am I going to do? I'm trapped in the middle of the desert,

and all I have are three tires!"

All this time a guy was watching him through the bars. And now

he said, "Why don't you take one nut off each of the other three

tires? That'll hold the tire on until you get to town, where they can

give you the extra nuts and tighten it all up with an air hammer."

The guy did a double take and realized: "That's it. That's the only

solution." And he asked, "What are you doing in there? You're

smarter than people I meet on the street everyday."

The guy answered. "I'm in here because I'm crazy, not because

I'm stupid."