Abstract

Maybe it's just because hermeneutics is so much in vogue these days, but I've lately come to believe that the secret of the meaning of life is revealed by certain jokes from the state of Maine. The pertinent one on this occasion (and some of you will recognize it as one I've invoked before) is the one that goes "How's your wife? to which the appropriate deadpan downeaster reply is: "Compared to what?".