This came from a reader:
A talking pineapple standing on a ziggurat sees a half built plane flying through the air and losing altitude. The plane has three people, the smartest man in the world, a hippie, and a pilot, but only two parachutes. Who should go? Obviously the smartest man says he should. That leaves the pilot and the hippie and the pilot asks if they should flip a coin. The hippie says, “we can both go, the smartest man in the world just jumped out with my backpack.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
OMG that is so funny!! All hail APPR in NYS!! Buidling a plane in the air.
I think smart people are ragged on enough.
When I tell it, I’m gonna change the characters to the pilot, a hippie, and the richest man in the world (who isn’t as smart as he pays people to think he is).
Or change the smartest man to Cuomo.
Hysterical!
Wonderful!
When I see so-called “smart people” embracing school reforms, I can see a backpack in their future.
Good one, schoolgal!
I needed that! Thanks!
That joke gets a “guffaw.”
Love it, Diane!
Ha, ha!
Maybe the three occupants in the plane are (1) a public school teacher, (2) a student, and (3) a school reformer. The reformer, thinking HE is smartest, takes the student’s backpack and jumps out.
Spot on
And the Pineapple says “Hmmm….sometimes the smart guys think just having sleeves is enough. Hey moose, owl, crow and hare, DINNER IS SERVED!!”
What’s a ziggurat?
It’s like the pyramids that were built in Egypt.
A ziggurat is a huge platform – there are many examples from ancient civilizations – maybe the best known is the Ziggurat of Ur of Mesopotamia.
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/01/the-ancient-past-as-a-window-to-the-future-part-2-of-3/
http://oi.uchicago.edu/gallery/asp_meso_ur/index.php/ur10.png?action=big&size=resize&fromthumbnail=true
There is a difference in
Intelligence and Smart
The richest man in the world decided to invent a new type of parachute. His parachute design wasn’t proven to work, in fact in the past similar designs failed. But the richest man spent billions promoting his parachutes, so they must be good, right? Then he strapped his parachutes on all of our children (but not his own children, and not the children of the wealthy.) Then, the richest man in the world paid politicians and foundations to force all of our children to jump out of planes wearing his parachutes.
The end.
Concerned Citizen: touché!
But I’m not laughing.
😦