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} You have clearly missed the point. Everything you need to answer the
} question is right there before your eyes, if you will but look.
}
} Consider:
}
} The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.
} The answer is blowing in the wind.
}
} Now, there are four winds, and "wind" occurs twice ==> 8
} There are fifty ways to leave your lover ==> 50
} Three rings for the elven kings ==> 3
} Ooops, wait, that's part of the wrong answer, sorry ==> -3
} Omnia Gallia est divisa in partas tres ==> 3
} And it's no, no, a thousand times no,
} I'd rather see my life's blood spillin'
} I'll sing anything, even "God save the king,"
} But I won't sing any Bob Dylan. ==> -1000
} ====
} TOTAL: -939
}
} Hmm, that can't be right. Where did I go wrong?
} (Checks notes, recalculates, scratches head.)
} Oh, I see! The solution is very elegant. Assume:
}
} A = the number of roads a man must walk down before you can call him a
} man. B = the number of seas a white dove must sail before she sleeps in
} the sand. C = the number of times cannonballs must a-fly before they're
} forever banned.
}
} The key insight here is that THE SAME ANSWER applies to all three
} quantities. Therefore, A + B + C = W, the answer in the wind.
}
} W = 8, as above. There are seven seas, so B = 7. Cannonballs are
} completely obsolete, and no longer used in warfare, so C = 0. Thus:
}
} A + 7 + 0 = 8
}
} A, the number of roads a man must walk down, is 1. It just happens to
} be a very long one. Proof (from fractal geometry) of the impossibility
} of ever finishing this task is left as an exercise to the reader.
}
} You owe The Oracle another Sinead O'Connor dartboard. The old one's
} just about had it.
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