乖巧乖张以至于乖戾

Imagine that Russell Crowe arrives one evening at the Hotel Infinity. He asks for a room. The clerk informs him that there are no vacancies.

“But your sign says you have an infinite number of rooms,” Mr. Crowe says. “Is that right?”

“Yes, but all the rooms are full,” the clerk says, nervously looking for signs of irritation in Mr. Crowe.

The clerk recalls hearing of an incident at a hotel in New York involving a frustrated Mr. Crowe and a telephone that was hurled at a desk clerk. The clerk notes that there is a hefty telephone nearby.

Suddenly the clerk has an idea.

Before long, Mr. Crowe has a room to himself at the hotel. All the other guests still have rooms at the hotel, and none have been forced to double up. No one has been killed by a flying telephone or died in any other manner. What did the clerk do?"

And the classy response from an anonymous reader ("DzR"):

“Alas, Mr Crowe, the rooms are all taken,”
whispered the Clerk, a little bit shaken.
“There’s simply no space, a fact I bemoan,
So please, be kind, take your hand off the phone.”

“But the sign says infinite, here, take a glance!”
the Crowe demanded, in a gladiator stance.
“This sound like an incredible body of lies.
Now hand me the phone. This ruse I despise.”

‘”Sir, wait, perhaps there is a solution,”
the desperate Clerk offered, his sweat now an ocean.
“I’ll ask every guest to move one room to the right,
But I’ll need the phone, so please, don’t put up a fight.”

“Everyone moves one room to the right!”
the Crowe repeated, his eyes now bright.
“That will create a space that’s easy to find.
You, my friend, have a beautiful mind.”

[from the NYT, Tierney Lab, Click Here]