This is an ancient shaggy dog story that was recently posted on the Shaggydog listserv. I first heard it in grammar school as “The Coosh Maker”– same story, however.

There once was a sailor returning to his ship. Just as he approached the edge of the dock, he slipped and fell into the water between ship and dockside. As he hit the water, the ship began to swing toward the harbor wall, and he would have been crushed to death … Read the rest...