Here's a hard one..............

[Grativity]

An old riddle tells the tale of two fisherman who returned one day and made the following statment: "The ones we caught, we threw away. The ones we could not catch we kept." What did they mean?

[mikewg]

They meant the fish they didn't catch. That means the fish that they didn't catch, they threw away (hense didn't catch). And the fish that they didn't catch that they could not catch (since you can't catch something you have already didn't catch, kinda like the negative of a negative makes a positive), hense these are the fish they caught, those are the fish they kept. Let me break this down:

X signifies what they meant.
1 = Caught
-1 = Not Caught

1(x) = -1
-1(x) = 1
so X is -1, and that means that since X is what they meant, the opposite of what they meant is what they didn't mean. So they didn't mean what they caught, they meant what they didn't catch.

*pats self on back*

[mikewg]

While wandering around a wondrous lake,
I stumbled upon an festive Inn.
I sat in a crowded corner
And met two fishermen there within.

They told me of their daily chores,
And of their mighty sport,
They described the bass, the trout, the salmon,
And fishes of all sorts.

I asked them how their outing fared,
They responded, "Great, except...
What we caught threw away, friend,
And what we didn't catch, we kept".

And with that said, they wandered off,
While I pondered what they said.
And here I sit, still perplexed and thinking,
Pausing only to scratch my head.

So, I think and think, as the stars fade out
And as Night gives way to Day,
What is it that they did not catch,
but did not throw away?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[mikewg]

Lice.