> > IS the list down???
> So, you're asking something that may be dead if it's alive
> Hmmm, interesting

Perchance the gentle (or other) reader has not met the anonymous limerick
used to (attempt to) ridicule Bishop Berkley (after who Berkeley University
is named) long ago when he posited the "no action without an observer"
concept which was subsequently stolen by Johny come lately usurpers Quantum
Mechanics & Relativity and which sponsored the above question of Jinx's -

    There once was a man who said, God
    Must think it exceedingly odd
    If he finds that this tree
    Continues to be
    When there's no-one about in the quad.

Some wag (anon also) responded

    Dear Sir, your astonishment's odd
    I am always about in the quad
    Which is why the tree
    Continues to be
    As observed by,
                    yours faithfully,
                                        God

Note that the APPARENTLY joke like question about the tree (whether Jinx's
forest grown or that in the, perhaps, Berkeley University Quad) is far more
profound than it appears and is in some measure justified by both relativity
& quantum mechanics.

________________

A quick Google suggest that Bertrand Russell MAY have penned the original
and gives the following texts:
From this slightly disturbing page. The page writer does not really
understand Berkeley (who does :-) ? )

        http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/9226/solipsism.htm


   There was a young man who said "God"
            Must think it exceedingly odd
                If he finds that this tree
           Continues to be
            When there's no one about in the Quad."
                               REPLY
            Dear Sir:
                    Your astonishment's odd:
           I am always about in the Quad,
                    And that's why the tree
                    Will continue to be,
           Since observed by
                    Yours faithfully,
                                      GOD.

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