I just made one of the cleverest puns of my life.

Unfortunately, with all due respect to Jen, I could really have done with a physics graduate to hand to groan in appreciation. As it was, Jen just looked at me blankly (like any normal human being would), and asked me what the hell I was talking about.

Our dishwasher is broken at the moment, so we were doing the washing-up the old-fashioned way, and found ourselves fighting over a tea-towel:

“Tell you what,” said Jen. “Hang the expense! Why don’t I get a second tea-towel out? Is there some law of physics which states that you can’t use more than one tea-towel at a time?”

I couldn’t believe she had fed me such a line: “Yes,” I said, “it’s called the Toweli Exclusion Principle.”

Ouch!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T GET IT?

Damn, damn clever, if I do say so myself. On so many levels. Ouch! There I go again!

Why isn’t there a scientific equivalent of the word Philistines?

See also: The Einstein Joke