An explorer in a distant land was granted an audience with the ruler
 of the kingdom.  After being taken through a large, ornate castle, he
 was introduced to the king.  The king was an impressive figure except
 for one unusual feature, his head was quite small, about the size of
 a small grapefruit.  After talking with the king for some time, the
 explorer could not contain his curiosity any longer, and asked the
 king about the size of his head.
 
 After a pause, the king explained that he had not always been a king,
 and had in fact, been a fisherman when much younger.  One day, while
 out fishing, he had pulled in his net, and found a mermaid in the net.
 >From the waist up, the mermaid was a very beautiful women, from the
 waist down, a fish.  The fisherman was preparing to take the mermaid
 to market to sell as a curiosity, when the mermaid spoke, and told him
 that she was a magic mermaid.
 
 The mermaid told the fisherman that if he would let her go, she would
 grant him three wishes.  The fisherman agreed to this, and asked for
 gold, jewels, and other riches.  Immediately, these appeared.  Next,
 he asked to be made a king, and to have a kingdom to rule, with a
 fabulous castle.  These appeared also.
 
 The mermaid asked what his third wish was.  Since he had been noticing
 how beautiful the woman half of her was, he told her that he wanted to
 make love with her.  To this, the mermaid replied that since she was
 only half woman, this  was not possible.  The fisherman then said
 "well in that case, he would like to  have "a little head".

Wil Stark, wstark04 (at) pobox _dot_com

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