The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply. Your question was: > Almighty Oracle, whose name I whisper at night, whose toe-jam I am not > worthy to mix with peanut butter on toast, please answer me this one > question: > > What happens to all those little paper circles I make when I use my > hole-punch? And in response, thus spake the Oracle: } Your grovel needs a bit more circumspection; a mere flutter of a brain } cell or two would tell even a cringing human such as you that deities } do not suffer this 'toe jam' affliction. Like smegma, politicians, and } rap music, toe jam is endemic to the human race. } } Back to your holey query. It's a little known fact (actually, I'm the } only one that knows it) that paper has a latent intelligence. Trees, } being very intelligent creatures, have been a quite upset with } mankind's use of their fellow trees for purposes as benign as toilet } paper, The National Enquirer, and office stationary. They wanted } revenge. } } The process of cutting down a tree, mixing it with chemicals, and } pressing out paper does not remove the native intelligence of trees } from the paper; it merely causes it to become latent, waiting for three } sharp punctures to cause it to awaken. The hole punch was carefully } designed, by trees, in order to punch out the three loci of } intelligence in each sheet of paper (in the case of European trees, } four loci) into a container. This container is carefully designed so } that when the amount of intelligent circles reaches critical mass, the } container will pop open, spilling out the paper circles on the office } carpet. The unwitting human usually attempts several different } fruitless methods of retrieving these circles, first trying to brush } them into their hands, then picking them up one by one, and finally } abandoning the effort, leaving it for the janitorial staff to handle. } The time spent by each human in this effort has been estimated to be } one man-hour per week, and is increasing as the paper circles learn } more tenacious maneuvers. At the current growth rate, by 1999 the } average office worker will spend twenty working hours per day dicking } around with paper circles, instead of cutting down trees. The } productivity loss calculations for the janitorial staff is left as an } exercise for the reader. } } You owe the Oracle 10,000 paper circles, each picked up from a smooth } surface