I'm preparing a cryptography lecture and a result of Shelah comes up. It reminds me of a delicious little misunderstanding I was once involved in.

In Rodl's Extremal Graph Theory class, Gerry is presenting van der Waerden's Theorem. He says that he will present a proof by the Israeli Magician Shelah. This excites me a little, and I wonder if he is just a regular 'sleight-of-hand' type magician, or a real dark-robes type magician. Being Israeli, I suspect he is the latter, but this makes me skeptical, because magic isn't real. And so, distrusting him, I watch intently.

After seeing the proof though, I am forced to admit that this Shelah is indeed a magician. I say out loud, but under my breath, so everyone can hear: "As always, Gerry Tansey, you have hit the nail on the head. This man, if anyone can be called it, is an Israeli Magician."

"I said 'Israeli Logician'."