"Several summers ago there was a Scotty who went to the country for a visit," James Thurber begins in The Scotty Who Knew Too Much.The Scotty was contemptuous of the farm dogs he met. These dogs were afraid of a creature they encountered that had a white stripe down its back. The aggressive Scotty announced that he would take the creature on.
"Don't you want to ask any questions about him?" a farm dog asked.
"Naw," said the Scotty, "you ask the questions."
Undeterred by a squirting and the odoriferous result, the Scotty was soon ready to confront another animal all the farm dogs were afraid of.
"Don't you want to ask any questions about him?" a farm dog asked.
"Naw," says the Scotty, "just show me where he hangs out."
The farm dog showed the Scotty where the animal lived, and within moments, the farm dog was pulling quills out of the Scotty.
Infuriated, the Scotty announced that he had now learned how to fight in the country and would beat up the farm dog. He held his nose with one front paw to ward off squirts and odors and covered his eyes with the other to keep out quills. "The Scotty couldn't see his opponent and he couldn't smell his opponent and he was so badly beaten that he had to be taken back to the city and put in a nursing home," concludes Thurber.
"Moral: It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers."
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