You know Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre-Dame? Great.
So Quasimodo has been the bell ringer for awhile now, and frankly, he’s been getting quite old. The arthritis in his hump has been getting to him, and he’s a tad senile.

One day, Quasimodo decided he needed someone to replace him as bell ringer of Notre-Dame. He searched everywhere, put up posters, even advertised, but no one fit the bell ringer persona. One day, there was an applicant who came to see him. This applicant seemed really enthusiastic.
Quasimodo asked, “Why do you want to be a bell ringer?”
The applicant responded, “Oh, my grandfather was a bell ringer, my father was a bell ringer, and it’s been my dream to be a bell ringer as well.”

Quasimodo said “Great, but you have no arms.”
And sure enough, the applicant had no arms, just little stumps.

But the applicant persisted “Oh sir, please trust me. Here! It’s 4PM? Let me ring the bell 4 times.”
Quasimodo was curious, so he let the applicant try.

The applicant went right up to the bell, leaned back and to Quasimodos dismay, slammed his head into the bell. The bell was ringing but the applicant looked terrible. His face was bleeding, his nose looked fractured, and some teeth were chipped.
Quasimodo said “That’s great, you’re done”. But the applicant continued a second time.
He ran up to the bell, leaned back, and slammed his head into it.
Now his face looked really hurt, his nose was surely broken and blood was running from his left eye.
Quasimodo tried to usher him out, but the applicant wouldn’t have any of it. He went up to the bell, leaned back, but before he could hit the bell, he fell off the side of the belltower.
Quasimodo ran down as fast as he could. A crowd had formed and he pushed his to the body.
A priest solemnly stood over the body, and said “Quasimodo, do you know this man?”
And Quasimodo said, ”No, but his face rings a bell”.


-MLF- edited this message on 02/17/2009 8:20PM