Why?

Preferred response of two-year-olds to practically any question. Granted, an essential part of information gathering, but it can get grating.

A question seeking the justification or reason for something. Essential, yes, but quite tricky.

In a first year philosophy course, the prof has covered all the bases: Plato, Aristotle, the basic questions that philosophy tries to answer, etc. Students prepare for the exam by studying lecture notes. Mind you, this exam is like 70 per cent of their final grade.

They arrive at the exam. They turn over their papers. There is one question on the sheet:

"Why?"

Some people darn near went insane that day. I like the professor's style, though. The person who wrote "Because" got a B, and the person who wrote "Why not?" got an A.

Saige tells me this is an urban legend, but my friend still insists that it happened to his mom. He is apparently really sick of people telling him it's a myth. I'll leave the decision up to the reader.