ANCIENT JOKE

What’s so funny about this? In explaining today’s joke, you need to know that even though “dig” is most often a verb, when referring to archaeology (note the crazy spelling), it can be a noun used to describe a site where archaeologists are digging up the ground. The site or the entire expedition may be called “a dig”. In 50’s and 60’s slang, the verb “dig” also meant “to like”. You still hear the word used by older and/or former hippies, such as myself. If someone digs their work it can have this double meaning. The expression “getting stoned” also comes from the 50’s and 60’s (and the era of my youth). It’s slang for getting “high”, a term still used for the euphoric state one experiences when taking certain drugs such as marijuana. Of course, archaeologists are always digging around and removing stones, so we could say their work involves getting stoned. It’s an adjective here and not a verb, which would mean getting stones thrown at you. Finally, archaeologists spend time on the s