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[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

There must be dozens of variations on the "man lost in baloon" joke. This isn't necessarily my favorite, but it's a version that I stumbled across this morning.  The first version I heard was about a mathematician on the ground. 

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and
spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me,
can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I
don't know where I am." The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air
balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40
and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west
longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.

"I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically
correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact
is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything,
you've delayed my trip."

The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're
going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.
You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect
people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly
the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my
fault."

[Friend Weller]

But wouldn't that put them both out in the Atlantic Ocean?   

Friend

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

But wouldn't that put them both out in the Atlantic Ocean?   

I promise to fact-check all future jokes that I post in the Chatterbox.   

[Irvine John Donald]

But the point was still made in a humorous fashion.  As management I enjoyed that joke.
Definitely close to the reality.

Thanks. LOL. 

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

This is pretty close to the version I first heard:

Two men are sitting in the basket of a balloon. For hours, they have been drifting through a thick layer of clouds, and they have lost orientation completely. Suddenly, the clouds part, and the two men see the top of a mountain with a man standing on it.

"Hey! Can you tell us where we are?!"
 
The man doesn't reply. The minutes pass as the balloon drifts past the mountain. When the balloon is about to be swallowed again by the clouds, the man on the mountain shouts:

"You're in a balloon!"
 
"That must have been a mathematician."
 
"Why?"
 
"He thought long and thoroughly about what to say. What he eventually said was irrefutably correct. And it was of no use whatsoever..."

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

[Alfred Hendrickson]

A young boy is headed out the door with a fishing rod.

His father asks, "Where ya going, son?"

The boy replies, holding up the rod, "Fishing."

Dad asks: "Do you have worms?"

"Yeah" says the boy, "But I'm going anyway!"