Another case involves a newspaper reporter who tripped up a politician. ``Mr. Jones, you may recall that we printed last week your denial of having retracted the contradiction of your original statement. Now would you care to have us say that you were misquoted in regard to it?''

Questions like this, framed in verbal fog, are perhaps the only kind that have ever stumped an experienced politician. They recall Byron's classic comment: ``I wish he would explain his explanation.'' Similarly, when a reporter once questioned Lincoln in cryptic fashion, Lincoln refused to make any further statement. ``I fear explanations explanatory of things explained,'' he said, leaving the biter bit -- and bitter.

The obscurity of politicians may not always be as innocent as it looks. ``Senator,'' said an interviewer, ``your constituents cann't understand from your speech last night just how you stand on the question.'' ``Good!'' replied the Senator. ``It took me five hours to write it that way.''

The misplaced modifier is another species more honored in the observance of obscurity than in the breach. This creates an amusing effect because its position in a sentence seems to make it apply to the wrong word. A verse familiar to all grammarians is the quatrain: ``I saw a man once beat his wife When on a drunken spree. Now can you tell me who was drunk -- The man, his wife, or me?''

The ``wooden-leg'' gag of vaudeville, another standby of this sort, had endless variations.