The scorpion on the ceiling

Before I get into the real story here, I must share a joke to help bring context.

A man driving along the highway saw a rabbit hopping in the road. He swerved to avoid it but unfortunately hit it. The rabbit was dead. The driver felt awful.

A woman driving down the highway saw the man crying on the side of the road. She stepped out of her car and asked the man what was wrong.

"I feel terrible," he explained. "I accidentally hit and killed this rabbit."

The woman knew what to do. She went to her trunk, pulled out a spray can, walked over to the rabbit, and sprayed it.

Miraculously, the rabbit sprang to life. It jumped up, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped down the road. Fifty feet away the rabbit stopped, turned around, waved at the two again, hopped down the road another 50 feet, turned, waved, and hopped another 50 feet.

Astonished, the man ran over to the woman and demanded, "What was your spray can? What did you spray on the rabbit?"

The woman turned the can around so that the man could read the label. It said: "Hair spray restores life and adds permanent wave."

A couple weeks ago we were eating dinner at my in-law's house and my mother-in-law told a story about how the night before she noticed a scorpion on her ceiling. With my father-in-law out of town she said she picked up a broom and prepared to knock if from its perch by itself.

Then she began thinking about how she didn't want the critter to fall on her or near where she was going to sleep. So, she fetched a can of hairspray and sprayed it in the direction of the scorpion. She said it didn't budge.

After some thought she grabbed some wasp spray. She worried she might stain the ceiling but the fear of the scorpion was greater than some worry about a stain. She sprayed it and it fell.

She picked it up and, I believe, she flushed it goodbye.

After hearing this story, I asked her if the scorpion had waved at her on the way to its demise. The adults who knew the joke laughed. My kids had looks on their faces that seemed to say "I didn't know scorpions could wave."