A doctor was having an affair with his nurse. Shortly afterward, she told him that she was pregnant. Not wanting his wife to know, he gave the nurse a sum of money and asked her to go to Italy and have the baby there.

  “But how will I let you know the baby is born?” she asked.

  He replied, “Just send me a postcard and write ‘spaghetti’ on the back. I’ll take care of expenses.”  

  Not knowing what else to do, the nurse took the money and flew to Italy.

  Six months went by, and then one day the doctor’s wife called him at the office and said, “Dear, you received a very strange postcard in the mail today from Europe, and I don’t understand what it means.”

  The doctor said, “Just wait until I get home and I will explain it to you.”

  Later that evening the doctor came home, read the postcard, and fell to the floor with a heart attack. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital emergency room. The head medic stayed back to comfort the wife. He asked what trauma had precipitated the cardiac arrest.

  So the wife picked up the card and read, “Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti – two with sausage and meatballs; two without.”



*have an affair with, …와 관계를 가지다; expense, (출산) 비용; paramedic, (조산원, 검사 기사 등) 준 의료종사원; trauma, 정신적 충격; precipitate, 갑자기 생기게 하다, 일으키다; heart attack는 심장마비이고cardiac arrest는 심장박동의 정지이지만 같은 뜻으로 사용되고 있음.



*spaghetti는 유명한 이태리음식인데 여기서는 의사와 간호사 사이의 암호로 사용되었고, sausage와 meatballs은 그 모양 때문에 남성생식기를 의미하는 은어로 사용되고 있음에 유의하시오. 네 쌍둥이를 낳았다는 소식에 의사가 그만 까무러칠 수 밖에.