Brain Fertilizer

The two men, John and Jim, chartered a small cargo vessel to transport their goods from the United States to Norway. They had several crates of all the important items needed for survival in an arctic environment: snowshoes, skis, gloves, boots, you name it, they had it.

Unfortunately, they hit an iceberg not far from an unhibatide coastal area of Greenland and began to sink. They had just enough time to grab survival gear for themselves for about 3 months, but the their cargo was lost. They made it ashore and set up camp. They were slightly worried, but expected that someone might come by within a week or two.

But the weeks went by, and no one came within sight, on either land or sea. Jim became depressed, and started sleeping more. John never gave up, however, and ceaselessly searched for some way to improve their situation. Finally, with less than a week of rations left, two out of the ordinary events happned before Jim awoke from his depression-extended slumber.

Ther first was that a single crate washed ashore: a box of hankerchiefs specially designed with slits in them so you could wrap them around your eyes and still see without getting dazzled by reflections of the sun off of ice and snow. And by a strange coincidence, as John was fishing the crate out of the water, nomad Inuits appeared. Not knowing who they were, John quickly hid the crate out of site behind a snowdrift, then quickly woke up Jim.

The chieftain was willing to take them to civilization, but was also crafty and sly; he saw no reason to help them for free when he might be able to make a buck. So he feigned reluctance and told the stranded businessmen that it would cost his small tribe much to go out of their way to take the castaways to a settlement. He asked if they had anything they could offer for the trouble...?

Jim began to sadly shake his head, thinking they had nothing, but John, being afraid they might miss their chance, broke in and said,

"Yes! We have snow bandannas! We have snow bandannas today!"