Tom Guarriello, Ph.D.Psychologist. Founding Faculty, Masters in Branding Program School of Visual Arts. Co-host of BrandBox.Show podcast.

May This House Be Safe From Tigers

31 May 2008 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:37

In this brief monologue, Tom Guarriello opens with a comedic anecdote about Alex King’s routine “May this house be safe from tigers,” using it to illustrate how difficult it is to prove a negative. He then pivots to a serious question: why the United States has not experienced another terrorist attack since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Guarriello notes that government officials claim many plots have been intercepted, but he finds it hard to imagine why no further attacks have occurred. He concludes by inviting the three remaining U.S. presidential candidates to explain their perspectives on this lack of post‑9/11 attacks.

Chapters

Hi, it's Tom Guarriello. Anybody who's ever tried to knows that there's nothing harder to do than to prove a negative. Now, what do I mean? Let me tell you a story. Back in the '60s, there was a comedian. His name was Alex King, and Alex King used to tell a story called "May This House Be Safe from Tigers." King would walk into people's houses and he'd say, May this house be safe from tigers. And people would say to him, Alex, what the hell are you doing? May this house be safe from tigers. And he would say, have you ever had tigers in your house? And people would go, no. And he'd go, see? Okay, so why did that come to me? It came to me because for the last couple of days I've been thinking, why have we in the United States not been attacked again since September 11th? Why? Now, that's a question that I would like to put to the presidential candidates. Can you tell me why you think we have not been attacked since September 11th? Government people have told us that many attacks have been intercepted, and I believe they probably have, but it's still difficult for me to imagine why we haven't been attacked. And I'd be very intrigued to hear the 3 remaining candidates for president give their thoughts on why the United States has not been attacked since September 11th. Thanks, and, uh, see you soon. Bye.