Short on words

At our annual Religious Studies faculty dinner tonight, my colleague V recounted a joke which appeared at the close of a recent article on Poland and which seemed to have universal relevance:

The former polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who served for 10 years, said the best way to describe Poland today was with a short story: “A group of children say to a rabbi, ‘Please tell us in a few words what the situation is,’ ” and the rabbi answers, ‘Good.’

“The children say, ‘Perhaps you can use a few more words,’ and the rabbi responds, ‘Not good.’ ”

The former president laughed, but then said that the story was not funny.