www.alphadictionary.com

Serendipity via The Three Stooges . . .

Professor: “May I introduce my three protégés . . . Mrs. Gotrocks”

Larry: “Delighted”

Moe: “Devastated”

Curly: “Dilapidated”

Hmm, ‘dilapidated’, ‘lapidary’ . . . . Indeed, etymological kin!

Similarly, hearing ‘old-fashioned’ recently on the radio, I sez to myself, I sez, “Fashion, facere (fact, faction) . . . .” Again, kinfolk!

Did you hear about the firefly that walked backwards into a fan? He was delighted, no end.

Shouldn't dilapidated mean stoned twice?

I admit I don't get the subject line, though.

“ . . . a time to cast away stones . . . .”

< di-, dis- asunder + lapidāre to throw stones, < lapid-em stone

Oh, also (I think this was on TV), your joke reminds me of this from a letter from Louis Armstrong:

Mary had a little bear.
The bear was very fine.
And everywhere that Mary went,
They saw her bear behind.

Just remembered - the letter was part of a collection about something or other seen on Antiques Roadshow.

Vital correction! I thought it might thus be, and I’ve just verified it. From 1935, the referenced opus was one of the earlier ones. At the time, the spelling was ‘Curley’.
Apologies to Stooge-o-philes the world over!

Then there was the old one--days of propeller-driven planes--of a woman who backed into the whirling propeller of a plane. Disaster!

This just in! Apparently, face, too, derives ultimately from facere. In fact, the OED lists well over one hundred descendants.

Then there was the old one--days of propeller-driven planes--of a woman who backed into the whirling propeller of a plane. Disaster!

My version has it thusly, How did the firefly feel after backing into a fan? It was delighted, no end!