I just received an email from the MAA regarding MathFest 2009 that made me laugh.

I’m scheduled to give a ten minute (10 minute!) talk in one of the sessions. Those of you who’ve given a 10 minute talk know that it is impossible to say anything in that amount of time. (This reminds me of Winston Churchill’s quote, “I am going to make a long speech today; I haven’t had time to prepare a short one.”)

Why did the email make me laugh? Here’s a screen capture:

Clearly the author of this email realizes that all I can do in 10 minutes is present my abstract!

In case you’re wondering, I’ll be speaking about generalizations and consequences of the Japanese Theorem. Or as much as I can in only 10 minutes.