A Literature Academic suddenly finds himself out of work. Not wishing to be idle, he decides that he'll take any job which is on offer - as a result, he finds himself going to see the Foreman at a local construction site. Having seen the Academics' background, the Foreman isn't so sure. 'I know', he says, 'let's try a test - what's the difference between a girder and a joist?...'
The Academic thinks, for a while, then replies 'Girder wrote Faust while Joist wrote Ulysses...'