math

My friend recently pointed out, insighfully:

crutches + coffee = disaster.

It was further argued (by another friend) that

coffee + disaster = crutches

This is very nice, but it seems to me,

disaster = crutches

just as well as

coffee + disaster = crutches.

The crutches are because of the disaster, not the coffee.

I think coffee + disaster = laundry

Now if we add crutches to each side,

coffee + crutches + disaster = crutches + laundry

This is believable. Now, if we substitute using the original expression, we obtain

2 disasters = crutches + laundry

This make sense. Crutches from, say, a car wreck, and laundry from spilling your coffee. Two separate disasters.

Someone also pointed out that

disaster + crutches does not necessarily equal coffee.

Well, that's because,

disaster - crutches = coffee.

Think about it. If you had a disaster and you didn't have any crutches, you'd be stuck in a chair all day. If that happened to me, I would definitely drink a lot of coffee. Also, if we add crutches to both sides, we get,

disaster = crutches + coffee, which is just a rearrangement of where we started.