Abbott and Costello On Math

I subscribe to an emaillist of "traditional" educators (we believe in teaching real math and phonics), and some of the emails I get from that list are priceless. Both of the following "problems", the first from Abbott and Costello and the second from Gilbert and Sullivan, are variations on standard Algebra 1 problems.

Abbott: You're 40 years old, and you're in love with a little girl, say 10 years old. You're four times as old as that girl. You couldn't marry that girl, could you?

Costello: No.

Abbott: So you wait 5 years. Now the little girl is 15, and you're 45. You're only three times as old as that girl. So you wait 15 years more. Now the little girl is 30, and you're 60. You're only twice as old as that little girl. ?

Costello: She's catching up.

Abbott: Here's the question. How long do you have to wait before you and that little girl are the same age?

Costello: What kind of question is that? That's ridiculous. If I keep waiting for that girl, she'll pass me up. She'll wind up older than I am. Then she'll have to wait for me!

Gilbert and Sullivan wrote:

Ida was a twelve month old

Twenty years ago

I was twice her age I'm told

Twenty years ago

Husband twice as old as wife

Argues ill for married life

Baleful prophecies were rife

Twenty years ago

Still I was a tiny prince

Twenty years ago

She has gained upon me since

Twenty years ago

Now she's twenty-one it's true

I am barely twenty-two

False and foolish prophets you

Twenty years ago