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The translation does them no favours, but you could definitely tell all the total failures and get a laugh.

I'm not entirely sure the author understood them.

Considering a lot of jokes depend on a pun or play on words - I was surprised that I could figure out almost all of them.

> Another person who was going away wrote to a pedant that he should buy him some books. But he regarded the request lightly and said to him on his return, “I did not receive your letter which you sent concerning the books.”

I'm fairly certain the joke here is something like, "you couldn't have known to say you didn't receive the letter unless you actually did get the letter." I'm guessing the translation isn't helping, but it's actually a pretty routine joke. Not a total failure at all!

Hi Jan,

Sorry I didn't get back to you with those spreadsheet edits, I must not have gotten your email!

Best, -Joe -- Sent from my iPhone

That's funny, your mom told me the same thing!