Your reaction to the classic reminded me of a science project my daughter did back in 6th grade. We were driving along and she was fretting about what to tackle - the kids were allowed to choose a project but it was going to figure heavily in their grade.
A fly kept buzzing her and she made some remark about how fast the fly was moving. I added that however fast the fly was moving, he was also in a car moving at 60 mph.
She went "hmmm!" and began adding everything up, the fly, the car, the earth rotating, the earth’s orbit around the sun, the solar system in the Milky Way, the Milky Way through space. I forgot what number she came up with, but it was huge.
Anyway, she put it all together in a presentation and got an "A". I was a very proud mommy!
Whooohooo! :-)