This problem originally came to mind when I started work on a tool for comparing the text from stored procedures (http://jessesql.blogspot.com/2009/02/comparing-stored-procedures-part-1.html). I wanted to allow the option of omitting all comments from the comparison, which of course would require me to identify and parse out comments from the text. In my research, I came across the question of how to treat nested comments - the "order of operation" of inline versus block comments, nested blocks, etc., and that's when I came across the scenario that formed this question of the day. I have to say that I was surprised, almost to the point of shock, that commenting functioned this way.

Anyways, glad everyone seemed to like the question (maybe not getting it wrong, but in terms of learing something surprising).