"(select min(thing1.thing_id)
from
    thing thing1,
    thing thing2,
    thing thing3,
    thing thing4,
    thing thing5,
    thing thing6,
    thing thing7,
    thing thing8,
    thing thing9,
    thing thing10
--look!  no 'where', clause this is a 10-way cartesian product of thing!
)"