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December 13, 2006

Walking Under Ladders

There's this little suffix saying in our office that goes like this: "...just in case he/she wins the lottery."

It gets used like so: "Hey Jeremy, could you ask so 'n' so where they keep their Klampet file, you know, for future knowledge, just in case they win the lottery..."

It's a euphemism of course. What they really mean to say is "Hey Jeremy, could you ask so 'n' so where they keep their Klampet file, just in case they get hit by a bus?"

But people are incredibly nervous & superstitious about such things, right? I messed around one day when somebody asked me where I kept a particular set of files that only I had had to mess with so far. And the lottery phrase was used. And I cut it short and said "Nah, I don't play the lottery. But I can see why you'd need to know, I mean, what if I got hit by a train?" And it was like I'd just unveiled a homemade nuke in the middle of the room. People were all crossing themselves and stumbling backwards and fainting and stammering about how that's not what they meant. One or two of them would've probably started rattling their bag of bones & shaman sticks if they had remembered to bring them. Pretty darn funny is what it was.

So I pull that little rabbit out of my hat every once in a while. I guess that's probably pretty mean.

(I do not race trains.)

Posted by Jeremy at December 13, 2006 3:18 PM