March 3, 2011

A veritable cornucopia

I have the Beatles Let it Be swimming around in my head this morning. I am going to go out on a limb and guess you do not need me to post a video of that song to know what it is?
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Volume #134 of things overheard when travelling that cracked me up:

Location: In a truckstop men's room in northern Indiana.
Trucker #1 to Trucker #2 as they enter said men's room: I always use the kid's urinal 'cause I need the room.
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So I met with a couple of engineers yesterday. One of them I have known a long time, the other I had never met. As they entered the room I shook the hand of #1, and turned to #2, who I did not expect to be in the meeting. I extended my hand and said "Hi, Joe Average" and gave a business card. Engineer #2 said "Oh, I forgot to bring a card.  Nice to meet you." Engineer #1 interrupted to tell me "He has been helping me with this project".  The problem -- Engineer #2 never told me his name. In the course of the meeting and subsequent lunch, no one referred to Engineer #2 by name. As the conversation turned almost immediately to business, I did not have an opportunity early to ask him his name.  As the day wore on, it seemed impossible to ask.  How do you spend a couple of hours with a guy and then ask "What is your name, anyway?".

I have been doing this a long time, and rarely have I lost control of the situation this completely. I still have no clue who the guy was. I only hope he is copied on some return emails or something. I think I will call him Tony Pickett on my expense report for the luncheon.  I went to elementary school with a Tony Pickett and the guy kind of look like old Tony.
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Yesterday on the radio I heard a comedian tell this joke (paraphrased):

"I just got back from entertaining the troops. Yeah, Cub Scout Troop 197 over on the west side."

Way back in the dark ages, when I was a young 13 year old Boy Scout, I had to prepare and lead a campfire for an obscure requirement (XXX for those of you in the know). We were at summer camp and I invited five or six nearby troops to the big event. I lit the fire and then introduced myself. I told them my name was Joe Average, but for the rest of the evening they could call me Bob Hope, because I was there to entertain the troops.  I suppose the joke was not all that funny, but I think it was witty for an adolescent.

I do wonder if that comedian was a young Boy Scout attending summer camp at Ransburg Reservation back in 1975? It sure seems like the same joke to me.

The wife says neither joke is too funny.  In fact, her response was something like, "Wow you were a dork way back then too?".

Ouch.

6 comments:

Lacey said...

"I always use the kid's urinal 'cause I need the room."

What the...?

I'll admit I'm not too familiar with men's rooms or urinals, but "kids' urinal" and "need room" seems like a contradiction in terms.

Does this make any sense to you men?

Joe said...

Kids urinals are mounted lower on the wall. Thus the trucker was claiming he was "so large" he needed the extra room, since the urinal was further down.

Fred said...

Ah. Thanks for the explanation.

Jean said...

I'm glad Freddie asked.

Rita said...

I didn't know my husband was in No. Indiana, but I guarantee you he's likely used that line before.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I prefer to think of those as the handicapped urinals.

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