Good Enough for Government Work
May 10, 2004
The best thing that ever happened at my school system job was the day the lights went out.
I walked into the office after school as usual, to find that all of the lights in the building had been turned off. Everyone was working normally, computers were humming along, and no one seemed to think anything of the fact that the only light in the building was emanating from the glow of computer screens and a few small windows. I settled into my cubicle, turned on the computer and got to work. I didn’t mind the oddity, just because it constituted a change of pace from the usual mundane existence at the office. After a few minutes, this nice lady in my department came through, so I asked her what was up with the lights. She laughed.
“Mr. Frasier thought it would make the computers run faster.”
I laughed.
“He says he’s pretty sure that it made them faster. But that’s not possible, is it?”
“No—no, it’s not.”
“I didn’t think so. What an idiot.”
Indeed.