Re: WANTED: Dumb Tech-Writer Stories

[Jo Francis Byrd <jbyrd -at- byrdwrites -dot- com>]

A great laugh for a Monday, Leanne, Thanks for sharing!

In case anyone else needs a good laugh (you'll note I do NOT take myself too
seriously), I am prone to "spoonerisms" - transposing the first letters of two
words to create new words. I once described my scottie-poodle mix dog as a cross
between a "scootle and pottie." And I've always thought "dray, greary" skies
MUCH more descriptive than "gray, dreary" ones!

There is a hamburger joint here in Dallas named Fuddruckers (you can probably
see this one coming). A co-worker and I were going to lunch there one day. A
bunch of us were waiting for the elevator and someone asked us where we were
going. I replied #udd -at- uckers with all the assurance of one who knows what she's
saying - just as the elevator doors opened! With my usual luck, the company
president should have been on the elevator, but it was empty. As I started to
get on the elevator I realized I'd transposed the letters, started to correct
the pronunciation, THEN realized what had come out. I went fifteen shades of
red. Everyone else thought it hysterical.

Jo Byrd

Leanne Rollins wrote, in part:

> I probably shouldn't admit to this one, but it's really funny.
>
> A few years back I was a tech writer co-op student working at the head office
> of a large corporation. It was my first co-op job, and I was all eager to take
> on any extra responsibility they wanted to throw my way.
> One of my tasks was to send out broadcast email messages to all of the stores
> throughout the country. These message detailed price changes, corporate policy
> updates, etc.  One night I was working pretty late, and a bunch of my friends
> were waiting for me to finish up one last broadcast email before going to a
> nightclub. I was typing furiously, and my friends were all laughing and
> talking around me. The message detailed a price change in sheep manure, and
> when one of my friends asked what the message was about, and I replied "It's
> about the price of sheep shit". Without reading the results of my hastily
> typed message, I fired it off to all the stores, then went to the nightclub
> blessedly unaware.
> ...
> Fortunately, everyone who received the message thought it was highly amusing.
> When I left the job at the end of the term, my boss framed a copy of the sheep
> manure message for me, as a keepsake. It still makes me laugh every time I
> look at it.
>
> LMG