Reports of My Assistant’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
29 August 2007 at 9:42 am Peter G. Klein 1 comment
| Peter Klein |
Received this email today from Harvard Business Online:
One of your course planning assistants, Mary E____, will be expiring on 09/12/2007.
Was she told? Does her husband know? Does the insurance company know?
Oh, wait: “This means that your assistant will no longer have access to your courses or be able to assist you with course planning in any way.” Whew!
New material for those funny lists you see from time to time.
Organizations and Markets 
1.
Stephen Karlson | 31 August 2007 at 12:53 pm
Sounds like the railroad use of the term “dead” to refer to the Hours of Service Law (which forbids a train crew from working more than 12 continuous hours.)
Sample: a woman rings the superintendent, wants to talk to her husband.
“Oh, he can’t come to the phone, he’s dead on the B&OCT.”
The spouse is a bit startled at first.
“No, ma’am, he’s not dead dead, he’s dead under the Hours of Service Law.”
I can imagine the ensuing conversation about the strange slang of railroaders.