Apropos of nothing political….
This past weekend we spent a really nice day at our nephew and niece-in-law\’s house (is your nephew\’s wife your niece or niece-in-law? Beats me) and members of my wife\’s family – some of whom we had not seen in many years.
Not surprisingly, the talk turned to Audits & Surveys, Inc. (A&S).
A&S was very important in our lives. It was where I met my wife, while she was working there one summer. She got the job through her uncle, who was an office manager in the company\’s Test Audit Division (two of his sons were at the gathering). My wife\’s brother, also there, was the resident genius who ran A&S\’s computer division.
And if that weren\’t enough, A&S was also where I met Barry Sinrod, my co-author on “The Hopelessly Partisan Guide To American Politics”.
We started talking about some of the people we worked with at that time; who was alive, who wasn\’t, what they did after A&S, etc. One of them, Linda Kosut, has become a very successful cabaret/nightclub singer out on the west coast. (If you\’re reading this, Linda, congratulations. I know it is what you always really wanted to do.)
And then we got to Harry Shoobs.
Harry was, I am pretty sure, far and away the oldest Project Director in the Test Audit division. I vaguely remember that there were some interesting, and juicy, stories about his pre-A&S life (which might or might not have been true – I didn\’t know then and certainly don\’t now). But, regardless, he was a character and a half – so much so that just the mention of his name brought a smile to our faces.
Then my brother-in-law told us a classic Harry Shoobs story (which I had heard from him once before, but enjoyed so much that I was fine with hearing it a second time).
It seems that Harry got into some kind of a to-do with one of the women in the division – for all I know it was Linda – over whether women or men have a higher threshold for pain. You know, one of the countless “discussions” about nothing that people have in offices when they feel the need to waste a few minutes before getting back to work.
The argument started as just a silly diversion, but somehow became more serious. So the female participant decided to play her hole card. To prove women\’s superior capacity for handling pain, she triumphantly proclaimed “CHILDBIRTH!”.
Harry? He didn\’t miss a beat. He looked right back at her and said “Lady, did you ever get kicked in the nuts?”
I don\’t know if that won the argument. I prefer to assume that everyone was laughing so hard it didn\’t matter anymore.
Ok, there\’s my Harry Shoobs story.
Now back to politics, where accomplishing anything meaningful is often harder and more painful than childbirth or a kick in the nuts.
