April 01, 2005

Temperature-64.8 C -84.5 F
Windchill-84.90 C -120.8 F
Wind 8.6 kts Grid 084
Barometer 679.2 mb (10655. ft)
Lunch: Honey Dipt Chicken
Dinner: Pizza

Today’s controversy: The dishwasher and electricians have an ongoing feud and today it hit critical mass. W0 and VI1 decided to move the condiments that the electricians use around the galley as a prank but instead of taking credit for it, they blamed it on the dishwasher. The electricians then pulled a prank on the dishwasher and he retaliated by filling the electricians table with Tabasco sauce leaving no place for them to eat. The electricians then printed signs saying the dishwasher did not want any help and that he had accepted a bet for 5 cases of beer that he could do his job for one day without help, so please leave your dish and he would take care of it.
At every meal a bus tub of soapy water is placed in the dish room window and everyone is expected to wash his dish and place it in a rack. When the rack is full the last person is expected to run the dishwasher and put the clean dishes away. The intent of the joke was for everyone to start pilling his or her dishes at the window and the dishwasher to be confused. Well the dishwasher stepped up and did it all; in turn the prank was turned back on the electricians. At the end of the day the electricians never paid the beer, because it was a prank and they never intended for him to do all the work. The dishwasher was a good sport and agreed.
Then a third party sent out:
"while we all benefited from Wednesday's free dishwashing at lunch and dinner, we probably do not all know why, or how this occurred.
There are a few conditions you need to be aware of to understand the situation:
1. The dishwasher did neither conceive, create, nor distribute the flyers on the I-will-wash-your-dishes challenge.
2. The individual(s) that did, of course, did not sign their name(s) to it.
3. Having risen to the challenge, and succeeded, the dishwasher has found that anonymity is what the perpetrator seeks to hide behind and does not have the fortitude to rise to the challenge and pay up for having lost the challenge. (the dishwasher is a far greater man than I for having taken on the challenge in the first place, but that is a whole 'nother email.)
Basically, this was a juvenile attempt to humiliate someone publicly that backfired; You know the school yard bully that has been picked on all their lives, and so joins a tree-house-club and takes it out on others. This is the kind of behavior you see in corporate executives, and politicians (lacking integrity, unwilling to take responsibility for one's actions - or even claim it is your own, unable to address a problem with somebody directly).
It is more a part of what is wrong with the world, than what is right with it.
Integrity would call for a coming forward, a humble request to the community for forgiveness, and a paying of the debt incurred. It is quite sad to even have to point out what is wrong here.
Is this what we will be reduced to? It is a sad day indeed for all if it is."
Well the email managed to stir a few folks up which resulted in the following:
"Just to clear some things up.
The No wash wed has no political or even personal grudge behind it. Last week there was a practical joke played on our table involving Tabasco, this was worthy of retaliation. No wash wed was it. I personality was the one who typed up the posters (being the only one who uses that product). I am stepping up now because I find it wrong that people are unjustly calling a friend of mine a coward and a bully.
p.s. he still ain't getting the beer (:"
Which precipitated:
"As stupid as all this arguing is it's still kind of fun.... Just to let the everyone know the Tabasco sauce was there BEFORE anyone sat down.... so it's their own fault for sitting at a table with hot sauce.... as for it being THEIR table I don't see any names on it.... and besides you can never have enough Tabasco!"
Then:
"Hey everybody
It’s been a busy day what with a fire drill and all this chatting. I wanted to take a minute to settle things down and also to thank you all for your help. The "no wash Wednesday" was indeed a joke on me that I thought I’d turn around on the pranksters. It turns out there’s been a lot more talk about this than it probably deserves, and I intend to clear things up with all involved, but one thing I found out is how big a difference you make in my day. A day without any help showed how much you all make a difference in getting the kitchen cleaned up, the dishes put away and keeping our common area an enjoyable place to gather. I skipped my regular lunch and dinner and stayed late to finish everything up on Wednesday. It wasn’t overly hard work, just long. Never have I been as happy for Thursday. I realized I needed to express my appreciation to all who help out regularly and to those who take the few minutes to wash their dishes, rack them and run them through the dishwasher. It may take you five minutes, but all those add up and make my day. So, thanks again."
I think the above string shows some rather interesting things about life at the bottom. When removed from complications of normal lives the mundane is no longer trivial. We don’t have murders across the street, Terry Shaivo starving to death, traffic, George Bush and other troubling news so we tend to get spun up in things that just don’t require that much attention. I suspect when I leave here I will read this again and I will chuckle at both the controversy and our collective state of mind.
"THEIR table", just like high school we all generally sit in the same place everyday. So as time passes we begin to feel that a particular seat is ours and the table belongs to a group. I really don’t understand the behavior but it is really fun to watch when the summer population arrives and starts sitting in "our" seats at "our" tables.