Thursday, July 01, 2004

How many times did he…

Years ago I drove three coworkers to a day meeting in North Jersey. Among us was Ralph, a programmer whose dress and hairstyle identified him as a laidback holdover from the counter-culture 1960’s.
At lunchtime we found that I had lockedmy keys in the car. We obtained a hanger and each took a turn fiddling with it – rather feebly - trying to release the lock. All except Ralph, who stood to the side, apparently an uninterested spectator. But finally he said “May I try?” and I handed him the hanger. He turned away from me, smartly bending the top of the hanger as he did so; walked up to the car and in a blink the door was open. I could not have gotten in as fast with a key.
“Ralph, where did you learn to do that?” we asked. “Oh a guy showed me once,” he replied. But we were thinking…

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