αγγλιστι

 

The spoon

Last week, we took some friends to a new restaurant, "Steve's Place"

and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in

his shirt pocket.

 

It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils,

I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked

around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the

waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, "Why the spoon?"

 

"Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owner hired Andersen Consulting to

revamp all of our work processes. After several months of analysis, they

concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It

represents a drop frequency of approximately two spoons per table per hour.

If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips

back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift."

 

As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he replaced it with his spare

saying, "I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of

making an extra trip to get it right now."

 

I was impressed.

 

I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly.

 

Looking around, I saw that all of the waiters had the same string hanging

from their flies.

 

So, before he walked off, I asked the waiter, "Excuse me, but can you tell

me why you have that string right there?"

 

Then, lowering his voice, he said, "Oh, certainly!  Not everyone is so

observant. 

Andersen also learned that we can save time in the restroom. By tying this

string

to the tip of our you-know-what, we can pull it out without touching it and

eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the

restroom

by 76.4%."

 

I asked quietly, "After you get it out, how do you put it back?"

 

"Well," he whispered, "I don't know about the others, but I use this spoon."