gor[b] Paul Gorbould: Words and Pictures

Mac-tical joke

My boss bought a new iMac last week - one of the really nice ones, with a 7,000 inch screen and a sextuple-core processor and the R2D2 welding arm.

All week long, he's been pacing like an expectant father, and rushing back to his office to check the online shipping tracker. I get the hourly reports:

-It's in Central China!
-It's in Shanghai!
-It's in the South Pacific, 0°13'N 176°31'W, moving at 30 knots!
-It's at a truck stop in Tennessee!
-It's in the Green elevators, level B4... B3... B2...

Well, it arrived yesterday - shipped to CBC, and he was working from home. So, when the tracker said it had arrived and been signed for, he immediately e-mailed me asking for a report.

Instead, we found an old computer box, gussied it up and beat the crap out of it. Then I e-mailed him the following series of messages and images:

Hi,
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you need to know.
Rather than try to put this into words, I borrowed a digital camera. Please see attached.
I'm so sorry. Did you buy it on a credit card?
Paul

Hi,
More photos. I think that documentation is important in these circumstances.
Paul

Hi,
We had an emergency meeting in your office, and you should know that we're all behind you 100% on this. Please let us know if there's anything we can do to help.
Paul

Juvenile, I know. But this isn't an office where people play a lot of practical jokes, and it was kinda refreshing. It's not like we are going to start putting each other's staplers in Jell-o or anything.

But - and bite off those "my tax dollars" comments - maybe we should. I haven't seen or heard of a good practical joke in CBC's halls in, well, ever. I seem to recall vague, black and white stories of them in ancient CBC history books by Knowlton Nash or someone. And I know of a certain joker at Hockey Night, who waits for his employees to leave their desks, then e-mails sincere sounding love notes to other employees using the unattended GroupWise account.

But in general the corp is one serious place these days. (Witness fellow blogger Joe Mahoney's posted cartoon about jokes in the office today - though he also gets excited about a new Mac....)

Maybe all offices are like this, not the one on TV. Is there no room to play any more?

[Know a good office practical joke? Tell me about it in the Comments area! Please?]