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Meeting | May 21 2004

D, I just sent you an email that bounced back. You are over quota at your host. I realize this is an odd way to reach you, but I tried everything else I could think of.

You may be interested to know that since I don’t have your phone number, I went to your employer’s website to look for a work email. The About page features a photo and short job description of everyone who works there. Everyone, that is, but you.

Being a sucker for company photos, I wasted a good half hour studying the faces. As I did this, I started to feel bothered by something but didn’t know what. Then it struck me: everyone in the company appears to be the same age. Have you noticed this? It’s eerie. The only possible exception is Bill, the Director of Venue Partnerships, who in his photo is wearing a chicken head.

Bill, Director of Venue Partnerships

Could it be that Bill is wearing a chicken head to hide the fact that he isn’t the same age as everyone else?

On a related note, I recently attended a meeting that included a woman who looked like a mouse. She had a mouse nose and mouse chin and even little mouse eyes. For some reason I got the idea in my head that I was going to blurt this out at the meeting. The way I imagined it, someone would ask me a question about website accessibility, and then, instead of answering, I would turn to the woman and say, apropos of nothing, “You look just like a mouse, did you know that?” I really thought I was going to do this. It was a great relief when the meeting ended.