Simanaitis Says
On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff
FUN AT WORK
EONS AGO, IN A summer intern during undergraduate school, my boss advised, “Don’t expect to enjoy your work; that’s why they call it work.”
What with teaching at the College of the Virgin Islands, working at the Society of Automotive Engineers, and 33+ years with R&T, I’ve never taken his advice and never had a real job.
Earlier tidbits here at SimanatisSays have already suggested this: See, for example, the Hokkaido Bear Caper. Here are other examples of R&T fun at work.
The Electrocuted Lunch. At an R&T editorial meeting, I forget why, we got into a discussion of electrical conductivity, particularly through salty brine. I proposed a test with the nearest brine solution, namely using a pickle from my lunch.
Sure enough, if you connect the ends of the pickle with ordinary house current, it sizzles and decomposes, leaving a burned portion through its center.
Don’t try this at home, kids. We’re professionals. Of one sort or another.
A Subliminal Influence. From time to time, an R&T test car would arouse mixed opinions. Not to influence my colleagues unduly, I devised a subtle clue subliminally suggesting my opinion: I’d drive the car in disguise.
A Subliminal Staff. At the next editorial meeting, my colleagues expressed their view, for once unanimously.
Extra points for readers capable of piercing through the disguises.
Motta’s Friend ジェニー and Honda’s HR Lady. On a trip to the Japanese Grand Prix, Wm. A. Motta, R&T’s Art Director at the time, and I decided to smuggle a 10.5-in. plastic model Japanese fashion doll into our Honda PR pal Kurt Antonius’s hotel bed (a variation of the Hokkaido Bear Caper already cited). We bought the appropriately miniskirted Takara Jenny doll and necessary paints at a local hobby shop. What’s more, being the artist he was, Bill completed the doll’s paint job with er… anatomical precision.
The next morning, Kurt, Bill, and I had a good laugh over it all. And, later, we heard that the doll was on Kurt’s office bookshelf among other memorabilia. Until Honda’s HR lady happened to pick her up and suggested she find other residence.
Yes, and from time to time, we managed to get out a magazine as well. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com. 2022
Simanaitis Says 
I can only come up with one ID for the R&T gang in disguise….that sure looks like Joe Rusz on the far right in front.
Yep.