Vil du huske?

[muckefuck]

All the time I've worked here, I've felt a peculiar resentment of interlopers into the staff restrooms by my work space. At times, I've had to fight off an urge to ask someone, "Do you work here?" But I never did because, what the hell, it's not like I ever have to wait for a fixture. And how are they supposed to know? There's no sign at all on the outer door (see, telling patrons where things actually were wasn't part of the architect's vision) and if the diminutive "Staff Men" sign at the upper corner of the doorframe were any more understated it'd be subliminal. Now it's moot: Rather than invest in a simple sign that says "Staff Only" for the door to the back hallway--a measure that would've chased off all but the most brazen offenders--my superiors decided to plump for a passcode lock. (For extra fun, it was installed and operative before anyone in my division was told the code.)

As one of the early adopters, I had the joy of spreading the code to my colleagues, and it delighted me to hear the range of mnemonics they came up with. It's four-digits--readily interpretable as a Gregorian year--plus an asterisk, so candidates are plentiful. I immediately plugged it into Wikipedia and looked at the list of stars born on that date. One of them was famous enough that anyone would recognise his name. You could go so far as to say he's at the apex of rock royalty. So, as I went about spreading the digits, I mentioned him to everyone as a possibility.

No one took up the suggestion. Pablo plumped instead for a rugged character actor born the same year. His name said nothing to my Thuringian coworker, so I gave as an alternative a celebrated Austrian soprano; she held out for a tenor and settled for a baritone. The third member of our small section said she'd never forget it because it was the title of a Rybakov novel. Two of the women in the larger department had a parent born that year. The department head said, "Wasn't that the old address for the building?"

Comments

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

Now that I know the code, can I come use the restroom? ;)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Now that I know you know the code, we'll have to change it before you get here...

[bunj.livejournal.com]

I remember the code to our restroom because it is the year "Superman" came out.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Odd that with 10,000 possibilities, yours and your brother's would only wind up three apart.

(Though I'm envious: we don't have a staff restroom at all, and must share facilities with hoi polloi.)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Don't be. It's really not any better, at least not since they came by last month and gave us the same shitty timed faucets.

I suspect the codes are chosen by the engineers rather than determined randomly so I wouldn't be surprised to find that they prefer ones which represent dates they can easily remember. Maybe between a dozen buildings you can find the birth dates of their whole families.

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Actually, they aren't that close. I realize now that I didn't clarify: my code is the year "Superman: The Movie" came out. So a few decades later.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

(Dude, I totally knew that's what you meant. lhn's response was lulz.)

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Us too. (It's amazing how filthy adult law students are, isn't it? I might as well work at the downtown Metra station.)

Although at least we finally have a bathroom at all on the staff floor since the renovation ...

[pklexton.livejournal.com]

Nu kender jeg også adgangskoden, men det gør intet for mig.