Yo Ho Ho

I was out to dinner last night, and a friend at the table made the executive decision to order a bucket of beers (needless to say, this was a classy establishment). When the waiter came, my friend, perhaps seeking to seem fluent in the lingo of the locals, simply requested “a bucket.”

His order vague, the waiter responded, “a bucket of what?” Without thought, I injected myself into the exchange, blurting out the word “chum.” As in a bucket of chum. An order more appropriate for singing pirates.

Later in the night, I was being told a story about the rigorous recruiting process that financial firms go through to find the best of their potential new hires. I was told that they ask questions to evaluate one’s deducing skills. An example question was posed; my friend told me he had heard, from a friend of a guy that works in finance, that one of the queries was how many golf balls one thought could fit into a school bus.

Again, almost pavlovian-like, I responded. This time by saying, “seven. Seven gigantic golf balls.”

I don’t think I’d be cut out for finance. And so, I write.