# Famous example of "You had ONE job!" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 5, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549 "2014-09-05T03:54:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2014, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/41 "2014-09-06T10:28:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The media made him the goat for what other players were responsible for. The media is an ass. > > I don’t think that’s really in question.😉 Disagree. Schiraldi did choke and Stanley did throw a wild pitch. The game was tied at that point, but it ended on Buckner’s error. The media didn’t make that up. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2014, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/42 "2014-09-06T10:50:05Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > Disagree. Schiraldi did choke and Stanley did throw a wild pitch. The game was tied at that point, but it ended on Buckner’s error. The media didn’t make that up. Missed the edit… The main issue here is that Buckner was a douche to me personally. So yes, I’m biased! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/43 "2014-09-07T04:23:19Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Heckuva job, Brownie! This rings a bell, but, I…can’t…quite…place…it… ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/44 "2014-09-07T04:26:24Z")
I’m reminded of the memo(?) sent to Melvin Purvis, to pick up Machine Gun Kelly at one of his hideouts, with date and time of Kelly’s presence noted. Purvis “forgot”. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/45 "2014-09-07T08:15:16Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > This rings a bell, but, I…can’t…quite…place…it… If you are serious about that, it refers to FEMA director Michael Brown and the poor job he did with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The “hekuva job” assessment was given by George W Bush. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/46 "2014-09-07T12:38:41Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > David Duncan, partner with Arthur Anderson (AA, the largest accounting and consulting firm globally in 2002) failed to abide by firm policy of **not** shredding documents associated with the Enron investigation. This resulted in a AA being convicted on “obstruction of justice” charges (although overturned in 2005) and the entire firm going out of business (85,000 employees worldwide). All because of one man’s poor judgment and lack of integrity. Out of business? They changed names. > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Nitpick: Santa _Anna_. Santa Anna/Santa Ana is like Cortez/Cortés, **Timetrvlr** was using the Spanish spelling. ---
**Author:** ![pojimba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@pojimba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pojimba)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/47 "2014-09-07T13:23:46Z")
From what I can tell, the engineer was the main culprit in the Lac-Megantic train derailment. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/48 "2014-09-07T15:38:35Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Out of business? They changed names. Yes and no. There is still an Arthur Andersen holding company, but they are out of the accounting (and practically all other) business. If you are thinking of Accenture, that was split off before the Enron thing. There is an attempt by former employees to buy the name and resurrect the company. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/49 "2014-09-07T16:46:37Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Out of business? They changed names. No, Andersen Consulting—which had already split off from AA—is now Accenture but it’s not an accounting firm. Arthur Andersen still exists in name but it lost all its accounting licenses and the other Big Six firms split up its accounting business. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/50 "2014-09-07T17:37:11Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > Missed the edit… > > The main issue here is that Buckner was a douche to me personally. So yes, I’m biased! > 🙂 Fair enough.😉 But what happened to Buckner is fairly typical of famous scapegoats in other sporting and other disasters. A string of mistakes and screw-ups by a series of people creates a situation where one more will be fatal. The guy who makes the final mistake ends up being saddled with the entire blame. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/51 "2014-09-07T17:48:31Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > If you are serious about that, it refers to FEMA director Michael Brown and the poor job he did with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The “hekuva job” assessment was given by George W Bush. _Whoosh_ ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/52 "2014-09-07T18:17:06Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Sounds like another story. Turn a left-hand screw clockwise and it won’t go in at all. I did a little googling, and it looks like the trouble was that the bolt was supposed to be inserted head down. That’s unusual; ordinarily you’d insert a bolt head up so that if the nut falls off, there’s a chance the bolt will stay in place, but once in a while the bolt head interferes with something on the top side and you have to put it in upside down. That’s the best I can understand the story. > [@Gatopescado](#): > > I nominate The Arch Duke’s driver. Yeah, he definitely had one job (driving) and he definitely failed to do that when he let the car stall in that alley. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/53 "2014-09-07T19:34:39Z")
The single best example I can think of here is when Armando Galarraga pitched a nearly perfect game - that was ruined by a bad call by the umpire. That guy literally had one job - to determine whether the runner was safe or not. And he screwed it up. I am terribly heartened to hear how gracious Galarraga was about it though. (This may or may not qualify as a historical disaster, depending on how you feel about baseball.) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/54 "2014-09-07T21:18:22Z")
Boston-based band Slide has an album called “Forgiving Buckner” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/55 "2014-09-08T04:34:36Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > C’mon [Stanislav Petrov](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov), you had ONE job! When the alarm goes off, you push the big [red button](http://z1.zidbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/nuclear-launch11-620x325.jpg&t=b5d9ddafca7953e14a594ff8b88e98af)! Great Minds think alike, because I’m here to post another guy who _averted_ catastrophe by not doing his job. **Vasili Arkhipov** , the other Soviet Officer who single-handedly saved the world, during the Cuban Missle Crisis. - [Vasily Arkhipov - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov)\* ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/56 "2014-09-09T00:32:07Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Great Minds think alike, because I’m here to post another guy who _averted_ catastrophe by not doing his job. > > **Vasili Arkhipov** , the other Soviet Officer who single-handedly saved the world, during the Cuban Missle Crisis. > > - [Vasily Arkhipov - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov)\* Ah, but these guys who do not trigger nuclear apocalypse had many sources of information , and they ignored the (designed to be ) “objective” but electronic (and hence unreliable ? ) information… so they did their job properly. Chernobyl Guy… He only had to know that if you do a fast shut down, you must wait for many hours before restarting… it made the test unsafe to do. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/57 "2014-09-09T16:34:36Z")
Beatty’s flag lieutenant at Jutland? He had ONE job, that of handling communications. And he failed - several times, actually. When the signal to change course from Beatty (who was with the battlecuisers) failed to reach the battleships in the 5th Squadron, the two units got separated at the worst possible time - i.e, just as Beatty’s battlecruisers made contact with the German battlecruisers. The outcome of that part of the battle could have been quite different, had the four battleships from 5th squadron been present. As it was, two battlecruisers were lost. The another signal mishap led to the German ship Derfflinger not being engaged at all. And after the battleships of the 5th finally joined and the time came to turn to the North (to bring the German fleet within striking range of the Grand Fleet’s main body of battleships), the signal lieutenant hoisted the signal to turn, but didn’t haul it down (signal to execute) for several minutes, eventually having the 5th turn on its own initiative. And late. True, Jutland wasn’t a complete disaster - but it sure wasn’t the Royal Navy’s finest hour, either. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/58 "2014-09-09T17:45:43Z")
All Fred Noonan had to do was find the \*only \*island in the region for Amelia Earhart, after getting _right to_ the _Itasca_. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/59 "2014-09-09T18:15:09Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > which is why the Marine Corps generally maintains older, ostensibly less capable systems which have an established history of reliable performance. > > Stranger That, and the jarheads are perpetually broke compared to the other 3 services, and choose to spend their money elsewhere. (and, I suspect, having known quite a few marines, they just get a masochistic thrill out of doing things the hard way) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549/60 "2014-09-09T18:45:54Z")
Guys don’t make passes at girls with molasses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-example-of-you-had-one-job/697549.md?page=4)