So the situation was getting tense

Tony_Montana · March 23, 2007, 9:47pm

So yesterday we were installing pipe supports at a refinery here in the bay area Ca. Things were going ok but two of my co-workers were getting on each others nerves.When I piped in:“Can’t we all just get along?” Then I broke out in song: “Ebony and iiivory play together in perrrfect har-mo-ny,side by side on the pyaanooo keeyyyboard baby why dont weee?”
Then I started repeating the first chorus.Then my co-workers joined in: “Ebonee aand iiivoreee play together in perfect harrr-mo-neeee,side by side on the pyaaanoo keeyyboard babeee why doont weeee !” Yep there we were three tough-guys at a refinery in the sun singing at the top of our lungs.I glanced around at the carpenters.some were smiling,some were shakin their heads…

-TM

LurkMeister · March 23, 2007, 11:50pm

Shamelessly stolen from Spider Robinson’s “Fivesight”:

“This happened to me just last week. I went into the city for a party, and I left it too late, and it was the wrong neighborhood of New York for a civilian to be in at that time of night, right? A dreadful error! Never been so scared in my life. I’m walking on tippy-toe, looking in every doorway I pass and trying to look insolvent, and the burning question in my mind is, ‘Are the crosstown buses still running?’ Because if they are, I can catch one a block away that’ll take me to bright lights and safety—but I’ve forgotten how late the crosstown bus keeps running in this part of town. It’s my only hope. I keep on walking, scared as hell. And when I get to the bus stop, there, leaning up against a mailbox, is the biggest, meanest-looking, ugliest, blackest man I have ever seen in my life. Head shaved, three days’ worth of beard, big scar on his face, hands in his pockets.”

Not a sound in the joint.

“So the essential thing is not to let them know you’re scared. I put a big grin on my face, and I walk right up to him, and I stammer, ‘Uh…crosstown bus run all night long?’ And the fella goes…” Tommy mimed a ferocious-looking giant with his hands in his pockets. Then suddenly he yanked them out, clapped them rhythmically, and sang, “Doo-dah, doo-dah!”