# What exactly happens during the Maintenance

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-happens-during-the-maintenance/252144>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [June 25, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-happens-during-the-maintenance/252144 "2004-06-25T03:59:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-happens-during-the-maintenance/252144/21 "2004-06-29T16:55:29Z")

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> [@gotpasswords](#):
>
> Awww… We need something to care about! If nothing else, it makes the hamsters feel loved.
> 
> All this cleaning - is the server living in an old fridge box under the El tracks?
> 
> As for the clock - I know it sounds odd to use a timer to fix a funky clock, but that sounds like a great job for a cron. Or you may want to talk with Com Ed about getting a bit more voltage. (Or just tap onto that third rail.) 😃

I’ve been to the Chicago Reader office, and while I’m not sure where the server lives, I wouldn’t be particularly surprised to find it in an old fridge box in the basement. The Reader is a free alternative newspaper, supported by ads, published weekly. It’s a pretty…casual…workplace. I picked up a copy at a ModFest\* in Chicago, and it’s an entertaining paper. I found the personal ads section to be particularly entertaining. Also that section was educational, startling, and sometimes frightening. All in all, I’d say that if you have an itch that you want scratched, you should go to Chicago, where you will find someone who has a similar or compatible kink.

\*Yes, the moderating staff gets together sometimes, though usually I don’t attend. No, there’s usually not a goat present. Yes, we talk about y’all. A lot. We talk about other things, too. No, it’s usually not a GOOD thing if we’re talking about you.

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**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-happens-during-the-maintenance/252144/22 "2004-06-29T20:03:19Z")

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> [@BJMoose](#):
>
> **Dex** , you forgot the part where they oil the hamsters. . . .

Thjis reminds me of an article in _Mad_ from the Sixties, showing big-ticket items–dams, ocean liners, and gorillas, with product literature we’re used to getting with appliances and such.  
The gorilla’s brochure includes this excerpt:  
_Wash your Gorilla once a month. (And more often, if you plan to be eating on the set.)  
Dry-cleaning or ironing your Gorilla will result in severe damage…to you, from a very angry Gorilla._ 😃

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