Re: OT: Expat Piping Designers

>Not many doctors or lawyers take an idea and run with it/make it happen.
>Al, this is some chum for you, enjoy.

Don't bet the store on this. Not until you've learned more about Doctors Without Borders. Or the surgeons who fix cleft palates for kids from third world countries. Giving someone a life is a pretty good project. On the legal end, when was the last time anyone on this list ever did anything like pursuing a wrongful conviction through the courts for 5 years on his own nickel.

We all want to be real careful about stereotypes. The socially dysfunctional engineer geek who can't write a readable paragraph and never appears in public without a pocket protector is just as unfair as any other mass characterization. I have to admit that I do find lawyer jokes almost as funny as Bush jokes. The best engineer joke I know of is set in the French revolution. A priest, a lawyer and an engineer have been sent to the guillotine. The priest kneels in prayer for a moment and is strapped down. The blade is unlatched but does not fall. The judges talk among themselves and release the man deciding that his prayer has found divine favor. Next comes the lawyer, who speaks to the crowd about the real meaning of justice. When the blade is unlatched, again it remains in place. And again the man is released, on the strength of his brilliant oration on the brink of death. The engineer tells the crowd he has nothing to say, except that he would like to be executed facing upward. A murmur goes through the crowd about this silent but brave man who dares look death in the face. Again the latch is thrown and again the blade fails to fall. The crowd begins to clamor for the man's release, but the engineer holds up his hand for silence. 'You know, I think I see your problem here,' he says.

Christopher Wright P.E.    |"They couldn't hit an elephant at
chrisw@skypoint.com        | this distance"   (last words of Gen.
___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)