shanghai

by fred flynn

operator, give me central. this is central. i want to make a call. do you have a number? no. do you have a name? henry chow. do you have an address? shanghai. any particular place in shanghai? no, just shanghai. there area lot of henry chows in shanghai. this one is my friend, he knows the mayor. what is the mayor’s name? i don’t know. it might be henry chow too. do you want to hold while i check all the henry chows in shanghai? why not? do you know how long it would take? tell me. you are the operator. 56 days, 18 hours, and 6 minutes. that was quick. you must be a robot. that is no concern of yours. so you can not help me? do you have any other information about this henry chow? he hangs out on this place on the corner. i need a little more than that. he is a great guy. everybody likes him. he gives constantly to the community. sorry, i stilll need a bit more. something more specific. numbers and names. it should not be that hard to find henry chow in shanghai, idaho. you should have said shanghai idaho, i assumed you meant shanghai municipality in china. you should not make assumptions. society runs on assumptions. can you connect me to henry chow in shanghai idaho? there is no henry chow listed in shanghai idaho. see how easy that was? we aim to please. i did not like your attitude. i wish to report you to your superiors, you can do so on the site for your telephone service. i will do that. go ahead. one of us will be visited tomorrow by representatives of the republic and charged with wasting the republic’s time. i do not think it will be me, mister smarty pants. goodbye. * the interaction was recorded. the “operator” was an automated system, and its supervisory technician, df-67438, was reprimanded and demoted from technician red class to technician blue class. the caller, py-44323, a second year student at university 66, was also reprimanded, for frivolous use of public property (the phone service) and required to perform 100 hours of community service.