Listen: I planned on writing little daily comments in this space like, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Fortune cookie kinds of things. But as those of you who can’t figure out how to delete this site as your “home” URL know, I can’t shut up. Partly that’s because it’s easier to write a long piece than a short one. (Franklin spent months working on “Neither A Borrower,” as it was known, for short, around his shop.) And partly it’s because I can’t shut up.
So I hope you will forgive one that really is short (especially after yesterday’s monster). Indeed, it may become a monthly feature, because I love cartoons.
The one I wanted to share is by The New Yorker’s wonderful “Levin.” It shows two perplexed middle managers standing behind a computer. At the keyboard is a man — who is apparently something of a mystery — pecking away.
“I haven’t the slightest idea who he is,” says one of the onlookers to the other. “He came bundled with the software.”
Too slim? Hungry for more? OK, chew on this for awhile (not original with me, of course, anymore than the cartoon): 111,111,111 times 111,111,111 equals 12345678987654321. Never mind waiting for all the little dials on your odometer to rollover to 100,000 — there is a number worth waiting for. (If only McDonald’s had kept counting one by one.)
