I just received an e-mail that begins thusly:
Dear Boston University Instructor
Woo hoo! I didn’t know I’d gotten a new job, but… okay!
This is way better than the two times BU’s computers tried to fire me. “Our records show you no longer work at Boston University,” they said. Well I sure showed them! Not only did I keep my job, but I got hired as an instructor! Sure, I don’t have a classroom, or a salary, or any students to teach, but I have this e-mail, which I will now archive and forget entirely.
Don’t you actually program those computers? And they fired you a couple times. You’d think there could have been some way to avoid that. Some thing you could have done to prevent the computers from firing you. A way of stopping them. Oh well….