The Bucket Brigade.

[tedwords]

I think the best parts of Corb's new job involve the stories.

Well, Corb's always had his stories, as someone who's worked in the hotel industry, and they've always been entertaining. His new job is for Binkley International, and he works out of the house, taking in hotel reservations for locations all across the country.

For some reason, people just seem a little stupider on the phone than in person.

"You won't believe the call I had this afternoon," he said yesterday. "I answered the call as Binkley Tampa, and the lady on the phone screamed out, 'Aren't you supposed to be the Law Offices of Morgan, Morgan, and Stanley?'

"So I said, 'No, I'm sorry, this is Binkley's Tampa location. Did you want to want to book a hotel room with us?'

"And she screamed out, 'You can't fool me! I know exactly what's going on here...I was just watching a commercial on TV asking me if I suffered from hypomalachondria, and if I did, to call the Law Offices of Morgan, Morgan, and Stanley at THIS NUMBER! But you were just pretending to be a law office so you could get me to call and buy a hotel room!'"

"That doesn't seem like the brightest marketing idea in the world," I said. "How many people are going to book a room when they think they're calling a law office?"

"I know, huh? I mean, what are they going to say, 'Hmmm, I have hypomalachondria and just called an attorney to sue someone, but I got a hotel, instead. Oh well, might as well BUY a room!'"

"Doesn't make much sense to me." I paused. "Then again, maybe it's crazy enough to work..."

"She went ballistic! She said that she was going to bring us down and call the Better Business Bureau, the CNN Consumer Hotline, and Jerry Springer! She said she was on to us and she was going to make sure we didn't lie like this ever again.'"

"Did you check to see what number she had dialed?"

"Sure did. I asked her that and she read the number back to me. And I stopped and said, 'Um, ma'am, you did the wrong number.'"

"What did she do?"

"She got even worse! She screamed, 'I DID NOT!" and said she could prove it, because she had the whole thing recorded and that proved she had dialed the right number. At that point I knew she was a whole bucket of crazy, so I just laughed and told her to go right ahead, and thanked her for calling."

I think I like living vicariously through Corb. My job doesn't bring me in contact with too many buckets of crazy, these days.

Crazy buckets are good for the soul. They add a little spice to the day-to-day humdrum average. And, they're fun to listen to, to say the least. Still, I'm awfully grateful Corb's on the receiving end and not me. Although entertaining, I'd much rather be an observer...not a participant.