I see some of the commenters on this weblog have been giving me the usual razzing about being invisible. What have I accomplished? they ask. They don't see the work I do behind the scenes. As a trained professional, I actually know something about the bureau I'm running. And I figure if I do a quiet, capable job, it will redound to my benefit when it comes my time to go back to the public for their votes.
It's like back in my college days at Cornell. I was never Mr. Big-Man-on-Campus, but I made my mark when I got the chance. One Friday night, one of the toilets in the dorm went on the blink, and let's just say it made the women's lavatory on our floor a rather unpleasant place to go. Since the men's room was always too gross for the ladies, they were in need of a guy who could fix the plumbing. The R.A. was passed out, and we weren't going to get any help from the maintenance people until Monday. This was a big weekend, too, since we were playing Brown in football and the co-eds all needed to look their best on Saturday.
Now I was never a flashy guy, not even in those days, and the fellows used to poke fun at me. "Bland Dan-na," I think was my nickname. But they weren't so smug when I grabbed the tools out of the trunk of my Karmann Ghia, went in there and fixed the john. I had to take just about everything apart inside the tank, and cannibalize some parts from a crapper on the next floor down, but I got it up and running fine again in no time.
I remember trying to explain to a couple of English majors what I was doing. None of them had a clue. But one guy heard me talking about re-seating the ballcock, and he seized on it. From that fateful night until graduation, all the liberal arts types called me "Ballcock."
Hey, I laughed right along with them. I knew who I was. Still do.
Posted by Dan at April 13, 2004 07:05 AM