firstsgtmike
07-09-03, 02:52 AM
A psychologist working at the Pentagon decided to have himself a bit of fun.
He cut a stencil of the cafeteria and had copies run off. Taking one copy, he marked a number of X's on it. Next to each X, he made a circle. In each circle, he wrote a number.
Then he prepared a memorandum explaining that each X represented a spot where flypaper had been hung from the ceiling of the cafeteria.
The number in the circle near the X was the number of flies which had been counted on the flypaper at the end of the week when the paper was replaced by fresh flypaper.
The psychologist then "bucked" the memorandum to the next higher echelon.
Nothing happened. The next Friday, he marked up another copy of the diagram with his X's, circles and numbers, prepared a new memorandum, and sent it on its way.
Again, nothing happened. He followed this same procedure for the next couple of weeks. When after four weeks of nothing happening, he got tired of the whole business and gave it up.
Two weeks later, he received a memorandum asking where the "fly reports" were for the preceeding two weeks!
He cut a stencil of the cafeteria and had copies run off. Taking one copy, he marked a number of X's on it. Next to each X, he made a circle. In each circle, he wrote a number.
Then he prepared a memorandum explaining that each X represented a spot where flypaper had been hung from the ceiling of the cafeteria.
The number in the circle near the X was the number of flies which had been counted on the flypaper at the end of the week when the paper was replaced by fresh flypaper.
The psychologist then "bucked" the memorandum to the next higher echelon.
Nothing happened. The next Friday, he marked up another copy of the diagram with his X's, circles and numbers, prepared a new memorandum, and sent it on its way.
Again, nothing happened. He followed this same procedure for the next couple of weeks. When after four weeks of nothing happening, he got tired of the whole business and gave it up.
Two weeks later, he received a memorandum asking where the "fly reports" were for the preceeding two weeks!