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February 17, 2007

The elevator.

The elevator in the hotel where I'm staying doesn't have a thirteenth floor, which isn't all that unusual. It is somewhat disconcerting, however, that the floor indicators for the two elevators in the lobby read:

B B
M M
4 5
5 6
6 7
7 8
8 9
9 10
10 11
11 12
12 14
14 15
15

Why does one elevator have a fourth floor while the other doesn't? You don't get to choose which elevator you get. Floors two, three and maybe four are used as office and other space and have a separate entrance, but why the inconsistency in the two elevators in the lobby?

I pointed this out to a bunch of giggling teenagers who were also waiting for the elevator. I had them pegged from the moment I saw them. Band geeks. They're easy to identify; they're the kids who are well-behaved and are having fun.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you enjoy "band camp" when you were young?

Meandering Michael said...

Dude, you wish you went to band camp!

Anonymous said...

Isn't 4 a bad number in Chinese culture. I bet you that's why they are gone. I hope you had fun in Edmonton, my 80 year old Uncle skates 50 km at the Silver Skate every year.

Meandering Michael said...

According to Norris (see comments above), #4 is bad luck in Chinese culture because the syllable used to say "four" is the same as that used for "death". I never knew that until now.

Strange that one elevator had it, though, while the other one didn't.

I hope I can skate 50km when I'm 80 years old! WOW!