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July 29, 2009

Overheard in a hotel lobby...

I'm waiting in the relative coolness of a local hotel lobby for a client who appears to have forgotten that we had scheduled a meeting. I'm not complaining, though. I'm getting lots of work done and am being entertained at the same time.

Two young ladies are working at the front desk, singing, gossiping, and talking about problematic customers.

They just finished talking about one of their co-workers who is turning the ripe old age of 35.

"I don't know," stated one of the girls, "That number just seems soooo high!"

"She's halfway to sixty-two-and-a-half!" declared the other.

"Wow!"

I waited, biting my tongue, but I couldn't help it. I piped up and corrected her.

"Actually, she's halfway to seventy. If she's thirty-five, then she's halfway to seventy."

The girls thought about it and asked me if I was sure. The first one started laughing. The one who made the mathematically erroneous declaration asked me if I was sure and started plugging away on a calculator to see who was right.

"I guess I should go back to school and work on my math," she remarked.

Right now, they're trying to reconcile their float and are attempting to negotiate the complexities of double-entry accounting.

Very entertaining, indeed.

7 comments:

Scientific Chick said...

When I first started reading this post, I thought I would end up bummed that some people think 35 years old is old. Thank goodness, there was none of that. Instead I'm bummed that young adults can have such a deficit in basic math skills.

Speaka said...

Are you really really sure? Why can't you get a fraction from adding two whole numbers?

Carolyn said...

Try having your staff give back change for $100. on a $10.00 exchange and when you ask them how they got that amount "dah...'cause that's what I entered in the cash register"! Scary!

Murray said...

With airheads like that on the counter I'm betting it was the Westmark. Pretty sad.

Meandering Michael said...

Nope, not the Westmark.

Jennybell said...

people make so many math mistakes! I can't believe how many people can't count back change!

Anonymous said...

Haha... that makes me think of a girl I work with (she's 21). We were having a conversation about these guys that work in our building. My (young) co-worker wasn't sure who we were talking about so she said "Who, those old guys?" They were all of 32 maybe :) I find it pretty funny actually
Chris