Tough Room

Today was our company staff meeting, held in the back room of a restaurant in our building. My boss' boss, J--, wanted to mention that my boss has passed his 10-year mark with the company, and he enlisted his own assistant and me to think of something funny. (He seems to think that I'm the house comedy writer, and hits me up for this all the time - I had to spend two weeks insisting that I would not emcee his wife's 40th birthday party.)

With only a half-hour to work with, the other assistant and I came up with a flip chart, which would have pre-written messages that I would flip to as J-- read an accompanying short speech (which we were also to write. Example: J-- says "B-- is known for his great coping skills." I then flip to a sheet reading " GALLON OF SCOTCH IN THE CREDENZA."). Har.

The time came, I stood up and flipped, and prayed my boss would take it well. (He did.) I'd borrowed a phrase from SP for J--'s comment on my boss being a wise and supportive supervisor, especially to me. It went over well, and the other assistant stuck the sheet up on my filing cabinet after the meeting. So I now have a large piece of paper in my cube declaring,

"THE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME IS MY FRIEND."