>Last week I took some friends out to a restaurant, and
noticed that
the
>waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt
pocket. It
seemed a
>little strange, but I ignored it. However, when the
busboy brought
out
>water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his
shirt
pocket. I
>then looked around the room and saw that all the
waitpersons had a
spoon in
>their pocket. When the waiter came back to check on our
order I
asked: "Why
>the spoon?"  "Well," he explained, "the restaurant's
owners hired
Andersen
>Consulting, experts in efficiency, in order to revamp
all our
processes.
>After several months of statistical analysis, they
concluded that
customers
>drop their spoons 73.84% more often than any other
utensil. This
represents
>a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per
hour. If
our
>personnel are prepared to deal with that contingency, we
can reduce
the
>number of trips back to the kitchen and save 1.5
man-hours per
shift."  As
>we finished talking, a metallic sound was heard from
behind me.
Quickly,
>the waiter replaced the dropped spoon with the one in
his pocket
and said:
>"I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen
instead of
making an
>extra trip to get it right now."
>
>I was rather impressed. The waiter continued taking our
order and
while my
>guests ordered, I continued to look around. I then
noticed that
there was a
>very thin string hanging out of the waiter's fly.
Looking around, I
noticed
>that all the waiters had the same string hanging from
their fly. My
>curiosity got the better of me and before he walked off,
I asked
the
>waiter: "Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have
that string
right
>there?"  "Oh, certainly!" he answered, lowering his
voice. "Not
everyone is
>as observant as you. That consulting firm I mentioned,
also found
out that
>we can save time in the restroom."   "How so?"  "See,"
he
continued, "by
>tying this string to the tip of ...you know... we can
pull it out
over the
>urinal without touching it and that way eliminate the
need to wash
the
>hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by
76.39 percent"
"Okay,
>that makes sense, but... if the string helps you get it
out, how do
you put
>it back in?"  "Well," he whispered, lowering his voice
even
further, "I
>don't know about the others, but I use the spoon."