an unexpected analogy

[cellio]

This phone conversation with a customer (who I've met once) today made perfect sense at the time and only prompted the "wait, what?" reaction later:

Me: In your application, what's the difference between a Thingie and a Whatsis? [Names have been changed to protect the... oh, never mind.]

Him: Do you remember "I'm Just a Bill" from Schoolhouse Rock?

Me: Certainly.

Him: A Thingie is like the bill; when it's signed into law it becomes a Whatsis.

Me: But it looks like it can still change... you have executive orders?

Only later did it occur to me to wonder why he didn't just say a Thingie was a draft or a proposal and a Whatsis was the approved form... but it was more fun this way, even if it took me a while to then get that song out of my head. So now I share that earworm with some of you. :-)

Comments

[alfiechat.livejournal.com]

snort. That was funny. When I started taking voice lessons with my current instructor, she likes to do one classical piece and one fun piece per lesson. So I brought in my Schoolhouse Rock lyric book and sang Interplanet Janet. I love the analogy.

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

I always liked Conjuction Junction as an earworm of choice, but I have an affinity for railroads....

[cellio]

And that was the earworm that settled in when I told this story to Dani and then had to explain Schoolhouse Rock. (No, I didn't share it with him.) :-)

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

As someone who spends most of the day explaining things, the more colorful the analogy, the longer it stays. He's probably used to explaining things to people who don't understand proposals and approvals all that well.
-- Dagonell

[cellio]

That makes sense!

[bitsy-legend.livejournal.com]

I am protected! I was too old for Schoolhouse Rock!

[cellio]

I was too old for the science ones (didn't even know they existed until much later), but I watched the grammar, math, and history ones.