One thing that I am finding of particular interest in all of this is some people are actually providing me with suggestions of stories to post. One such request came in today and so I figured I’d take the opportunity to relay this funny story.
Years ago, when the Statue of Liberty was being restored, Lee Iacocca sent out contributions requests and I made a modest contribution. As you would expect, a certificate (suitable for framing) arrived in the mail. Throughout my life people have either spelled or pronounced my last name incorrectly – including many college professors which I don’t quite understand. When I opened the certificate, I was shocked to discover that whoever recorded my contribution let their finger slip off the W in Whiteley and of course left out an E, and my certificate proudly stated, “Here let it be known, that Barry J. Shitley….” Imagine my horror. I figured this needed some immediate attention so I sat down and wrote Mr. Iacocca a letter. After the appropriate introductions the basic content of the letter was,
Dear Mr. Iacocca,
My name is not, nor has it ever been Shitley. I would like to request an immediate correction to this obvious error. Sincerely yours….
P.S. I’m grateful my name is not Whitehead.
Years later upon visiting the Statue of Liberty I looked it up just to be sure and sure enough, it had been corrected.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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3 comments:
This is one of my all time favorite Barry stories! The other, which you need to tell, is the bathrooms in China.
Ann in Mobile
This is a great story. It reminded me of the Tuscon Omnibuyer go live. One of the facilities is Holy Cross in Nogales, Supply Chain's 6 letter code for the facility is NOGHOL. Barry commented that it was a good thing we did not have a Holy Cross facility in Ashville (as the code would be ASHHOL).
I remember that story! Thinking of names, I guess parents could not have foreseen how company email addresses would manipulate a name. Our system uses your first initial and your last name. They could not have known that little Andrew would one day be forced to send coworkers emails from "aholle@.....". Or that little Sherri would become "slutz@....."
I have come across some interesting names in my line of work. These are names of toddlers I have known. The twins Mavelin and Javelin, twins Seymour and Seyless (not even kidding) and my favorite, Chukawukaadibia.
By the way, I accidentally stumbled upon another blog called "Barry's Journey". This Barry is a woman who was in a serious car accident. The blog's posts ended when she went home from the hospital, found myself wishing her a speedy recovery too.
So continue to get stronger each day, Mr. Shitley.
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