Following up on our conversation about practical jokes played on newbies in the workplace, a San Diego, California, listener shares his own story about being sent on an errand to find a wall stretcher. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Get the Wall-Stretcher”
We heard from Rabbi Michael Burke of San Diego, who wrote in response to our conversation about friendly hazing on the job. He wrote, when I was just 16, I was selling shoes at a mall, and one day my manager asked me to go to another shoe store on the other end of the mall and ask to borrow their wall stretcher.
I had started selling shoes when I was about 14 years old in my father’s store, and I began asking myself, what in the hell is a wall stretcher? What could a wall stretcher possibly do? I was pretty convinced by the time I reached the other store that it was a practical joke. When I got to the store, I found a young guy like me and asked him, and he confirmed my suspicion.
Wall stretcher, though, it’s actually pretty funny. Like, what would that do? I love it.
And if you’re smart enough, then you just treat that as an outing to wander the mall for a while, right?
Right.
Stop by Jamba Juice.
Yeah.
Just go hang out at Spencer’s Gifts, get some funny T-shirts, whatever.
We’d love to hear your stories about language, so call us, 877-929-9673, or write us like Rabbi Burke did. That address is words@waywordradio.org.
