Dining Out.
> Last night, I went out with some friends to a new restaurant, and
> noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt
> pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water
> and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I
> looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets.
> When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, "Why the spoon?"
> "Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired a consulting firm
> to revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis,
> they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped
> utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per
> table per
> hour If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of
> trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift."
> As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace it
> with his spare. "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 impressed!
> I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly.
> Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string
> hanging from their flies. So before he walked off, I asked the waiter,
> "Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right
> there?" "Oh, certainly!"
> Then he lowered his voice. "Not everyone is so observant. That
> consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we can save time in the
> restroom. By tying this string to the end of our 'you know what,' we
> can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash
> our
> hands,shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 percent."
> "Hhmmm...After you get it out, how do you put it back?" I asked.
> "Well," he whispered, "I don't know how the others do it, but I use the
> spoon."