In message <ftqoe5$4ba$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Keith F. Lynch
<kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes
><Just.A.Newbie@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> I think it was a Keith Laumer story in Dangerous Visions about
>> a line of people, a very long line, waiting to get their papers
>> stamped. Once done they go to the end of the line and start all
>> over again.
>
>I went to the grand reopening of the Newseum yesterday. (It had been
>open for five years, then closed for six years for relocation.) In
>its previous incarnation it had been free. Now it's $20, except on
>the first day when it was free. So there was a long line to get in.
>(I think $20 is *way* too expensive, especially in today's economy.
>If it were $5 I'd go about once a year. If it were $10 I'd go about
>once a decade. I hope there's enough slack in their budget that when
>few people show up, they can reduce the cost instead of going out
>of business.)
>
>After I got in, the fire alarm went off. I saw no sign of smoke or
>fire in the large central atrium or anywhere else. I considered
>leaving, then waiting in another even longer line to get back in. I
>decided to stay put unless chased out. Nearly everyone else there
>made the same choice. After a few minutes, the alarm was shut off.
>There was, of course, no fire.
>
>I've been in places where an alarm went off over a hundred times in my
>life. Not once has there ever been a real fire. The one time I was
>in a real fire, there was no alarm.
>
>Unless false alarms can be made much rarer, people will continue to
>treat alarms as the audio equivalent of spam.
My mother lost her shop to fire. I work in a school where on at least
three occasions the fire alarm has gone off as a result of a real fire.
The correct name for people who don't take fire alarms seriously is
"victims."
--
Marcus L. Rowland http://www.forgottenfutures.com/
LJ:ffutures http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/
Forgotten Futures - The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
Diana: Warrior Princess & Elvis: The Legendary Tours
The Original Flatland Role Playing Game
|
