The Tomato

      Joe, being the nice guy he is, offered to let me stay at his place while I waited for renovations to be done to my soon to be residence. Actually this wasn't too nice of him since he has lived with me since his creation. He gets a kick out of asking me to stay with him every so often and especially in times when it would be convenient to have a friend to stay with. Joe is not known for his sense of humor. For the purpose of this story though, let's pretend his offer is welcome and accepted this time. My family is very appreciative and find Joe a well mannered and pleasant person. (Ok, so I affect a voice when answering the phone in lieu of screening calls through an answering machine. Voice mail makes that kinda difficult anyway. At least I affect a polite, pleasant voice.) insisted I take the last tomato from her garden to Joe. Isn't she nice?

      Normally I would have brought the tomato to Joe's, since I'm staying there and all but this particular week I was house sitting. Therefore, I placed the tomato on his desk at work. In my hazy morning state I neglected to provide a note explaining the tomato's presence.

      As lunch time neared, I had a chance meeting with Joe and naturally inquired how the tomato was. The question was met with momentary lack of recognition and then horror. I briefly explained the tomato during his lapse. He recovered and laid out the events of his morning.

      Joe came into work to find this tomato sitting on his desk. Lately, the gardeners of EMC Software Engineering have taken to leaving extra produce, mostly zucchini, in the break room for all to share. Joe figured the the tomato was either misplaced or someone was playing a cruel joke on him. He thought it best to place the tomato in the break room rather than assume ownership and responsibility for it.

      After his riveting account of his morning from a tomato perspective, Joe ran to the break room only to find the tomato, which had been placed with the utmost care in a small styrofoam bowl, gone! He came back to where Pat and I were standing. Pat had become interested in the tomato drama earlier when Joe offered it to him in an attempt to save himself the 10 yard walk to the break room, We then proceeded to make various comments about the tomato and the devastation its loss appeared to cause Joe.

      One thread of that conversation was to send mail to the junk mail alias at work asking for the whereabouts of the tomato. Joe feels horrible about having casted aside a gift unknowingly. He sent out the message below in an attempt to redeem his tomato and self respect.

      This spawned an entire email thread with many different SWE people jumping in. Aren't we a fun bunch?

That's all I know for now... check back later for up to the minute news regarding this tragedy.