Minor Amusements at the Office

[moon_custafer]

Trying to figure out if I can describe this generically enough that I don’t dox my workplace.

OK, so I work for a large-ish hardware chain, and one of my daily tasks involves sorting through scans of packing slips for recent orders. These typically include a PO# (Purchase Order #), which depending on the customer, may be some kind of alphanumeric code from their record-keeping system, or simply the project that the parts are going to be used for. A lot of the PO#s I see are stuff like [Town Name] Public Library, or 123 Generic Street.

And then, there’s [REDACTED] Plumbing.

Whoever places the orders there doesn’t believe in PO#s. In fact one of the PO#s I’ve seen them use is “NO TO PO’S” (sic)

More often, they apparently just use whatever phrase is crossing their mind at the moment they enter the order. Usually something to do with sports or the weather:

RAINY DAY BLUES
ONE MORE WEEK OF GOLF?
FANCY YELLOW CARD
PLUMBER TO THE STARS

And the one that really piqued my curiosity: SMUGGLIN WITH GLEN

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

…which depending on the customer, may be some kind of alphanumeric code from their record-keeping system…

I learned about one version of that practice from one of William Poundstone’s Big Secrets books, with the observation that words of ten unique letters are not common in English, and examining enough samples might allow you to deduce the word: an example he cites is “POLYGAMIST”.

I’ve encountered one of those in the wild myself, on clearance fabric bolts at the late lamented Hancock Fabrics; the word was “SPARKLEING”, misspelled for necessary letter uniqueness.

And the one that really piqued my curiosity: SMUGGLIN WITH GLEN

I smell a classic 80’s rock fan. (As well as a possible warm smell of colitas.)

[moon_custafer]

I don’t recognize the reference, and google isn’t helping.

[full_metal_ox]

I assumed that “SMUGGLIN WITH GLEN” was an allusion to the 1984 Glenn Frey song “Smuggler’s Blues.”

“Colitas”, Spanish for “little tails”, are the flowering buds of the marijuana plant; “warm smell of colitas” is a line from “Hotel California”, an earlier Glenn Frey song about shady business.

[moon_custafer]

You're likely right, but I also see why simply googling the phrase wouldn't turn up anything.

[full_metal_ox]

I have the possible advantage here of boomerhood.

[moon_custafer]

Just saw another order from last week, same client, with the PO# "EAGLES SUCK," but I don't know if they're mad at the band or the football team. Probably the latter.

The real mystery is why I'm trying to guess the inner thought process of somebody I'll likely never meet.

[full_metal_ox]

Heck, maybe literal eagles are being nuisances at the pier.

The real mystery is why I'm trying to guess the inner thought process of somebody I'll likely never meet.

Because you’re surrounded by and interdependent upon eight billion fellow humans, and the more understanding of their myriad and unexpected thought processes you can gather, the better?

[sovay]

The real mystery is why I'm trying to guess the inner thought process of somebody I'll likely never meet.

It worked for Leo Marks.

[moon_custafer]

Today's (rather yesterday's) PO#: FLY EAGLES FLY

[sovay]

Today's (rather yesterday's) PO#: FLY EAGLES FLY

I'm at third hand from this situation and have become charmed and invested by the invention of whoever is on the other end of these labels.

[moon_custafer]

I keep picturing someone rather Jimmy Buffet-esque. No doubt quite innaccurately.

[sovay]

Today's (rather yesterday's) PO#: FLY EAGLES FLY

Are these handwritten or entered into an online form? If the former, is it different handwriting? The competing opinions on the Eagles suggest more than one person.

[moon_custafer]

The scans I see are, I believe, packing slips for the orders? I’d guess the original entries are done on computer, although the scans often show additional notes handwritten on the printouts later.

The competing opinions on the Eagles suggest more than one person.

If the Eagles in question are a sports team, it could be the same person alternately praising or damning them depending on how they’d played the day before (especially if our person places bets on them). I should start making note of the dates as well and try to match them to, say, the Philadelphia Eagles.

[thisbluespirit]

LOL, those are great!

[larryhammer]

I'm going to assume that even if [REDACTED] Plumbing's accounts payable person isn't interested in a little Bobby Tables exploit, your ordering system's input will be well scrubbed by human intervention (if not by system design).

[sovay]

And the one that really piqued my curiosity: SMUGGLIN WITH GLEN

That's brilliant.