I support about a dozen and a half retail stores. Our busiest location called on day to inform me that the main computer in their office won’t boot, and is making a high pitched screeching sound. The assistant manager imitated a sound that sounded plausibly like a physical hard drive crash. So off I drove to pick it up and bring it back to rebuild it.

Before I even walked in the office, however, I learned the limits of the assistant manager’s ability to imitate noises. Instead of a continuous high pitched squeal, I hear a rapid beep-beep-beep – the standard keyboard error sound from a Dell motherboard.

So, I walked through the door, looked at the desk and see a stapler sitting on the ESC key.  Removed stapler, hit power switch twice, and walked out without a word.

I can turn the store manager and assistant both red by just mentioning that stapler to this day.

[Picture Source: robad0b (CC)]