Today for a change I had a caller make me laugh,* I still had plenty of callers that almost made me want to cry - But it does suggest that there is still a thin sliver of hope for humanity if I ever rule the world.
I was asking the caller some standard research questions, a set of questions I have asked what must be thousands of times and are very simple questions like, “Where did you buy the item from?” I had got to the point where I had to ask what size box he had bought and like a lot of people he couldn’t recall which size he had bought and said he’d go and check. So far, so not very hard, but still enough to confuse some people.
I hear a few assorted noises from the other end of the phone and then I hear the caller saying, “I’ve measured it and teh box is about 15cm by 30cm.”
I wanted to point out to the caller that a shape 15cm by 30cm does not a box make, as it only has two dimensions and a box would need three. I also wanted to laugh as he had technically given a literal, if flawed answer to my inquiry - It did tell me what I need to know as I could work it out for myself from there, but the answer was written on the front of the box and usually most people figure out that is what I mean when I ask for the size of the box and so the caller is stupid by default for taking the question so literally.
Mind you if I ever get asked a question like that for research purposes, that is how I shall give my answer - Just to confuse the poor person at the other end of the phone for a moment or two and hopefully make them laugh as well.
*Luckily I held my laughter in until he got off the phone, as I suspect I would have got into trouble laughing at him down the phone.