In a message dated 9/3/98 6:20:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

>  Peek in on your average architecture/restoration consulting company on an
average night...

Hey, keep it down upstairs, I'm trying to sleep! Deadline? I thought you folks
were all playing volley ball last night. I imagine you have the potential to
leave some wicked burn marks on the floor. Kidding aside, my vision of slow
moving office workers is what I went through with the NYC Building Department
to get a special rigger's license.

You show up for the exam and the guy handing out the pencils does not know
anything. The basement is steaming hot. You wait a half hour for the guy to
show up to do the test. You get handed a piece of paper that says at the top
that manila rope is brown. The essay question is, "What color is manila rope?"
If you are wearing sneakers instead of work boots you fail the test. Then you
go into the boiler room, or what looks like the annex to a boiler room, and
play with some ropes and answer some questions. "What is wrong with this wire
rope?" "It is kinked and frayed." "What else can you tell me?" "It is 5/16"
diameter wire rope and it feels stiff." "Tie a knot in this clothesline."
"What kind of knot is that?" "A bowline." "OK, good luck with your future,
next time you can take the test for crane rigging." Another day is spent
getting fingerprinted. After waiting three months for the fingerprint
clearance you rush over to one building and shift gears down to slow-mo to
deal with the clerk whose blood flows like cold molasses. Inspection of your
papers, no comment, dead silence. He sends you to another building 30 blocks
away where you rush off to again shift down to slow-mo to get a paper signed.
You then go back to the first building and again shift to slow-mo and get
handed the card. Now you are now of the elite corp of contractors authorized
to lift up to 1,600 lbs on the exterior of a building in NYC, which means, you
can hang a scaffolding or several washing machines and a piano.

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