Welcome to the USS Caine

I have long since accepted that the folks managing Temp Town are not always -- or even usually -- the sharpest knives in the drawer. After all, if they were, would they be that close to Temp Town? Of course not. I also have long since accepted that they might not be the most mentally stable people out there. Given the number of crazy-ass temps, I can see that being contagious. Also, of course, many of the people who are directly responsible for managing temps used to be temps themselves. Anyway, the bars for competence and sanity are low.

We may have descended into "Caine Mutiny" territory here, though. As you know, some of the folks on this project have been here since the beginning, two years ago. Needless to say, they are socially bonded. They are planning to have a potluck lunch before Thanksgiving, and in preparation, sent out an email letting people know they could sign up to bring a dish and advising all of us to get ready to "eat, drink and be merry."

This might be the first time the use of a cliche has prompted a threat from management. Apparently, as soon as the project manager (the surviving project manager, as the one was called home to Jesus) saw the email, he rushed over to inform the sender of the email that consuming alcoholic beverages during work hours was "a fireable offense."

Obviously, no one suggested any such thing. As The Buffalo Springfield once noted, paranoia strikes deep.

In any event, I'm not sure what's going on here, but I think it solves the dilemma we had about what nickname we should assign to the surviving project manager. We debated Mini-Me, but decided the character ultimately became sympathetic and thus would not fit. The Brain also got some major support, and would have won if the other project manager were still around as the two could then be called "Drinky and The Brain," but I ultimately rejected The Brain as not quite right. The Brain is funny, after all. I currently am leaning toward Captain Queeg:

Naturally, there won't be a mutiny. We need the work, after all.