I was at a conference taking place at a local elementary school. The school administrator told us, that the school regularly received bomb threats. There was a hushed silence as she described the need to evacuate each time that happened, and the emotional tension that caused. She said "and if we don't answer the phone, they leave the thr…
I was at a conference taking place at a local elementary school. The school administrator told us, that the school regularly received bomb threats. There was a hushed silence as she described the need to evacuate each time that happened, and the emotional tension that caused. She said "and if we don't answer the phone, they leave the threat on the message machine". I said "if you want to leave a bomb threat, press one." The room exploded in the laughter that lasted about 15 minutes. The joke was arguably in bad taste, but it was also what everyone needed to hear right then, as it dissolved the tension. It was both the right time and the wrong time to tell it it. No one who was there criticized me for telling it, but I can imagine somebody criticizing me after they hear this story.
I was at a conference taking place at a local elementary school. The school administrator told us, that the school regularly received bomb threats. There was a hushed silence as she described the need to evacuate each time that happened, and the emotional tension that caused. She said "and if we don't answer the phone, they leave the threat on the message machine". I said "if you want to leave a bomb threat, press one." The room exploded in the laughter that lasted about 15 minutes. The joke was arguably in bad taste, but it was also what everyone needed to hear right then, as it dissolved the tension. It was both the right time and the wrong time to tell it it. No one who was there criticized me for telling it, but I can imagine somebody criticizing me after they hear this story.