Engineers on the Bus

I was on the bus (yes that happens a lot) and I sat near 3 men, all of them engineers. One was "fixing" a retractable pen using a large Leatherman pocket knife.

His cohort, who had slightly more common sense, asked, "Is that safe? If the bus were to crash you'd lurch forward and stab Terry."

The man with the knife replied, "I'd never stab Terry. I'd stab myself first." Then he continued shaving little pieces of plastic off the pen as the bus rattled down the highway.

(If you're curious, during the rest of the 20 minute ride their conversation jumped between varied topics such as eigenvalues, solving matrices, how to spot a future engineer in elementary school by his proclivity towards pen disassembly, and how "crusty" umbilical cords give them "the willies," although changing diapers are okay).