Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Can You Believe He's Still Single?


I'm filling in for a friend on some job out in the Valley when the Gaffer instructs me and another Juicer to prep a 6k Par with a medium lens in it.

After the Juicer and I head the lamp up and round up the corresponding accessories, we pull out the medium lens from its case and discover that some gunk has melted onto it from whenever it was used before.

We obviously have get this stuff off before we put it in the light, and the Juicer sighs as he ponders how to go about this.

"Do you have a razor blade?" I offered, trying to be helpful. "We could just scrape it off."

"No no no... That won't work," was his immediate reply. Then after some more thinking he turns to me and goes, "What we need is something like nail polish remover. Do you have any?"

"Um... What?"

"Nail polish remover. You're a girl, right? Don't you carry some?"

I stare at him blankly for a moment, not quite sure how to answer that.

"No... I don't have any nail polish remover. I'm telling you, just take a blade to it and scrape the stuff off."

He then asks the Make-Up girl who just happens to be passing by. "Hey, do you have any nail polish remover in your kit?"

The girl thinks for a minute and kinda paws through her stuff before giving him the same answer I gave him and goes about her business.

Finally, the guy digs through his own tool pouch and emerges with an alcohol wipe in his hand.

"Ah... This will do." And with that, he proceeds to try to wipe the gunk off.

After a few minutes of wiping and scrubbing, no progress was being made. It was the equivalent of using a moist towelette to remove old gum from hot asphalt: not gonna happen.

Eventually, the Gaffer came over the radio again and asked for another light. And despite there being other guys inside to man the set, the Juicer copied the boss' call over the radio. "Here," he said, handing me the alcohol wipe, "You continue at it while I go inside." And just like that, he left me holding the bag on what was his shotty idea.

Great co-worker I have, huh? He refuses to take advice from a female co-worker, then proceeds to insult her by implying that all chicks carry nail polish remover (note: my nails weren't even painted), and comes up with a shitty idea that in no way would work. Then, when it's very apparent that his plan is going no where, he removes him self from the job and runs away, leaving me now solely responsible for the task all while still insisting that I stick with this useless idea. That, my friends, is male stubborn sexism at its finest.

But whatever. The second he rounded the corner, I tossed out the useless wipe, whipped out my razor blade and in less than a minute, the lens was as good as new.


2 comments :

Ed (sloweddi) said...

Classic
We had the same problem. Men would come in with a computer problem and Lynn, the site supervisor, would help them. They would insist on talking to the male tech as a woman would not be able to help them with a difficult computer problem. The male tech would look at the computer, scratch his head and then call over Lynn who not only was degrees in the subject but had LOTS of real world experience in computer repair and is one of the best techs around. She also trained most of our techs :)

A.J. said...

Ed - I'd love to see the look on your customers' faces when that happens!

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