Personal tools
The TMBG Knowledge Base

Interpretations:Operators Are Standing By

From This Might Be A Wiki

"Operators are standing by"

The message you'd get when the operators are busy

"Smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, bounce their shoes off the end of their feet, and wish they could go home"

But really, the operators are just lazy and only in it for the pay

"Operators are standing by, poking holes in the ceiling tiles making jokes about their old boyfriends and days gone by"

The operators are bored and start shooting the breeze with other operators

"Operators are standing by talking about their portrayal on the TV where an actress sits with a headset in outer space"

The operators are probably talking about Lt. Uhura on Star Trek

"That's enough talking ladies"

Enter the obligatory cranky boss telling the operators to be quiet and to get back to work

"Operators are standing by smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, pass 'round a picture of a Mobius Strip and wish they could go home"

Boredom marches on for the operators and their switchboards until dismissal. n8jorge

The Johns are obviously enjoying the double meaning of "standing by" which is presumably intended by the employer of the telephonists to convey the sense that they are ready to swing into action, but it can also mean that the operators are not enjoying their work and standing around idly instead, so here we have a delightful description of exactly what we were not supposed to imagine, though it is probably much closer to the truth. --Balb Kubrox



Retrieved from "http://tmbw.net/wiki/Interpretations:Operators_Are_Standing_By"