Mike's Abridged Edition

Michaelsen (who likes to call himself Mike and who is now retired) occasionally tells stories about his work as a project manager for a prominent Pacific Northwest A-E firm. In one story he was the architect's field rep on a California project that included an office for an executive. As the project completion deadline approached, everyone worked feverishly to finish the office before the arrival of the executive, who was just coming to check out the project but not yet occupy it. As the woodwork was being completed and the finish was drying, Mike noticed the empty bookshelves and thought it would look better if the shelves were filled with books. They didn't have any books to speak of at the construction site, so Mike measured the lengths of the shelves, went to a nearby used book store and purchased enough books to fill all the shelves. When he returned to the nearly complete office, he found that many of the books were too tall to fit on the shelves. But the contractor still had a table saw on site, so they used the table saw to cut down the books so that they fit perfectly.