Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site tove.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!wjh12!talcott!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!tove!koved
From: koved@tove.UUCP (Larry Koved)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: 'Twas the night before Crisis
Message-ID: <74@tove.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Dec-84 18:19:59 EST
Article-I.D.: tove.74
Posted: Tue Dec 18 18:19:59 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Dec-84 01:27:57 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD
Lines: 46

'Twas the Night before Crisis'
.
'Twas the night before crisis, and all throught the house,
Not a program was working, not even a browse.
.
The programmers were wrung out, too mindless to care,
Knowing chances of cutover hadn't prayer.
.
The users were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of inquiries danced in their heads.
.
When out in the lobby there arose such a clatter,
That I sprang from my tube to see what was the matter.
.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Super Programmer, oblivious to fear.
.
More rapid than eaglest Batch Jobs!  Olosing!  Os Co
is eyes ere glazevhis ner were leomront of a screen.
.
A wink of his eye, ana twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Turning specs into code, h a jerk,
.
And laying his finger on the ENTER key,
The system came up, and worked perfectly.
.
The updates, updated; the deletes, they deleted;
The iuired; and the closing completed.
.
He tested each whistle, he tested each bell,
With nary an abend, and all had gone well.
.
The system was finished, the tests were concluded,
The client's last changes were even included!
.
And the client exclaimed with a snarl and a taunt,
'It's just what I asked for, but it's not what I want.'
.
.
-- 
Spoken: Larry Koved
Arpa:   koved.umcp-cs@CSNet-relay
Uucp:...{allegra,seismo}!umcp-cs!koved