ICK!

So Ms. Packratty arrived at The Very Conservative Corporation Friday morning to discover that the city water main up the road had broken again and the entire building was without water.

And not only does the plumbing not work, but because TVCC has a cooling system from the 1950s that relies on the water system for chilling power, the air conditioning is only working at about 1/4 strength.

Now, to Ms. P, the humane thing would be to send everybody possible home - especially since the main building houses a couple of hundred people and there are no working toilets. But TVCC did not ask Ms. P. Their solution? Four portapotties on the back loading deck, shared by men and women.

Ms. Packratty held it. She was unhappily reminded of the post-to-post treks in the station wagons of her youth, but the ... er ... fortitude acquired then stood her in good stead.

And, of course, by 8 p.m. it was uncomfortably warm and this was annoying too, since Ms. Packratty feels that some church somewhere should canonize Willis Carrier.

She is increasingly less impressed with TVCC's cheeseparing, uncaring ways. Ironically, it came the day after the annual United Way extortion session. She would have a higher opinion of TVCC if they skipped their United Way match and the endless hullabaloo and had an insurance plan that wasn't embarassingly bad. TVCC's biggest step into the second half of the 20th century was to start allowing women to wear open-toed shoes in the summer. With hosiery only.