Friday, February 6, 2009

It's Just the Engineer in Me!

Tonight we ate a local pizza establishment. Not a national chain but I guess what could be called a regional chain. Amber colored adult beverages were offered. The "draft" beverages were offered in 16 0z. and 23 oz. sizes. From experience I know that at my rate of drinking the heat transfer from the room air through the glass to 23 oz. of liquid beverage would be such that the beverage would become warmer than I care to drink before I finished it. So I ordered the 16 oz. size which came in a plastic "mug".

Upon delivery of the beverage, I told my fellow diners of my suspicion that the mug could not possibly hold 16 oz. Of course my contentions were firmly dismissed by dw. My son, the chemist, thought that I could be right. Luckily the chemist was drinking the beverage from a 12 oz. bottle.

Near the end of the meal, I excused my self to the rest room and took an empty 12 oz. bottle with me. The diner to my left was assigned the task of guarding the mug. When I returned to the table I had a 12 0z. bottle filled to the crown (sorry that's the technical term for the cap).

Now the experiment (or demonstration) of the night took place! The water in the bottle was poured into what was supposed to be a 16 oz. mug. When the mug was full, I still had at least 2 oz. of water left in the bottle.

The manager was summoned and admitted that the server used the wrong mug! She had used a 10 oz. mug that is normally served with pitchers of this beverage!

I had two supposedly 16 oz.servings at $3.00 each. This should be $0.094 per oz. However I actually got 20 oz. which represented a cost of $0.30/ oz. more that triple the advertised price!

In the end the manager gave me a $3.00 credit, apologizing that the server grabbed the wrong mug. But the real satisfaction was with my dining companions when they were forced to admit that the old engineer was correct!

7 comments:

Junosmom said...

All I can say is that you did not drink enough beer if you were still capable of this computation.

Robin said...

OMG! That is toooo funny!

Did you compute the ramifications of that extra two ounces of amber liquid?

I wish this would have gone further...say, you were pulled over by the cops, who contend that you are inebriated and ask "how many have you had" and you ask them to clarify the question by saying "do you mean how many ounces have I had? Because I've had 3 glasses but I was shorted 2-3 ounces on them so altogether I've had...."

Since they think you're being a smart ass you are then arrested and you subsequently sue whereupon you get the bartender, the apologetic manager and others to clarify the OUNCES of beer,er, amber liquid you consumed...

We get the cops badge, send him to unemployment and he joins a security firm, begins drinking amber liquid heavily, is arrested on his way home and does community service and opens a soup kitchen...

It's all good!

Sepiru Chris said...

Good to follow your gut; of course, too much of the amber ambrosia, and you might just be doing that...

Unknown said...

And I'll bet you did it all without the little calculator on your cell phone?

Grannie said...

Chuck...only you!

Barb - St. Andrews Choir

pita-woman said...

I love it!

chuckmccky said...

Cell Phones have calculators?