His Name Isn’t ‘Ben’ at all!
Recently I wrote about the small religious icon I purchased for 50 cents from a vending machine at my local Fry’s Electronics. It turns out that my 2 inch tall, made in China, pope isn’t Benedict XVI at all, he’s ‘Pope Jean Paolo’ which is to say Pope John Paul. I’m not entirely sure whether he represents John Paul I or John Paul II but based on his appearance I would guess John Paul II is who this thing is meant to represent.
All this is very awkward. Not only am I here printing my first correction/retraction but also I’ve been calling him ‘Ben’ in our conversations as he stands around on my desk watching me work. “Ben, do you think we need a unsigned int 10 for this table or an unsigned int 11?” or “Ben, I really just don’t like the way ‘do{’ looks in my editor when implementing a do-while loop so I tend to avoid them, what are your thoughts?” To be fair he never corrected my mistake, but how do you handle the conversation immediately after you’ve been enlightened about your error over someone’s name? Do you confess and apologize? Just switch names like nothing was ever amiss? Tell an inappropriate joke?
I’m sure John Paul and I will work it out, I doubt our friendship is on the rocks. Also, this probably explains why my dog has been giving me funny ‘what the hell are you doing?’ looks whenever I talk to John Paul.
All seriousness aside, candymachines.com clued me in to my faux pas with the following image:
Which is exactly the display that caught my eye initially at Fry’s.
Oh and as one last aside, a 250 count of Santos Figurines Vending Capsules goes for $48.00 plus shipping and handling of $12.75 which works out to $60.75. That comes to $0.24 per figurine. Before whatever other costs (fuel, person to keep the machine stocked) come into play, they made 26 cents. I imagine the big earner in this whole scenario is the person who owns the factory in China that makes these things.