7/8/07
We just drove back from Northern California, and thus my back is seized, my wife is exhausted, and my daughter ate magic markers... BUT! I just heard the best urban legend in years. Apparently, if you push the "close door" button and your floor number button at the same time, the elevator goes straight to your floor without stopping! It's a perfect rumor, because, a) apparently it works, b) it's hard to prove it doesn't because you need people on other floors getting screwed, and c) by doing it, you're a total jackass. What could be better? Has anyone tried it?
My co-worker Gale and I do that EVERY DAY at the Insurance Job! What can I say? We are on the top floor of our building, and we are impatient bitches!
LFMD...I waved at your general direction when we spent the night in MD this past weekend on the way back to NC. We were in Towson for about 16hrs or so!
Scruggs! I wish I had known! I am south of Baltimore, but I would have driven over to Towson to see you and your family! Let me know next time you pass through the Great State of Mary Land.
I wish that were true. I am claustrophobic, so I absolutely HATE a crowded elevator. Thankfully, at my new job I come in on the ground floor, but I used to work on the 40th and my floor was the top of that elevator bank.
If I can get away with it (i.e., no one is nearby or I can feign like I didn't hear/see them coming), I punch the door close button as soon as I get on an elevator. I'll even hasten my step if I know that a big crowd is coming, so I don't have to share. If I see someone coming, I run up to pretend like I'm hitting the door open button, but I'm really jamming that door close button like a champ. I "sell" it, however, by putting on a sincere-looking face that seems as if I'm REALLY trying to save the door.
On more than one occasion, I've physically blocked people from crowding on to the elevator because we had reached the maximum recommended capacity. And I always trust OTIS [my man]!
So, I will be sure to try that suggestion the next time I have to go up in a high rise.
Mmmm, this would be great to try at our local multi-level mall downtown. My only hesitation is that I have a (probably irrational) fear that mashing the buttons might send the elevator into shutdown mode between floors or something. Twapped! Like wats in a cage! 8-O
Greg - next time you get nervous on an elevator, you should recall a great ditty by the Sex Police aptly named Elevator. If you can't recall it, get it on iTunes. It goes something like this:
"Jump on the elevator. That's what I'm going to do. Jump on the elevator.
Open your eyes and I'll tell you more about the elevator girl who come into my floor. I stood in line. I was waiting for days. One by one. How much did you pay? No charge she said to me. I felt her hospitality. Now think about this. I'll give you a clue - 38-24-32."
With that image, you may never fear an elevator ride again.
FWIW - Doesn't work in my building. I do it every day (mostly out of impatience for the door not closing fast enough), but our Otis Elevator stops whenever it's needed by someone between the ground floor and the fourth (my) floor.
whatever you do, NEVER press the door open button and floor #5 at the same time.....I can't even talk about it.
When I was a kid, I was visiting my Great Aunt and my grandmother and I had been in the pool and so were soaking wet getting in the elevator to go up to a really high floor. Then we stopped to let on some other grandmother and her little kid who got on and pressed all the buttons at the same time. Well, let me tell you that this fries the whole thing. We were stuck in that damn elevator for about 8 hours. It was a Sunday. We were in Portsmouth. Someone had to come from Norfolk to fix it. I dunno. The a/c stopped working and it was so hot and the kid who pressed all the buttons wouldn't stop crying hysterically and my grandmother was yelling at her and her grandmother. lalalalalalala....let's don't talk about elevators anymore!