Of Thimbles And Coffee Cups

What Frank knew about cars couldn't fill a thimble.

Well, maybe it could fill a thimble, but just barely. It definitely couldn't fill a coffee cup, however. And yet, here was Frank talking about dual overhead cams to Jerry while they both tried to suck down a couple of cigarettes during their 15 minute morning break.

"What you know about cars could fill a thimble," Jerry stated between hacking coughs.

"How about a coffee cup?"

"Well... maybe a coffee cup" Jerry agreed, grinding out the cigarette on the loading dock floor, "but just barely."

"But wait a minute," Frank said. "You said what I knew about cars 'could fill a thimble.' But you know, even if I knew a great deal about cars... even if what I knew could fill, say, the entire engine displacement of a 16-valve 8 cylinder Pontiac GTO engine, then guess what, Sherlock:"

Frank paused for effect, staring at the glowing ember that was the tip of his Doral Menthal cigarette, the verbal colon at the end of his last statement floating in the air expectantly.

Then he continued. "Guess what: it would then also fill a thimble. See? It would fill thousands of thimbles. If it could fill something big, then it certainly could fill something small. So your analogy, if I can be frank, is invalid and poor."

Jerry, however, found Frank tedious and had left a couple of minutes earlier, while Frank's verbal colon was still floating about expectantly. Frank hadn't even noticed that Jerry had left.

What Frank knew about people skills could fill... well... a thimble.