Making the Tea taste good

[louiseroho]

In "Stranger in a Strange Land" Heinlein has a scene where Jubal Harshaw dictates a poem to one of his secretaries for sending to an editor and then for publishing. She says "there are lines that don't scan correctly" and he says something like "I always give the editor something to do. The tea tastes better with his pee in it." (I'll look up

Comments

[smoakes777]

This reminds me of: years ago I had a boss who was sweet when he was calm, but a raging asshole when in a hurry or upset. He told me a joke one day, by way of apology, of a man who told his butler 'from now on, I'll never mistreat you again,' and the butler replied 'from now on, I won't pee in your tea.' So, because of this joke, whenever I gave my boss his tea (which he drank constantly) he'd say, deadpan and distracted, 'thanks, did you pee in it?'
He would do this in the middle of meetings and in front of people who didn't know either of us. Never occurred to him they might not get the joke.

[ericavdg]

I'm an editor, and I maintain that most things I'm given to edit taste far better when I'm done with them.

[spiffnolee]

I agree. As editor and editee.