Maleen mentioned that we went to the party the other night. She forgot to mention the BEST thing! We sang happy birthday to a friend.
Now before you think that's not very interesting, remember that this is me we're talking about here...of course it's interesting.
My good buddy...we'll call him Matt to protect his real name...is a little shy at such large parties. He does not like large groups and this one was a doozy: 200 employees plus significant other, plus catering staff, plus homeless people who walked in for a free meal, etc. I turned to Maleen and asked how many people would like to celebrate Matt's birthday. She reminded me that it was in fact not Matt's birthday at all (it won't happen until April). I reminded her that I was cognicant of this fact and that that was not the real objective at all—"How many people do you think we can get singing Happy Birthday?" I asked.
Then we started singing. "Happy birthday to you..." (10 people singing now).
"Happy Birthday to you..." (about 94 people singing now).
"Happy Birthday dear..." (about 387 people singing at the end of dear, about 13 mumbling out somebody's name, and I, of course, was silent.)
"Happy Birthday to you!" (the 387 people rejoined us).
Wonderful.
I love social experimentation. You never can tell what people will do--but you can make a pretty good hypothosis, then test it out!
People are like sheep - they tend to follow a leader. It never ceases to amaze me what they will do. I remember a time when we were stuck in traffic, and my Dad decided that he could strike out across the huge parking lot to our right. As he took off, a whole string of cars followed him. It was actually just a dead end, and he lead all those cars right back to the original traffic jam, where they had to squeeze back into place. When I was in college I really enjoyed my sociology classes and the insight they shed on human behavior.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are so mean. But ok actually, I think it's hilarious.
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