I'm sure they had the best of
intentions. I'm sure there was a
committee, and the committee deliberated and discussed and compared
and contrasted. I'm sure that every color, pattern, shape, size, and
form in this
cubicle farm I work in has been approved by three
levels of
management, every single one of them making more than I
ever will. These are well-meaning people. Clear-thinking,
level-headed types.
But they screwed up big time. And now we must all go mad.
Just in case you didn't know this before, if you try and judge what
a carpet will look like by the one-foot-by-one-foot square that the
salesman holds up, well, mistakes will be made, and, in the end,
it's nobody's fault, is it? Everyone did the best they could.
This carpet is black, with beige, wiggly lines running down it, set
off by a bright yellow streak along each edge. True, the yellow
streak cuts through the optic nerve like a saw, but in the end it's
the beige lines you must fear. The lines are set so close together
that they transform an otherwise innocuous (if ugly) carpet into
what amounts to a gigantic op art installation.
This carpet is alive. It crawls. It creeps. It shimmys. It
shimmers. It twitches with an obscene, electric life of its own.
It does a thousand fantastic dances in the corner of your eye. As
you walk down the hall, the floor vibrates unbearably. People
keep their watering eyes fixed on the walls or the ceiling,
anywhere except on the horrible pattern which leaps from the carpet
at every step.
Perhaps this is part of the plan. Malingerers will no longer
loiter in the passageways. If you stay in your cube and keep your
eyes on your screen, nobody gets hurt.
Squint, thou employees. Your carpet loves you.