Friday After Hours

On Friday evening my colleague and I took a break from working on a deal and headed to Schroeder’s Café. The negotiator on the other side was in Australia and he had long since started on his weekend.

At Schroeder’s one can usually find plenty of seats---the spacious beer hall is tricked out in 100-year-old paneling and murals and doesn’t appeal to younger sensibilities. However, I had forgotten that Oktoberfest brings out the urge in everyone to party, and Schroeder’s was standing-room only. The polka band had started, and we had to shout to make ourselves heard over the din.

I was on my second beer when the text message, urgently requesting more information, came from Australia. That guy sure was dedicated. I booted up the laptop and picked out some numbers, adding them three times because I didn’t trust myself (no, using a simple summation function wouldn’t have done the trick, thanks for asking).

I shouted the amount to my fellow imbiber, and he transcribed it into a short e-mail, after rounding to the nearest $ million. If you want precision, call during weekday hours.