Monday, December 1, 2008

Yes Commissioner Gordon!

Day 62 - Photo 62. There's a phone in our building that's red. Everyone calls it the Bat Phone. I walk by it every day. It occupies the space on an empty desk. And just sits there. I've never heard it ring and I've never seen anyone using it. Today I asked Angela (pictured here) who sits near the phone. "What's the deal was with the red phone?" Since I didn't work in that office I figured I shouldn't be getting personal with another department's phone. Red or not. "Oh, the Bat Phone?" She said. "That's the phone from Southern California Edison. They call us if there's going to be a brown out." "Oh." I replied, obviously disappointed with her response. "Why?" She asked. "Is there something wrong?" I told her I thought the answer would be something sexier then a power company calling us asking us to conserve electricity. I asked her if the phone every rings. "It used to. But, it was always telemarketers or the wrong number. It never rings anymore."

I thought it was funny that people actually call it the Bat Phone, no doubt inspired by Commissioner Gordon's direct line...the Bat Phone...to The Batman in the 1960's campy television series. And actually I wondered if those same people who called it the Bat Phone had ever seen the "real" Bat Phone.

Thinking about it, I asked Angela who her favorite Batman is. George Clooney or Christian Bale? I'd been burned too many times by people who've never even heard of the original television series. "Believe it or not...Adam West." Said Angela. Really! I could hardly believe it. I decided to go out on a limb and ask Angela who her favorite Cat Woman is. "Julia Newmar." She said. That anyone who really remembered Batman so well and was sitting next to the Bat Phone itself was almost...darn near mythical. That's the point when I decided Angela needed to be photographed with the Bat Phone.

Today I found a new friend and someone to keep an ear (any an eye) on the Bat Phone.

1 comment:

tony said...

newmar, like meow daddy-o!