A good friend wrote me privately and I thought that I would respond publicly:

> Why such a negative attitude toward consultants?
>  Most of us are honest, and tend to be conservative in our billing.

You misunderstand. I wasn't complaining about computer consultants, especially
those that work on HP3000s. I agree. They do tend to be conservative in their
billings and are exceedingly honest.

I was simply politely explaining Jerry's joke. He misinterpreted the
punchline. In the story, the consultant *was* a thief, not a hard worker.

But the fact that Jerry came to his conclusion only points more to the way
that HP3000 people tend to think. Most of them are so honest that they don't
recognize blatant dishonesty when they see it (although I'm not sure what that
thought says about me).

I would bet if you were to change the fellow's title from consultant to lawyer
and you were to tell this joke at a bar convention, very few people (perhaps
no one) would come to Jerry's conclusion that the guy was a very hard worker.
Rather, I strongly suspect that most of them would guffaw at the joke, wink
and nudge each other in the ribs.

Some time I'll have to tell you what I think about lawyers.

Wirt Atmar