Back in the days of 5.25-in. floppy disks, this pilot fish is working as a consultant at an engineering company, where the dress code is decidedly casual. One young developer actually lets technology influence his wardrobe choices; he’s partial to bib overalls, in part because floppies will fit in their big back pockets. He nearly always seems to have one there.
There’s one in his back pocket one day when he heads to the restroom in a bit of a rush. But it’s not in his pocket when he stands up to leave. It’s you know where. And it stays there as the developer seeks out fish to ask him what he should do about the only copy of his whole week’s software development.
Fish’s first thought: I’m glad you’re asking me what you should do! After a bit of thought, he gives the developer a bottle of lab alcohol, some wipes, a new floppy and a razor. Then he uses the new floppy to demonstrate how to carefully slit the jacket and remove the Mylar disk inside. He tells the developer to do the same thing with the fouled floppy, sluice the disk with alcohol until clean and then put it in the clean jacket. After that, he can insert it into a floppy drive — on his own computer! — and should then be able to retrieve the data.
Once the job is done, the developer is subjected to more than one joke, and a well-deserved lecture about keeping more than one copy of his work.
