IWHistory (2)

I was in London from 1972-1976 in the hope of getting a Ph.D. from Imperial College. This was cocked up with the same efficiency as my first degree (although this time it was not entirely my fault). When we had nothing else to do on a Sunday, three or four of us used to go into college. We occasionally did a bit of work, but more often than not we'd sit around chatting and getting pissed very quickly indeed on a 50:50 mixture of BP ethanol (i.e. the stuff which still contains 5% water, rather than benzene) and orange cordial. One Sunday this made us all quite playful so we hit the screwdriver draw and swapped the signs on most of the doors of the Public Health Section of the Civil Engineering Department, including putting the IQ-challenged deputy head of the department in a small broom cupboard. (This was very easy because all the signs were identical, including the positions of the screw holes.) Next morning the same IQ-C deputy head wondered into our laboratory looking for our boss. He saw the wrong name on the boss's door, of course, and turned to leave, perhaps to search elsewhere, only to find our boss right behind him, having just arrived. "Do you know who decided on these office changes," he asked, "and how long we have to move all our stuff?" Oh how we larfed.
They never found out who did it, even though they only had to check the names of the few 'students' who had signed in on the Sunday morning. Perhaps they didn't try. Perhaps I didn't deseve a Ph.D.