Remember last week, when that cruise ship caught fire and one man died? They had to dump all the passengers off in Jamaica and fly them all home? I work with a woman whose parents were on that cruise ship last week. She said they're fine, thank G-d. They were amazingly impressed with how professional and kind everyone was, she said. Apparently the cruise line chartered a DC-10 to fly everyone home, and every person with whom they came into contact was really thoughtful and apologetic about what a crazy experience it was. In fact, her mom was so happy with how they were treated under the circumstances that she is already willing to go on another cruise.

So, in honor of excellent service under extraordinary conditions:

A magician worked on a cruise ship.

The audience was different each week so the magician did same tricks over and over again.  There was  only one problem: The captain's parrot saw the shows each week and began to  understand how the magician did every trick.

Once he understood, he started shouting in the middle of the show, "Look, it's not the same hat!"  or, "Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!" or "Hey, why are all the  cards the ace of spades?" The magician was furious but couldn't do!  anything.  It was, after all, the captain's parrot.

Then one  stormy night on the ocean, the ship unfortunately sank,  drowning almost all  who were on board.  The magician luckily found himself on a piece of  wood floating in the middle of the sea, as fate would have it...with the  parrot.

They stared at each other with hatred, but did not utter a  word.  This went on for a day..., then 2 days..., and then 3 days....  Finally, on t! he 4th day, the parrot could not hold back any  longer and said..."OK, I give up.  Where's the fuckin' ship?"