The Rookie Joke

Have you ever been Snipe hunting?

Have you ever been asked to go and get a "Wire-stretcher" or a "bat-stretcher"  If so, then you are probably the butt of a "rookie joke".

Snipe hunting is where a group of friends take a person out into the middle of the
woods looking for Snipes.  You tell the unsusupecting person(s) that they should be
looking for small black birds that don't fly at night.  The trick comes in
separating yourself from your victim by telling them that you are going to go off in
the woods and run the Snipes in their direction.  Once they see the birds running they can catch them in a trash bag. This is a lot of fun because you can either leave the person in the woods, or you can circle back around behind them and scare the bejesus out of them.   Sometimes you can act like you are getting chased by a Park Ranger, or a bobcat, or the goat man- get creative!  

When I worked at Boeing in Corinth, I worked on a line called Power Feeder.  I helped build the cables that ran the power to the engines in the 747, 777, and AWACS.  I had only been working there a couple of weeks when I accidentally cut a cable too short.  I was sent to the tool room to get the "Wire stretcher".  When I got to the tool room I was sent to another shop where apparently someone else had it, then I was sent to another room, and another room, till finally this sweet lady said, "Honey, there ain't no wire stretcher, those mean guys are pulling a joke on you."  An hour later I went back to the shop feeling like a fool. 

I was reminded of this because there is supposed to be a new show this fall coming out that involves baseball and I heard someone say, "Hey, go get the bat stretcher" I didn't realize that this joke also branched out into other areas, but now that I work in a helpdesk where we get a lot of newbies, I think we should start our own practical joke.  

Everyone loves a good practial joke... don't they?