[TUHS] G R Emlin

[Andrew Hume]

at one point, Bell Labs instituted a new policy to segregate contractors by
making them wear a greenish badge. they marked the occasion by sending round
a memo showing what the badge would look like.

as soon as i got my copy of the memo, i immediately went to Brian Kernighan’s
office so we could ridicule this administrative missive. except, i found him cutting
the fake badge out and was faking a G. R. Emlin name plate. Brian remarked that
Vyssotsky had already been round earlier suggesting the same idea. the fake
badge was good; Jon Bentley used it a couple of times to enter the building.

	Andrew

> On Jul 20, 2020, at 6:42 AM, Doug McIlroy <doug at cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> 
> Coming upon this dedication in  W.B. Yeats's book, "Irish Folk
> stories and Fairy Tales", I felt a frisson of connection: "Inscribed
> to my mystical friend, G. R." Mystically present in the Unix room
> and on the 1127 org chart, G. R. Emlin took a place in our little
> community akin to that of fairies in Irish peasant culture. First
> encountered by Fred Grampp, G. R. manifested to others in various
> guises, ranging from Grace Emlin, whom I remember as a security guru,
> to a Labs-badged apparition now housed in the corporate archives
> (www.peteradamsphoto.com/unix-folklore/). My most memorable personal
> encounter was when I received from G. R. a receipt for paint for the
> water-tower project (spinrooot.com/pico/pjw.html) as part of a request
> for reimbursement. I passed the voucher up the chain of command to
> our executive director, Vic Vyssotsky. Unfortunately for G. R., Vic,
> despite his masterful ability to bypass bureaucratic obstacles,
> declared he wasn't authorized to approve plant improvements.
> 
> Doug