Stanford

The most pristine building was the hippie dorm (can't remember what it was officially) which housed a lot of hippie types as well a constant stream of visiting guests from around the world. The wood in that place was perfect. In contrast was another building just as old that housed athletes. Here there was probably not a square inch of wood that was not nicked, dinged and battered. The hallway walls in these places were a shambles of bad lumpy patching. We would patch a hole and then generally try to improve the larger wall with a couple of layers of plaster.

I was given two master keys so that I could enter the various buildings I needed to work. However the buildings were open and I didn't use them. She asked me for the keys. What keys ? The two keys I gave you. I don't know. You don't know she said, that is going to cost you one-hundred thousand dollars. Turns out they were master keys and every lock in every building that those keys fit would have to be changed costing more or less a hundred thousand dollars. Then it got interesting. The master lock smith there had the codes to every lock on campus. The lock codes were secret and only he had them. If they fired him they would have to change every lock on campus costing them millions. He had job security and could not be fired. As it turned out I found the keys in the back of the truck on the floor with the plaster and tools. Who is going to guess the value of these keys unless one understands the concept of the master key and the ramifications.

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