I don’t even think about it, it’s instinctual. Before we had a “smart” printer/copier with multiple trays, we’d have to send out a warning if we were printing something fancy, like a letter on letterhead or a check. The last thing you wanted was for Emily to print her Thursday night Cooking Light recipe on expensive Classic Crest Letterpress Letterhead (that was a thing once). So I’d channel my internal Red Adair and bellow out:

 

“Fire in the hole!”

 

Although technology now makes this unnecessary, I still love to shout it if only to hear my colleagues echoing my cry throughout the office, as though the Savin is about to blow any minute.

 

I love catchphrases. They are little insights to a culture. Here are some more of ours:

 

Nothin’s ever easy.

 

There’s a whole bloody ream of it!

 

Billy Idol gets it.

 

That’s **** we can’t fix.

 

We’re all bozos on this bus.

 

Horizontal or Vertical? You know, longways.

 

S&Co. staffer: Is this a sales call?

Cold caller: I wouldn’t consider this a sales call.

S&Co. staffer: Would I consider it a sales call?

 

Cold Caller: May I speak to whoever is in charge of the internet?

S&Co. Staffer: That would be Al Gore and he’s not in today.

 

Chump don’t want no help, Chump don’t get no help.

 

CHICKEN STORE!

 

That’s enough out of you, hair-gel boy.