Coworkers Discover They're Brothers

After working side by side for weeks, two coworkers discovered that they are actually siblings brought together by a series of incredible circumstances.

Gary Nisbet and Randy Joubert, who share the same parents, were adopted and raised by separate families in neighboring Maine towns, never knowing the other one existed. They attended rival high schools, moved to the same town of Waldoboro, Maine, and both wound up working for the same company, Dow Furniture.

The two rode side by side in a delivery truck and slowly put the pieces together.

"Something clicked with me," Randy said. "So I got him up by the truck and said Gary, this is going to sound bizarre, but were you adopted?"

Gary, somewhat perplexed, confirmed that he was in fact adopted. After comparing some notes -- dates of birth, and finally birth parents names -- they stared at each other in disbelief.

"This is such a small world," Gary said.

Randy, the older brother, was the one who first had a hunch they may have been related.

"People are saying we look like brothers, and we go on deliveries together for the last month and a half and we keep getting it" Randy said. He had recently dug up some information about his adoption and discovered that he had a brother who was born on June 10, 1974 -- Gary's birthday.

For two weeks the two kept the news to themselves, but last week they shared their story withco-workers.

Owner Lisa Dow says she cried when one of the brothers told her, "I would have never found him if you didn't hire me to work here."

Gary and Randy are still in disbelief.

"I've been riding around with this guy for a month and a half and he's my full blooded brother," Randy said shaking his head.

TRUMPET LIPS

the Word for Wednesday

GROK



To understand something intuitively or by empathy.

We must look to Robert Anson Heinlein for the origins of this word, which he invented for his science-fantasy book Stranger in a Strange Land in 1961. In this, Valentine Michael Smith, a human being raised on Mars, returns to Earth with psi powers given him by the Martians and is transformed into a messiah.


Grok is a word borrowed from Martian (and you won’t see that written very often) in which it literally meant to drink. To grok is to gain an instant deep spiritual understanding of something or to establish a rapport with somebody.


The book became a cult classic despite its deeply flawed nature (Heinlein remarked self-deprecatingly about it that it was incredible what some people would do for money; it was originally published in a brutally edited form and became available as originally written only in 1990).


The term went into the language, at first among countercultural types in California and among SF fans (there used to be lapel buttons around with the message “I grok Spock”), but was eventually taken up by computer geeks, among whom it has largely remained.

the Joke for Wednesday

Bob and his three golf buddies were out playing and were just starting on the back nine when Bob paused, looked down the fairway, and began to sob uncontrollably. The other three gathered around him and asked, "What's wrong?" Bob looked down at his feet, sniffed, and dried his eyes some, then apologized for his emotional outburst. "I'm sorry, I always get emotional at this hole -- it holds very difficult memories for me." One of his buddies asked, "What happened? What could have gotten you so upset?" Bob stared silently off in the distance, then said in a low voice, "This is where my wife and I were playing 12 years ago when she suddenly died of a heart attack -- right at this very hole!" "Oh no!" the other golfers said. "That must have been horrible!" "Horrible? You think it's horrible?" Bob cried in disbelief. "It was worse than that! Every hole for the rest of the day, all the way back to the clubhouse it was... hit the ball, drag Alice, hit the ball, drag Alice..."