The legend of IPIO

When I was young and in my early prime, just home from the army in 1953, I took a job at Northrop Aircraft in Ingelewood, California, as a sheet metal man's apprentice. I'd been in personnel in the army and could type and file up a storm, but had no practical civilian work experience. But, I was working 40 hours a week and going to school nights in electronics to better myself. I was plagued with little mistakes even though I'd be very careful with what I was doing. As when drilling a hole for a screw, etc. I'd carefully measure, center punch, carefully re-check, carefully drill-- to find I was 1/32 of an inch off!!! Sometimes that could be critical.

My lead man, a bowlegged, easy going old guy in his 60's from the Ozarks, came up to me one day and said, "You know you are at the mercy of IPIO." I kinda liked Mack because he was so easy going and friendly, if not very educated; education was paramount to me at the time. But, I listened to him this time.

Mack continued, "IPIO is a little devil-gremlin that sneaks up and moves your center punch mark just as the drill touches the metal. He's very busy in this old world and can do all sorts of things, like put the carbon paper in backwards when you are typing a letter even though you've made sure it's not backwards. (As in old fashioned typewriters.) He can rearrange the screws in your bins, and change the bobbin thread to a different color when your wife is sewing. You really have to be careful to thwart him." I sighed as I thought, "What a dumb story."

Mack then smiled and said, "Oh, by the way, IPIO stands for Inane Perversity of Inaminate Objects," to which I had to laugh and realized how clever Mack was with his homespun humor.

So, if you wonder why/how that birth date on your granddad got changed after you published your book or Web Page, now you know it was IPIO!!!

Don

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