I’m a believer that engineers not only need to act in a professional and ethical way, but they have to have some sense of humor too. For that reason I have the tradition to tell the class (almost) every semester week a joke or fun story with an engineering background :-). And to make it stick, at the exams there is always one bonus questions about these engineering jokes. Some of the jokes or fun stories came from my daughters, some from my former students, and some I have found myself. I have asked to share the fun story from this week, so here we go….

A young Engineer and his Project Manager board a train headed through the mountains on its way from Switzerland through the Swiss Alps to Italy. They can find no place to sit except for two seats right across the aisle from a young woman and her grandmother. After a while, it is obvious that the young woman and the young programmer are interested in each other, because they are giving each other looks. The train departed from Lucerne and used the railroad tracks through the Swiss Alps. Naturally, there were many tunnels through the Alps. That coach had the problem that the lights were not working: Whenever the train passes into a tunnel, it was pitch black. And then it happened again: the train passed into a tunnel, it was dark like in a cow, and there was a sound of a kiss followed by the sound of a slap.

When the train emerges from the tunnel, the four sit there without saying a word.  The grandmother is thinking to herself, “It was very brash for that young man to kiss my granddaughter, but I’m glad she slapped him.”

The Project manager is sitting there thinking, “I didn’t know the young tech was brave enough to kiss the girl, but I sure wish she hadn’t missed him when she slapped me!”

The young woman was sitting and thinking, “I’m glad the guy kissed me, but I wish my grandmother had not slapped him!”

The young programmer sat there with a big satisfied smile on his face. He thought to himself, “Life is good. How often does an engineer have the chance to kiss a beautiful girl and slap his Project Manager all at the same time!”

Happy Slapping 🙂