[Tommy]

A few years ago, I dropped off a used outboard motor to be repaired at a shop. Four weeks later I called to find out when it would be ready. The owner, who was not the person working on the motor, gave me a long, drawn out explanation about why it was taking so long. He explained that some of the screws that had to be replaced were very unique and had to be ordered and back ordered from the factory. Fifteen minutes later he called back to tell me my motor was ready. The mechanic had substituted some ordinary screws from the local hardware store. I asked him if he was sorry he had wasted one of his better excuses when it wasn't really needed.

I feel like I've wasted a perfectly good technical explanation on a phenomenon that was actually just a broken fuel pump. Oh well, it sounded good.