Over the Hedge by T Lewis and Michael Fry for July 31, 2014

With between 200 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone, I think you could easily have several.

I’m going to name mine sunny.

They’re available on Amazon, but they won’t give you free 2-day shipping.

I worked at a large research lab. One facility was always griping about the intercom volume. Some stations were too loud, others too soft. The main volume control was easily accessible so some one was always fiddling with the knob. Once my crew got things set properly, I had them install the control behind a panel. We left the original, disconnected control exposed so the knot heads could fiddle all they wanted. The complaints stopped.

I once took classes in a newly built music building where the heaters covered a wide range of temperature around the set temperature, first heating, then allowing it to cool, and so on. Worse, they had a tendency to start whining loudly at certain settings and/or temperatures. For both of these reasons, the temperature controls were constantly being reset. In my solfege class, our teacher complained to one of the workmen about having to change the temperature all the time, and he decided the problem could be fixed by putting in a box over the temperature control to prevent people from fiddling with it. Shortly after this, our teacher cancelled a class when three of the heaters started whining at different and non-harmonious pitches, and nothing could be done.

Mysteriously, they ended up naming the building after the contractor (at the University of Ottawa), apparently for his financial contribution to the project. The same contractor had previously been responsible for building some new residences at the university that reportedly had a wide range of problems.

I haven’t been back since graduating, but I wonder if they ever did anything about those heaters.