Phil, Kevin and George are eating lunch in the shade of the line truck. They’ve been replacing older wooden distribution poles after their company, Havasnack Rural Electric of Rhode Island, sustained a lot of severe storm damage last winter.
“You know,” said Phil wistfully, “When I worked at Hiandry Power down in Arizona we used to have some fun setting poles. About noontime, when the sun is directly overhead, we’d check the shadow around the base of each pole. If the shadow completely disappeared then that meant that the pole was perfectly vertical, and the crew that put it in would get treated to some beers by the rest of us after work.”
He added “That bit of fun helped us get through those miserably hot summers.”
“That can’t be true,” objected George. “For the sun to be directly overhead, it needs to be about noon and only in those weeks around the summer solstice. Another thing, Arizona doesn't use daylight savings time like the rest of the nation, so I don’t think your story makes any sense at all!”
Kevin, who has been listening, just shakes his head and gets up. “Neither one of you makes sense,” he says as he looks at his watch. “You both are blowing smoke. Anyway, it’s time to get back to work.”
Why did Kevin say what he did?
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