-- posted 8:21 pm

A couple of years ago a friend of mine, George Codillo, was down with some other friends at St. Louis's annual 4th of July celebration on the Arch grounds. The fair organizers bring in musicians to entertain, play, and keep everyone happy. One of the big musicians that year was Ray Charles, and it also happens that George is a big fan of Ray..

So a problem arises- there are too many damn people present that want to see Ray, and you can't get close enough to really enjoy the show. So George spots a bunch of empty seats down in the front, which looks like it's in some sort of VIP section, where you would need a special ticket to get in or something.

George has had a theory for a little while that goes like this- Nobody will bother a person who's talking on a mobile phone, especially if they are in motion. So George puts this idea to the test that day. He walks up to entrance of the VIP area, puts his mobile phone up to his ear and starts randomly chatting into it, and walks right by the gatekeepers without anyone even questioning what he's doing. No "may I see your ticket please" or "who do you think you are?" or anything. Mission accomplished. He then sits down in one of the empty chairs where a couple of other people are, and listens to Ray jamming on his keyboard from up close.

That's a pretty classic hack if you ask me.

Anyway- a couple of minutes go by, and he realizes something is a little amiss... oh.. yea. Ray set aside this special section for a purpose- all the people sitting around George are blind. Doh!

Anyway, George stayed for a little while longer and then left to rejoin his friends. And now he has a decent story for him and his friends to tell because of it.

-- posted 9:12 am