the legend of john henry

i was just downstairs in the hospital nutrition office, getting more free food vouchers so that the participants who come in for our studies can not only get here for free, get treatment for free, and get their medicine for free, but also eat for free.

as darlene, the nutrition secretary, handed me the vouchers, she asked me to sign the log book.

"ok, here they are. i'm just going to need your john henry right there."

as you're probably aware, the saying is "john hancock." as in, a signer of the declaration of independence. get it? signatures.

i didn't say anything, of course, because i didn't want darlene to know what an elitist asshole i really, secretly (or not-so-secretly) am. i walked away thinking, john henry? i know that name. who is john henry? of all the john h.'s in the world that darlene could've picked, she just happened to pick this one: john henry, the steel driving man.