Obama '08

Please Advise

Posted by Jason Cosper | Filed under Geekery, Photography, Work

Since I work primarily in support, I read a lot of email day in and day out. After a while you start to pick up patterns. One day, my coworker Mike P. started to notice that an awful lot of folks finished their emails with the phrase “Please advise.” So much so that he started to keep a tally with a red sharpie and a piece of printer paper behind his desk.

Every time somebody in the office would get a message that contained the terse ending, we’d holler a “Please advise!” in the direction of his desk and he’d get to tallying. Mind you, this is a guy who knows perl and has access to our internal database. He could write a script to keep a running tally if he wanted to — but it’s just more fun for us to do it this way.

So in the interest of flogging a dead horse, I’ve gone ahead and crafted the “please advise” shirt. The plan is to wear it into work at semi-regular intervals for a good laugh every now and again. Well, at least until it stops being funny. I guess I’ll have to string it out if I want it to have any staying power.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with all of these left over letters…

Permalink | April 18th, 2007

8 Responses to “Please Advise”

  1. :: jozjozjoz :: Says:
    April 19th, 2007 at 1:18 am

    Flogging a dead horse.

    Always fun, but so messy.

    If you have any suggestions on how to clean it up, please advise.

    Thanks.

  2. malique Says:
    May 9th, 2007 at 6:52 pm

    i’d love to get my hands on these!
    how can i get one? do advice.

  3. m1k3k Says:
    June 22nd, 2007 at 6:24 pm

    That is great. im in IT also and i hate that or even worse Thanks So Much in a script font or worse than worse COMIC SANS

  4. Aaron Says:
    December 4th, 2007 at 8:36 am

    The phrase “please advise” must be some sort of code that I’m not privy to. Some ideas:

    I’m clueless.
    I can’t think for myself.
    Tell me what to do.
    I choose not to make a decision.
    I’d prefer to deflect responsibility.

    Which one is most appropriate? Please advise.

  5. Jeff Berg Says:
    January 24th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    im in ur email, givin u advise?

  6. Chris Says:
    January 25th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    Wow, I’ve received so many “Please Advise” e-mails that I want to be sick. It’s *almost* as good as the ever so popular way of starting the e-mails:

    “First of all…”

  7. Dave Says:
    February 5th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    I just shake my head when a correspondent misspells it

    ” Please Advice “.

    Geesh!

  8. Glenda Says:
    March 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    Hey Dave,
    Great catch. The reason why soooo many people (clueless, once again) make the mistake of misspelling the phrase with “please advice” is because a lot of e-mail programs attempt to correct the proper spelling,(i.e. advise)with “advice”. Shame on you people for not knowing the differance!! Stop letting your computer do your thinking for you. Hey let’s start another good one… “pursuant to…”.

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