While reading a story about elevators I was reminded of something subtly amusing from the Australia trip that I had forgotten to share with you.
1) In the United States, a company called Otis controls the elevator/escalator market. If you’ve ridden an elevator in the United States in the last decade, it is almost certainly one of Otis’s. Next time you’re in one, look around. I’ll bet you a dollar you’ll see the placard equivalent of an “Otis’s Elevator” sign.
2) In Australia, much like most other parts of the world, what Americans refer to as “elevators” are known as “lifts.”
3) Since learning about Otis’s monopoly on elevators, I’ve always kept a lookout whilst riding in them for one made by someone else. I’ve never seen another elevator manufacturer in the 10 years I’ve been looking. Until visiting Australia, that is. There, a company called Schindler has the market cornered. I rode in five or six lifts in Australia, all of which were made by Schindler.
I’ll leave the ’1 + 2 + 3 = comedy <strike>gold</strike> oil’ math as an exercise for the reader, but suffice to say that it cracked me up way more than it ought-to’ve.
