One of Jeff Byers’ friends just told me this story.

Anyone who knows Jeff knows that he is not enamored with the electronic leashes (pagers, cell phones, or the dreaded Blackberry) so common in corporate America. He was one of the last people I know (with the exception of my in-laws) to get a cell phone. But SEMATECH made him wear a pager. One day he was working intently in the fab when his pager went off. Judging (probably correctly) that what he was doing was more important than the page, he kept right on working. And the pager kept on paging. After the fourth page, Jeff slammed the offending device into the floor, breaking it to pieces. I hear they are still finding little pager bits in the SEMATECH fab.

Progress report on Jeff: I hear that he is continuing to heal well, with a broken vertebrae being the item of biggest concern. The doctors say that Jeff could stay unconscious for a few more weeks without that length of time being out of the ordinary for his injuries. He seems to be getting excellent care, and so I am mostly just waiting and hoping.