bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 3 (1993) — Summer 1993 // Été 1993, p. 43
Another assignment for A Aalto
As A Aalto entered Wing Fat’s Hunan beanery late one evening in July, he spotted his old friend Myron Singleway of Personnel, sitting hunched over a bowl of noodles and sweating profusely. “You have to watch old Wing Fat’s Ground Chili Chao Mian, “ the ace said to his perspiring friend, “it can really wring you out.”
Singleway looked up blankly, recognized Aalto, looked confused, mopped his brow and then realized what he was talking about. “That’s not from the noodles,” he said glumly, “that’s just from trying to figure out how to assign these last six officers coming home this summer. I’ve lost my notes, the DG has the files, and if I don’t come up with a solution by morning, they’ll use me to fill that opening in Kinshasa.”
“We don’t have a post there anymore,” noted Aalto. “Exactly,” retorted Singleway. “So give me the details,” said the logician, pouring himself a cup of Iron Dragon tea from the pot on the bar.
Singleway handed him a table with the numbers 901 through 906 at the top. “All six officers happen to be in town this week to talk about their assignments, and these are their room numbers along one corridor in the Hotel Ultimatum. All I can remember about their cases is on this list.” And he showed Aalto the following:
(a) Dalek, the political officer, arrives on September 2.
(b) Forth gets in on August 9 and is assigned to IMU.
(c) The officer from GENEV in Room 906 is going to ABM.
(d) Cyr from CNGNY is going to RBT. (e) The administrative officer from SEOUL is between Adams and the officer going to PNR.
(f) One division needs an officer on August 16, and an officer is arriving in town that day.
(g) LSR needs an officer on August 2; he will arrive in town four days earlier. (h) The legal officer, the officer going to JLO and the trade officer from WLGTN are in adjacent rooms in that order, left to right.
(i) The consular officer from ADDIS arrives on August 17, while his neighbour Ekles the multilateral specialist arrives on August 5.
() The division getting the officer from BRSLA wants her on September 6, while Boyle is needed on August 30. (k) The divisions getting the officers at the ends of the row have asked for them by August 3 and August 23.
(1) The maximum possible number of divisions get officers on the day they requested, and the total number of days late for the six officers is as low as possible.
(m)No officer arrives two weeks or more before his reporting date.
(n) By coincidence, no-one is assigned to a geographical division that covers his/her current post, or to a functional division making use of his/her specialty.
“Well,” said Aalto, “I can certainly see why you regret having abandoned the old dart board method, but I think I can work things out for you.” Which he proceeded to do. Can you duplicate his feat by filling in the table with the name, functional specialty, current post, next HQ assignment, arrival date and requested reporting date for each room at the Hotel Ultimatum? While you’re at it, can you explain why they want the officer from Brasilia to report to work on a public holiday?
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 3 (1993) — Summer 1993 // Été 1993, p. 43. Read the rest of this issue →
