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We're thankful for audience help seeing the comedic potential of a downtown Detroit blackout affecting just one office tower: DTE Energy's headquarters, where many workers were sent home Wednesday morning.
These reader replies to our lighthearted appeal illuminate the irony and brighten our day:
► I'm shocked. -- Jeff Corey
► "We'd be going nuclear over the blackout, but we still have all this coal." -- Yuhaffa Fattoush, Dearborn
► It's going to be tough to beat their own tagline. "No, your own power." -- Charlie Wolborg, Detroit
► How did they no pay their own bill? -- Shellie Milliner, Ferndale
► Somebody forget to jumper cable the meter again? -- Jim Ruggerio, Madison Heights
► I wondered why a saw a guy in a $1,500 suit standing in line at the payment center on Grand River. Now. it makes sense. The power should be back on by Friday. Monday, at the latest. I wonder if they waive the reconnect fee for employees? -- Mark Farkle
► It's similar to when your internet goes out and Comcast's response is "go to our website to report your problem." Umm, literally, I can't. -- Linda Ferrante, Farmington Hills
I wonder if they paid the deposit to get the power restored? https://t.co/euorgpUPtx
— JD (@TheSmak) December 7, 2016
Original article, Wednesday morning:
We fancy ourselves word nerds who can use language playfully, but this Wednesday morning tweet stuns us into can't-even silence:
We lost power to part of our HQ complex this morning, no other customers were impacted. Customer service is operating normally.
— DTE Energy (@DTE_Energy) December 7, 2016
Yes, you can say we're powerless to react appropriately to a situation that begs for a humorous send-up, a deft metaphor, a pointed pun.
So who'll step up with a perfect analogy to describe a major regional utility scrambling to plug itself back in?
► Post your cleverness as a comment below or tweet us or visit on Facebook.
We'll share submissions here and on social media. Bonus point if you include literally, as in "DTE Energy is literally in the dark about the blackout's cause."
Some workers are sent home, a utility spokeswoman at the downtown high-rise tells WWJ, adding:
"We’re hopeful that business will remain constant and normal and we’re able to provide high level service to our customers.” . . .
About 4,000 DTE employees are situated at the downtown headquarters. There’s no word what may have led to the outage.
