The most frightening words in the English language are, "Our computer is down. " You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, "I' m sorry, I can' t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down. " "If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket. " "I can' t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so. " I looked down on the computer and every passenger .was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, "What do all you people do?" "We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not. " "So when it goes down, you go down with it. " "That' s good, sir. " "How long will the computer be down?" I wanted to know. "I have no idea. Sometimes it' s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There' s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it' s down it won' t answer us. " After the girl told me they had no backup computer, I said. "Let' s forget the computer. What about your planes? They' re still flying, aren't they?" "I couldn't tell without asking the computer. " "Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he' s flying to Washington," I suggested. "I wouldn't know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn't take you if you didn't have a ticket. " "Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?" "I wouldn't know," she said, pointing at the dark screen. "Only ' IT' knows. It can' t tell me. " By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white; some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.