My wife occasionally calls me at tells me "The <fill in the blank> is broken." Having experienced this call to crisis for over a decade, I'll just say that "broken" has a variety of meanings. The following is an example dialog.
(i'm at work and the phone rings)
me: hello
wife: the printer's broken
me: what is it doing?
wife: it's not printing
me: are there any lights blinking? is it making any noise?
wife: no, it's just not printing
me: is it plugged in?
wife: YES
me: is the ethernet plugged into it?
wife: the what?
me: how many wires are running to the printer?
wife: two
me: (using my years of experience) is one of them the power cord?
wife: yes
me: is the other wire, the one that's not the power, is it in good?
wife: yes
me: the printer is turned on?
wife: yes
me: i'll have to wait until i get home
wife: why? what's wrong with the printer?
me: i don't know
wife: i need to print stuff for tomorrow
me: OK, i'll fix it tonight
wife: but i need it now so i can print stuff for tomorrow
me: and you can't print tonight?
wife: OK
(I get home and look at the printer)
me: uhhh, it's out of paper
wife: you didn't tell me to check that
me: I thought you'd do that on your own
(I put paper in it and it starts printing ... many copies)
me: how many copies do you need?
wife: one
me: then why did you print so many?
wife: it wasn't printing, so i kept trying
(cancel 20+ print jobs)
All that was background for what the wife means when she says something is broken. Important fact for next story: Our garage is below our bedroom.
It's early morning and i wake up to the sound of our garage door going up and down and up and down and up and down ad nauseum. A few minutes later i hear the wife coming up the stairs. She says, "The garage door is broken." I immediately "knew" the solution. A cold front had just blown through with 30+ mph wind gusts and a significant drop in temperature. Obviously, the sensor on the garage door had lost track of where the "down" position is and simply needed resetting. She leaves and i once again hear the garage door going up and down and up and down and up and down....
I decide it's time to fix the door, so i go down to the garage to investigate. I push the button to close the door to see what happens. The door attempts to close, but danged if it's not broken ... literally. The top panel on the garage door has flexed so much that it has actually broken and is not sturdy enough for the door to be pushed closed. I'm stunned. She said it was broken and it really was. I really hate when they throw you a curve like that.
