MAI‑Image surprised me with this picture. I stared at it for a moment, completely puzzled, and then asked our lead team hydrologist:
“What is that door doing in the middle of the lake?”
The hydrologist just shrugged: “Just standing. Can’t you see?”
I took a deep breath and counted to ten. Twice. Then I carefully asked another question: “I see it. You’re right. But WHY is it standing there?”
At that moment, our planetary geologist chimed in — the one who still insists he’s temporarily substituting for the team sociologist (or at least thinks so):
“Scotland has a lake with Nessie. Crowds of tourists go there, even though nobody has really seen her. On Tal’gorr we have a lake with a door. And everyone can see it. By the way — it’s a really nice door.”
The hydrologist turned to the geologist: “You think they bring tourists to it?”
“Of course. And for a small fee they let people sail through the door. But only on a special skiff.”
“Why would the skiff need to be special?”
“Because of the dimensions, obviously. Ever heard of the Panamax standard?”
I listened to the two of them and wondered whether I had gone insane — or they had.
“I’ve heard of it…”
“Well, there you go. Same thing here. If you tried to sail through that door with a skiff that’s too wide, you’d scrape both the door and the boat. And the local Waterway Stewardship Guild would never forgive you.”