Early in my career, I overslept an alarm and arrived minutes before the morning keynote was due to begin. I wasn’t speaking… but I was operating the digital projector for the slideshow I’d built.

This was back in the days when a digital slideshow was jaw-dropping in and of itself, and I’d worked into the wee hours getting everything just right. Hence sleeping through the alarm. But I was in time, right? Everything would be fine, right?

Nuh-uh. (Gather round, young ‘uns, and I’ll tell you of a time when laptops and projectors rarely spoke the same language. How long ago was this? The software was Aldus Persuasion.) The speaker was halfway through her 40-minute presentation before I finally hit the right combination of cables and keyboard shortcuts. I flashed her a thumbs-up; the look she replied with suggested she had a different finger in mind.

From then on, I’ve always prepared presentations with the knowledge that it might not work – and that I might have to resort to some kind of neanderthal projector-less talk. And while it’s only happened once or twice in the years since, at least I was kinda-sorta ready for it.

This cartoon is the coda for the saga of the mayor and Twitter. I’m hitting the road for a while, so check back in two weeks for more Damage Control. (In the meantime, there’s always Noise to Signal.)

And thanks for all the kind words and support in these early days – it’s hugely gratifying, and I can’t wait to draw more!