Form No.ASI-82-603

DepartmentOffice of the Chief Executive

Issued1982

ClassificationUnrestricted

RevisionExtract. The committee is in permanent recess and so, the Chief Executive says, is the record.

Office of the Chief Executive

The Senate Committee Of 1981

In 1968 a subcommittee took everything. In 1981 a committee sat for two days on the portal and the counter-manoeuvre, recessed, recessed permanently, and left behind an open-ended contract to continue both. The Chief Executive did not ask how. He is not going to ask how in print.

Extracted by Cave Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, from bed, from a record he has been told is sealed. Transcribed by C., who was in the gallery, and who heard less than he thinks.

There was a committee. [cough] It sat in 1981, in a room with windows this time, and it asked me about the portal and about the Heimlich Counter-Manoeuvre, and I answered, and on the afternoon of the second day it recessed, and a week later a letter came to say the recess was permanent and enclosed was a contract with no end date on it. I have signed the contract. I have not asked about the recess. A man who is given something back without being told why does not ask. He signs.

From The Record, First Day

The ChairmanMr. Johnson, the committee understands your company continues to operate a device that — let me be careful — connects two points in space.

Mr. JohnsonSenator, it connects two walls. Space is where the walls are. [cough] Excuse me.

The ChairmanAre you well, Mr. Johnson?

Mr. JohnsonI am deathly ill, Senator. It is not the subject of the hearing. It is the subject of a different sheet.

The ChairmanThe committee also has before it a programme described in your own literature as a reliable technique for interrupting the Heimlich Manoeuvre.

Mr. JohnsonYes, Senator.

The ChairmanMr. Johnson, why would anybody need that?

Mr. JohnsonSenator, have you ever choked?

The ChairmanI have not.

Mr. JohnsonThen you have never had a man you did not choose put his arms around you from behind and squeeze. I have. Twice. Both times in this building. [cough] Neither time was I choking.

The ChairmanThe committee will take a short recess.

From The Record, Second Day

The ChairmanMr. Johnson, before we adjourn, is there anything you would like the committee to have?

Mr. JohnsonI would like the committee to have the phrase, Senator. The 1968 one. I would like it back on the right side of the page.

The ChairmanThe committee will consider it.

Mr. JohnsonSenator, I have a letter on my wall with that word in it.

The ChairmanThe committee will now hear, in closed session, from counsel for a facility in New Mexico.

The ChairmanThe committee stands in recess.

I was in the gallery. They cleared the gallery. I did not hear the closed session. — C.

On The Recess

A permanent recess is a thing I did not know a committee could do. I have since found out. It is a way of stopping without finishing, and I have thought about that a good deal, lying here, and I have asked Medical whether the same could be arranged for me, and Medical has said that in a sense it is being, [cough], and I have asked Medical to leave.

On The Contract

It has no end date. It is the first document this company has signed since 1959 with no end date on it, apart from the one I am dictating on the other sheet, and I have put the two of them in the same drawer, because a man who has been given forever twice in one year ought to keep both copies together, in case one of them is a mistake.

It says we are to continue the portal. It says we are to continue the counter-manoeuvre. It does not say why, and it does not say for whom, and the cheques come from a department I have not heard of and clear at a bank that stopped returning my calls in 1975 and has started again. I did not ask how. I am not going to ask how. I have asked Caroline not to ask how, and she has said that she has not asked, and I have not asked her whether that is true.

“Senator, have you ever choked?”

— Cave Johnson, to the committee, 1981

Particulars Of The Committee

Convened: 1981. Washington. A room with windows. The Chief Executive said it made him feel watched.
Subject: The portal. The Heimlich Counter-Manoeuvre. Nothing else, which the Chief Executive found suspicious and has said so, once, here.
Duration: Two days. Then a short recess. Then a permanent one.
Closed session: One. Counsel, New Mexico.
Finding: None. The committee did not finish. The committee stopped.
Consequence: An open-ended contract to continue the portal and the counter-manoeuvre. Cheques from a department nobody has heard of.
How: Not asked.
Phrase: Requested back. Under consideration. The committee is in recess. It will be under consideration a very long time.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE  ·  INWARD  ·  1981
  MAR 14   U.S. SENATE ........ SUMMONS. PORTAL; COUNTER-MANOEUVRE.
  APR 02   U.S. SENATE ........ TESTIMONY, DAY 1. [COUGH] NOTED BY CLERK.
  APR 03   U.S. SENATE ........ TESTIMONY, DAY 2. RECESS.
  APR 03   U.S. SENATE ........ CLOSED SESSION. GALLERY CLEARED. (C. IN GALLERY.)
  APR 11   U.S. SENATE ........ RECESS PERMANENT. CONTRACT ENCLOSED. NO END DATE.
  APR 11   OFFICE OF THE C.E. . CONTRACT SIGNED. HOW: NOT ASKED.
  APR 12   BANK ............... RETURNED CALL. FIRST SINCE 1975.
  APR 12   OFFICE OF THE C.E. . [FOUR MINUTES. NOTHING ON THE TAPE.]

Readers holding the 1968 extract will note that the Chief Executive asked for the phrase back. The committee has it under consideration. The committee is in permanent recess. The Chief Executive has been told what that means for the phrase and has said that he can wait, which Medical has asked to be struck, and which has not been struck.

Verifying personnel file…

Cave JohnsonChief Executive OfficerExtracted 1982 from the 1981 record. Not asked how. Signed.

Form ASI-82-603. The committee is in permanent recess. This sheet is not. Readers who know how are asked not to write in.

one word in the corridor. the name of a ship. it is ours. nobody agrees where it is