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| Bristow's Colleagues | |||
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The New Man in the Accounts |
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"He's right. Of course he's right. He's always right"
The "new man" offers some
friendly advice It is rare for Bristow to like and admire one of his colleagues. The back-stabbing, bitter fight for survival and sucess in the murky corridors of the Chester-Perry Building tends to create barriers. But from the moment the "new man" made his appearance in July 1962, there was such a feeling of mutual charm and respect between them that one might almost suspect some sordid sexual motive. The "new man" has no name. He
is well dressed and affable, a dispenser of valued advice and a shoulder
to lean on. What he does in the Accounts is unclear since the main function
of that department seems to be the calculation and distribution of the
weekly wage-packets, and we do not find him engaged in this vital work.
He and Bristow rapidly hit it off, as shown in strip 160
and he always has an
answer to Bristow's quest for career advancement. Sometimes he is amazingly
reassuring - strip 1122
. More often he suggests something that runs contrary
to Bristow's own inclination, and even odder is that Bristow always
at once proclaims how right he is and changes direction to follow. It
is not at all clear that his counsel vis-a-vis the upstart Barker
is in Bristow's best interests.
But the "new man" (he even
describes himself as the new man when he phones Bristow) comes up trumps
when an ambitious and insolent youngster, one Tyson, enters the Buying
Department and hoodwinks everyone (except Bristow, the subject of his
insolence) into thinking how efficient he is.For the price of lunch,
the new man's cunning plan strip
1647
sees off the imposter (and neatly
traps Bristow himself )
The "new man" vanishes from the scene during the later 1960s. He was probably a little too charming and devious even for Chester-Perry's
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