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Thoughts 10:
Advice:
We should always be listening. Useful advice can come from unexpected
sources. At one time, I had a manager who I thought to be beyond
redemption. I still think so, however, he did give me one idea
which has stood the test of time. Referring to the ineptness of
most managers he said, "Do what you think is right until
someone stops you." From then on, in that work place, I did
exactly that and no one stopped me. No one wanted to take the
responsibility.
The old guy:
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He drinks beer, generates
flatus, and watches football on the weekends. At night he sleeps
with your mother, and he loves you as best he can, even when you
are naughty and not nice.
Bunko:
Why doesn't someone sue the United States Postoffice for refusing
to honor sales they have made? They sell you a roll of first class
stamps, then a month later they change the rate and tell you the
stamps you bought are no longer valid. No one else can get away
with that. If I refused to honor vouchers that I had already sold,
the government would call It fraud, bunko. If I bought a subscription
to a magazine, the publisher would have to deliver the magazines
for the duration of the contract. If you buy first class stamps,
you should be able to use them as first class stamps. You should
not have to pay a surcharge after the sale.
About the calendar:
I want to make a case for six seasons rather than the traditional
four. At least in Michigan, where I live, there are six distinct
periods of like weather. We can start with January and February
and call that Winter. It's mean as hell froze over. March is not
part of that mean weather. March and April are spring like. It's
chilly, rainy, usually windy, and damp. We could call it Emergence.
May and June are the season of Ploughing, Sowing, and Blossoming.
Why not call it Rebirth? July and August are the true summer months.
Everything is alive. So, we can call it Summer. September and
October are the harvest season. The good stuff is coming in. Let's
call it Fall, Harvests, or Autumn. Finally, we have November and
December. This is the season of consolidation. We are closing
out the year and preparing for winter. Call it Finale.
A Can of This, A Can of That:
It seems like no one cooks and recipes are not published anymore.
I was scanning a magazine and noticed a recipe for black beans
and rice. I though, ‘Oh boy!' Then I read the recipe. It
called for four cans of various ingredients and some instant rice
in a pot. Crap! When I'm in a hurry, I can dump cans of stuff
together as well as anyone. I am one of the biggest bull crap
artists around but I would never have the audacity to call a list
of canned goods a recipe.
Even the new generation of, so called, cookbooks call for canned this and canned that. A recipe for cake, in one of these cookbooks, starts with a box cake mix for goodness sake. Why do you need the book? The directions are on the back of the box. Where are the modern cooks?
Attempted Manslaughter:
It's a contradiction, I know, but something like it is needed
for people who do something so careless and reckless that it could
have or did cause injury to another person. Right now, if a person
gets angry or drunk and drives his car through a bus stop, unless
someone dies, he will walk away with a fine or a slap on the wrist.
It's a misdemeanor. Only if someone dies, can he be charged with
manslaughter. That's not right. We need something between manslaughter
and no penalty. Call it reckless assault if you wish, but make
it a felony for goodness sake.
Be on time:
I have a number of friends who, cause me to take a book with me
if we agree to meet somewhere. These are the people who agree
to meet at a given time and are always late. It's simple. They
do not allow any transport time. They leave for the rendezvous
at the time they are supposed to be arriving. They are very consistent
about this. It matters not, if the meeting place is across the
hall or across the city.
Betrayal:
This is about betraying a confidence. When you share a personal
datum with someone, you should not have to precede it with, "This
is confidential." Personal information is confidential by
definition. People who betray that on the flimsy, "You didn't
say it was confidential," are either stupid or crumbs. Either
way they will soon be on the outside wondering why they are not
quite part of the process. They will be very short of real friends
and confidants. If you talk to them or tell them anything, it
will be inane.
Big House Pulp:
The big publishing houses have taken on the pulp magazine, yellow
journalist mentality. Like the super market tabloids, they blare
out celebrity names on the covers of books filled with twaddle
and apologias for incompetence. Instead of being intellectual
leaders and guides in the human community, they pander to the
gutter mentality of sensationalism. They have abandon an enormous
market of thoughtful people. "Thank you very much for the
opportunity," says Willie Gaffer and Wesoomi Publishing.
"We'll do our best to fill the gap."
What if the pulp magazine publishers had figured this out when they first started publishing. Just put hard covers on your crap and you could charge $25.00 per copy for True Romance, and get it. It took the genius of the big houses to notice that. twaddle sells better in hard cover.
Caffeine and Cancer:
The news media is in the business of selling news. If there is
no news, they will make some up. Why does this surprise us? This
is how we got the cranberry scare, the alar scare, the coffee
- cancer scare, ad-infinitum. If we look at the studies which
caused these costly scares, we do not find enough evidence to
support the sensationalist reporting we have witnessed. We find
limited studies by limited people fed to a gullible media.
The people who do these studies must bear a great deal of the responsibility for these enormously expensive blunders. They have no excuse at all for the provocative titles and headlines they put on their reports. There was a time when the responsible journals would not publish that kind of crap. Now they do and give the title of scientist to these people. These are not scientists. They are desperate little people seeking to get noticed at any expense.
Real scientists do extensive studies and make very sure of
their supporting facts before they write a word. Even then their
reporting is likely to be modest and guarded lest the facts be
misinterpreted. Their title will be something like, A Study of
the Relationship of Caffeine Products to Human Health, rather
than the stupid, sensationalist, Coffee Cause Cancer!
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