Category: ears
Death by a thousand cuts
CEOs and boards preach fiscal responsibility and cost cutting without smelling the pungent irony.
New year, new cuts. New governments, new rationales to save money. New managers, time to trim that fat. Programs are cut, or they are reduced. Job are cut or apportioned among a smaller pool of people. People are downsized. Unlike Antman, getting downsized doesn’t make us stronger or more effective.
No one is expendable. If people are sitting at desks twiddling their thumbs then they haven’t been assigned meaningful work or given the training to see what else could be done. We have all worked in corporate cultures, both private and government, where coasting through the days is routine. This is not because the people are not needed, or that work needing to be done is not available.
Many public parks and streets could be cleaned by workers who are idle or on reduced schedules. Many actual projects could replace unnecessary road ‘repairs’. How many office tasks could be accomplished in lieu of the six-hour meetings? In fact, this isn’t the real issue. Government houses cry budget and cost cutting up until it comes time to boost their own salaries and cash their own pension checks.
CEOs and boards preach fiscal responsibility and cost cutting without smelling the pungent irony. The services that are cut. The help that is no longer available and the individuals, families, and communities that are impacted have little relevance for social and economic visionaries valiantly struggling towards the 18th hole.
The Missing Motorcycle: Part Three (Safety first)
The Missing Motorcycle: Part Three
Safety first
_________:First put on your helmet.
_________:Like this?
_________:Yes. Now fasten the chinstrap.
_________:It’s so uncomfortable.
_________:It’s only uncomfortable at first. You’ll get used to it.
_________:What’s next?
_________:Sit on the motorcycle.
_________:I know how to do this.
_________:Please pay attention. Sit facing the front with one hand on the throttle and the other on the brake.
_________:I can steer with one hand.
_________:You can also get arrested again.
_________:I don’t want that.
_________:Then pay attention. What do you do at a red light?
_________:Go very fast.
_________:No! You stop. What do you do at a stop sign?
_________:Stop?
_________:Right… I mean, that’s correct.
_________:When can I go fast?
_________:Once you learn how to be safe then you can learn how to have fun.
New words
Safety
Fasten
Chinstrap
Helmet
Fast
Throttle
Brake
Arrested
Steer
Stop
Sign
Safe
Used
Uncomfortable
Attention
Happy birthday to friends from my childhood
An achievement
Turning eighty. It’s been done before, but it seems special when the individual, or individuals in this case, represented youth and vitality for a generation. Never mind that one of them wore a rug … he was still cool. He still is cool.
Yeah, I’m writing about the SHAT and Mr. Spock.
William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy turn 80 this year.
Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle! Can that be true?
There’s a part of me that wants to write ‘Phasers on maudlin’ as if to distance myself from this, but that would be to diminish what was a vital ingredient of my youth.
I was six or seven when I watched my first Star Trek episode(Wolf in the Fold) and other than the few visual clues that helped me peg the episode a few years later, I didn’t remember much. Later I was hooked. I never wore ears, or a uniform but it was a big part of growing up.
I was always a Kirk fan, but no denying the Spock mystique, or the fact that Nimoy aged more gracefully than his erstwhile commanding officer.
When Star Trek the Motion Picture came out it was a month or so after my first plane ride, and I felt I could identify with Kirk boarding the (The definite article was still in use on Trek then.) Enterprise. That is my badge of geekdom.
Star Trek 2: the Wrath of Khan, brought us to the reality that these guys were aging. The next few movies seemed to be living in denial of that reality.
To see what Shatner and Nimoy have done away from Trek has been gratifying to fans of the actors and performers.
Wishing both men healthy and happy birthdays, and many more to come.
Our son Wyatt turns seven this month. Wyatt is our effort to boldly go into the future . We hope we do it with as much dignity and purpose as these two gentlemen have come to embody.
Regards,Wayne
duplezwrites 