Conversational Topography
Moving around over the past 20 years, I’ve noticed that different areas of the country have different favorite topics that all conversations eventually gravitate toward.
For example, growing up outside Pittsburgh, all conversations eventually turned to the fortunes of the various local sports teams. Be it the Steelers, the Pirates, the Penguins or the rivalry between Pitt and Penn State (which is ongoing, even though the two football teams haven’t played in nearly 20 years), people who live in or near Pittsburgh love their sports.
After college, I spent six years living in Nevada on the Northern shore of Lake Tahoe. Frequent conversational topics included environmental issues, wildfire preparedness and local politics, but sooner or later, everything came back to recreation. Mostly skiing (the ski resorts are major employers), but plenty of hiking, camping, and boating too.
The tendency toward a single conversational topic seems to be stronger in the DC area than any other part of the country. The sports talk turns to the politics of funding for stadiums. The talk about recreation turns to the politics of who’s in charge of what, and when you turn on the TV or radio, much of the news and entertainment revolves around (you guessed it) politics.
The only relief I’ve found is that when folks meet Terry or Wylie, the topic turns to pets. So hurray for the kids! They’re about all that’s saving my sanity!
Purple
White
Nature's Beauty
I really wanted to do this last year, but never quite found the time. But if John can do a month of poetry, well then, there’s no reason for me to not do a few days of flowers.
Doctor's Visit
Who am I to argue with history?
Usually the first in line.
– The Doctor and Rose
I’m definitely enjoying the new Doctor Who.
Front Yard (after)
I got the yardwork done two weekends ago, but between inopportunely parked cars and a few rainy days, didn’t get a chance to take any photos until last weekend.
Here’s how it looked originally.
Corporate Cluelessness
Wow. I thought it was really pathetic 18 months ago when Radio Shack decided to do a mass layoff via email. It turns out that Target is even more bereft of clues.
OK, I can sort of understand the policy that says only certain people (presumably with special training) are allowed to confront shoplifters, but this one makes no sense. All of the “trusted people” were off work and a security guard sees a 16-year-old girl stealing a bottle of tequila. So he stopped her. Quietly. And he called her parents, who were grateful.
So how does Target react? They fired him! Doesn’t exactly give me the warm fuzzies about the company, y’know?
So here’s my suggestion:
1) Print out the newspaper column
2) Stick it in an envelope and mail to:
Target Corp.
Attn: Mr. Robert J. Ulrich, CEO
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Perhaps include a cover letter. Perhaps something along the lines of:
Dear Mr. Ulrich,
As you can see from the enclosed newspaper column, it would appear that some of your stores are being run by people who are woefully short of common sense. You might want to do something about that. A very public apology might be a good starting point.
In the meantime, I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.
It’ll cost you nothing more than a stamp and who knows? Perhaps they’ll decide to do the right thing.
Girls Love the Fuzzy Guy
I’ve been reminded a few times in the past several days that Wylie is a rock star.
Oh sure, it’s hardly news that he was lead vocalist for the legendary rock group, Wylie and the Coyotes. And who could ever forget the sweet melody of their number one hit, “Chasing Cars” from the multi-platinum album of the same name? But when you get to know a dog on a day-to-day basis, it’s easy to forget the legend and just think of him as the good-natured, lovable guy he is.
And then you have days like this past Friday and Saturday when you realize you’re in the presence of a living legend. Both days while we were out for our afternoon walk Wylie found himself surrounded by adoring girls. For example, on Saturday afternoon as we were walking through the park, the girl up the street and one of her friends saw us coming. As soon as they saw us, they stopped what they were doing and immediately ran toward us, screaming “Wylieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” and when they reached us, they immediately threw their arms around Wylie and spent the next several minutes stroking his back, skritching him behind the ears and telling him how much they’d missed him.
I don’t mind that Wylie has so much starpower. Attracting girls is part of his job after all. I just wish he’d attract a few who were perhaps 25-30 years older.
Kung Fu and Honky Tonk
Apparently AJ’s employer is requiring everyone in the company to learn Karate. (I can’t help thinking that this sounds a little like the early 90s when instead of improving their products and services, companies instead tried to boost productivity and revenues by slavishly imitating any fad that originated in Japan. How many US companies launched morning calisthenic programs because they’d heard Japanese companies had them?) Unfortunately for me, AJ’s post was titled “Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting” and as a result, I’ve spent most of the past week trying to get that infernal song out of my head.
Finally on Thursday I got a different song stuck in my head.
But that’s OK, Brooks & Dunn have lots of fun songs.