Seen this morning on a truck which claimed to be from a company called “Assorted Stone & Cabinet”: “COVER CONNETICUT & MASSECHUSETTE” There was also a lot of Chinese writing on the truck, so one might reasonably assume that the company is owned by people who are not native English speakers. Nevertheless, maybe they could… Read More »
Apparently, the United States Postal Service has made a remarkable breakthrough in artificial intelligence. This evening, I bought stamps from an USPS Automated Postal Center (APC) kiosk. As I was leaving after completing my purchase, the kiosk bid me farewell with the following message: “It was my pleasure to serve you.” Remarkable!
I previously wrote about this in November 2005. Things have not improved. My newest attempt to shake things up:
I recently won a contest at www.trenchmice.com, and one of the prizes I received was the recently released book by Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D., The No Asshole Rule — Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn’t. It’s a fabulous book, and one I heartily recommend.
I just left a job, with plans to start a new one in two weeks. On my last day, I was given a “Separation From Service Exit Interview” form to fill out if I wished to do so. The form has a series of ten questions in which I am asked to rate various aspects… Read More »
The news media and the net are awash in opinions about Gerry and Julie Kulesza, the couple whose 3-year-old daughter Elly threw such a tantrum before take-off on an AirTran flight that the airline removed them from the flight.
Remember back on the playground, when you lost a favorite knickknack and later saw another kid playing with it? “Finders keepers, losers weepers!” the finder chanted, and that was the end of it, for how could you challenge such a time-honored saying? It is not surprising that children would resort to this defense, but how… Read More »
Seen in an article in today’s Herald about the fact that tail-gaters weren’t allowed to carry in their own liquor for the Harvard-Yale game (although people 21 and over were allowed to buy up to five beers): “Is this not the lamest tailgate?” Ellie Brophy, a 21-year-old Yale junior, complained to her friend. “You actually… Read More »
Seen in the Boston Herald Tuesday, November 14, 2006: Maine pair dies from CO2 poisoning SMITHFIELD, Maine — Two men working in a house died of carbon monoxide poisoning… Maybe it’s time to alert the Herald to the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide.
I recently read Tom Clancy’s two most recent novels in his “Jack Ryan” universe, Red Rabbit and The Teeth of the Tiger. They are, quite simply, horrible. Not horrible in the sense of, “if you don’t like Tom Clancy books you won’t like these either,” but rather, “incredibly bad even to people who liked previous Tom… Read More »