1. Just because I’m having a shitty day doesn’t mean you have to.
2. Relationships are like cell phone calls. Sometimes the connection is clear. Other times you just get dropped.
3. Why are all those clams so goddamn happy in the first place?
4. As of this moment, I’d much rather have a rhino than a rhinovirus.
5. In just a few weeks, my Prius will have been driven enough miles to have made it 0.8373280860773272 of the way to the moon.
6. I have new camera fever.
7. I have new phone fever.
8. I have a fever. (See item 4.)
“Dammit, Spock. I forgot to charge my communicator!!!”
9. How come I have to use a wire to charge my wireless devices? That’s not REALLY wireless. I want wireleast devices. (Yes, I know about charging pads.)
10. I wonder if Jim Kirk had to plug in his communicator at night to charge.
In May of 1968, I was twelve years old. One month before my birthday on April 4th, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. One month after my twelfth birthday on June 6th, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Of course, I was only seven when his brother, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. But I DO remember being let out of school early that day and the wall-to-wall television coverage that ensued. But I got the picture. It was obvious. People killed each other for political reasons.
Even as a newly minted 12 year old I remember wondering if things were this bad when I was twelve, how bad were things going to be when I was finally a grown up. I was genuinely worried that assassination, chaos and anarchy would become the norm and that I might not be safe, might not even have the chance to grow up.
That’s a scary conclusion at any age let alone when you’re 12.
Of course, in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (Has there ever been a better name for an astronaut than Buzz Aldrin?) walked on the moon and I watched it all on the family TV in Camp Hill, PA. All was right with the world after that. There was hope after all.
I’m not going to tell you that I did a lot of hand wringing or that I lost any sleep over the chaos that was the late ‘60’s. It was more of an intellectual exercise than it was a visceral one. I remember being genuinely concerned about not just my future but everyone’s. It stood out in my mind as the years went on. Of course, I grew up (debatable) and put all of that into the appropriate context as the 70’s and subsequent decades progressed.
Everything old is new again.
Today a new Internet video documents the beheading of a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff.
To say that I fully understand the nature of terrorism would be a lie. I know the dictionary definition of terrorism and its political roots, but understanding is beyond my capability. What the hell is wrong with people?
What the hell is wrong with people?
I don’t know what else to say, really. There’s certainly little I can do to affect any resolution just as there was little I could do to affect the world when I was 12. But I’m concerned again. Not so much for me, of course, because much of my life is in the proverbial rear view mirror. But not for my sons, Jon and Andy and not for Beth’s boys, Nate and Garrett. What will their respective lives be like in ten years? Twenty five years? Fifty years? Will they have to live under the fear of assassination, chaos and anarchy? Will I again?
I’m no expert, but I do know how I feel. And I’m concerned again. For all of us.
I am not in management anymore. I have no supervisory duties whatsoever in my government job. Therefore, that makes me a worker bee. No longer a leader or manager, no siree! I am Joe Lunchbox now. The Average American. Worker. Laborer. Labrador (retriever).
Woof!
Before you call me out on this, I’ll have you know that I happen to be a card-carryin’, paid-up member of a real, honest-to-goodness labor union. The Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Radio and Television Artists is a LABOR union, listed as “… a proud member of the AFL-CIO,” The American Federation of LABOR and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Doesn’t get much more labor-y than the AFL-CIO. And I got a residuals check for $1.36 this year. That means I’m laboring or at least at some point I was laboring, right?
Right?
C’mon y’all, as Doctor Evil once so eloquently articulated, throw me a freakin’ bone, here!
Ok, so I am not on an assembly line, or holding one of those stop/slow road signs in a highway construction zone, and my labor is at a desk with a computer in air conditioned comfort. For the purposes of this discussion, please just this once think of me as the aforementioned Mr. Lunchbox.
Anyway, in anticipation of the three-day weekend and in celebration of Labor Day and all things laborious, here are ten things I like about Labor Day.
1. Three-day weekend. (That’s a no brainer.)
2. No more wearing white.
3. Sales! Sales! Sales!
4. Kids go back to school immediately afterwards.
5. Did I mention the three-day weekend?
6. Cooler fall weather is just around the corner.
7. Today, the Friday before the Labor Day weekend, which I may have mentioned is a three-day one, there’s practically no one in the office. It’s almost like having a FOUR-day weekend!
8. It’s not the end of the lawn mowing season yet, but I can see it from here.
9. When people say “Happy Labor Day!” to you they don’t sound as ridiculous as when they say “Happy Memorial Day.” There’s absolutely nothing happy about Memorial Day. Ever.
10. I can dupe the kids into taking out the trash on Monday because “all children are required by Federal statute to engage in labor on Labor Day.”
Wishing you all a terrific Labor Day weekend, which if you didn’t already know, is a three-day weekend.
I always see Fred Quillen’s name in the credits of the big live shows like tonight’s Emmys and the Oscars. He runs the recording/playback devices that play the prerecorded clips for these shows. I had the privilege of working with Fred many moons ago, though I doubt he’d even remember me. He helped train me on how to be a serious videotape operator when I worked for ABC and Vin DiBona Productions on “America’s Funniest Videos” and a couple of other shows. Always good to see his name in the closing credits. Well done, Fred, as always!