The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on fromgeneration to generation, says that when you discoverthat you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is todismount. In modern business, education, and governmenta whole range of far more advanced strategies are oftenemployed, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Threatening the horse with termination.
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other countries to see how othersride dead horses.
6. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can beincluded.
7. Re-classifying the dead horse as “living, impaired”.
8. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
9. Harnessing several dead horses together to increasethe speed.
10. Providing additional funding and/or training toincrease the dead horse’s performance.
11. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riderswould improve the dead horse’s performance.
12. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have tobe fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead, andtherefore contributes substantially more to the bottom-line of the economy than do some other horses.
13. Re-writing the expected performance requirementsfor all horses.
14. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
15. Bringing in additional consultants to deploy “Best-Practice” solutionsfor dead horse implementations.
“It is particularly interesting to watch what happens between the first and second tallies at the Iowa Democratic caucuses, as viable candidate camps vie for the votes of the unviable.” (the bold and italics are mine, not CNN’s)
Excuse me? Is there no better way to word that sentence? Some CNN editor is sleeping on the job today… Thank you CNN. Now I feel I’m an expert on Iowa caucuses. LOLOL!
Comedian Will Ferrell has a video on YouTube that is rather amusing.
My understanding is that the little girl is his daughter. Eric and I were chuckling this morning at the thought of little girl Ferrell entering preschool and announcing something along the lines of “I want my snack now bitch.” We can just hear Will and his wife now — “gee, it seemed like such a cute idea at the time to teach her those lines.”
Very interesting video from E-Shy — “What’s the Difference Between Blacks and Jews.” Brandon is teaching a contemporary Judaism class so we’ve been scouring the net for cool, unique and contemporary expressions of Judaism.
Interesting that when this is played on YouTube, it has a different title (something to do with Britney Spears), probably to help its rankings. Very sad what a flame fest the commentary for this video has become. I noticed one who commented that Muslims go through the same stuff. That is most definitely true, and my guess is that E-Shy would agree with that.
This video has sparked a lot of discussion in our household. For the most part, I don’t like rap, but I think this is a really cool song and I like it a lot. Very powerful message.
We’re getting ready for Ben’s bar mitzvah on August 25. He has just gotten back from a month at camp, so we are in the mad scramble. I took him Monday for his formal photo portrait (you know, suit, tie, new prayer shawl & kippah and such). We are racing around. I know the photo will be from the waist up, so we go with ONLY a jacket, tie, dress shirt, prayer shawl, kippah. The photographer, who has evidently never photographed someone for a bar mitzvah, snaps a few full front portraits during the session despite my request to just do from the waist up. There Ben stands in his jacket, tie, dress shirt etc. — and his Abercrombie cargo shorts and OSU themed sneakers.
We’re keeping those photos — along with the other head shots. It’s a reminder of how wonderfully crazy life was for us at this time. We’re enjoying every moment we can!
I’m a sucker for a musical, and Hairspray, released on July 20, does not disappoint.
Opening with a glorious and humorous number, Good Morning Baltimore and Nikki Blonsky riding to school on the top of a garbage truck, this upbeat movie hits the spot with me as the most refreshing and entertaining flick of the summer. Newcomer Nikki Blonsky nails it as Tracey Turnblad. This YouTube video shows how Blonsky learned that she had won the part:
Christopher Walken and John Travolta’s performances are extraordinairy. My favorite scene is the love song between the two of them. I wish the end of the movie showed outtakes — I wonder how many takes it took for them to be able to do this one. (Eric and I cracked up when during the song, Walken grabs Travolta’s ass.)
Queen Latifah, an outstanding and talented actress and singer, quipped “Honey if we get any more white people in here, this is gonna be a suburb,” which cracked the audience up. Elijah Kelley is a fantastic singer, dancer, and actor. His love interest role with Amanda Bynes was perfect.
Cast list:
John Travolta … Edna Turnblad
Michelle Pfeiffer … Velma Von Tussle
Christopher Walken … Wilbur Turnblad
Amanda Bynes … Penny Pingleton
James Marsden … Corny Collins
Queen Latifah … Motormouth Maybelle
Brittany Snow … Amber Von Tussle
Zac Efron … Link Larkin
Elijah Kelley … Seaweed
Allison Janney … Prudy Pingleton
Nikki Blonsky … Tracy Turnblad
Taylor Parks … Little Inez
Paul Dooley … Mr. Spritzer
Jerry Stiller … Mr. Pinky
Darren Frost … Cameraman
When this one comes out on DVD, it’s a definite purchase for our house. In the meantime, pick up the soundtrack at Amazon.com. Someone wrote that Hairspray is the “Grease for our children’s generation.” I think that’s really true. Escape the sun and heat for a few hours and enjoy Hairspray!
Kroger has made some changes recently in the store we frequent (Sharonville Kroger). The “new” redesign of the store has done more with signage, lighting and placement of shelves and free standing units than it has enhancing of its offerings. As a matter of fact, there are now significantly less national brand products offered and more of Kroger’s Private Selection (Kroger label) products. For the most part, I don’t care for Kroger brands. I *want* to buy the national brand.
The Mason biggs has implemented a self checkout section, and they do something novel that Kroger doesn’t do at its U Scan stations — the employee who works the attendant kiosk for the self checkout terminals actually thanks me for my business when I complete my transaction and walk away with my bags. At the Kroger U Scan station, the employee stares blankly into space with a neanderthal open-mouthed expression. Message to me as the customer — Kroger could care less if I shopped there or not.
biggs has done much more with offering unusual items so that I don’t have to make the trek to Jungle Jim’s. While it feels a bit like an expedition when I shop at biggs, and I detest bagging my own groceries (dragging through the store, pushing the cart, selecting and purchasing the items, schlepping them in the house and then preparing meals from them seems like enough — I don’t need to bag my groceries too), the clear advantage in Cincinnati is shopping at biggs.
We all got some sun and had a really fun time. Check out some of the photos from our trip in my Flickr photostream. (If you want to see all the photos, you’ll need to send me an e-mail with your Flickr account ID so I can mark you as a friend — due to some hassles by some unpleasant Flickr trolls, I’ve set all my family pictures to private view for folks I’ve marked as a friend or family in Flickr.)
. Someone wrote that Hairspray is the “Grease for our children’s generation.” I think that’s really true. Escape the sun and heat for a few hours and enjoy Hairspray!