Friday, March 30, 2018
The man who decided to do it anyway
regardless
of us,
who had gotten,
you see,
his Irish up.
He won’t change
for hottest spite
these
banging
years.
Though outward signs
of Yankee normality
prevail, dreams rip
our usual hands,
but not his.
And he laughs.
A fair disaster
and so he laughs!
Like life’s
a sale where
you buy your
own wind.Labels: conformity, Irish, peer pressure, peers, rebellion, stubborn
Monday, April 04, 2016
Smart-Answers Kelly
She arranged her makeup on the desk, musing.
Suddenly stamped the document. "No smart
answers, Kelly?"
"None!"
Well, you're promoted. Clerk Two!" She started
applying lipstick. Watermelon Ecstasy.
All her bright makeup named for fruits.
“Congratulations definitely in order!" laughed
Barmaid Lilly Nessley later.
Five regulars joined in singing "For He's a Jolly
Good Fellow!"
But somebody did deny. Other Kelly swept over with "Another rung on the Ladder to Oblivion?"
"Clerk One forever!" Bixxy sneered back at him.
The two eventually separated.
“Bad blood there!”--Kelly eventually shaking his head. Then telling Bixxy of the woman’s Smart Answers crack.
“Serious!” he warns. "She mixed you up with the Other Kelly. You never, ever, gave one in your whole entire life!"
“I'll never get promoted again then?”
“Probably.”
“What can I do about it?”
“Nothing.”
“But there must be something!”
“Stay content! The graveyards are full
of people tried to straighten out the
simplest problem.”
The gang starts another verse "That nobody
can deny, that nobody can deny!"
The Other Kelly lurks in a dim corner.
Labels: conformity, contentment, friends, Jolly Good Fellow, niceness, Other, promotion, work
Friday, April 17, 2015
Societal Seeing
“I see,” said Dorsel.
“I too!” from Max, followed
by Maxine's nod.
Rands, however, took some
convincing from them.
Finally came aboard!
But then Bertram announced (He always
announced!)
"In truth, you all SEE nothing but what
you're programmed to see. That hasn't
changed in many years, and won't.”
"Uh huh?" laughed Dorsel.
“Your ideas, even when you think them
daring, fit a well-worn groove the
authorities are more than comfortable with.”
His Loretta entered the room. "Stop it, Bert!
People can stand only so much reinventing
of the wheel."
“It's completely caved in and utterly useless!”
spat Bert. “Decay is all!”
When those two left, Maxine sneered
“Such men are dangerous! L-except.”
L-except meant that as a literary allusion
it was free of the requirement to use "persons."
Labels: allusion, conformity, fear, future, literary, politically correct, reinventing wheel, sexism, to see
Friday, August 30, 2013
Keep Repeating Whatever
Caution With Buttons
Personnel guy explained that my psychological
tests revealed what I already knew: that I'm
a total fussbudget and a man for detail.
The job they gave me involved close monitoring
of several gauges, with instruction to
press certain buttons if particular readings
went out of range. Well, right up my alley.
The engineer in my one-day course had stressed
"Never push the blue button! Ever! End of story."
The only problem I ever had was because of
the previous shift. They left coffee cups around,
etc. So I had to do a meticulous cleanup every day.
Of course.
Then another time, housekeeping didn't keep
up with the rainy weather and the mud had
dried into a mess.
I searched out a broom and swept as cleanly
as possible.
Unfortunately, I had moved rocks in the
garden the previous day and my back was
sore.
Well, ten thousand to one! A back spasm
struck and the handle of the broom lined
up perfectly with the forbidden blue button
and I lurched and...
“What have I done?” I asked in my panic.
“Will somebody be injured or killed, or
some process be ruined and cost the
company thousands?” But I heard nothing.
When I finally got to inform the engineer, back
from a conference at national headquarters,
he said, "Blue button connected to nothing.
No danger of any type, so relax!"
"But you warned me...!"
"So? I was ordered to pass that on."
"But it was erroneous information!"
"Look! Where you been? Not a boyscout
jamboree here! Or anywhere, for that
matter. And this conversation never occurred!"
Labels: bizarre directions, conformity, detail, fussbudget, insane job, work
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
For the People
-I came here to work for the people!
-How’d that go?
-For the party more like.
-How’d the people react?
-Remarkably quiescent. Of course I threw them the occasional cookie.
-How so?
-When Noises didn’t need my vote I was allowed off the reservation.
-So, the great maverick on Face the Nation.
-Spitting fire! Spitting fuckin fire!
-All in all, though, despair?
-Just about. Leads to booze and ladies who give a shit
about nothing.
-Wife back home?
-Roams.
-Worse and worse.
-Our constituent service, though, top drawer! We got young people who work like Trojans.
-Well there is some pride then!
-Yeah, I came as Patrick Henry and leave a really good
7-11 manager.
-I came here to work for the people!
-How’d that go?
-For the party more like.
-How’d the people react?
-Remarkably quiescent. Of course I threw them the occasional cookie.
-How so?
-When Noises didn’t need my vote I was allowed off the reservation.
-So, the great maverick on Face the Nation.
-Spitting fire! Spitting fuckin fire!
-All in all, though, despair?
-Just about. Leads to booze and ladies who give a shit
about nothing.
-Wife back home?
-Roams.
-Worse and worse.
-Our constituent service, though, top drawer! We got young people who work like Trojans.
-Well there is some pride then!
-Yeah, I came as Patrick Henry and leave a really good
7-11 manager.
Labels: conformist, conformity, maverick, party, party line, people, politics, Populism, practical politics
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Future Expression
-Your Mr Pelham has carved himself a baseball cap from pillow foam.
-He's amusing. Does things to amuse the rest.
-Baseball caps are forbidden because of the haphazard ways they can be worn.
-Well, not strictly a baseball cap. Besides, where's the harm?
-That's always the first question on the road to chaos.
-I'll seize and destroy it.
-And him.
-Your Mr Pelham has carved himself a baseball cap from pillow foam.
-He's amusing. Does things to amuse the rest.
-Baseball caps are forbidden because of the haphazard ways they can be worn.
-Well, not strictly a baseball cap. Besides, where's the harm?
-That's always the first question on the road to chaos.
-I'll seize and destroy it.
-And him.
Labels: conformity, future
