Hey, yesterday was Thursday, wasn’t it?
So let’s start with the Thursday Thumb-Twiddler:
1. You are in charge of 100 people in imminent danger of death. The best way out will still mean that 10 of them will be left behind, to die in a fairly ghastly manner. Would you make the choice as to who those ten would be, or would you draw lots. And, in either case, would you include yourself in those who (possibly) would be left behind? Urg. Lifeboat exercises of this sort are always (to me, at least) equally fascinating and appalling. I’d have to do it by lots — I wouldn’t have the personal guts to choose ten people to die. But I’m enough of a leader to make sure my name’s in the pot (if not enough to make it a lottery of 9).
2. You fire an incompetent employee, who then files a hefty wrongful discharge suit. The charges are bogus, but the court case will be long, time-consuming, and expensive. Would you settle out of court? If you knew that you were eventually certain of (costly) victory if you didn’t settle, would you anyway? Damn straight. Unless the outcome was really uncertain, if I was convinced we were in the right, I’d fight it. Otherwise the system is a sham.
3. What is something you enjoy that is a chore for most people? I actually enjoy watering the yard. Sometimes, at least. It’s very relaxing — “hydrotherapy,” my mom calls it (referring to my dad).
The Thursday Threesome:
Onesome: Ain’t– There’s a lot of slang floating around out there. Some of it has even found its way into the dictionary. Is there any one word that you find more annoying than others? That you just wish would fall off the face of the planet, never to be heard again? “Handicapable.” I find most of the euphemisms for handicaps and disabilities to be pollyannaish. I understand the idea behind them, but it’s one thing to try to discourage words like “dumb,” or even “cripple,” and another thing to pretend that being blind or wheelchair-bound is just a matter of personal preference and should be glorified as such.
Twosome: It– It’s/Its, they’re/their/there. Just a few of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. So the question is, when you blog, do you worry about grammar, punctuation and spelling? If you notice a typo do you go back and edit? Or do you shrug it off because everyone makes typos? I do try to pay attention to grammar and punctuation and spelling. I’m probably a lot more anal about it than most. And if I spot something afterwards that needs fixing, I cringe and go in and fix it. Appearances count.
Threesome: Purty?– Purty/pretty, crick/creek, warsh/wash. All common pronunciations, whether they sound pretty or not. And one is mispronounced. What’s one commonly mispronounced word that just drives you nuts? Nuclear. As pronounced “nucyulur.” “Ah, yes, the power derived from splitting the nuculus of the atom!” Rrg. Though I’ll note that even though Dubya is most regularly lambasted with this one, Carter did exactly the same thing (and he was an engineer on a nuclear sub, dammit!), and they aren’t the only presidents. Hell, I’ve heard it from other Pentagon sources, too. Pathetic.
And, of course, the Friday Five:
1. What do you most want to be remembered for? Being a good person.
2. What quotation best fits your outlook on life? Hell, I’ve been collecting thousands of them — you want just one?
Well, one picked at random is as good as any other:
One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it.
— Knute Rockne (1888-1931)
Good Lord — a sports quotation. From me.
3. What single achievement are you most proud of in the past year? Katherine.
Or, if that’s cheating, NaNoWriMo 2002. Though that, too, is still a work in progress.
4. What about the past ten years? My marriage.
5. If you were asked to give a child a single piece of advice to guide them through life, what would you say? Don’t be mean. You don’t have to be mean.