« Home | The Gleaning of Christmas » | The Greetings of the Season » | The Dogs and the TV » | The Virus Attacks » | The Music Genome Project » | The Whoreicane » | The Hulk Smash Puny Break in Hiatus » | The Thing About French » | The People You Should Trust » | The Hardship with Hospitals »

The Post About Nothing in Particular. Really.

Work has become far more tedious than I had ever thought it would be; staff morale is poor because of constant meddling by my superiors, work politics make my stomach turn, conversations and meetings are mind-numbing wastes of time where -- and this is the most annoying trait that it seems everyone I work with seems to share -- people ignorantly talk about things that they don't particularly understand with incredible passion and vigor.

For no particular reason at all, I'm reminded of a story. This was a few years ago; I was flying to Florida to visit my Grandparents, but was doing so alone. I was sitting next to this guy, probably about 35, who turned to me to talk.

"I've heard that flights will go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger."

Now, I was just about to dig into the In-Flight Magazine provided by the fine people at Air Canada, but I decided to humour him for a moment.

"What would you like to discuss?"

"Oh, I don't know," he said, "How about nuclear power?"

"That could be an interesting topic," I said, "but let me ask you a question first:"

"A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat grass -- the same stuff. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?"

"Jeez," he said, "I have no idea."

"Well, then," I told him, "How is it that you feel qualified to discuss nuclear power when you don't know shit?"