OWS

I guess we're beginning to see the end of the various occupier groups. It does seem like there is a huge divergence in why folks were protesting and what they wanted to see as an end result.  I don't imagine that debate will pass quickly, even with the coming of winter weather.

The whole situation reminds me of one of my all time favorite movie lines - from Marlin Brando.

Rules?

A balmy post-Thanksgiving late afternoon had me outside stringing Christmas lights on our Charlie Brown tree on our front bank. It felt more like a great mid October day than late November – pleasant afternoon air and a pleasant seasonal chore. I could hear a group of boys yelling and hollerin’up the street having a good time at some outdoorsy game – maybe kickball, I couldn’t be sure. I could hear one boy louder than the others and at one point amid the leisure-time mayhem, I heard him pronounce with gusto, “You can’t do that – it’s against the rules!” I chuckled because it reminded me of playing with my friends as a boy, and I thought, “Rules?” If I recall correctly most of the games we played had no hard and fast rules. The rules were usually determined by whose ball we were playing with or whose yard we were playing in. Or more often than not, who was the largest or most powerful sole in our pack of kids. Fluid rules. Rules to suit the occasion and our king-of the-hill male attitudes. That seems natural. Life wasn’t an even playing field we learned. Deal with it.

It got me thinking about more adult years when my career choices had me working for one-owner companies. Interesting organizations they could be. I put in 19 years with two separate one-owner consulting firms. How many times did I run into a situation where the owner decided the “rules?” Often arbitrary and ad hoc. And more often than not with me on the bottom of the pig pile when the dust settled, not the top! “Wow,” I thought as I finished my light stringing and headed back up the driveway in the rapidly dimming light. The Charlie Brown tree looked good.

Best Guitarist Ever?

Update: check out AVI's post on the Yardbirds.

Rolling Stone magazine just listed the top 10 rock & roll guitarists ever (their opinion anyway).  But aside from being in the Top 10 list, what else do Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck have in common?

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Eric Clapton
3. Jimmy Page
4. Keith Richards
5. Jeff Beck
6. B.B. King
7. Chuck Berry
8. Eddie Van Halen
9. Duane Allman
10. Pete Townshend

Not Quite Singing for Your Supper

In October I posted about singing scientists.  Well, there's more.  Specifically there's Carl Winter, food scientist at UC Davis worrying over food sanitation, nutrition and the like. You can listen to his audio versions or see clips of Winter performing in front of other scientists (I know, it's hard to contain yourself).  Who can resist a singing scientist?

How about: You’d Better Wash Your Hands (Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand”)

Oh yeah I'll, tell you something
I think you'll understand
For the sake of sanitation
You'd better wash your hands
You'd better wash your hands
You'd better wash your hands

Or,  Staying Alive (BeeGees)

Well you can tell by the way I choose my food
I’m a worried guy, in a cautious mood
Food safety scares, they’re everywhere
And they’re telling me I should beware
There’s pesticides, Mad Cow Disease
Sure don’t put my mind at ease
Biotech, and MSG
Messin’ with my sanity

Don’t want hepatitis or that gastroenteritis
I’m just stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Scrubbin’ off my veggies and I’m heatin’ all my burgers
Up to one-eighty-five, one-eighty-five
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive