07:31 – I see that Sony has announced they won’t release The Interview to theaters, which is no surprise considering that no theater is willing to show it because they fear the terrorist threats made by the Norks. The $24 million they’ve invested in this movie is sunk, and it’s obviously time to write it off. If I were Sony, I’d write it off by releasing the movie without copyright on every file-sharing site in the world. Make sure that a billion copies are out there so everyone in the world will have a chance to see it. And, although the movie is by all accounts a complete piece of crap, perhaps the US government could take a cue from it and actually assassinate that chubby little dork Nork.
Thursday, 18 December 2014
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You’re absolutely right about what Sony ought to do – but I doubt their lawyers – or their accountants, for that matter – will let them…
Here are some other not so great films we can watch that the North Korean government has also found offensive.
The Red Chapel
Die Another Day
Red Dawn
Team America World Police
Olympus Has Fallen
The last three are available on Netflix streaming.
Here are some other not so great films we can watch that the North Korean government has also found offensive.
I suspect that every film every made by Hollywood would be offensive to North Korea.
What I don’t understand is why the US government continues to provide aid to NK. Or for that matter to other enemies of humanity such as Iran. I have never understood why we provide even food, medicine, and other “humanitarian” aid to such hellholes, which simply props up the dictators and allows them to use their hard currency reserves for buying other items. I also don’t understand why even Red China puts up with the constant bloviating by NK’s buffoon leadership.
It’s not your duty to “understand” but to meekly pay your taxes and OBEY, as all Mundanes are required to do.
It’s a giant shell game with the money; we send it and other goods to these places and it eventually comes back, through fairly complex financial chicanery to the Right People back here. This is especially true with military aid. What should be an eye-opener for credulous recruits and their families is that some of those weapons more frequently than is thought end up mangling or killing them when they’re sent over to these shit-holes. Weapons paid for by Mom and Dad Taxpayer.
“Hey Mom, guess what? You just paid to have your boy (or girl) come home minus limbs, sanity or in a box! How you like them apples?”
Oh, not to worry; it’s for our FreeDumb and Liberty and to save the country from (pick one) dastardly rebels, bastardly Spanish, the Hun, the Nazis, the Japs, the godless commie hordes, the hadjis, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Please pardon my bitter cynicism and horrid outlook on the myth of our warrior hero patriots and the glorious wars we fight in every generation…I’m off in a couple of hours to the “Vietnam Combat Group” at the VA down in Burlap. I’ll be sure to spread some more Xmas cheer there, too.
Merry Christmas, NOT.
My daughter gets a call from her supervisor very early this morning that there will be conference call at 7 a.m. PST today.
Long story short, she and 15 others have been laid off.
She works for a company that provides the coding services for our hospital (company HQ is in St. Louis MO and all coding employees work from home) . The hospital just broke the contract with the company. The hospital is more than 120 days in arrears to the company, the hospital has only 1 day cash on hand, and the hospital will not be paying the company what they are owed.
My wife also works at this same hospital, 35 years.
The Obamacare implications are all over this. The amount of uncompensated care that the hospital has had to provide has gone up exponentially. This is not a good time to be in the health care business.
I am so very very angry at this moment. Sorry to dump, but gee, I just want to spread the cheer (not). BTW, my wife has informed her Union (they are girding their loins) and I have filed a report with our local paper (they could use some real news).
I now return you to the world’s problems…
“Norks”.
That’s South Australian slang for boobs… 🙂
@DadCooks: Feel free to vent, that’s what we’re here for. Lord knows I’ve vented a few times – it helps, at least a little bit.
I have never understood why we provide even food, medicine, and other “humanitarian” aid to such hellholes, which simply props up the dictators and allows them to use their hard currency reserves for buying other items.
Bingo.
Many years ago, there was an essay by Reginald Bretnor in one of Jerry Pournelle’s collections. Towards the end of the essay, he writes:
Where a world organization is concerned, [to succeed, the organization must have] some uniformity in each member nation’s body of domestic law. Certain human rights must be uniformly guaranteed. Certain individual and collective acts must be uniformly prohibited. It is, for instance, ridiculous to expect a dictator legally free to preach and launch a holy war to be a reliable member of our world club; and it is just as absurd to expect this reliability from a power group legally free to quell any opinion contrary to their own and to preach and plan the violent overthrow of the governments or economic systems of their fellow members.
* * *
Which brings up another interesting question: just what would happen even today if [the United States], the British and Germans and French and Scandanavians and all other non-totalitarian nations everywhere (if anyone could get them to agree) were to withdraw from the UN, … take over those of its agencies we support already and form our own private club, functioning according to more civilized rules? And what would happen were we to confine our massive aid to those nations that chose to join us under these rules…?
I have that excerpted on my homepage, because it otherwise doesn’t exist anywhere in the Internet. Which is a shame, because he definitely has a point.
Of course he does. As I’ve said, the English-speaking democracies–Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the US–should be the core of all that matters. If the Germanic and Nordic northern European countries–most of whose citizens already speak English–want to join us on our terms, fine. But I have never had much time for the rest of the world, and I certainly think we should have abandoned the UN at the time it was being formed.
Sorry to see that, DadCooks, my condolences to you and your daughter. Been there and had that done to me several times, and the other day to our son, after he gave his month’s notice down in MA they fired him. Merry Christmas, indeed; one of mine came just a few days before XMAS some years ago up here. Feel free, as brad sez. to vent; most of us do it occasionally. For good cause.
Agreed on the UN thang with Dr. Bob, of course; I’d go further and tip that building into the East River, along with the NY Times building and then I’d flood Wall Street.
Which is also oddly appropriate, since the Norks are also boobs in the alternative definition of fools.
I’m not sure how the various slang terms for the chest area of women became conflated with foolishness. I mean, “boob”, “tit”, and other slang can be used in either sense.
I was laid off in December 1993. Only good thing about it was I knew it was coming about a year in advance. Some crooked, retired USAF Chief name Jim Densberger, who went to work for civil service, was the person approving the contract bids on the contract I was employed. We were in Oak Ridge TN, he was in San Antonio. There were no issues with our contract performance. But a new company wanted the contract, conveniently based in San Antonio. In fact our performance went beyond the contract specs and the users were always pleased with the service.
Well Jim Densberger wanted to retire from civil service and have another job. So he got the task of awarding the contract. My company lost the contract because we bid one too few support people even though the number was never specified in the proposal. Jim could find no reason to not award us the contract so he made up having not having enough support people. It did not matter that we had supported the contract for 10 years with the exact number of people bid.
So the company in San Antonio got the contract. Surprise, surprise, as soon as Jim Densberger retired from civil service he went to work for the company that got the contract.
Christmas was quite depressing that year. My family understood but I felt sorry for my 11 year old son. All his friends got lots of stuff while he was only got limited gifts. My wife and I tried what we could but funds were going to be very tight. He understood but it was still tough for him to go to his friends house and see what they got compared to what he got. My wife and I got nothing for each other.
Meanwhile that asshole Jim Densberger is drawing a USAF retirement, Civil Service retirement, and is now working for the company he awarded the contract. I am sure there were some kickbacks involved but cannot prove it. He caused difficult times for many people so he could now afford his home on the golf course.
I contacted then senator Al Bore and he did nothing to stop the contract moving out of his district. Failed to respond to my letter until the press in Oak Ridge got hold of the story. Then it became an “oversight” on the part of his staff.
Why oh why do companies feel that December is a good time to dump employees?
“I’m not sure how the various slang terms for the chest area of women became conflated with foolishness. I mean, “boob”, “tit”, and other slang can be used in either sense.”
I never use tit or boob in a derogatory sense. They’re far too beautiful to be conflated with anything negative.
Team America World Police
Looks like Paramount is going to pull it from reshowing.
Luckily, I have the unrated version as a digital file for my viewing pleasure.
Why is Bummer sitting on his ass about this. A major hack that everybody is saying the Norks are behind. Do something! Maybe consult with the Castro Brothers as he plans his first trip to Cuba. Can’t let Jayzee be the only one to suck fine Havana cigars.
I don’t understand why someone hasn’t stomped all over this pissant little country long ago. I mean, it’s smaller than North Carolina and has an economy that’s smaller overall than quite a few US *cities*.
I’m certainly no military expert, but to my eye it looks as though the NK military is pathetic. Huge, yes, but of extraordinarily low quality. Talk about cannon fodder. It appears that about 90% of their warplanes are of 50’s and 60’s vintage, and I’d be surprised if they could refuel or rearm them in a war setting. Same deal on their armor, such as it is. I suspect they have no logistics whatsoever. Hell, they’d probably be hard-pressed to resupply rations to their army, let alone even small-arms ammo.
I’m guessing that the reason no one has stomped them flat is fear of how Red China would respond. I can’t believe even the Chinese give a shit about NK.
Aww, MrAtoz, that’s a shame. I love that movie! I even bought the CD music, but alas, some boob stole it from my car. The same dork also took the maintenance records in a folder behind the passenger’s seat. I’m guessing he was from North Korea.
“Meanwhile that asshole Jim Densberger is drawing a USAF retirement, Civil Service retirement, and is now working for the company he awarded the contract.”
Since 2000, amirite? His Linked-In profile is very sparse, to the point almost of non-existence. Very nice.
In my latest job hunt nooz, I was a “strong candidate” for a Linux sys admin gig, allegedly, but got told by the recruiter that “they’re fixated on this other guy…he’s a Red Hat sys admin at IBM but is worried about their future there since the buyout by Global Foundry…” Yeah, no chit. Mine was gone a year and a half ago; this guy’s been there all along and now he can glide right into another RH gig?? Sweet. So gee, could I just take over his IBM gig until it’s gone, then?? In any case, a bullet dodged on the newer gig, as its actual description covers the whole alphabet of acronyms without even mentioning RH, but Ubuntu, in a very minor role; it’s a damn Winblows shop, through and through. Never again. Good luck to that dude. They also want Cisco phone experience, haha.
We’ve been fairly lucky with Christmas for the kids stuff since the beginning, mainly ’cause at least Mrs. OFD was always working. Now they gotta deal with Xmas for their own kids, although son called/emailed this past week with what his kids want, to the tune of hundreds, while he makes more than the two of us put together, and is about to make three times what we make. I told his mom this is the last time for that. Her plan to do a charity contribution in their name was out the window the minute sonny called. No more.
“Why is Bummer sitting on his ass about this.”
You can bet there’s a reason to which us Mundanes are not privy. I will now get ahold of that flick just because I can.
“I’m guessing that the reason no one has stomped them flat is fear of how Red China would respond. I can’t believe even the Chinese give a shit about NK.”
They have nuke warheads they can deliver over many hundred miles; this makes Japan, South Korea and the Russians nervous. And it has suited the Red Chinese to use them as a stalking horse and threaten our pitiful G.I. tripwire on the DMZ with hordes of Norks swarming across with AK’s and artillery. Our gummint has long ago written off our tripwire guys accordingly and would respond again with massive force regardless of the Red Chinese. In any case, it’s beginning to look as if the other major players in that area are getting a little tired of the Norks and their threats and may start doing some stuff.
The Norks can continue to very sloppily deploy nuke warheads and evidently hack into corporations and other governments at present. We can judge Obummer and the present regime by what they don’t do, as well as what they do, and as far as the Cuba thing goes, that was initially negotiated by Vatican operatives. Stupid all these decades anyway and solved nothing and merely made life much harder for ordinary folks, all ’cause of some diehard Mafia assholes in Miami and Batista regime rejects. Don’t get me wrong; I’d gladly strangle both Castros with piano wire in a nanosecond.
Back from the vets thing today; two ‘Nam guys are moving to Florida, maybe only temporarily, as in “this winter,” and we had two other guys today from the Suck and Sandbox capers. One at six feet and 332 pounds who just took up snowboarding. The other just out of yet another lockdown at the VA Med Center in White River Junction psych ward.
I’m probably the sanest mofo there and that is fucking scary shit.
Also now have the Ubuntu Studio machine set up as a web server, with Apache2, php, mysql, etc. More plans afoot.
NK reputedly has 14,000 artillery pieces and mortars trained on Seoul from the DMZ. At the onset of war, maybe 20 to 50% of the ten million populace will die?
http://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/SEOUL-lives-life-on-the-edge-Just-35-miles-from-2557590.php
Having such a large city within shooting distance of the DMZ is not wise. At least our USA troops (about 35,000) have been withdrawn to the southern coast of SK. One of my first cousins is in the army and goes there every couple of months for troop legal issues.
Get out of paying Christmas/year end bonuses.
My brother, the rest of the engineering department, and a good chunk of the shop floor got laid off in the second week of December a few years ago. Christmas bonuses for full-time employees who’d been there a while were substantial, around 10% of wages IIRC. Not that year, of course. Interestingly, the office staff, managers, and salesmen, all of whom were related to the owner, did not suffer any layoffs, though the reason given for the layoffs (and denial of bonuses) was loss of business and poor finances. Interestingly, with non-production employment raised from 15% to 30% of total employment, the company never regained profitability and closed a few months later.
Do very many businesses give out Christmas bonuses anymore?
“…the company never regained profitability and closed a few months later.”
And rest assured the owner and his relatives and cronies all copped a bundle when it folded and to hell with everyone else. That’s the attitude throughout corporate Murka these days; climb up, grab whatever ya can even if it destroys the organization, and then bail with a nice golden ‘chute. Plus it’s entertaining now for them to see the suffering and pain they cause to the lower ranks. I still remember the videos of the smartypants financial hustlers on Wall Street high-fiving each other every time some big company laid off a bunch of people. Our modern carny barkers, hustlers, and corporate pirates and criminal scumbags make ol’ Scrooge look like the original Lucifer, the Angel of Light and God’s favorite. (before he sassed the Big Guy and got sent down, that is…)
“Do very many businesses give out Christmas bonuses anymore?”
I haven’t seen that since I was a kid; nowadays if a biz did do that, the one atheist or muslim or Wiccan adherent on the premises would bitch and the practice would be ended forthwith.
Red Dawn
The remake was shot with the Red Chinese as the bad guys. Then the studio realized it would affect distribution of their other films in China. So they went back and digitally altered all the military insignia to be NK and had dialog looped where needed.
As for why China gives a crap about NK. Simple. They don’t want millions of refugees coming across the border.
As for why we don’t stomp on them, it’s as mentioned above. A large part of Seoul, Korea would be destroyed by artillery. S. Korea is very ambivalent about what to do with NK. They fear a reunification because of the cost, but the humanitarian situation of concerns them – so they send food aid. Remember that they have relatives in NK.
Get out of paying Christmas/year end bonuses.
Get out of paying Christmas/year end salaries//wages.
They really really hate paying people for Christmas, maybe Boxing Day, New Year’s day holidays, plus maybe lowered efficiency for seven or ten days (or half a day in there somewhere, anyway, plus costs of staff Christmas Party, etc.) when the peons have slaved all year. It’s also the time of year when companies close for annual maintenance and cleaning, so ten days might stretch somewhat while the staff take mandatory holidays (and accrue more costs while not working).
I can appreciate the thought processes perfectly. It’s just whether you treat dedicated staff as an unwarranted overhead, or a valuable asset.
Yeah, I forgot to mention the millions of refugees, but would they stream north to a situation almost as bad, if not worse, or to the south, where it would be a burden probably like unto West Germany’s originally, but at least they’d be more or less free?
I also wonder how Japan and South Korea would actually react if the Norks opened up with their artillery followed by the human wave assaults across the border. I kinda assume they have the ordinance to reduce that threat almost immediately. I know we do. Red China might raise a big fuss but I bet privately they’d love to see those wack jobs go down the tubes and another burgeoning capitalist economy on their doorstep like Hong Kong and Macao that they can browbeat and plunder.
“Get out of paying Christmas/year end salaries//wages.”
I believe we have innernet winners here, and Mr. SteveF and Mr. Don have hit the nail on the head with both posts; the PHB manglers and CEO’s don’t wanna pay one more red cent than they absolutely have to, for their long-suffering drones and peons.
In the Xmas week between that and New Year’s when I was still at IBM, the place was deserted, but since I didn’t get paid for the holidays or get O.T. (at first, and not after a pitched battle with them about it that almost got us fired) I had to work, and they had me manhandle pallets of surplused equipment and clean out storerooms of old legacy junk, etc.., all by myself, virtually no one else on the whole plantation, other than the manufacturing peons on all shifts in the chip fabrication areas. All the manglers and long-time employees took the whole week off.
From my work experience over the decades, my view is that the employers, in all industries that I know of, have gotten more mean and niggardly on pay and bennies, and do their damndest to eliminate jobs here and work remaining staff like donkeys until they drop.
As for sys admins, they’re now expected to do that PLUS operator stuff, programming, networks, security, help desk, and haul shit all over the buildings and grounds, while having at least a BS level in comp-sci and a whole alphabet of IT acronyms under their belts. The jobs out there right now seem to be either entry-level help desk, SENIOR this and that with decades of progressively responsible experience, OR, developer/programmers versed in some weird, barely known, esoteric mix of languages. That’s it, nothing in the middle anymore; that’s all been shunted off to Slovakia and India.
For those interested in a nice “entry-level” AR, I got that tip and link from Dr. Bob and here’s a review:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/11/jerrycatania/gun-review-ruger-ar-556/
You could pick this gizmo up and then throw on an optic that costs almost as much or more; plus I recommend Viking Tactics slings. I wouldn’t put a light on this but for home defense shotguns their light mounts and lights are pretty good, too, if a bit spendy.
Our Christmas tree is up and mostly decorated, along with all the other Xmas stuff Mrs. OFD put up today. I did diddly around the house today but will get cracking tomorrow on stuff; other than get the Ubuntu Studio set up as a possible web server. She has to drive to Montreal again to retrieve Princess and then the latter will swan on down to cousins’ Xmas open house deal by Lake George with MIL from there do various events in MA and NH, but not in my Toyota. Son driving up from MA to MIL’s tomorrow at same time to sign bank papers, as she’s handing over I dunno how many thousands to him via a new savings account for a possible down payment on a house out in the SF Bay area.
I just have the usual grunge chores and errands well into Saturday, and then I’m back onto the NFL games for Sunday and Monday night. Tuesday/Wednesday for Xmas dinner cooking preps.
I also wonder how Japan and South Korea would actually react if the Norks opened up with their artillery followed by the human wave assaults across the border.
The Korean DMZ is one of the reasons the US has not signed the treaty banning land mines. The border is full of them. The South Koreans would fight. They are still pissed about the continuing torpedo attacks on their navy. The younger generation is said by the folks at Strategy Page to be very pissed, since the casualties have mostly been younger. Japan can’t do anything unless they are attacked. They don’t have a military, just “self defense forces”, though they have been edging towards amending the constitution to allow them to engage in peacekeeping and the like.
Oh – Paramount has pulled Team America: World Police from distribution. Some theaters were planning on showing it in place of The Interview. The irony is that by all accounts The Interview isn’t that good.
Having been in management since I was 22, a lot of what appears to be Xmas lay-offs, is actually related to year-end budgets. I never had the problem, but I knew others who misspent and overspent, and then, instead of being able to delay layoffs until January, they had to do them before year-end in order to make the budget balance, or risk losing their own jobs.
After over 8 employers during more than 40 years, only one gave out Xmas bonuses, and it was $100, which has not bought a month’s worth of gas since 1974. Those I am in touch with, say that company stopped those bonuses when it was sold innumerable years ago.
Sorry to hear about the layoffs and firings. Been around the block enough that I would never give much advance notice before leaving. In this day and age, best to be gone shortly after the notice, and not tell them where you are going. I am all too familiar with the escort out of the building after turning in the notice.
Got fiber to the house a couple days ago. Of course, I have not been here to use it, wouldn’t you know. I just emailed an attachment of 10mb, and it took only 4 seconds to upload it to the mail server.
The late Jude Wanniski always maintained that if economists you were following played with formulas, then they were mathematicians, not economists, because economics is psychology and personal interactions, not formulas. Here is an article about how conventional wisdom’s predictions by industry experts about oil and gas has been so wrong as to be hilarious.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-conventional-wisdom-on-oil-is-always-wrong/
Went by the big, big, big Academy store at I-10 and 99 tonight to see if they had the Winchester 22 LR bricks in the wooden cases. They sold the last one this afternoon, I knew I should have gone last weekend. That is the main corporate store and usually gets all the premier stock first. Had to console myself with a CCI 300 pack of 22 LR for $23. Wish I could have bought a dozen (they limit to one brick at a time).
But, they had a S&W model 66 combat .357 for sale at $800.
http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product4_750001_750051_827561_-1_757751_757751_757751_ProductDisplayErrorView_Y
I got a verbal warning from the wife about “one more gun”. I tried to explain to her about the beauty and the grace but I just got the look and a lecture. If she had not been there, it would be mine tonight. I also got a verbal warning about driving back over there tomorrow. She did not say anything about Saturday though.
They also had the new S&W 9mm 7 shot revolver for $1,100. I just could not see the price in that weird looking gun when the beautiful model 66 was in the same display case:
http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product4_750001_750051_827555_-1_757751_757751_757751_ProductDisplayErrorView_Y
Obola has banned landmines everywhere except for the Korean DMZ:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/09/23/us-ban-landmines-everywhere-including-korea
And Ol’ Obola has committed to stop buying new land mines and to get rid of the stocks. Just in time for WWIII, the USA against the Caliphate.
The IRS has had its budget cut by $350 million. The IRS boss says “there is no more fat to cut”, so he may shut the agency down temporarily, to save costs. Is that a threat, or a special treat?
– – – – –
December layoffs: Y’all would probably know that better than me, but: aren’t there a lot of laws and regulations that apply to companies with certain numbers of employees? If you fire employees in December, then you have a lower headcount going into the next year, so…
– – – – –
North Korea only exists because China subsidizes it. The great, unanswered question is: why? I suppose it gives China a sock puppet; likely those weren’t North Korean hackers, but Chinese hackers seeing what they could get away with, and North Korea provided plausible deniability.
– – – – –
@Ray: In my time in USAF procurement, I saw that revolving door more than once. Colonels and Generals running major programs and – swoop – suddently they’re working for one of the contractors in the program they had been managing. I don’t understand how this passes any sort of scrutiny, but apparently it is possible to meet the letter of the law, while trampling all over the intent.
End of the Quarter.
End of the year.
End of many companies’ fiscal year.
Avoid bonuses.
Last ditch effort to make balance sheet look good to shareholders for end of year reporting.
My uncle worked at Rubbermaid outside of Phoenix and he got a call the first week of December (back in 2004?) from corporate HQ telling him he needed to lay off 12 of his direct reports no later than December 23rd. My wife’s employer (a bank) just laid off 7 people at her location about two weeks ago.
That’s a huge shit sandwich to swallow. Especially when you’re already barely making ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck, or trying to make sure your kids have a good Christmas.
China tolerates North Korea merely to irritate the US.
China fully supports North Korea burning up as many US tax dollars as they can. Every time NK flinches toward the DMZ we do some military “show of force” and blow several million in tax dollars. I’m sure China just sits back laughing.
“That’s a huge shit sandwich to swallow.”
Indeed. Reminds me of a joke we heard sometimes as kids; “Hey doofus, someone told me you eat shit sandwiches but I know you don’t like bread.” Stupid, but that’s what a lot of us out here have dealt with more than once this time of year.
“She did not say anything about Saturday though.”
You wild ol’ daredevil, you…
I gotta sneak that AR in here at some point but will probably wait until I get the FFL.
Lynn wrote:
“I got a verbal warning from the wife…”
Just do it, and don’t tell her. If she finds out just tell her you’re exercising your constitutional rights.
“Just do it, and don’t tell her.”
You’re not married, I take it?
I knew *somebody* would say that… 🙂
Lynn, I don’t think either of the S&Ws you link to look very attractive. The XDM .40 is one of the best looking handguns I’ve seen you mention…
Women take the law in to their own hands all the time. Once, when my parents were vistiting me in Canberra, mum asked if she could have a couple of my beloved (from the Seventies) t-shirts to tear up and use for cleaning rags.
I said no, of course.
One day while I was at work she made an executive decision and just did it. I was furious, but what could I do? If women can just do it, so can men.
Again, you’re not married, are you? Never piss off the woman who knows where you sleep, and where all the sharp knives are.
If you wanted to keep the t-shirts beloved, you should have (A) hidden them and (B) offered your mum an alternative.
I’m on the fence here, sorta; I sympathize DEEPLY with Greg’s position but am faced with married life reality, as Dr. Bob and Bill have indicated. And not only sharp knives here, but firearms and explosives.
(so many tee shirts and hats gone; so many CD’s ruined, tools lost, etc.)
Barbara is a very unusual woman in that (and other respects). She keeps her hands off my stuff, with the sole exception of tools. She’s a little tool-stealing weasel. Any time she “borrows” a tool from me, it’s very likely to end up in her tool kit. And she’ll claim that it’s always been hers and that I must be misremembering it being mine. On the other hand, unlike most women’s likely reactions, Barbara was delighted with a set of wrenches I gave her for her birthday or Saturnalia one time. They went right into her tool box and I wasn’t allowed to touch them for quite some time afterward.
“…I must be misremembering it being mine.”
Undoubtedly. You know, short-term memory loss; afflicts us older people, esp. men, as we age. They were her tools, you just forgot.
“…I wasn’t allowed to touch them for quite some time afterward.”
Naturally. You bought them but you can’t touch them.
See, Greg, this is a very small example of what we mean when we mention married life and being married. It’s a lifelong lesson in psychology, anthropology, and all too often, bile analysis (on the part of both spouses).
It’s been quite a dance up here as we negotiate which vehicles will be used for gallivanting all over VT, MA, NY and NH this weekend and early next week; so another issue with married life is that the fun gets multiplied geometrically for us husbands when more females join in the mix, in this case, daughter, MIL and cousins. There was the original Plan, and I’ve learned we can just forget that immediately, ’cause they’ll change it continually as the hours and days pass by. Right now there’s Plan C in operation, but by the end of today, it will be up to Plan E or F, believe you me.
Keeps us on our toes and staves off senility.
On the other hand, unlike most women’s likely reactions, Barbara was delighted with a set of wrenches I gave her for her birthday or Saturnalia one time. They went right into her tool box and I wasn’t allowed to touch them for quite some time afterward.
You are a lucky man!
Another nugget from Bill’s Guide to a Successful Marriage (as of yet unwritten): “There are only two things a husband can be: right or happy”.