Bits and Pieces

Yes, the correct spelling is "shiny object"

It's been a miscellaneous kind of week. 

Margaret Wente is Broken

First thing that caught my eye was a CBC story about the many allegations of sexual harassment and assault by powerful men against vulnerable women in the entertainment industry.  Margaret Wente, the Globe and Mail's token libertarian/authoritarian idiot, provided her opinions on what behaviours women should reasonably tolerate from men. 

Long and short, unless the act truly is rape (and I'm sure she would weigh in on that given the opportunity), women should just wordlessly put up with being groped, stalked and harassed. She has her whole life, says Wente, and she's just fine. Absolutely she is.

How Climate Change Ruined Christmas

I was in HomeSense on Yonge Street looking for some mirrors that we've needed since we renovated our bedroom a year ago. The place was already all decked out for Christmas. I recalled how, in my early days as an adult, I would walk into a store like that and see it as a kind of treasure trove, full of wonder and potential. Now, I see a pile of crap no one needs destined for landfill, with unseen carbon footprints that will destroy us all.

DeCaffeinated

Through careful experimentation I can now confirm that my body has become 100% caffeine intolerant. For example, if I eat a small piece of dark chocolate at 1:00 p.m., my eyes will fly open at 1:00 a.m. and I will not be able to get back to sleep. 

Moreover, I gave up nicotine long ago.

So I go through my day unassisted by stimulants surrounded by colleagues jacked up on coffee and cigarettes.

Things Bureaucrats Say

The list in the two photos above (which has grown since these photos were taken) sets out words overheard every day in the halls of the bureaucracy. Some are heard in other office environments - wheelhouse, stick handle, dog and pony show - but "TAA" is one that, I'm willing to bet, is unique to the public service. 

This acronym stands for "take appropriate action." It means "I have no idea what to do with this. Please figure it out and make it go away."

Best Laugh of the Week

At two p.m. on Friday afternoon I was on a call with some provincial staff in British Columbia. One of the people in BC made the time-zone-difference-based observation that those of us in Ontario were closer to the weekend than they were in BC. 

I said, "yes, but we're also older."

Thanks for reading!

Karen