Three conversations

It’s been a busy week.  First, Jurgen, who loves politics, called me.

“So Newt Gingrich is the current ‘anti-Romney’.   It almost sounds like the anti-Christ, the beast risen from the troubled sea to disturb the peace of the establishment.”

“How do you expect a good Jewish boy like me to understand a reference to the Book of Revelation?”

“Go on.  We saw the movie, The Omen together and it was all explained there.  Anyhow the main point is that I got the literature from Gingrich and now he is excoriating Romney because he is too liberal and moderate.   That’s when I laughed because I had never heard those adjectives used pejoratively.

“Neither have I”

“Get used to it.  Now Romney will have to prove he is only a little moderate but mostly he is extreme and then if he gets the nomination, he’ll have to turn around and say he meant he was mostly moderate and only a little extreme.”

“Hey that’s Obama’s line.”

“I thought it was the line of every leader in Canada.”

“What did you think of the Liberal Convention?”

“I thought it showed that the Liberals are still the Liberals.  You would have loved Bob Rae’s description of the party.  It sounded like he was quoting God in Exodus 3:14”

“How?”

“When Moses asks who he should say sent him, God says, I am who I am.  When Bob Rae described his party he said, ‘We are who we are.’  Rae is trying to take on the role of Moses by telling us, ‘I speak on behalf of We are who we are’.”

“But will he able to lead the people out of the wilderness?”

“For his sake, I hope it doesn’t take forty years!”

I also had a brief chat with Jack and told him at some point, “Of course, Angela Jolie looked good on the red carpet.  That goes without saying.”

This was a mistake.  “What do you mean it goes without saying?  If it goes without saying why did you say it?”

“Don’t tell me you’re starting again.  It’s just an expression.”

“Do you write articles?”

“Yes.”

“Do you ever write, ‘that goes without writing’?”

“No, but…”

“I rest my case.”

************************************************************************

Linda was the last to call.  She works in the public service.

“They asked me to come work in a unit before they knew what their mandate was exactly because it was new and they were developing it.  I liked the manager so I went.”

“Sounds good.”

 

“Yeah but then they decided to review everybody’s mandate to look for cuts, so we weren’t allowed to do anything.”

“What did you do?”

 

“Went to other units and asked what they needed help with.  I was the busiest one there!  Oh and then they moved my manager and put in someone temporarily.”

“Well at least you kept busy.”

 

“You better believe it.  The temporary guy wanted to prove he knew what he was doing and told us we would invent our mandate.”

“How long did that last?”

 

“About 15 minutes?  Hah!  Actually a little longer but then they merged us with a larger corporate unit and we had to wait to find out what the new mandate was.”

“And now?”

 

“Now I have to go around doing reports on our operations except the operational people know what they are doing better than I do.”

“Don’t be discouraged.  The operational people have no time, so you are doing it for them.  You are the buffer between them and the higher ups.”

 

“Now I understand.  My job is to make sure I don’t get squished!”

 

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