mastodon
4.6.6
This Position Closed
At breakfast I was constantly asked to do things "Put strawberry yoghourt on your shopping list", "Don't forget to call the plumber about XYZ", "The front lawn needs weeding", "The channel selector on the TV needs repairing", "Don't forget to pick up Jim from school at 5pm sharp", etc etc.
So I took one of those "This Position Closed" signs from a nearby bank and put it on the table before starting breakfast.
The Tying of Shoelaces: we all know the situation from corporate meetings. It's agreed vehemently that something unpleasant or onerous needs to be done and the chairperson, looking around the room, asks who will take responsibility for doing it. Immediately, to prevent their eyes being caught by the chairperson and until the chalice passes them by, all present bend down to meticulously tie and re-tie their shoelaces or some take an inordinate interest in a fly crossing the ceiling.
Western governments are spending trillions per month on last-century arms like battleships and fighter jets and missiles (I read that Trump wants a class of battleships named after him) and meanwhile the Ukraine is zapping oil refineries 1000km inside Russia with drones that cost as much as mine. There is an urgent need for a vast museum to which these prehistoric weapons can be shipped for posterity. To be called The Museum of Senseless Waste".
@evelynefoerster@swiss.social I guarantee that if one were to advertise Magic Seeds* which, when planted and watered, grow into high-denomination banknotes one would be overwhelmed with orders and have to retreat to BunglaDish to count the cash.
Some people will believe anything. Decades ago at a magician supply shop I bought a little wood box with slits on each side and a crank handle. Fill the box with genuine banknotes and turn the handle and feed blank paper into one slit and a banknote emerged from the other, looking like it was being printed. In shops when paying I asked for a scrap of paper, fed it in, and offered the banknote. A surprising number of people thought it was really printing the banknotes and wanted to buy one.
Why is this forum/list devoid of the rants, sideswipes, insults, hectoring, and flaming that seem infest every other forum I have visited ? Is there some kind of filter (human or AI ?) or is it simply that civilised people have gravitated to it ?
@evelynefoerster Right. It is a key principle in politics if one is governing a country that if one serially bungles and the country is going down the drain then DISTRACT, e.g. by blaming other countries or starting a war (or, better, several wars* preferably intractable ones which keep the Distraction pot boiling so that one has peace and quiet to continue one's bungling and malfeasance).