The Thin Red Line

Several years ago I read Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, an expose on just how badly low level employees of major companies are treated and an examination of just how challenging it is to actually survive on what these companies pay.   While it was mildly interesting to learn a few more details about just how bad it is down here in the trenches, being myself one of those over-worked and underpaid front line employees I was greatly offended by Ehrenreich’s rather condescending approach to the workers whose plight she examined and by the pains she took to establish that she was somehow different from and better than these people.

(more…)

Share This

We’ve all dealt with them.   The co-worker who flies into a tirade at everybody else when she screws up big time.    Or worse the one who’s constant whining and complaining can drag an entire office into depression.   Or worse still,  the one who becomes so irrational and threatening that everyone wonders if he’ll  ‘go postal’  before you can call security.   If you’ve ever found yourself responsible for dealing with such an employee,  Gini Graham Scott has written an excellent book just for you.

(more…)

Share This

So I finished re-reading Half Blood Prince and am immersed in the story and ready to continue. And log in to check and find that I am now 113th in line for Deathly Hallows. I have resisted the temptation to break down and buy it but really haven’t been paying much attention to other books.

Moon Pies and RC Cola evoke the rural south like nothing else and David Magee has written a worshipful history of the marshmallow/graham cookie snack. Originally just one of over two hundred varieties of baked goods marketed by the Chatanooga Baking Company, the Moon Pie came to be its most successful and only product. Much ink is devoted to paeans to eating moon pies as a child and intense discussion of the variations (single or double decker, chocolate, vanilla or banana coating) worthy of Bon Appetit. It was something amusing to peruse over a lunch hour, though Ron loved it.

Doing nothing constructive on my day off and anxiously waiting for Harry…

Share This

My three days off passed all too quickly and mostly all I did was catch up on sleep. Did not make it to the museum or any where else, though I did go over to Kathi’s and sat out on the deck with Staci and Kathi one evening. Was a very nice visit.

Staci was supposed to fly home to Boise this evening, but last night she started having stomach pain and nausea and ended up going to the hospital. She is at St. Joseph’s in Tacoma and they believe she may have a new hernia. She may have to be transferred back to UW in Seattle and possibly have another surgery, but they are still doing tests and figuring it out. Her husband, Clint has made arrangements to fly over on Sunday to be with her. It will be great to see him, though I am So sorry she is having another complication.

The most interesting check-in today was Travel By Pullman, a 2004 book on the history of the Pullman sleeping car company. With lots of photos and illustrations and detailed look at what was once America’s standard of first class travel from the earliest days of passenger rail service in the 1850’s to the hey-day of luxury service in the 1920’s–1940’s, the effects of World Wars I & II and finally the decline of passenger rail service as airplanes and freeways became dominant in the 50’s and 60’s. I have traveled long distance by rain a number of times and always enjoy taking the train, though sadly I’ve never been in a Pullman (or any other sleeping car). I did enjoy reading about this unique company and the glory days of rail travel.

Share This