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2:21 pm - Sat 5/24/03
The \"Cranky\" Side of Jim

The "Cranky" Side Of Jim

(No big news to report today...Just feel like writing, and maybe picking up some little bits and pieces I've missed along the way.)

Two things in the news in recent weeks have really annoyed me...

One is the whole thing with Jayson Blair and the New York Times (If you've not followed the story, Mr Blair was the "reporter" who turns out to have made-up the majority of his "reporting").

Shame on the New York Times, for getting warning after warning that this guy was no good, and keeping him on anyway (Why did they do that, I wonder? Was it "affirmative action" gone terribly wrong?).

Some "Newspaper of record"...!

But the majority of shame--another one of my quaint little notions, "shame"--is squarely on Jayson Blair's head. Here was a guy who had a position a lot of people would have killed for (And at least tried to do the job right), and he gives the paper who made the mistake of hiring him, and the profession of journalism as a whole, a major black eye.

But luckily for Mr Blair, he has no shame, so now he's going to profit from his misdeeds with a million-dollar book deal.

(Here's a question: Who has the more interesting story, an actual reporter, who's been all over the world and interviewed all kinds of different people, or this sorry sack-of-crap, who sat on his ass and made it all up?)

I just hope the company that made the book deal with him ends up eating that million dollars...but they probably won't. "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public..." and all that.

The other thing that's been in the news lately that's gotten under my skin is the lawsuit against Oreo cookies (It turns out they're "bad" for kids because of the "trans-fats", whatever those are. So all you parents out there who were stuffing your kids full of Oreos cause you thought they were chock-full of vitamins and nutrients, stop it right now!).

This comes directly from the "Big Tobacco" lawsuits; Greedhead lawyers are now seeing $$$ everywhere they look, with any product that might conceivably cause anyone harm.

What's next? "Little Debbie" being brought before a Senate sub-commitee...?

___________________

Had an angry exchange with some guy on the street a couple nights ago that is still bothering me...

I was coming home from work, and had stopped at a nearby gas station/convenience store to get a Coke.

As I was locking up my bike, a guy starts to approach me. Since I figure anyone who is approaching me on the street at 1:00 am isn't selling anything I want to buy--and is most likely about to hit me up for "spare change"--I waved him off with a "Sorry...", and thought that was the end of it.

But when he responded by saying "Yeah, you look sorry...", the huge wave of anger I felt caught me by surprise.

I won't bore you with the details--or perhaps alarm you with what a psycho I can be--but let's just say "words were exchanged".

Very harsh words.

And I just couldn't seem to leave it alone; When I came out with my coke and saw him making another pass around the block, I instigated some more harsh words (I'd be embarrassed to tell you exactly what I said, but it wasn't pretty).

And if I had an ounce less "impulse control", more than "harsh words" would have been exchanged.

So what was my deal? I'm not sure, exactly; I'd had a miserable day at work, the worst in recent memory, but beyond that, I think this asshole just pushed my "powerlessness" button. I think it was like "I just took crap all day long at work, I haven't had an acting gig in I can't remember how long, and now I'm going to put up with your bullshit?"

(For the record, this was not a homeless guy. He had short hair, glasses, and wasn't any more shabbily dressed than I was. He was just a guy looking for someone to fund his drug habit)

Obviously, it was an excessive response on my part, and I was unnerved by how out-of-control I felt.

But as Kevin said when I told him about it, the thing to remember is that I was in control; I wanted to kick the guy's ass, but I didn't.

So yay for me...

Well, I had more to say, but work beckons...

 

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