Personal
Happy Constitution Day!
Happy Constitution Day! Congress created Constitution Day in 2004 and chose September 17 as the day to celebrate it based on that being the last day of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Check out this link for an article in the Imprimis titled “Reviving a Constitutional Congress” with Christopher Demuth, Sr.‘s take on where our nation has gotten off track with concern to the Constitution and what steps can be taking to put us back on the right path.
From the article’s first paragraph, “Our Constitution is often treated as a reliquary, worthy of reverence but no longer of much practical use. Yet the Constitution reflects, in many deep and subtle ways, the character of the people who established it and have lived and prospered under it for centuries. This is particularly true of its structural features of federalism and separated powers, which vindicate Americans’ democratic nature, our distrust of power, and our taste for open competition.”
Please take a moment today to remember the 39 brave men who signed that document in 1787. Their courage and commitment should be celebrated.
Sweet Caroline Ban! YES!!!
I heard some great news today! Finally something good is coming out of 2020 Covid-19… Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline sing-a-longs are being banned at bars and sporting events around the world! YES!!!
I heard several weeks ago that Neil himself was trying to save the song by updating the lyrics. All that radical, pre-Corona B.S. about hands touching hands and reaching out touching me and touching you… NO TOUCHING!!! Stop it!!!
But now it’s been acknowledged that all the drunk yelling of the song into other drunk faces is not safe. To be honest, it was always just the chorus. No one actually knows the words to the song. Though groupthink has added “Bump-bump-bums” and repetitive “So Goods” sprinkled throughout the parts they do know. As stated in the article about the Irish Pub in Spain banning it, “Play it late into the night at any venue in either country and you are likely to get a vocal response from the intoxicated customers present. “
A quick Google search confirmed that I’m not the only Sweet Caroline Hater. Former Yankees Pitcher Joba Chamberlain Says “Sweet Caroline” Was Worst Part of Fenway. Way to go Joba! Thanks for having the courage to speak out against this atrocity. Catchy does not equal good…
I also found where it has been banned at Penn State football stadium, though that’s more about the touchy-feeling part of the song and the connotations revolving around Jerry Sandusky scandal. Though is “reaching out, touching me, touching you” really appropriate at Beaver Stadium anyway?
It’s just become annoying and part of that is because it’s so ubiquitous at bars and sporting events. To paraphrase what Mr. Chamberlain said in his interview on the Balk Talk podcast, “Is it catchy? Yes. I won’t deny that. But at the same time… I don’t want to hear it.”
The last time I enjoyed hearing it even a little, was when Pete & Wayne butchered it on stage at Sloppy Joes in Key West. They professed their hate for it when a paid request came to them to play it, claiming they didn’t even know the words. A bidding war ensued in the bar upping the ante on both the play side and the no play side with Pete & Wayne raking in several hundred dollars in tips though the good-natured melee. Their version was funny and proved the sing-a-long idiots only cared about bump, bump, bumping through the chorus.
Much like Covid-19, I don’t think Sweet Caroline will die out anytime soon. Both seem to be way too infectious and often spread by drunk crowds. But one can always hope that this could be one of the few good things to come out of 2020… That would be Sweet! Maybe even worth a So Good! But please, no Caroline…
Editing My Writing
I went back through the ECC blog the other day, looking for a post that I wanted to reference to someone. Of course I reread it to be sure it said what I remembered. Yeah… it did… but I also found two grammatical errors. Ugh! That’s SO frustrating! When I post one of these, I generally read it a couple of times and if possible, read it out loud to myself before I post it. Unfortunately, both errors appear to be the result of previous editing where I apparently changed part of a sentence, but not the rest.
I struggle proofreading my own work. I know what I wanted to say and often gloss over my mistakes, apparently self-correcting them in my head. This is just the opposite of what I do reading other people’s writing. When reading someone else’s article, blog, etc., once I run across an error, I reset to proofreading mode and find myself looking for additional errors in lieu of absorbing content.
That said, let me throw this out there to my lurkers. While I don’t like it when I or others find errors in my writing, please don’t hesitate to tell me about them. Yes, I will be embarrassed, because I try my best to avoid them, but better that I’m told and correct them than let them continue to stand for others to stumble over. This blog celebrated its 12th Birthday in May. There are 178 pages of posts! No Kim & Ginny, I’m not going back and removing all the double spaces after periods! Ha! I’ve corrected that from when I learned I was in error, but those are going to stay in the older posts.
I’ve also chosen to write like I talk, so proper English often loses out to colloquialisms. While it is technically Easterday Construction Co., Inc.’s business blog, I often use it as a personal forum to vent about things that aren’t worth arguing in public. Some examples of that are here, here and here if you’re interested. Judging by the limited comments, I’m probably talking to myself most of the time here… which may be for the best! If you made it this far, thanks for “listening”.
Graphic in the top paragraph was borrowed from The Princeton Tutoring Blog
Strange Days Indeed
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed
John Lennon from Nobody Told Me
The above lyrics are a bit of an understatement lately. Everyone’s anxiety is showing. Stress levels are high.
Personally, I’m not stressed about getting sick; I’m stressed about all of the other craziness surrounding Covid-19. The disease itself currently has a surreal feel to me. It has not touched me personally closer than a friend of a friend’s friend. I am cognizant of the threat because my parents are in their eighties. Dad has had heart problems. Both of my siblings have had lung issues. There are health issues with Becky’s family as well. The threat to them is real… but still surreal…
The current top stress for me though is taking care of employees. Construction is considered an essential service and three of our current projects are for businesses that are essential services. Fortunately most of our work is open air at this time, which minimizes the risk. On The Paddocks project, we have multiple buildings under construction. We’re striving to separate the subcontractor crews into different buildings and are providing separate temporary toilet facilities for each building to help with separation. Everyone wants to work, but there is starting to become an issue obtaining materials. Aside from that, the biggest drag on the projects is discussing the virus. That’s probably cut productivity by 10%-15%! Despite being considered essential today, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be considered essential tomorrow. The changes have come fast and the rumors preceding them have varied. Everyone that is still working, is concerned that the next day could be their last.
The other stress right now revolves around what is being imposed by various politicians, government agencies and bureaucracies. (I wonder how many of them understand the thinking behind “Chesterton’s Fence”…) I am averaging one webinar or call per day discussing what has changed since the day before, i.e. what is being done to us. I’ve navigated the SBA morass to try and figure out PPP, both here and for Berger Audiology. I’ve sat in on conference calls with businesses that have been shutdown. I’m buying lunch once a week for employees to try and support local businesses. Some of the stories are heartbreaking and some of those businesses may not survive this.
I’m also very concerned with the three to four trillion dollars in debt that the Federal government assumed with the various virus bills over the last few weeks. It always helps me visualize that when I write it out, so $3,000,000,000,000 That’s a lot of zeros. And that’s on top of a $1,000,000,000,000 deficit already projected for this year. (An interesting/depressing article here.) That debt is real and may well affect me personally in retirement as well as the livelihoods of future generations.
And then there’s the more existential stress. What are we allowing to be done to us out of fear? Businesses are being told to close. Churches can’t hold services… even with social distancing. We’re not allowed to gather in groups greater than 10? The Bill of Rights, Article I, states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Is the loophole here that the State Governors and City Mayors are ordering and enforcing a prohibition on assembly, not Congress? That’s not the way that usually works.
Stress is high all around. We can’t succumb to the fear though. Things CAN be worse…
Social Distancing in Text
In light of the recent dictates for social distancing, should we go back to putting two spaces after a period when we type text?
For those of you new here, see my previous post: Two Spaces.
