Relax, Detroit

Clever Sister finds this, courtesy of local Fox—

Detroiters, um, interact—

More—

Sitting underneath the iconic bronze Joe Louis fist is what appears to be a giant can of Crisco.
To the left of the massive cooking shortening replica, a sign reads, "Helping to ease the pain of Detroit's bankruptcy."

Jerry Peterson, 57, a West Bloomfield artist and organizer of the "Dirty Show" who goes by Jerry Vile, says it’s his way of getting people to talk about the implications of the city’s historic bankruptcy filing this month.

"It's calling attention to the fact that (bankruptcy) is going to hurt," Vile told The Detroit News on Tuesday. "I'm hoping that people will do something to cut down on that hurt, to ease the pain."

Serena Maria Daniels/The Detroit News

The story goes national.

Motor City Crisco Can speaks out—

Apparently a spokesman for Mayor Dave Bing told Deadline Detroit: "After consulting with Detroit Institute of Arts officials, the City's General Services Department has decided to remove the item left at the Fist sculpture today as abandoned property. If the artist is there when the removal takes place and wishes to claim it, he can do so as long as he removes it from City property." I am not an "ITEM"!

Picture

Getty Images

Words.

And However Will We Cope With So Much Leisure Time?

Interesting conversation from Sam Seder with Robert McChesney: "Internet vs. democracy."

McChesney views popular journalism's decline from the historical context of its having been supported by advertising (and postal subsidy). Targeted "smart advertising" has eliminated conventional ads as a funding mechanism, and broadcast ad revenue is going to networks, not reporting.

Ironies abound in McChesney's look at the early promise of the Internet—to democratize, by equalizing access to information—in contrast to the real outcome: the vast reach of the Internet has, through economies of scale, proved best suited for monopolies like Amazon and Google to emerge and triumph.

Strikes me as a bit reminiscent of how Progress would create so much free time, we just wouldn't know how to handle it.

It's Never About

Race.

Or guns, or corporate-written legislation.

Or the unaccountable violence of authority.

Or right-wing media.

Or who benefits by keeping people frightened and ignorant, and by possibly giving the frightened and ignorant a new star.

Little enough justice, but perhaps Steve M. is correct in seeing Zimmerman as too incompetent to cash in; merely "a sad man who briefly became a hero to angry people for doing a horrible thing."

Gulp, Indeed

"Courage": it's what's for Morning Huddle.

As usual, the boss had his little reading comprehension problems, but gamely droned on—

Merriam Webster defines "courage" as "mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty." Courage can also be action in the organization, especially in the face of fear or reprisals...

My bold, as this substitute for "fear of reprisals" implies that the meanings of "fear" and "reprisals" both stem from mere emotions that are easily overcome by the power of belief in a buzzword.

No one else notices.

The expert on Courage, to whom the Huddle script's author has turned day after day, is—

"Author and consultant Bill Treasurer exhibits his own courage during a high-diving stunt."

He may not have trademarked the word, but Mr. Treasurer has written the book.

The high dive photo is from this fine publication's cover story. It's a shame the available cover image is too small to fully savor—

A lucky thing that consultants exist; without them, heroic school administrators might be expected to spend money on students, or, teachers. And administrators at my public institution have plenty to spend for consultants; hiring adequate staff for rising workloads (or enough hospital employees to work with patients) would break the bank.

De-huddled back to my desk, I forwarded the Treasurer article to Clever Sister. She promptly found the "talent" agency ("Checkout Who's Hot!") representing the guy.

They can supply "entertainers" available, like the act CS was especially struck by—

The Bill and Hillary Show

Jan Mcinnis
Hillary Clinton Impersonator!!!

Frank King
Bill Clinton Impersonator!!!

There are motivational speakers of every stripe and schtick. Including—

Alan Veingrad is a motivator, entertainer, and financial and insurance strategist. He may be the only former NFLer in history to become a Torah-observant Orthodox Jew.

And—

"Vinny Verelli, the Goombah Guru"

Sadly, "Vinny" is a fake, though we do get to see the actor's resume.

Some highlights of Jonathan's performing career:
• Tour of Samuel Becket's Waiting For Godot to 12 Florida State Prisons
• Classes with the Polish Mime Theatre in Wroclaw, Poland
• Master class with Marcel Marceau in New York City
• World premiere production of Tiger Tail with artistic supervision by Tennessee Williams
• National tours with the Claude Kipnis Mime Theatre, including a week at Carnegie Hall
• 11 years on and off cruise ships as entertainer, port lecturer and Cruise Director
• Still receives residuals 11 years after taping an episode of, "Wildest Police Videos."

All very diverting. And if any of these folks' wisdom is searchable by buzzword of the week,I will no doubt hear them quoted in a Morning Huddle to come.

One morning's installment of Courage came when the boss was out, so it was read by a substitute.

"... create Gulp Goals: have sweaty palms... you should be challenged enough that your body reacts."

Reader and audience this day were all women, and they stopped for nervous laughter. Presumably, concerned that Management might expect them to let their deodorants fail.

Quote of the day: "The opposite of courage is not cowardice but conformity." The pinch-hitter usually has decent reading comprehension, but here she stumbled, attributing the quote to what sounded like "Ro-no May."

A serious author whose name, I believe, was once known to a fairly general public. Though hearing the quote in this context, and tryng to imagine what meaning this group takes from it... that's hard to find words for, other than the overused "Orwellian."

At some point in the blur of recent weeks gone by, the morning theme was, "T.H.I.N.K. about what you are about to say"—

Is it True?
Is it Helpful?
Is it Inspiring?
Is it Necessary ?
Is it Kind?

A search suggests this gem is based on parables attributed variously to Quakers, Sufis, and the Buddha. As an acronym, it's big with home schoolers and the disciplining children crowd; in other words, it fits our institutional need to train for unquestioning obedience.

Way back when—sometime last summer, when this current management kick began—Clever Sister asked if I had consented to joining the Cult of Huddle. Of course, I never did; of course, consent is implied by being employed.

It's just one small way that every day this workplace feels more like a psychological experiment from the days before informed consent.