IM conversation 01

...irrelevant stuff up here

That is mildly annoying, eh?!

35 PM Me

"Mildly" is an interesting way of putting it.

4:36 PM Him

Okay, hair pullingly, tooth gnashingly annoying.

4:37 PM Me

just-short-of-screaming-tantrum-in-someone's-cubicle annoying.

4:39 PM Him

Ah... I've only experienced one tantrum, but I was the object of the tantrum and not the tantror. (Would that make me the tantree?)  It was at another company and others around were astounded that this happened.  The tantror was known for this.

4:40 PM Me

I think the word is "tantrumator". Yeah, those people are pretty unpleasant to deal with, which is why I usually try to stop short of that.

The victim or target is the "tantraumatized"

4:41 PM Him

Ahha!  I like your term a lot!!!!

Lunch Truck Concepts

The New Hot Thing in many  cities are lunch trucks that serve high-quality, gourmet meals. An example here in San Francisco is the Voodoo Van, offering such double-entendre delights as the Skirtlifter (a steak sandwich), Famous JuJu Balls, and the Tranny Chaser, a Setain and cole slaw vegetarian sandwich. A while back a coworker whom I shall call John and I came upon the Voodoo Van, placed our orders and went back to our office to eat at our desks.

We sit at opposite ends of a short hallway of cubicles, one of those modern open workspace plan (aka "cheap"). A few minutes of chowing down, John suddenly calls out to me, "Greg, did you also get the Tranny Chaser?"

"Uhm, yeah. Why?"

"Does it squeak when you bite it?"

Okay. I circle around to John and try to point out to him that some people in the office may be sensitive to such a conversation.

"Why?"

"Well, didn't you notice that all of the names of the items at the Voodoo Van are all double entendres?

"Yeah. So?"

It finally dawned on me to ask, "do you know what's meant by Tranny Chaser?" He didn't, so I explained it.


"Oh-h-h-h-h," he said. I thought they meant like a transmission on a car!" He grew up in the midwest. What can I say?


Anyway, I've been thinking of some concepts for a lunch truck.

The War Zone

A seriously beat up van covered with old graffiti, scorch marks and faux bullet holes. Serves up:

• Bloodbath Ribs
• Hamburger Hill Burgers 
• Coup de Taters
• Insurrection Salad
• Just Desserts

Climate Change Naysayers

Global warming? No problem. It's not happening, and if it is happening, it's a Good Thing. All items are imported to maximize their carbon footprint. Features:

• High methane meat dishes
• New Zealand Lamb
• Argentinean Beef Briskets 
• Green House Greens
• High Fructose Corn Syrup with Almonds

How Did Healthcare Get Equated to Broccoli?

As the debate over health care reform rages through the Supreme Court, I have to wonder how the arguments became so supremely silly. Broccoli as an analogy to healthcare? Seriously?

Perhaps a better argument could be made that healthcare is like the interstate highway system. Everyone who pays federal taxes pays for some portion of those highways. There are no doubt many people who could meet their business, shopping and social needs without using any interstate highway, but very few people protest paying the taxes for them. Anyone who demanded that the feds get out of the highway business and leave it to the free market would probably not get taken seriously.

Just as the highways deliver a common good (mobility, promotion of commerce), a national healthcare system would provide a common good in providing health care to millions. It's the humane thing to do.

Unfortunately, the court isn't considering arguments of this form, and because constitutional dogmatism has replaced pragmatic consideration over what is actually best for the nation, it seems unlikely that healthcare reform will carry the day.