LETTERS
Household Olympics
Let the Domestic Games begin!
“Pretty good dinner,” I said. “About a 9.300.”
“What do you mean? I would rate it 9.825,” said the wife.
“Well, the skirt steak was a little over-charred, the avocado in the salad a little squishy, the romaine leaves soft and the broccoli and cauliflower had to be marked down on general vegetable principles,” I responded.
“So, you want to play that game,” said Mimi.
I helpfully cleared the dinner table. Mimi held up an 8.925.
She took off points for incomplete replacement of salad dressing tops, failure to put perishables in the refrigerator, a partially wiped table and chairs not pushed back in. The biggest deduction was for not putting the dishes in the washer.
Well, at least there would be more floor events coming!
Next, as I sat on the sofa watching the Olympics, the wife asked me to fold some clothes from the dryer.
Easy, I thought.
Mimi held up a sign that read 9.125.
She deducted 0.200 for not having a smile on my face,a moue infraction. Then another 0.100 for not standing with my feet together and another 0.100 for extra steps. She being a stickler for detail (an ex-teacher), another 0.200 came off for folding the shirts in the middle instead of using a Nordstrom fold.
And she lowered the starting score from 10.00 to 9.80 because of the lack of difficulty.
The next event was the garbage. And another disappointing score: 8.750.
I got the garbage in the cans but failed to replace the tops.
And I forgot to place the cans outside for the weekly pickup.
Feeling somewhat dejected, I moved to the next event,making the bed. The wife would certainly give me a high starting score because of the degree of difficulty.
Alas, deductions left me with an embarrassing 8.500. I lost points for a lack of hospital corners on two sides, lack of tautness of the top and bottom sheets, failure to fluff or align the pillows, and reversing the comforter.
Dejected, I returned to the Olympic coverage on television.
I urged Mimi to join me to watch our local favorites of the fair sex,Misty, Elaine, Amanda, Kaitlin and others,giving unbelievable performances for their country.
For that deep thought, Mimi gave me a 10.00.
Michael Arnold Glueck
(Glueck, a Newport Beach physician, author and commentator, writes on medical, legal and sports issues.)
Hartwell Corp.
In the Aug. 23 article about Hartwell Corp., Group President Tariq Jesrai’s comments regarding cultural problems were intended to refer to the “Hartwell culture” and not the “Hispanic culture.”
Jesrai, who has consistently demonstrated his commitment to positive multicultural teambuilding, was specifically trying to bring attention to the potential problems that can be encountered by companies when their employees, regardless of cultural heritage, have developed a strong “family” dynamic within an organization.
The tendency in this psychological environment is sometimes to protect coworkers even at the expense of achieving greater efficiency and productivity.
Mike King
Hartwell Corp.
Placentia
State Legislature
Another two-year session of the California State Legislature thankfully ended at about 4 a.m. on a recent Saturday. Over the last five days of this session, we saw action on about 550 bills.
A few themes stood out:
& #149; Bureaucracy is good. In Gov. Schwarzenegger’s California Performance Review, he has proposed to eliminate more than 100 boards and commissions. But the legislature voted to add: six commissions, eight councils, nine task forces, two bureaus, one blue ribbon committee, one committee in a council, one program, one strike force, one mentor and one monitor.
So, in just five days, the legislature voted to add 31 new entities to the bureaucracy the governor is trying to reduce.
& #149; Outsourcing is bad. There were numerous bills to restrict or eliminate so-called “outsourcing,” which is the practice by which companies relocate functions overseas.
Interestingly, the speaker’s office had commissioned a study on this subject, which concluded that “outsourcing” is actually a net creator of jobs in California and that the big job losses actually come from “outstating,” the practice whereby jobs are relocated to another state in search of lower taxes and less regulation.
This study was completed in August but was not released by the speaker’s office. It apparently was leaked by the organization that performed the study.
Was the speaker trying to cover up information that ran counter to his party’s ideology? In any event, Democrats were not swayed from passing all the legislation that their own study concluded would cost more jobs.
& #149; Drug companies are bad. Numerous pieces of legislation were based on the theme that American drug companies (whose stocks and profits are in retreat but whose products lead the world in treating illnesses) must be punished.
We will all be very sorry if this Democratic posturing reduces the capital necessary to develop lifesaving and quality of life enhancing drugs.
Of course, there were also bills mandating union activities and all kinds of regulations to kill jobs. And, the trial lawyers achieved new opportunities to sue.
There is good news, however. Gov. Schwarzenegger has a pen. And he knows how to write “veto.”
John Campbell
Assemblyman
Irvine
