Thanksgiving weekend ponderings
Note: Began this post on Saturday and I'm finishing it on Monday evening.
Due to all of the construction going on along Wilshire Boulevard once you get west of La Brea, I normally go out of my way to avoid that area. But on Friday I figured it couldn't be too bad and so I drove that way. In doing so I drove by a particular building where I got one of my first jobs after leaving the Air Force. As I did I remembered the last day I worked there, the 29th anniversary of which will pass next week.
I had been hired about six or seven weeks earlier but after only two weeks I started sending out resumes. In 1987 the salary I'd been hired at was $13,000 annually with a promised automatic bump to $13,500 after six months. The inflation calculator shows that in today's dollars that's the equivalent of $27,600.
I landed an interview and was offered a starting salary of $22,000 in December of 1987. That is a 59% increase. So I went to see the big boss to give him two weeks notice, as I'd told my new boss I needed to give. She had been very understanding and told me to give the notice but that if they didn't want it, I could start the next day. I was covered either way.
My soon to be former boss was apoplectic. "You made a commitment. We spent money on advertising to find you. Now I have to do that again."
My response was "match the salary and I'll stay. But I can't turn down that kind of money, even if this is important work."
The upshot is that I was told I didn't need to give notice
I'm not sorry about what transpired. His anger was understandable but inappropriate. Especially given that he'd been the one to make a point of saying we would not be signing any employment contract, and that I was on probation during that first six months.
Taking the other job was a great decision.
* * *
Donald Trump is leading in the Electoral College vote. He is losing big in the popular vote. Apparently winning the presidency isn't enough as he's now made specious allegations that there were millions of illegal votes cast for Hillary Clinton.
In a tweet he wrote " In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally" and there's just no good reason for him to make this claim. Unless of course his fragile ego can't accept the fact he lost that popular vote.
* * *
The passing of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro took me back to mid 1980. I was stationed at an Air Force base to the south of Miami and my supervisor was of Cuban descent. He got me involved in volunteer work for some of the Marielitos, which was the moniker of those who made the journey by boat to Florida when Castro announced they could leave.
I also remember spending a weekend on guard duty outside a building where some of the refugees were being kept.
He was a brutal dictator and I'm not surprised that some in Cuba are mourning his passing.
* * *
That the mother of the so-called affluenza teen was in court for a status hearing isn't big news, but that she's taken a job as a "bartender in a honky-tonk in Azle" (according to the Dallas Morning News) is interesting.
* * *
Rosie O'Donnell had no business making her remarks about Barron Trump possibly being autistic. Worse yet, she didn't apologize for them in her "explanation." That's she has been hit hard by her own child being diagnosed with "High-Functioning Autism" is understandable but doesn't justify her comments or the lack of a real apology.
Her animus toward Donald Trump is also understandable but you don't drag a child into that kind of dispute
* * *
Some have said that Kanye West's hospitalization on a "5150" was faked in order for him to get insurance to pay the costs incurred for canceling his current tour. I think that speculation is not warranted. Would a licensed physician risk losing that license by falsifying this kind of thing? Would someone with the ego of Kanye West voluntarily submit himself to this kind of thing. I don't think so.
That opinion seems to be reinforced by the fact Mr. West wasn't released from the hospital today as originally planned and there is no estimated date for him to go home.
For once, leave the guy in peace and let him heal.
* * *
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard worked out a settlement where he was going to pay her $7 million and he allegedly wants to pay the money directly to Children's Hospital and to the ACLU to deprive her of the tax deduction.
Seriously? That's petty as hell. Especially since she'd have to earn a net income of $14 million in order to use the full deduction amount at once. Seems more likely he wants the deduction for himself.
* * *
Lisa Rinna posted a selfie on Instagram of her 53 year old body in a bikini given to her by her husband, Harry Hamlin.
Wow!
* * *
The Dodgers need to re-sign Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner (or replace Turner) and they are bumping up against the MLB debt ceiling. Their exemption was good for five years and now that exemption is going to expire.
Their ability to sign free agents will be negatively impacted.
They have alternatives. I hope they use them.
* * *
The Chicago Tribune reports that one small school district is spending far more money on taxi services for their special-needs students than other nearby districts combined.
Is something criminal going on? That remains to be seen. But what this shows is that oversight is lacking at every level of government. Lower levels attract less attention and are more easily misused.
Due to all of the construction going on along Wilshire Boulevard once you get west of La Brea, I normally go out of my way to avoid that area. But on Friday I figured it couldn't be too bad and so I drove that way. In doing so I drove by a particular building where I got one of my first jobs after leaving the Air Force. As I did I remembered the last day I worked there, the 29th anniversary of which will pass next week.
I had been hired about six or seven weeks earlier but after only two weeks I started sending out resumes. In 1987 the salary I'd been hired at was $13,000 annually with a promised automatic bump to $13,500 after six months. The inflation calculator shows that in today's dollars that's the equivalent of $27,600.
I landed an interview and was offered a starting salary of $22,000 in December of 1987. That is a 59% increase. So I went to see the big boss to give him two weeks notice, as I'd told my new boss I needed to give. She had been very understanding and told me to give the notice but that if they didn't want it, I could start the next day. I was covered either way.
My soon to be former boss was apoplectic. "You made a commitment. We spent money on advertising to find you. Now I have to do that again."
My response was "match the salary and I'll stay. But I can't turn down that kind of money, even if this is important work."
The upshot is that I was told I didn't need to give notice
I'm not sorry about what transpired. His anger was understandable but inappropriate. Especially given that he'd been the one to make a point of saying we would not be signing any employment contract, and that I was on probation during that first six months.
Taking the other job was a great decision.
* * *
Donald Trump is leading in the Electoral College vote. He is losing big in the popular vote. Apparently winning the presidency isn't enough as he's now made specious allegations that there were millions of illegal votes cast for Hillary Clinton.
In a tweet he wrote " In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally" and there's just no good reason for him to make this claim. Unless of course his fragile ego can't accept the fact he lost that popular vote.
* * *
The passing of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro took me back to mid 1980. I was stationed at an Air Force base to the south of Miami and my supervisor was of Cuban descent. He got me involved in volunteer work for some of the Marielitos, which was the moniker of those who made the journey by boat to Florida when Castro announced they could leave.
I also remember spending a weekend on guard duty outside a building where some of the refugees were being kept.
He was a brutal dictator and I'm not surprised that some in Cuba are mourning his passing.
* * *
That the mother of the so-called affluenza teen was in court for a status hearing isn't big news, but that she's taken a job as a "bartender in a honky-tonk in Azle" (according to the Dallas Morning News) is interesting.
* * *
Rosie O'Donnell had no business making her remarks about Barron Trump possibly being autistic. Worse yet, she didn't apologize for them in her "explanation." That's she has been hit hard by her own child being diagnosed with "High-Functioning Autism" is understandable but doesn't justify her comments or the lack of a real apology.
Her animus toward Donald Trump is also understandable but you don't drag a child into that kind of dispute
* * *
Some have said that Kanye West's hospitalization on a "5150" was faked in order for him to get insurance to pay the costs incurred for canceling his current tour. I think that speculation is not warranted. Would a licensed physician risk losing that license by falsifying this kind of thing? Would someone with the ego of Kanye West voluntarily submit himself to this kind of thing. I don't think so.
That opinion seems to be reinforced by the fact Mr. West wasn't released from the hospital today as originally planned and there is no estimated date for him to go home.
For once, leave the guy in peace and let him heal.
* * *
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard worked out a settlement where he was going to pay her $7 million and he allegedly wants to pay the money directly to Children's Hospital and to the ACLU to deprive her of the tax deduction.
Seriously? That's petty as hell. Especially since she'd have to earn a net income of $14 million in order to use the full deduction amount at once. Seems more likely he wants the deduction for himself.
* * *
Lisa Rinna posted a selfie on Instagram of her 53 year old body in a bikini given to her by her husband, Harry Hamlin.
Wow!
* * *
The Dodgers need to re-sign Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner (or replace Turner) and they are bumping up against the MLB debt ceiling. Their exemption was good for five years and now that exemption is going to expire.
Their ability to sign free agents will be negatively impacted.
They have alternatives. I hope they use them.
* * *
The Chicago Tribune reports that one small school district is spending far more money on taxi services for their special-needs students than other nearby districts combined.
Is something criminal going on? That remains to be seen. But what this shows is that oversight is lacking at every level of government. Lower levels attract less attention and are more easily misused.
posted by me at 6:54 AM
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