Blog Title: Cork in the Water

Wanda Sykes

Part five in my series of posts on the expression “that’s so gay.”   Wanda Sykes speaks out on the subject:

McCain’s second and third choices for VP revealed!

We’ve all seen how good Governor Palin is with words. She’s good with words in the sense that she certainly knows how to use her mouth and vocal cords to produce words. Whether there’s any connection between those words and what she’s been asked, well, that’s another matter:

With that performance in mind, it comes as no surprise that the two heroes/mavericks below where McCain’s original second and third choice for his Vice Presidential runningmate:

My way

another creation by rx :

Men’s synchronized swimming skit

In honor of the Olympics… I present you with this hilarious Christopher Guest skit is from the mid 1980s:

Spaghetti Cat

I saw this clip on The Soup last week and I just about died laughing:

Not a good prediction…

Ok, so I was dead wrong that Obama would pick Clinton as his VP.  But Biden is a good choice.  He’s smart, competent, and even though he talks too much (have you ever heard him chair a congressional hearing?) he has a good head and a good heart.

VP prediction

I have a funny feeling that Obama is going to pick Hillary Clinton as his VP.

Back about the time she dropped out of the race (er, I mean “suspsended her campaign”), this would have seemed unthinkable. But with some time passing, and her name seemingly vanishing from people’s VP short lists, this pick would certainly get people talking the way that a Biden or Bayh pick would not.

1977 and the “moral equivalent of war”

Bush’s finest moment?

This story from the Onion News Network:

Shorts at work?

The New York Times has an article about men wearing shorts to work.

Shorts at work!   Clearly as sign of the apocalypse if there ever was one.  What’s next?  Why don’t we all just agree to wear bathing suits to work and fill our offices with three feet of water to make things more cool, comfy and casual?  Oh, and don’t forget to wear your Speedo low so you can show some butt cleavage — after all, you don’t want to seem old fashioned.

Is it too much to ask that the New York Times come out more strongly against the notion of shorts at work? They should be proposing an amendment to the Constitution!  Where is the Gray Lady’s spine?  It’s like they’ve given up hope that they can save civilization.

Corporate Jargon: “deliverable”

• deliverable - n., the tangible result of work performed.

When someone agrees to do something (i.e., they “take on an action item“), there may be a corresponding expectation that they will deliver a tangible result to a manager or a team.  What they deliver is called a “deliverable.”

Deliverables can be big or small.  For Boeing, a 747 is a deliverable.  If you promised your boss you’d get your TPS report to her by Wednesday, then the TPS report is a deliverable.    If your action item was to bring coffee to the next meeting, then coffee is a deliverable.

This piece of corporate jargon is even used in legal agreements, as in: “Company agrees to deliver it’s deliverables on or before the deliverable delivery date.”

Neat-o

Video of the Moon orbiting Earth as seen from distance of 31 million miles:

Source: NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft.

This is what a bad day looks like

Surveillance video showing destruction of a bank drive through in Center, Texas (July 2, 2008).  According to the local paper, the Shelby County Today, no one was injured.

Corporate Jargon Re-enactment : “drinking the Kool-Aid”

As you may recall from an earlier post, the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid,” is a piece of corporate jargon used to indicate company loyalty.

Sometimes it’s not enough to just say you drink the Kool-Aid.  If you really want to show devotion to a company, you have to go farther.  Not as far as Jonestown, thankfully.   For example, take a look at the photo below, sent to me by a good friend (let’s call her “Ruby”).

Pictured here with two cube-farm co-workers, Ruby is the one metaphorically drinking the metaphorical Kool-Aid:

*

*photo posted with permission of those pictured

Corporate Jargon: “action item”

• action item - n., a specific task that needs to be accomplished; usually used in the context of a corporate meeting.

When someone takes “ownership” of an action item, this indicates responsibility to accomplish the specified task.  Here’s a usage example: “At the last meeting, we decided that someone from the legal department needed to review our proposal.  Who owned the action item to reach out to them?”

This piece of corporate jargon provides a more passive (and polite?) way of pointing the finger at someone and saying: “you must do this.”  For example:  “Can you take on that action item to complete the TPS Report?  Does Tuesday give you enough time?  Great.”