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Don’t Move the Food Bowl
By lmhall | December 3, 2007
The code word in the garden is “punkin pie”. That means take it down a notch. Everybody remain calm.
Holiday Examples: On Thanksgiving day, I arrived at the Heritage Cafeteria at 9:30 AM to pick up my order. Clerk was on the phone getting reamed by customer who had just arrived home to discover she was short one pumpkin pie. It was an ugly scene.
Over a Pumpkin Pie
At my undercover assignment, several of our members were inconvenienced by the closing of the lap pool. A pump needed to be replaced and the pool was closed for three days. Two of which were on the weekend. The interruption of their fitness routine and the behavior about it was appalling.
And then this from one of the local bloggers:
Working away at preparing a newscast and the phone won’t stop ringing. Most of the calls are directed toward the sports department with high school scores.
Then a phone call is answered by someone else in the newsroom…and I pause upon hearing one side of the conversation.
“No, ma’am, I don’t know how the voting works on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ “I’m sure they’re aware of the problem, but you could call ABC.”
“Well, I hope you’ll keep trying. I’m sure it will be OK.”
A few minutes later, another phone call. This time I get both sides of the conversation.
“I’ve been trying to vote on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ all night and all I get is a busy signal.”
“I’m sorry to hear about that, ma’am. I guess a lot of people must be voting tonight.”
“I’ve never had this much trouble getting through before and I’ve been calling all night and only get a busy signal. There must be something wrong. Or have they turned off the voting early?”
“Well, I’ve been trying to vote all night and just get a busy signal and they’re going to cut off the voting here in just a few minutes and something seems to be wrong with the voting.”
“I’m very sorry, but I don’t really have any information on how the voting works. It’s an ABC program and you will need to contact ABC.”
Millions are unemployed. Millions are homeless. Millions are hungry. Millions are uninsured. There is turmoil in many parts of the world. But for this caller, the most important news story of the day is that voting on “Dancing With the Stars” may be corrupt.
On a side note, I’ll add that when I worked at the local NBC affiliate, if “Passions” or “Days of Our Lives” programming was interrupted, the viewers would ring the phones hard. God forbid if it was on a Friday and the moon was full, viewers became completely irrational.
Interesting fact: Most callers were retired men!
Today’s tip for better living: Channel your frustrated energy into something positive…for someone else.
Topics: Garden, cremation, fitness, customer service |
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:08 am
[…] Read the rest of this great post here […]
December 5th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Interesting fact: Most callers were retired men!
Ok that was funny.
I think people who freak about things like the pumpkin pie, are mostly people who don’t have power in their lives.
The other day I was standing in a line at a art/craft store ready to buy a handful of mats for photos. The woman at the front of the line had an inordinate amount of small items and took an amazing amount of time placing them on the counter. I saw her looking at the growing line behind her.
Then, just as the clerk was finally ringing up her total, she (the clerk) kindly asked if there would be anything else? The woman again sneaked a look down the line.
She looked up to the 15 ft wall of (incredibly tacky) wreaths in front of her, and sweetly asked to have the upper most one brought down so she could consider purchasing it.
The clerk had to call another person with a hook and everyone had to wait while the small smile on the woman grew.
She didn’t buy the wreath. She just wanted to make us all wait. She wanted the power.
How sad, eh?
December 5th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Pretty risky power trip this time of year. Would be a good test of your resolve at the local Hobby Lobby where they promote good Christian values and don’t believe in the evil bar code.
December 6th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Hey,
I forgot to mention, I used to work at an NBC affiliate too!
Kansas, the early 1980’s. Seems a lifetime ago in some ways. I guess it was.
December 17th, 2007 at 9:45 am
[…] Good day! Regarding the anxiety code: “Punkin Pie”, I’ve color coded it orange, that’s an elevated state. If you have an article of clothing matching that color, please put it on! Sunday Secrets posted a visual of the punkin pie concept: […]