There's an old joke inspired by half the population's life-long dream to write the great American novel™ and America's love affair with business. It simply is some variation on "I plan to write the great American memo." I think it's time in this era of the internet to add a codicil which is "the great American comment."
I've long been addicted to comment reading. Comment quality varies widely. The best I have found are, not surprisingly, from the better written sites. They attract the cleverest readers. It also depends greatly on the subject. The best columnists from the New York Times get occasional great comments. Ars-Technica can get an occasional clever geeky comment. The worst comments are from gaming or low brow sites where most comments are just variations of "You're an idiot."
Today I read an article in the NYT titled "When the Point Isn't Just to Stay Dry." It was an article about a store that sold umbrellas from $40 to $995. The article was only interesting as far as the curious subject, but the comments had a few gems:
They're all equally good for poking non-umbrella carriers in the face on crowded streets.
Great -- until you leave your $995 umbrella in the cab. I'll stick with the $4 ones, thanks.
…which reminded me of a story from a friend in Boston when I was working there. After carrying around and losing numerous umbrellas, he solved the raining problem differently. Whenever it rained, he would go to Filene's basement and tell a clerk that he had left his umbrella in the store. The clerk would then ask, "What color was it?" to which he would reply, "Black." He would then be led to the Lost & Found and shown a box full of black umbrellas, one of which he would select to keep him dry for the day. He actually felt good about his actions since he would be getting umbrellas back in circulation, especially since he would undoubtedly leave his new umbrella on the train.
My dream is to someday find "the great American comment" on In Progress.
1 comment:
Your umbrella story for no clear reason makes me think of a guy who used to work in our office. One day out of the blue he decided that he would stop wearing any kind of overcoat to work, regardless of the time of year or the weather. This was his thinking: his garage was attached to his house, so he didn't need to go outside to get into his car. Also, because his car was parked in an attached garage, it didn't get that cold overnight. So, that meant he was only exposed to the elements for a one block walk from the parking garage to our office. It suddenly struck him that he really didn't need a coat for that short walk, no matter how cold it got. And by foregoing the coat, he eliminated this huge and unnecessary complication to his life. So, he would show up in the office in, like, 10 degree weather in just a suit coat and tie. People thought he was crazy, but I understood completely. As Pete used to say, for a short enough period, you can take anything.
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