30 September, 2007

In Which I Wander Aimlessly and Really Say Very Little

My boy and I were talking. It was a nice night.

I got to talking about an older couple I saw pull into a video store, and how when they were born they might not even have had a television. Now they can waste their lives watching any movie they want at any time. (The thing that blew him away was that there was a time when to see a movie you HAD to catch it in the theater. If you missed its two week run, you might NEVER see it. He could hardly imagine what that was like.) So, we got to talking about the ancient of days, or maybe just the senior of days, I guess.

He is working at a major department store as a cashier, and he has been getting a chuckle out of learning that I'm almost the last person on earth who writes checks. Fewer than 2% of his customers write checks.

He says, "Do you know what a check means to me? It means an 'R.'"

He scores a G when he beats the time limit for the transaction, and an R when he fails. It is impossible to "make" the time limit when the customer chooses to write a check.

I laughed out loud to find out the main thing I mean to the average youth of today is guaranteed ... failure.

Not that I'm anachronistic or anything.

And I wear a fedora no less.

And take it off upon entering a building.

There's no hope for me.

The other chuckle came when he pointed out that native languages are dying at the rate of 2 per week, and the rate is accelerating. Now to me, that means that the end is near as we close back in upon the state of man that led to Babel. And I'm already leary of how the Internet is drawing us all so much closer together. Even as I sit here typing, I can't help but think, "No good will come of this."

If only I believed in the basic goodness of man, but I don't. I believe that if you let 6 billion people all communicate freely, they will just come up with some new way to exploit each other and a significant minority of them will find a way to justify their remorseless greed. I'm reading a little about the Irish troubles lately, and the degree of cruelty inflicted by man on man and woman is just crushing.

The expectation is that the last three languages left standing will be English, Mandarin and Spanish.

I chuckled when it occured to me that our very last language should be Manglish (the last -ish is the Spanish.)

This is not nearly Milliworthy, but I had to tell someone about the checks and the Manglish.

5 comments:

Kevin Knox said...

Oh, and let me add that being stung in both legs and one arm by yellowjackets will cause the knee that was not stung, but that has been slowly getting better from probable tendon damage, to hurt all over again. yippee.

It's like people all over would tell me, "You're an idiot for sweeping your back patio after dark," and I would ignore them because daylight must be used for tennis, and the back porch gets what it gets, and what difference does it really make anyway? But now I know what difference it makes. If you happen to sweep away the front porch of a nest of yellowjackets, and if the sun is taking its final bows before exiting stage-west, you cannot see said yellowjackets loading up their heavy artillery. And when they start stinging you, you have to kind of wonder what that funky feeling is, and why these unusual dust flakes won't brush off. All of which costs you about 10 seconds before you finally put two and flew together and starting high-tailing it for the front yard.

So, you should not sweep at night because it might cost you 10 seconds.

Now you know.

kc bob said...

Yellowjackets - Yikes!! Hope you are on the mend CP.

I gave you an award yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Now I know I’m old and all but I still write checks also and so do a huge amount of my customers. I work in the old part of the city though. I’m shocked by the amount of credit card users these days and they cost me time because the strips wear down. Folks have stacks of them. I wonder how they pay all those bills. I’ve had to sign a paper because of my low times so I understand how your son is judged. I also hit my quotas for service plans and I am one of the highest cashier on credits plus I spend most of my time in SCO and I get lots of comments from the customer surveys so who cares if I spend extra time helping a customer out rather than rushing them through. He can be a good cashier by taking care of folks and they won’t mind about his times as much.

Wasps and yellow jackets love to sting me, just being in the area seems to anger them. Never shake the bird feeder while holding you baby girl without making sure the wasps haven’t moved in over night. What a dance in the yard I did! I was stung several times. Baby girl not one dot. She has been stung a few times in the past a few times, apparently they are mad at her because she’s my kid. You’re my friend so they came after you.

Fun post-very worthy.

karen said...

Okay, so I'm one of the old folks who remembers no T.V. as a kid. ..not for a while. A COLOR T.V. was SOOO exciting. When we got the air conditioner in the window? WHOO HOO!!!
I still write some checks.
I'm sorry you got stung. You really got hit. I sweep my back porch after dark. Think I'll look a little closer. . .

pearlie said...

Thought I'd let you know that there is already Manglish ;)