[blogfocus monday] three issues in one

1 Jobsworths


MJW brings us the harrowing tale of station attendants who had officiously closed all doors then let the train stand idle. Then:

Suddenly a woman and her young son, who had obviously been trying to board at one of the doors locked out made a desperate dash for the remaining open door, the platform staff shouted at her to stand away and attempted to block her path, whilst the guard attempted to close the doors before she could board, but he was too late and the doors closed on her before automatically springing back open.

With doors open, the woman stepped into the entrance way, and then it happened, a reprehensible act from the guard, instead of letting her board, he blocked her path and started to bundle her back through the open doors on to the platform. He was unable to prevent her son from boarding (the young boy actually stood next to me), but he managed to manhandle the woman back on to the platform and refused to let her enter, so she called her son off the train.

As he closed the doors on the poor woman and her son, I said to him “you didn’t need to do that, did you?” prompting him, in the tradition of a million petty minded jobsworths before him to snap back “don’t you tell me how to do my job”!

2 Flaming and the quality of debate


Doctor Vee berates moronic commenters which is interesting because that is what Anon and Simon recently did here before storming off in a huff. Here's part of what the good doc said:

The first time I truly realised that comments on MSM sites were almost universally awful was when Scotsman.com introduced them. I wrote about it at the time. The comment box obviously just attracts loudmouths and morons. Anyone looking for good debate would be sorely disappointed.

This isn’t just a problem with the media. Anyone who has read the comments on huge websites like Digg or YouTube will have probably found their inner misanthrope jumping out and despairing about the state of humankind. It seems as though the bigger the website is, the worse the comments are.

To support this contention, I offer, from a Sydney national news website, the question "How to make someone love you". Here's a cross-section of the responses:

Lol that cynical tumor is seriously malignant ;) Posted by: M on February 11, 2008 9:15 AM

I think it is also contagious. Posted by: Dragonforce on February 11, 2008 9:21 AM

It is called early- to mid-30's can't be botheredness. Posted by: M on February 11, 2008 9:27 AM

how does a chick make you fall in love with her ##### she gets knocked up/ and within no time at all you got yourself a fullhouse with a couple a deuces i tell all you dudes on here playing with a shortstack sometimes its easier playing the slot machines than playing pokher with a slot Posted by: Pokher on February 11, 2008 10:17 AM

Ruthie offered her thoughts on the quality of debate here.


3 Sex and the appreciative woman


This is exactly the sort of thing I'm putting in the 2nd book right now and Lady M is the type of woman I'd gladly bed but her standards are so high that I doubt I could meet them. Sending a plane seems a bit of a tall order at this point in time:

I like men. I like the way they smell. I like the way they think - solution over debate, facts over speculation. I like the hair on their bodies in places that can keep a skinny woman warm. I like the way they like women. I like the way they can talk with their eyes even if they can’t dance. I like the way they laugh. I like the way they continue to make me feel sexy and desirable, even though I am now a woman of a certain age – I appreciate that chaps - I thought it would be all over by now.

I love flirting and I appreciate a man who does it well. I like a man of few words and I like a man who can engage in conversation as a blood sport. I like men who send flowers, and I like men who send planes. I like men who are warriors, and I like men who are poets and philosophers. I love a man who loves his wife/girlfriend/fiancée’ and talks about it – nothing sexier. I love men who love children and animals. I appreciate a man who can sing or dance or both, but I love a man who loves opera. I really like sex, I do. I like the entire package ...