Well, these kids ain't learning a damn thing...

They learned to keep their damn mouth shut.

The secondary side of my kids' school has a "from the neck up" Halloween tradition. Students must wear their regular uniforms, but they can wear masks, makeup, wigs, Spock ears, etc...

Except I just received a notification that "due to current events outside the school, clown costumes or makeup will NOT be permitted." So apparently that's still a thing.

In my professional situation I did some business with a northern company called "Beaver Brokerage Inc." I had to stifle the thought that pimping must be legal in Canada.

(they are actually customs brokers)

Or there are lots of wrecked va-jay-jays in Canada that need to be dealt with?

What about going dressed as Nemo?

There's something... fishy about your suggestion.

My stepdaughter, who had a hell of a time getting a job because of her general anxiety and complete lack of people skills, has been promoted to assistant manager just 3 months after starting at the job she finally did manage to secure.

Part of me is thrilled at the progress she's made, which isn't nothing--but part of me is like, "...seriously? Are they that hard up for talent?" And then yesterday she casually mentioned that she's had at least 4, maybe 5 different managers since she started. She's not sure the one counts, because he quit on his second day and she never actually met him. The place is apparently a shithole and no one can stand it for more than a few weeks. Even beyond managers, she says at this point there are only 3 employees who have been there longer than she has.

For her part, she doesn't hate it. It's a little stressful, but no less stressful than every day life is for her. Yeah, customers yell at the staff for tiny mistakes--but regular people yell at her every day for her gigantic mistakes, so she doesn't really notice the difference. Yeah, the regional manager has profoundly unrealistic expectations of the amount of work a single employee can do, but everyone her whole life has had unrealistic (for her) expectations of what she can successfully accomplish, so she's very used to not meeting expectations and just letting the daily failures roll off her back.

So I told her, hey, that's good news. Just keep showing up, use the place to practice whatever skills you need to, and they'll never, ever fire you.

I love it. Good for her.

Well, she's learning. Congrats! Was there a pay raise also? (asked in my dad voice)

From $8.20 an hour to $9.50, supposedly, though with the way that place is run I told her she'd better keep an eye on her next paycheck to be sure it actually happened.

Such good news!

I've had "managers" like that. She has as good a coping strategy as I can think of. Brava!

What kind of job? Did you say and I missed it?

I just reminded myself of a scene from NYPD Blue...

Sipowicz has just arrived on scene, where a man has killed his wife. The man is being treated for a large v-shaped (no, it didn't look like Big V) wound in his head. When asked why he killed his wife, he explains that he didn't mean to, but, she had hit him in the head "wif a smoovah".

The cops look around at each other for a moment. Sipowicz asks "Whaddya mean she hit you 'wif a smoovah'? Whatta hell is a 'smoovah'

The man replied "You know, a smoovah, like ya smoove out da wrinkles on a shirt."

His wife had hit him in the head with an iron.

This morning Dad made it known that he required a packet of Chinese Lantern seeds.
I work on the principle that 'to hear is to obey' as it makes life easier, so I headed for the garden centre.
Apart from the usual horticultural stuff, there's a coffee shop, pet supplies store and a small bookshop and that's where I spotted this...

Attachment 59362

It amused me that the slot for the Pensioners manual is empty.
I wonder if there had been a run on that book or perhaps they just don't stock them at all due to limited demand. :)