Carles of Hipster Runoff
discusses the relationship between mediocre quarterbacks and office jobs:
The most intense forms of competition, stress, conflict, and insecurity that most of us will ever feel take place at work. We embrace mediocrity as a safety net to alleviate our minds from these uncomfortable thoughts, and hide from the idea of heightened accountability and expectations. Instead, we choose to live vicariously through other people we don't know who are actually 'special.' Athletes, technological entrepreneurs, and other people who are recognized for being legitimately 'gifted and talented' serve as our daily inspirations and escapes. While society tends to praise greatness and unique achievement, the public ceremony of 'exposing' mediocrity provides us with the opportunity for humor and hyperbole that inspires a dark breed of empathy and fan interest.
posted by Copronymus
on Jan 9, 2012 -
47 comments
Cranking. "She couldn't really help my Dad. My Dad couldn't really help her. But they sure tried. She cranked and cranked. I was seven. I didn't know how to help anyone." - A brief essay on life, happiness and work by Merlin Mann.
posted by Memo
on Apr 24, 2011 -
50 comments
The End of Men , in The Atlantic. An article about the rise of women (now over 50% of the U.S. workforce), and implications of the attendant changes for both women and men.
[more inside]
posted by marble
on Jun 10, 2010 -
161 comments
Got My Mojo Working was written by the little-known
Preston Foster and
first recorded in 1956 by the only slightly better-known
Ann Cole. It was, of course,
the Muddy Waters version that became the hit and a signature song for him: he sang it throughout his
entire career, and it has become one of the best-known blues standards of all time. The song itself just has a lot of mojo, you know, so naturally plenty of others have covered it through the years: a small sampling from the YouTubes would include
Carl Perkins,
Willie Dixon,
Elvis Presley,
Clarence Gatemouth Brown,
JJ Cale,
Pinetop Perkins and
Louis Jordan. Hell, even
Bobby Darin couldn't resist the mojo!.
NOTE: Check hoverovers for link descriptions. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jan 6, 2008 -
19 comments
NYU President John Sexton warns striking grad students that they must resume teaching or lose their benefits. After
weeks of
marching outside Bobst library and refusing to teach classes, NYU grad students have been sent a
letter from President John Sexton, warning them that any TA who does not return to work next week will lose their stipends and eligibility to teach next semester.
Until recently, NYU was the only private school that allowed graduate teaching assistants to unionize, following a
2000 NLRB decision, which was subsequently reversed.
NYU claims that it has negotiated in good faith and that the union's demands would limit decision making that should remain in the hands of academics, while the
grad students argue that they cannot trust NYU's admistration to take care of them without unionization (and representation by the
UAW). Meanwhile, many undergrads paying tuition upwards of 50K/year will have to
retake classes or opt for pass/fail. Do you
sympathize with highly educated American grad students who
receive free tuition, health insurance, and stipends in exchange for modest teaching duties (when many other students depend on student loans), especially compared the with
19th century coal miners,
third-world factory workers, and
modern-day wage slaves we normally associate with unions and strikes?
posted by banishedimmortal
on Nov 30, 2005 -
98 comments
Get that MP3, and get the boot In a -IMHO- patetic effort to try to stop what can't be stopped, the RIAA and MPAA are urging companies to monitor their employee's downloading habits or face suing, damages, sanctions and what have you against them. In other words, inciting companies to treat their employees as potential criminals and dispose of them accordingly. While the risks of using P2P at work such as virii and leaking of private files do have a point, this is really about the RIAA/MPAA resorting to more desperate measures each time to try to stay afloat with their jaded business model, which will do nothing but accelerate their long-forecast demise in the "real" new economy.
posted by betobeto
on Feb 15, 2003 -
16 comments
Facing Serial Unemployment, it's Time for a New Game Plan. Anyone else frustrated with jobs that disappear out from under them? What is the "new game plan" that works? (Say an unemployed person realizes that these Boston Globe articles disappear just as fast as their jobs do. In solidarity with other unemployed workers, they violate copyright and cache this article on a website. Do we prosecute?)
posted by sheauga
on Jul 19, 2002 -
4 comments
