The Mid-Week Review meeting avoided much contention, thank goodness. If you were wondering, the Summer Solstice arrives this Sunday, coincident with the observation of “Father’s Day,” which like “Birthing Persons Day” just past will require some juggling of old and new words. The replacement for the former, like the latter, is still under discussion for functional but non-judgmental terminology. That lead to discussion other definitional issues over which we have no direct control.

Chairman Socotra started laughing just as the company Training Czar started. One school district in Randolph, New Jersey, broke into the news when they decided to eliminate the names of all holidays on the school calendar. It was “news” because of the sweeping nature of the decision to call them “days off,” which briefly falired when the Vice President wished us a pleasant long-weekend instead of mentioning the fallen on what used to be called Memorial Day.

This development is kind of cool, since it represents the logical progression of a theoretical idea into something real. There used to be a day named in honor of a famous navigator named Columbus. There has been controversy about it for a while, and nothing new. It was intended to provide a day of pride for fairly recent immigrants to America, since the Navigator was born in what is now Genoa, Italy. He died in Spain, so he could be counted as a diverse two-fer, but that wasn’t the point.

Activists have been after him for a while, since he was what we would (or would have) called a “white Hispanic.” Being careful to capitalize the right words, of course. Whoever he was, he is said to have been instrumental in the exploitation and suppression of the people he ran into on this continent, or actually on another continent, but we got the point. We would have to find an intern to do a Google search to find all the disparaging names appended to him these days, but that is not the point. Plus, the Interns are making more than base pay for not doing Google searches (or anything else).

Randolph was just one of the places that felt strongly about that matter, meaning the former rather than the latter, and ditched ‘Columbus’ for the term ‘indigenous people.’ We think both words should be capitalized. Please, no thrown debris this early. The Socotra Editorial Board is on record as an advocate of the establishment of Juneteenth as a national holiday, and school boards anywhere outside of the one in which we live in can name special days whatever they want. But it is interesting to see some of the evolution of things from theoretical to practical application.image.png

The Training Czar said opposition to Critical Race Theory was because people objecting to it didn’t understand the original theory, which was fine, though it might have changed a little along the way. So, fine. There was plenty of other stuff on the Long Green Table (LGT). Our President was at the G7 summit this week- the big meeting of the NATO leaders. Most of the reporting was favorable, at least in the American Press. Others reported some disquieting events, like the other alliance leaders laughing at our President. The Board here is comfortable with accepting the American view, since the alternative would require us to think about whatever it is that is coming next. We agree it is hard to keep track, and possibly due to the activity of the internal dissidents we have been warned about. Legal was adamant about that for potential liability reasons, since it turns out the FBI is actually stirring them up with things like the plot to kidnap the Michigan Governor. Besides, either analysis or thinking could take up some of the Solstice observation, or “Day Off 3” or whatever they are calling it.

The Meteorologic Staff is uncomfortable enough as it is. In addition to tracking isobars, they now have to remember what the days used to mean before they became simple digits. The senior weather-guesser said they should probably also jumble the numbers on every rotation so that no implied continuity could be ascertained.

The HR people are also adamant about the Chinese nuclear reactor that is either melting down or experiencing some personal issue. The point being, of course, that we need additional training to accept it on a multi-level basis.

Security mentioned concern about the Russian Navy’s twenty-ship exercise between their homeland and Alaska and Hawaii. It caused the scramble of some F-22’s, but the agreement was that ‘flying’ was what they are supposed to do, right? There was also concern about Reality Winner’s early release from jail, since some couldn’t remember if it was a name, much less what she got convicted for.

Consequently, the mid-week review dissolved into uncertain laughter. Being in the amusement industry, even if tangentially as we are, is a topic of some peril these days. We resolved, pending the rest of the day’s events, to simply be supportive of whatever the media is reporting and hope we don’t get noticed. Which is sort of an odd place for an organization in the ‘notice’ business, but we all need to get along, right?

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
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