Year / 2006

by Edward Champion

Wiki: The Great Tool of Collaboration

Publishers Weekly: “Now Wharton School Publishing, an imprint of Pearson Education, is readying a blueprint on how Web 2.0 technologies can benefit business with the first business book to be written Wiki style—We Are Smarter Than Me (fall 2007).”

By a stunning coincidence, Return of the Reluctant has obtained a copy of the Wiki in question. What follows is an excerpt from the Wiki discussion page marked “Chapter One.”

Discussion on First Sentence

I changed one comma in the first sentence just to clean up the grammar and the page was reverted. Come on. Why should there really be a comma between “empowering” and “you”? The whole point is that the book will empower the reader and they need to know this from the first sentence. That’s what we’re trying to do with this: make better managers. more$$$thanu 20:27, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

I don’t believe the first sentence meets current acceptability standards. Who is this mysterious “you” that we’re referring to? It’s difficult enough typing the word “you” and then reading it back, realizing that the text is now addressing you, but that, just two minutes earlier, you had typed the word “you” into the computer. It makes me wonder if I should see my therapist after Sunday’s golf match. I had a three hour meeting with the vice president of my company about this issue and he advises to avoid the word “you” altogether, particularly when writing a management guide. Unless, of course, you’re in the process of firing someone, in which case this pronoun is necessary. Consider also that not even the grammarian above can type all three letters of that hallowed word. Sounds hypocritial to me. Let the sentence stand. waitingfortheweekend 08:34, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

I like Chinese food! vcfan99 11:42, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

I like Chinese food too, but whether or not you enjoy Chinese food or not, boredbeyondbelief, is besides the point. We’re trying to write a book here and we can’t even agree upon the first sentence, much less get basic grammar right. more$$$thanu 13:12, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

To respond to more$$$thanu’s criticisms, I find the use of proper and indisputedly Anglo grammar to be racist in the extreme. Should we not have a chapter written in Ebonics? We don’t want Black Enterprise on our ass. I’ve reverted back to waitingfortheweekend’s version. corporatelydiverse 10:11, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

I’ve taken another stab at the first sentence, this time without the words “empowering” and “you.” But this too has been changed. I’ve started a Wikipedia dispute to resolve this issue. For now, I’ve locked the page to prevent further vandalism. appealingtoreason 15:25, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

by Edward Champion

Voting

I was third in line, the first to return the mammoth five-sheet ballot in the machine, which I had spent hours researching last night and this morning.

I have to commend the volunteers at the Page Street Library. Last year, I experienced problems. But it seems that there has been serious reform. The woman who hectored me about voting a particular way last year had disappeared. In fact, the Department of Elections has become much stricter about the dissemination of political information near polling places. Outside the library, one gentleman was asked to remove his button because he was well within 100 feet of the polling place. In light of the endless machine-oriented calls (Ah-nuld apparently called me last night at 10:02 PM) and the despicable robocalls reported, it’s good to know that some areas of the nations still care about ethical elections.

Now comes the midterm elections, which I am now prepared to accept whichever way they turn out. It’s really anybody’s game at this point. The polls are close, yet the stakes are high.

In discussing the matter with friends, there have been comparisons to the so-called 1994 “Republican revolution,” should the Democrats manage to take back both houses. I think it’s naive to assume that any big sweep is going to mean dancing in the streets. If we do this, this is the first battle in a long war to undo the damage that these bozos have inflicted upon the country.

Can the Democrats be counted upon to show some spine? Let’s not kid ourselves. But I think any liberal can agree that a tug of war is better than getting sodomized.