Overread at Table 3: Get Rid of Low-Value Work Article

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/stop-doing-low-value-work?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

Overheard at Booth 1: Cancelled Canciones vs Stevie Nicks

Cancelled Canciones: Sorry, Stevie, but you're cancelled!

Stevie Nicks: Why?

CC: "Gypsy" is a slur!

SN: You can't cancel me.

CC: Why not?

SN: I'm an actual witch with an enigmatic sexuality except for one famous relationship with a bandmate in the 70s.

CC: Fair enough.  You're not cancelled.  But just stick to singing "Landslide" and "Gold Dust Woman"

#CancelCulture

#CancelledCanciones

Overheard at Table 4: Cancelled Canciones vs April Wine

Cancelled Canciones: April Wine, you're cancelled?

April Wine: Why?

CC: For "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" - "Gypsy" is a slur!

AW: You can't cancel us!  We're Canadian.

CC: What does that have to do with anything?

AW: It's harder for Canadians to break into US markets, plus we have a reputation for being SUPER-polite.  It would hurt our feelings deeply.

CC: Well, you're still WHITE Canadians, so it applies.

AW: Aw take off, eh!

#CancelledCanciones

#CancelCulture

Overheard at Table 2: I Have Something to Say to a Slate Writer

I have something to say as well, Slate writer: "Stuff it"

The world is already far too busy, too much noise, light, chaos, battering our senses all time, incessantly, without stop.  

Putting down the window shade over a space the size of a sheet of paper when you're at 30,000 feet and there is nothing to see but grey clouds anyway is a RARE, BRIEF moment of serenity, of calm, of a tiny cocoon in which we can shut out all the screaming NOISE.

Sure, open the shade for takeoff and landing, because topography can be cool.  You can say goodbye and then hello, but in the air?  C'mon, Slate writer, stuff your bad take here

 

https://slate.com/life/2024/07/flying-is-better-with-an-open-window-shade.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

 

Overheard at Table 1: Cancelled Canciones vs Santana

Cancelled Canciones: Santana, you are cancelled?

Santana: Why?

CC: Because of your song "Gypsy Queen"

Santana: It's actually called "Black Magic Woman"

CC: They're the same song, separated by a slash mark.

Santana: You can't cancel us anyway, we're Latino and African slash Afro-descent.

CC: Not that white guy, Gregg Rolie. We'll at least cancel him.

Santana: OK by me.  No me cae bien ese cabrón anyways.

#CancelledCanciones

#CancelCulture

Overheard at Table 3: The Decline of Starbucks

https://hbr.org/2024/06/how-starbucks-devalued-its-own-brand?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

 

Very interesting article.  Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that it doesn't mention coffee, but further supports what I had noticed decades ago, which is that Starbucks does not really sell coffee, it sells an image - the image of "cool" & "hip" 

Starbucks was a Millennial place... and GenXers went there to feel like they were Millennials.  But now the Millennials have aged out and spend more time at home or at work (not in this "third place" as Schultz called Starbucks), and perhaps if Starbucks had originally focused more on good coffee at a good price, there might be something for it to cling to - a core commodity.

But instead, it focused on image (the article calls it "experience") and as the company made more money and strove for more profits, the experience suffered.

 

 

Overheard at Table 3: Why People Are Not Having Babies

So many scientists trying to figure out why birth rates are declining these days.  They keep thinking that it's lack of finding a suitable mate. I kinda disagree with that, because people throughout history have popped out kids with people they think are complete losers.

Then, they think maybe it's economics.  There might be some truth to that, I mean, babies are hella'expensive, and who wants to be spending one full paycheck on diapers when you could still be dropping it on concert tickets or weekends out nightclubbing, amirite?

What no one is saying is that it might be confusion.  I mean, seriously, who wants to create a human being who, in five six seven eight years, you're gonna have to go through trying to figure out if they're a boy or a girl and whether you should dump your entire life savings and paycheck into genderblockers or reassignment surgery?   'Cuz in this culture, if you DO then some Republican will report you to CPS for child abuse, but if you DON'T then the Liberals will shame you as an intolerant scumbag.

Or it might just be simple Existential Dread.  Everyone sees everything going to shit right now in the world and nothing's getting better.  In America this year the only choices for President is a dottering old fool and a rapist old xenophobic grifter.   Oh yeah ...and we had a third guy with a dead worm in his brain, don't forget that!

So yeah, if I were still of the age to be makin' babies, I'd sure be like, "No effin' WAY!"