THIS IS A RECORDING

A friend of Donnie's responded to his rant, yesterday, about too many banks.  I agree with every word she said.

"On the issue of too many banks, amen, brother.  We have too many everythings.  Just try to go into a grocery store to buy plain old Hellman's mayonnaise.  There are like 20 damn varieties.

On the issue of retail people irking you, I share your annoyance, mainly because I like striking up an actual exchange with someone, on occasion, and feel that these canned questions and responses make one feel like they're being served by a robot.

I can only add that given the wages of the people in the service sector these days, the fact that any of them even attempt to chirp, at all, is amazing."

While we're on that very subject, let me rant and rave for a while.

I must share, with you, what I did at Festival the other day.  The checkers, there, have been programmed to say, "Did you find everything you need?" and then I am supposed to say, "Yes, thank you."

On a whim, I decided to change the script.  The checker said good morning and I replied, before she could continue her line, "Good morning and yes.  I found everything I needed."

I had not followed the script.  Her smile faded, her jaw dropped down and, for a moment, I thought she was going to cry. Now, she had no idea what to say.

At the "pep meeting" corporate management loves to give as a way of filling some time with something other than kissing ass which is what got them the management job in the first place, they failed to give the poor checker an alternative line she could use in the event a renegade customer managed to break the rules laid down that are designed to keep any employee (or in the case of politics, any voter) from actually thinking.

It's best to keep busy, busy, busy because if we actually stopped and looked at the phony society we live in, it would reduce us all to tears.

And, by the way, Walgreen's has programmed a new line into their checkers.  On leaving they tell you to "Have a nice day and stay well".  Who the hell thinks up this phoney crap?  Do they, actually, think I'll believe that the checker cares if I stay well or not?

Some day I may not be in the best of moods again and answer that I have a terminal illness so I will never stay "well" again but if I keep coming in every other day, which I do, to get pills I may just stay well enough to keep coming in and spending money.

Just think a moment.  If I actually did get well I wouldn't need the pills anymore and then I would stop coming in and I know Walgreen's doesn't want that.