Sucker Thingys 2

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We’ll try to be brief in this dispatch. We might even be amusing, too.

Did you know that Alex Trebek, host of Jeopardy, is Canadian? You can’t tell form his accent (he doesn’t say “Eh” or “Aboot”). In several recent Jeopardy episodes there have been categories featuring Canadian facts. Needless to say, the contestants did not do well in the Canuck categories.

Alex was a little riled about this and teasingly chided the idiot American contestants for not knowing more aboot his native land. I’ve seen him do this from time to time and I consider Trebek to be a bit condescending at times, as if a contestant is a complete moron for not knowing that Glenfiddich is the answer to “Meaning “The Valley of the Deer”, it’s a type of rose, or a single malt scotch whiskey.”

How many of you knew that answer? Heck, I enjoy a good single malt scotch and I didn’t know that! I’ve never had Glenfiddich; I prefer The Macallan.

No, this wasn’t the usual Trebek sneering superciliousness. Rather, it was one more glaring example of just how oblivious Americans are to the world beyond their borders, a global sin I am also guilty of. And maybe it’s because we just don’t care about the world outside. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, maybe it is.

Here’s a fine example of the outside world:

A 54-year-old British teacher in Sudan is facing 40 lashes with a whip for allowing her class of 7-year-olds to name a stuffed teddy bear Muhammad. Story here.

Now I’m not Islamic, so I wouldn’t know that naming a teddy bear Muhammad is a cardinal sin against that religion. But the fricking students picked the name, not the teacher!! Are they going to lash the seven-year-olds, too?!! Granted, there have been times I’ve wanted to swat my seven-year-old’s bottom, but come on!

Personally, I find this situation extreme and idiotic, a feeling which I find myself acquainting to the Muslim religion more and more these days. It makes these people look small-minded and primitive. But maybe if I read the world news section of the paper (instead of looking for future Civil Servitude tidbits in the Local Section) I would be more aware of cultural sensitivities like this.

But being aware doesn’t mean I’d be any more sensitive, since I tend to find religious zealots like this something to be laughed at anyway. I mean, come on, anyone with a lick of common sense can see that this was done without malice or intent to defame the Muslim religion.

Here’s what I think is going on – I suspect it was just a quiet week in Sudan, with no thefts or adultery reported, so the Khartoum north prosecution unit didn’t have any hands to chop off or people to stone. And while I’m sure the Khartoum north prosecution unit would prefer to perform a lively chopping or stoning if they could find someone guilty of such sins, I’m sure they’d settle for a simple lashing to kill the time. I know I would!

Want to know where I dug up that Jeopardy question? And yes, it is a real question from the 7/12/2000 episode of Jeopardy. I found it here, from the J! – Archive, concrete proof that some people have waaaayyyyy too much passion and waaaayyyyy too much time on their hands!

Some people probably say that about Civil Servitude. And they’re probably right. Enjoy!

Doing our best to increase your vocabulary!

(c) 2007 C.L. Jackson

Sucker Thingys

The Latest News From Jackson Press -

Been a busy weekend here at Jackson Press! While I enjoyed a four-day weekend, these last two days were filled with work! Between yesterday and today I accomplished the following:

- raked leaves (no small chore on Jackson Acre!)
- stacked a cord of firewood
- put up Christmas lights outside
- dragged the Christmas tree up from the basement
- fixed turkey soup
- fixed dinner tonite (steak and burgers)
- took care of the recycling
- edited some family video

Naturally, I’ve been thinking about work as today’s essay topic.

In an effort to teach my children something about the value of work and the rewards of a job well done, I enlisted their help in raking leaves and stacking firewood. They’re trying to raise money to buy a video game, so I told them I’d pay them an allowance for their help.

Yesterday morning we raked leaves, and they did a great job helping me, worthy of the $8 each I paid them. It originally started out as $5 each, but Hannah’s a hard-bargainer and she convinced me to pay them more.

Yesterday afternoon we then stacked firewood. I buy a cord of wood every year; to give you an idea of how much wood that is, it would fill up a small dump truck. My kids helped me stack for 30 minutes, pestering me every two minutes by asking how much they were making for this job. We finally agreed that I would pay them each $3 more. I shortchanged them a little on the firewood because I think I overpaid them on the leaves. Guess I’ll also need to teach them about the value of money and how little minimum wage really pays!

Yesterday I stumbled upon an interesting article that mentioned something interesting about work. The article, on Slate.com, was about LARPing, or Live Action Role Playing. This is where grown people dress up in homemade armor and fight each other with swords as they play a game called Darkon that revolves around a make-believe medieval society. Kind of like real action Dungeons & Dragons.

The interesting thing about this article is what the author says about work. The author, Grady Hendrix, writes:

We measure our worth by our jobs, but what happens when there are fewer and fewer meaningful jobs? Many of the Darkon players are trapped in the classic nerd conundrum: They don’t find the corporate track fulfilling, and so they wind up working as Starbucks baristas and office administrators. At the same time, they’re smart enough to know that being called a Starbucks “team member” is just a nicer way of being called a Starbucks slave. “Everything is gone,” Andrew of Laconia says. “Everything that was once noble and good in this world is gone and it’s been replaced by Wal-Mart. And McDonald’s. And Burger King. Some people just want more. They’re tired of working their ass off for material goods. You could just stay home and watch TV, or you could work for adventure, you know?”

I find this immensely disheartening, because I know how true it is. Our society measures us by our “work”, and most of our “work” revolves around a job at some organization doing something that is sometimes not what we consider rewarding. It’s a job, not a calling. It pays the bills.

Getting back to my children and those fatherly life lessons I try to teach, I realize I’m not the best example of someone who finds reward and meaning in their job. But I honestly believe we all can find some “calling” in our lives that is rewarding and meaningful, even if it’s not our job. Especially if it’s not our job! I believe we have a duty to ourselves to find whatever our “calling” is, something we find rewarding that hopefully makes the world a better place.

To me, Civil Servitude is my rewarding work. My job is just a job, but writing and drawing a cartoon about Bluff City is my calling. To say I’m making the world a better place through Civil Servitude is probably a stretch, but if we make even one person laugh and think about something in a slightly different way, what more could one ask for? Besides a million bucks, that is.

Our latest episode was inspired by leaf raking this weekend. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Everybody’s Workin’ For The Weekend!

(c) 2007 C.L. Jackson