How Much Are You Missing?

Are you busy and in such a rush that you are missing the true beauty in life? Well, on a cold January morning in a Washington, D.C. train station, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for 45 minutes as 2,000 commuters went through the station. Amongst the Bach pieces was one of the most intricate songs ever created and all of the pieces were played on a one of a kind violin valued at $3.5 million dollars. It’s probably also important that the music was played by the person that is generally considered the best violinist in the world – Joshua Bell. He played to a sold out crowd two nights prior with ticket prices averaging $100 a piece.

So how did this experiment turn out? It turns out only 6 people stopped and listened for a few minutes. 20 people gave money but hurried along. All in all, $32 was collected and at the end of the set, no one cared and no one applauded.

This was a very interesting social experiment by the Washington Post. Think about it. If you can’t stop and listen to some of the finest works ever created played by the finest violinist on a rare and extremely valuable violin, what else are you missing in life?

You can watch the event here.

Old Bag Marries Stupid, Really Young Girl

For all you old bags out there that have yet to marry and regularly have cat dress up night with your baker’s dozen of cats, there’s still hope! In what is one of the strangest bits of news to come across my eyes, a 112-year-old Somali man married a 17 year old girl! Hugh Hefner has nothing on this leathery dinosaur!

According to London’s Telegraph, a crowd of hundreds attended the wedding between Ahmed Muhamed Dore and Safia Abdulleh in Guriceel, Somalia. Ahmed was quoted as saying, “Today God helped me realize my dream.”

Ahmed and his “lucky” bride are from the same village and said that he waited for her to grow up before proposing (weird). He said: “I didn’t force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love, and then we agreed to marry.” Even weirder.

The bride’s family said she’s happy with her new husband. In this writer’s opinion, she’s probably happy only because her family got a chicken and a bag of rice in exchange for, well, their own damn daughter.

He already has 18 children by his other five wives.

P.S. Would this even be legal in some US states?

Cheap Skate

Think you’re spending big money when you go out to eat and spend $100 bucks? Well, in what is quite possibly the largest restaurant tab ever, Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire, has you beat. He was in New York City a week or so back and was looking to buy the New Jersey Nets. After meeting with NBA officials he went out with 6 of his friends to Nello’s in New York City. Nello’s is famous for being a celebrity and VIP-wannabe hotspot featuring mediocre to decent Italian food at exorbitant prices.

So how much did Roman spend? Try $47,221.09 on lunch. The tab includes an automatic 20% gratuity of $7,328.20 to which Roman brought the bill up to $52,000 by increasing the tip to 26%. Noteworthy is the $35,000 spent on booze on $18 on a minestrone soup.

I don’t make in one year what this guy spent on LUNCH! Take a look at the receipt, courtesy of WaiterRant.net.

Just A Thought

So today is the Yankees’ parade in New York City celebrating their latest World Series win. It’s expected to be jam-packed with more people wanting to go than there are tickets. This is all for a sports team where players play a game that they love (which many people play for free as a hobby), make millions of dollars (in the case of Alex Rodriguez, hundreds of millions), and are treated like royalty. After the parade, many will retreat back to their mansions or jet-off to some exotic location for a “well-earned” vacation.

Compare this to any Veteran’s Day or welcome home parade for the US military. How many people actually attend an IMPORTANT parade acknowledging incredible sacrifice for lackluster pay by our servicemen? Who cares about them when they come home missing a leg and will have to carry that burden with them the rest of their lives? They certainly don’t head off to some exotic beach-front resort and bask in the sun. They go back to their modest home in the Midwest or whereever and try and figure out how they are going to pay their bills.

This country has it’s mentalities backwards.

UPDATE: 3 million people are in attendance according to a New York Times article. What is disgrace! I’m speechless.

Sorry, I Didn’t Mean to Sneeze On Your Cubicle

I came across an old Business Week article discussing the merits, or lack there of, of heading off into work while you’re under the weather. Basically, the article states that going into work when you’re sick is totally the wrong thing to do. The author points out that it’s unfair to your clients, co-workers and their families, and to corporate health costs. The author states that a prudent and reasonable manager will make arrangements when you call in sick and appreciate your efforts to avoid getting others sick.

Keep in mind that this guy also has a PhD, which means he doesn’t live in reality but rather a world of a theory – a world of how things should be.

Workers shouldn’t have to go in sick for all the above reasons and more. Staying home will allow employees to not only be more comfortable but also recuperate faster. And ask anyone that ever went to work sick if they were productive on the job as they were sneezing and hallucinating with a fever. A resounding “no” would be in order from nearly everybody asked.

So what’s the problem? If it makes so much sense for people to stay home when they are sick, then why don’t people just stay home? A lot of people don’t get sick days and simply cannot afford the financial impact that missing a days pay will have. Others have job insecurity and have tremendous amounts of job-related stress when they call out. That is, they fear that calling out will somehow impact their job security or long-term performance ratings, direly affecting their finances and career.

I know I don’t appreciate it when co-workers come into work sick because I don’t want to get sick. I’m that guy that Purells my hands more than is probably good for you. Shake my hand as you tell me how bad your cold is? Guess where I’m heading? Straight to the bathroom to wash my damn hands as I mutter how much of a jackass you are for sharing your germs with me. I’m that guy that gets into a cold-sweat when I sit in the barbers chair and he starts telling me about his fever as his hands are ALL OVER MY HEAD!

What has this country become? Why can’t people do that old-fashioned thing of nursing themselves when they’re not well? It all boils down to CORPORATE GREED.

Employers don’t want to pay for sick days. Employers do not want productivity to be diminished. And employers don’t appreciate so-called “underperformers” when they call out sick because if they were A-players, they would put the company before their own health, right?

What do you think? Do you have any work-related horror stories about sick co-workers or trudging into work sick yourself? Do share!

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