The Degree of "Too Much"?

This is a Bama story that poses a very serious question. Down in Houston County....the cops came up and determined that the manager and a dancer of a newly opened club (you can imagine the type)...needed to be arrested. Apparently, the county sheriff had reports of nudity. Naturally, in Bama, law enforcement is usually called out and then sits through twelve hours of shows....to make a final determination. In some cases, the local Baptist minister is also asked to help evaluate the situation.

After enough evaluation...deputies arrested the owner...Michael Gene Cox....and then charged him with running a club that allowed "too much nudity".

I paused over that comment..."too much nudity". Once you remove your clothing...you are nude, and at 100 percent. You can't really go to 110 percent or 150 percent nudity.

In this case, nude is nude. You've reached maximum capacity...as an engineer would say. That should be it, unless of course, you're in Dothan and then, maybe, you can get an extra ten percent nude. One's imagination is then left to what folks might consider as extra nude in Dothan. It's best not to ask....I think.

The Andy School of Management

As a kid, I managed to watch every single episode of Andy Griffith. As an adult….I repeated the experience about fifteen times per episode.

I look back at all the attempts the Air Force made in training me to be a manager or leader….and the truth be known….the ‘Andy School of Management’ probably had more success than any of the Air Force’s attempts.

I went through around half-a-dozen University of Maryland and Louisiana Tech classes in management skills….and none came within a mile of the ‘Andy School’.

How can this be? Well….the Andy method was to approach each person with a slightly different view of their situation. What works with Barney….just doesn’t work with Aunt Bee. What worked with Opie….could never work with Gomer. So you have to really start to know people….their vision….their problems….their attitude….their personality conflicts.

The Andy method requires that you start with a full-gallon of patience. If you lack patience, then the method will never work. You are basically walking out to the pond with a two worms for the entire day….and hoping that just one of these will be enough to do the job and bring a fish home.

The Andy method dictates that you prioritize problems. You can’t fix fifty in a day. You fix the most important stuff, and then leave the rest for tomorrow. Unless you were intending to depart the Earth in a pine box tomorrow….there’s no reason to rush.

The Andy method requires you to fix what you can fix, and for those problems with no fix possible…..you accept it. Don’t whine. Don’t drink yourself into a fit for the next ten years over what you couldn’t fix or accept. It’s a done deal….either it’s fixed or you learn to accept it.

A leader over difficult people with impossible personalities? The Andy method is simple….you bring them in….and have an eye-to-eye chat. The amount of pain or woes or terror they are inflicting on your team or group…isn’t going to be accepted. You show a slight grin as you announce this to them….as if in a poker game and you know the cards in your hands and theirs. Then you give them an indicator of friendly persuasion. You want them to proceed to a middle-grounds of sort. They need to come up for a bit of fresh air and grasp that most folks just aren’t buying into their act anymore.

The Andy method dictates little acceptance of gossip or its pretended value.

The Andy method meant two minutes of friendly chat with folks...to give them the time of day and at least offer to console them on a tough afternoon or a rough morning.

The Andy method requires seriousness at times...but can flex to meet a situation with a bit of humor or a moment of wit.

The Andy method isn’t precise. Sometimes….you just have to take a fishing pole and hope for a natural answer in the end.

So when you’ve tired of all the various methods of management….and you’ve got problems that need a different approach….maybe it’s time to pull out the Andy method and see if a different approach works.

Madness in America

My co-worker’s brother-in-law....an Army guy....twenty-five years old....was shot and killed over the weekend near Nashville. The guy went out to some nightclub....said something that triggered some guy to go with his three buddies to a car. A round was fired....killing the young NCO.

A local paper put up the basic story....then pasted the four pictures of the guys arrested by the cops. All of them are from the Nashville area.....all are 19 to 21 years old. One guy will be the trigger guy and get a twenty-five year sentence out of the deal. I’m guessing the three guys...if they are lucky...might walk free if they point out the trigger guy.

It’s a waste of life....going out to some club....and then killed for some comment you made in the club. You look around, and there’s probably fifty guys killed every Saturday night now in the US....at bar’s and clubs.....just because they said the wrong thing.

Something’s wrong with this picture. You go back thirty years ago.....there would have been a fight and one guy would have been given a black eye for his stupid comment. Today.....you got to shoot the guy.

This is something that I’ve missed here in Germany. Folks don’t get shot like this. You might have a black eye or get beaten severely....but this shoot-them-up game just isn’t played.

Logic Lessons in Life

"I will not be pushed, briefed, debriefed, stamped, indexed or numbered.''

There are several reasons why a person enjoys the British series "The Prisoner". Most of these all center around a guy who won't compromise himself or his principals. The quote from above....was the one that I enjoyed the most.

The series was short-lived and the curious end is that you never knew if they were the enemy or his own organization just testing him. It was original and demanding your analysis of each show.

It's funny....over thirty years have passed and I still regard the show as one of the five that defined my sense of logic and ideals. Amongst all of the trash that ever got put on TV....there were a handful that made it to the heartland and brought a wealth of knowledge. When you group it with Andy Griffith, The Waltons, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone....you had a vast learning experience.

Sometimes, you can gain logic from TV.