Dick Allen, Elon Musk and the 'Bat Theory'

 For those who weren't aware of it....most baseball bats used in the sport today....weigh between 33 and 36 ounces.  

Several decades ago....there was this one baseball player by the name of Dick Allen.  You can say a number of things about the guy (he played in the 1960s/1970s, was brash/blunt, two decades ahead of his time, and probably was one of the top ten players of baseball during this timeframe).  

Dick Allen did something which was unique though....he carried around a baseball bat which weighed 42 ounces.  No one is going to say that he came up to the plate each time with the 42 ounce bat.....but he had it, and when necessary....that was his 'weapon'.  

When you look at the Twitter/Musk battle going on....Elon has an interesting 'bat' in his collection....if the purchase of the media company goes through.

Elon would have all of this data and directives used for the past decade....which was used for keeping conservative 'content' off the media platform.   He could call in 'Larry' and ask for such-and-such information....to discover various meetings were held....where people just said in a blunt way.....'dump' this content, or hold this person off the platform.

Yes....names and facts start to get put out in public.  Even the former board members would be dragged up and labeled as 'problems'.

Conversations with private governments (like Germany for example) would be opened up and discussed to some degree.  Or Elon could say those would be kept private....if you give me a 'gift' or two.  

So what Musk is buying has tons of potential or limited potential....depending how he wants to show off his 'bat'.  

He's not just buying a company....he's buying all of this private information that was supposed to stay private.  So you can understand the fight going on, and why they are so desperate to protect the secret side of Twitter.

Yeah, About That De-Escalation Stuff

 Forty years ago, in a public commerce setting (Dairy Queen, local sports bar, tire shop)....you didn't have any real escalation episodes develop.

What I mean by escalation episodes?  Well....a situation where a customer has a nervous fit, mental breakdown, frustration falling-out, toxic personal crisis.....and they can't handle 'bad' news.  

An example would be that they ordered a club sandwich......expecting it in 12 minutes, and waited almost thirty minutes to get what you'd say is a really crappy marginal sandwich.  In today's world.....they go ballistic, and will spend the next thirty minutes trying to talk to the manager.....finding that talking gets them nowhere.

This week, I noticed a Seattle video-blog where the guy talked about an imitative to being in employees for a de-escalation training episode.  You would be talking about four hours....on how to handle a person having a personal crisis, and being unable to handle bad news.

How bad is this crisis business?  You really don't know. 

In some rural communities....like in a ice cream shop or burger-bar?  You might have some crisis-lite guy once every two or three months.  

In some of these highly urbanized areas?  I bet you could have a four-star crisis-guy almost every hour.

The thing you notice.....we seem to be 'breeding' these crisis-freaks in abundance.  They seem to be wanting to demonstrate more and more of their limited patience and juvenile behavior.  

Common people able to handle 12-year-old kids in adult clothing with no patience?  No....it's just not a talent that we felt was important in society.

Could I handle this type of situation?  I'm mostly the type to let you talk for three minutes straight....to get the frustrations out, and then hold out my hand to suggest that we need to pray to the Lord for a good final outcome.  If that didn't work....I'd pull out the cheapo fire hose and give you about three gallons of water to your face to bring you to reality.  

It'd be best that you don't hire me to manage things.

Thoughts on 'Young Sheldon' (The TV Show)

 When the first season of 'Young Sheldon' rolled around....I would have given it four stars.  It was 90-percent comedy, and 10-percent of life in the 1980s in Texas.  

Somewhere in the second season....there were a few serious moments and I questioned the direction of the script.  From season three and four?  It was probably thirty percent fairly serious and you couldn't layer it with much humor.  

This fifth season?  I might occasionally catch a clip here and there, but I've come to regard it as a fairly serious family drama, with a small bit of humor dished out via each show.  

Something for the under 12-year-olds?  No.  In fact, I'd even go and label it for the 'after-9 pm' crowd.