THESE TIMES

Random thoughts for a day in November

Kirk Ericson | Nov 02, 20230

Compassion is its own reward.

Dave Pierik, the office administrator and the longest-serving employee at the Shelton-Mason County Journal, has been joining us lately in the newsroom, making corrections on pages on Wednesdays, our get-the-paper-out-the-door day. We’ve learned he’s got a quick wit:

■ We were working on a front-page headline about the Shelton homicide suspects who were being sought by police during the first week of October. The A1 headline was “Homicide suspects at large.” Dave said the following after looking at the headline: “You know, if you had someone who was short, psychic and was being pursued by police, you could write this headline: ‘Small medium at large.’ ”

■ Somebody in the newsroom a couple of weeks ago used the word “petty” about something or other. Dave came back with this: “I don’t like petty … unless it’s Tom Petty.”

Good website reviews of establishments or people push bad reviews lower on a Google search. Maybe a similar mechanism works with our brains and emotions. If we focus on performing acts and having thoughts that promote others to have good reviews of us, we’ll be less likely to be haunted and taunted by the bad reviews we keep of ourselves.

Do you remember long ago when you might have told someone you couldn’t leave the house because you were expecting an important phone call? With cellphones, that excuse is no longer available to us.

A fantastic movie title, from a Western released in 1964: “Bullets Don’t Argue.”

Here’s a new business idea: Algorithm Repair. People sometimes complain about something contrary to their sensibilities being fed into their online feed, likely because the lords of the internet have decided you might be interested in that particular subject. For instance, for several months after I bought a subscription to Spotify, I was being encouraged to listen to Kiss, a band I dislike in every way that’s possible to dislike. People often blame their algorithm for these glitches. Someday, maybe, we’ll be able to take our algorithm to the repair shop.

There’s a name for the act of backing up a vehicle, most often a pickup truck, into a parking spot or driveway. It’s called “combat parking.” This activity is popular among military people, according to a friend of mine who works in an office building occupied by Department of Defense employees. This friend said he parks his car normally, which helps others know he’s not like everybody else.

Cheating someone because you think that person is cheating you is an example of two wrongs not making a right, right?

We should be able to sell the digital data that surrounds our online life. Right now, tech companies are harvesting it for free. We’re the landlords of our own data and tech companies should pay us for reaping our crop. I was in Costco in Tumwater on Christmas Eve last year when I stopped at one of those tables that offers a free taste of a product Costco’s selling. The woman doling out the treats was standing next to a tall, four-layered platform piled high with heavy products on pallets. After tasting her treat, I asked whether she worries about those pallets falling in an earthquake. She looked up at the pallets and said, “I hadn’t thought about it before you said something.” Then she sarcasted (new verb), “Thanks a lot.” I said “merry Christmas” as I walked away, and she replied “merry Christmas” in a most un-merry Christmas-like tone. I thought I was doing her a favor, but she got angry with me, and I felt bad. But maybe she’ll think about those pallets and plot an escape route, and if an earthquake does hit, she won’t die.