Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Some Good Things, One Very Bad

The news is mixed. I'll start with Wendy's. I love to order their apple pecan salad, but way too often their employees can't seem to count to either two or four. Since I order two salads at a time, there should be two packets of pecans and four of salad dressing in the bag. More than half the time something has been missing. Several time I have called a store manager about the missing items. I've gotten "sympathy". Period. They recognize the problem. It continues. But this one just switched to the Good column. Wendy's is now using larger dressing packets, so only one per salad is needed. Same amount, but now you actually get what you expect. As a bonus, there's less plastic waste per salad.

Given that, I suppose it would be mean-spirited of me to note that they chose this way rather than hiring better employees who can actually count? I'll put this back in the Bad column if their employees still manage to come up short. I check the bags.

The second one made national news, so you've likely heard about it. During tournaments, the Norman, OK high school girls basketball team took a knee during the National Anthem. It's a mixed race team, bringing to people's attention the ongoing racial disparity experienced in this country. I fully agree with the action, and would participate if my knees allowed, but lack of kneecaps make kneeling uncomfortable, and getting up again is a whole other issue. This part of the story is in the Good column. It's not exactly why the story made the news, of course.

What moves it to the Bad column is one of the announcers, Matt Rowan, who on mike referred to the team as "F***ing N******s. Since that wasn't enough, he also broadcast,  "They're kneeling? F*** them" and "F*** them, I hope they lose."  I think that earns 5 Bad column checks, one per word plus an extra for a bad excuse. Rowan blamed his language on his type 1 diabetes. Now even diabetics are ticked off. Blood sugar fluctuations don't account for racism no matter how high or low they get. I have trouble believing it even accounts for bad judgement in saying what he said out loud and on mike. Alcohol? Sure, that goes to bad judgement if he had been using, which there is no claim of for this incident, but again racism is already there. Or not, which is why a whole lot of other drunks don't say things like that.

How did the team react? They simply said it was an example of why their protest was still needed. Then they went on to become state champs! Good on you, girls!!! 

The Norman Public Schools has fired the NFHS Network, who will no longer be broadcasting its games.

Ahhh, schadenfruede.

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