I don’t understand people

Should I have learned this long ago? Should I not expect more from people? How can I identify which people will mean what they say and say what they mean?

It’s not the best feeling in the world to have to admit one’s mistakes, but better to do it up front and deal with the consequences than to keep silent and pretend you’re something you’re not.

I often run into this: a potential client calls, wants something, I tell him I can do it and give him a price and/or proposal. Maybe I’ve met with him in person. Then time goes by and I inquire whether or not he wants to go ahead with the project.

I never hear from him again. I call (never getting to speak to the person), leave messages, send emails, but never hear back.

I just want to know what is it that prevents these kinds of people from not replying. If they don’t want to go ahead, fine. I move on to other things. If it’s too much money for them, okay. That’s their choice. They don’t even have to give me a reason. But why can’t they get back to me? Even an anonymous email is too much for them.

I mean, this is rather painless. It’s not like admitting to a crime or having to confess to cooking the corporate books or something. But I am constantly amazed and angered that so many people don’t have enough spine to send a polite “no thanks” or “we went with someone else.”

And if so many don’t have the capacity for this little act, what will they do in more important situations. God, I’m frustrated. It’s almost the same when I see politicians on TV. Somebody asks them a yes or no question and they respond with a  sentence–usually on a totally different subject. I’m DYING for one of these jokers to answer “yes” or “no” and leave it at that. What motivates them? The fear that by saying yes or no they’ll alienate some segment of the voting public? Are we that coy or fearful that we can’t take a stand and let the chips fall where they may?

Unfortunately, yes.

Is there one man (or woman) who will say what they mean and mean what they say? I haven’t found one.

Like Diogenes, I am searching for one honest man.

Diogenes never found one.

Hendrix vs. Stevie Ray Vaughn

My friend Alan will dispute this, but this isn’t his blog so I can say what I want. I think Stevie Ray Vaughn would win against Jimi Hendrix in a fight. I also think Vaughn is a better guitarist. Maybe because I can hear him more clearly. Yeah, Hendrix is good, but there’s too much reverb and fuzz. Vaughn’s stuff is clear and crisp. Don’t agree? Sue me.

Thrills in Vega$

As usual I was in Vega$ for Mother’s Day. We needed to eat and so went to the Carnegie Deli in the Mirage. I had noticed a rather rotund, older woman in line ahead of us as we waited for a table. She stood out because this white woman had an unusual hairstyle which I can only describe as a shaped afro. It reminded me of Kid (or was it Play) from Kid and Play from the 80s, whose hair rivaled the height of a bishop’s mitre.  This woman’s ‘fro was not as tall, but it was shaped into a sort of cylinder.

At this deli they pile the sandwiches ridiculously (I might say sinfully) high with meat. I don’t know how anyone can finish one of them.

When we were seated I noticed she and her husband had the table next to us. I was seated right next to her. They were digging in to their mile-high meat piles with relish. (Digging in with relish, not relish on the sandwiches). As we waited for our order, I heard a kind of squeak from beside me and turned to see the woman move her hand to her throat, the universal sign for choking. I waited to see if she were kidding, but apparently not. Anxious to stuff another shovel of meat into her gaping maw, she had literally bitten off more than she could chew, or swallow.

Her husband moved around the table to help her and I waited to see if I needed to perform the Heimlich maneuver on her (if he didn’t or couldn’t). Before he could get behind her however, she managed to disgorge the  ponderous meatload. She held a napkin close to her face, but not close enough. As the plumpy missile emerged from her mouth, I got a very clear view of it. If it had been blown out of her a la Heimlich, it might have been too quick, but I saw the feculent torpedo emerge as from a sphincter, before it was hidden inside the napkin.

It reminded me of the South Park episode in which the characters began to eat through their rectums and crap out of their mouths.

Ah, Vegas. They used to wear suits and ties in the old days. Now overweight tourists with cylindrical hair, crapping out of their mouths are the order of the day.

What would Frank say?