Neanderpundit

Well, for three months, while the new contract settles in like a leech on my neck/wallet. Anyway, it allows me to see the beginning (the only good part) of Edward Scissorhands, and see Vincent Price, in his last movie.

A campy, freaky, B movie nutbag for most of his life, Vincent had some really excellent (if small) roles, like “His kind of woman”which he plays opposite Robert Mitchum. And he always had a great sense of humor about himself, as seen in this (late life) commercial for Citibank:

Shame we don’t have anyone to fill those shoes these days.

Or the car, anyway.

One of the most amusing observable phenomena in Africa was filling up the car.

Once the pump shut off automatically, a team of seven or eight africans would start rocking the car back and forth, shaking the gas in the fuel tank, so that every conceivable drop of gasoline (or diesel) could be decanted into the car.

THis process can often take four or six hours, and is occasionally violent enough to shake loose the fillings in the occupants of the vehicle. All of the Africans shaking expect to be paid for your ability to put another 30 cents (forty million kwacha) worth of gas in your car. The fee? 600 million Kwacha per African. It’s worth it, to get that extra .06 miles out of the gas tank. They get upset if you just fill up the vehicle and wave them off.

They probably feel the same confusion watching zaftig housewives sweat to the oldies.

we have all dropped a dime to bitch about bad service, complain about a store employee, or a product we disliked, or whatever.

Ever call someone to say they were doing a good job?

I get a lot of those calls. The previous types, I mean. Fifteen, twenty years ago, I started getting thos3e calls- usually customer stupidity, but sometimes a legitimate complaint about a machine, or whatever.

One time, maybe ten years back, I got a call saying “hey. Thanks. You came and fixed my stuff, and it now works better, and I’m happy”.

From that moment on, from that phone call on, I have made a point of- at least once a week but USUALLY a LOT more often, of telling people when they are doing a good job. Waitresses, cashiers, suppliers, pastors, friends.

Try it. See what happens. See if your holidays aren’t a little brighter. And then keep it up, for the rest of your life.