August 29, 1990
Dear Everyone:
Shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the price of
gasoline went up, while we were still roaming around Central Oregon,
“Joey” held a press conference.
(“Joey” is “Joey Greffen”, CEO of Company)
“Joey” wanted to set the record straight about “price gouging” at
the store and assure the public that Company would never do anything so
nefarious (although at one point, he did admit that “people do”, but
Company doesn’t).
This was a fairly impromptu thing, set up probably
in one of the conference rooms at 225 “Beelzebub”.
I recognized the doors just behind “Joey’s” podium.
The podium was festooned with microphones.
Company video-taped the whole thing.
It was the video-tape that we got to watch last week.
“Joey” gave a prepared speech of about 20 minutes, explaining the
situation with a fairly simplistic view of supply and demand and world
economics. He said that
Company was currently “under-recovering”, but would not be able to do so
indefinitely.
(“Under-recovering”, in an economist’s words, would
mean: “Losing money hand
over fist”. In “Marshall’s”
words, it would mean: “They
need a smaller rake”.)
Then “Joey” opened it up for questions, and this is
where it started to get fun.
If you watch television news, you’ll notice that a film clip doesn’t
last more than a minute or two.
With a full 20 minutes in the can, some news people obviously
figured they had enough. So,
while “Joey” answered questions, every now and then, a hand would sneak
up to the podium, retrieve a microphone, and disappear again.
A few seconds later, the door behind “Joey” would open and shut.
They were trying to be polite, but it was like watching rats
deserting a sinking ship.
Reporter:
Why doesn’t Company freeze its prices like “some other Company”
did?
“Joey” : “Some other Company” doesn’t buy
(product). It only refines
what comes out of the what it owns here in the United States.
Reporter:
How will this affect Company’s operations in Saudi Arabia?
(Everyone in the screening room laughed.)
“Joey” (laughing):
Company doesn’t have any operations in Saudi Arabia.
That’s because the Saudis stole
Aramco years ago.
“Joey” did say that there were a few Company people in Saudi
Arabia on assignment, but that they were OK.
Unfortunately, there were also two people in Kuwait.
There was an announcement that they had checked in with the
Embassy after the invasion; but since then, nothing.
Company announced last Friday that they were
changing company policy regarding employees in the Reserves.
Anyone called up will receive the usual government pay.
Company will add to that to bring it up to the employee’s regular
salary at the time that they were called up.
Most benefits will remain in effect with the notable exception of
“On-the-Job Disability Insurance”.
This stands to reason, since the chances of one receiving an
on-the-“job” injury in the middle of a war zone are considerably higher
than in the office, where you might trip over a waste paper basket or
slam your thumb in a drawer.
In other news…
Things seem to be fairly quiet around here right
now. I actually thought I’d
get caught up on some things this week.
That was before I logged onto the system Monday morning and
discovered that I had been “volunteered” to do some testing on the
Overnight Reporting Enhancements in CRMIS.
Normally, “Rowena” would get this; but “Rowena” is on vacation,
somewhere between here and New York, so I’m the lucky one.
Truly lucky because, as it looks now, I may get three of the
things I like most on Friday:
A Casual Day, Sleeping Late, and spending all day working in
Company Park.
Right now, I’m just sort of lazily poking my way
through the Test database, looking for Owners with “permanent” boxes
with or without Series on them and such.
The Test database is a fraction of the real database.
When you run reports, there’s always the chance that you’re
looking for data that isn’t there because it isn’t a part of the 5% that
was pulled for the Test database.
Then you’re not sure if the computer didn’t find anything because
what you’re testing didn’t work; or if it did work, but was “searching
in the coal bin at midnight for a black cat that isn't there”.
The latest from CITC (our computer company):
When you log onto the system, you get the most recent stock quote
(Company only, of course).
But don’t run out and speculate on the basis of this; there’s a
disclaimer that CITC is not responsible for the accuracy of the quote.
It’s just for informational interest.
Things are quiet on the home front.
The highlight of my weekend was
getting a new battery put in my car at Sears.
They said it would take 1½ hours, so we went to a movie.
Darkman.
“Jeannie” said that the advertisements were better than the
movie. She’s right.
Although it does afford an opportunity to see Larry Drake (Benny
on
L.A. Law) play a
villain.
That’s all for now.
Gotta go and see if all those reports I ran this morning produced
anything.
Love, as always,
Pete
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