At the airport conversation

[hifiguy]

Standing in a 1.5 block line for security I heard the older lady behind my grouching about horrible customer service. I made a crack about big corps treating customers like crap. She said "that's why I am voting for Bernie. I'm sick of this crap."

[merrily]

1. I hope she said it loudly.

I don't know if Bernie is going to shorten lines at the airport, though. Maybe she'll settle for revenge?

[sarge43]

3. This older lady thinks revenge would be a good start.

"Now that we have your attention, organize your fecal material. Get it? Got it? Good!"

[hifiguy]

4. True, but it was another little example that people everywhere

are near or at The Popeye Point - "I've had all I can stands and I CAN'T STANDS NO MORE!!" As Stephen Stills wrote so long ago, somethin's happenin' here, what it is ain't exactly clear.

The peasants are slowly rising from their long, media-induced slumber.

[merrily]

5. I don't know if they were slumbering or if they didn't know what to do about it.

If Sanders gets only 1/5 of the vote of the 63% who have given up voting, it won't be shabby.

[retrowire]

2. sounds like someone...

was feeling the bern...

YEAAAH!!!

[RufusTFirefly]

6. Bernie is very scary to people in power on both sides of the aisle

American realize they've been reamed and are no longer willing to put up with it.

Free from corporate influence and religious delusions, why wouldn't Americans of all stripes support Bernie's platform?

[navarth]

7. these are wonderful. nt

[RufusTFirefly]

8. No surprise that they're my two of my favorite American writers

I'd have to throw in this guy to make it a trio.

[navarth]

9. Quite so.

East of Eden is the greatest book that I've ever read. (The movie SUCKED).

Twain....well, what can one say about Twain.

Melville...is on my list. The more I learn about him, the higher on the list he climbs. I'm planning on Moby Dick first, unless you have suggestions....?

Currently reading The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch. I hope I can do it justice.

[RufusTFirefly]

10. Totally agree about East of Eden (the book)

It is perhaps my favorite book of all. (I've read all but three or four Steinbecks. I'd toss in Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle, and the deceptively simple Cannery Row as runners up. The latter is a clever extended metaphor for the ecological interactions found in tide pools.)

I give East of Eden the movie a bit more leeway, although I can certainly appreciate your animus.

The other contender for my all-time favorite book is Moby Dick. It's not for everyone, I concede. Personally, I think it's the ultimate "writer's novel" and have read it four or five times.

As for Twain, I'm partial to Roughing It and especially A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which has earned an unfair reputation as a lightweight fantasy. It's actually a wonderful, biting satirical work with a surprising amount of political commentary. To wit...

THERE were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.

[navarth]

11. Sweet jeebuz

Twain wrote that? Dayum....very strong. Okay, thanks very much for adding to my list. Sheeesh so many great books, so little time..

Sorry if I bummed you out about the movie. I should temper my remarks and say 'To me it sucked'....but compared to the book...eesh. Fine music and cinematography, really top notch. The screenwriting....I dunno, how could anybody ever get all of that into a single movie? Kinda tragic.

Thanks friend

[RufusTFirefly]

12. No offense taken

East of Eden the movie is by no means a favorite. It's more of a curiosity as well as an interesting, arguably failed, approach to squeezing a gigantic novel into a single movie. (For a really appalling Steinbeck adaptation, try Nick Nolte and Debra Winger in Cannery Row.)

BTW, if you're an East of Eden fanatic, you may enjoy Journal of a Novel:The East of Eden Letters. Steinbeck kept a sort of diary (ostensibly intended for his editor, Pascal Covici) as he was writing the book. It's a short book; wonderfully illuminating and surprisingly engrossing.

[navarth]

13. Noted! and thanks

The list grows.....how will I ever get them all.....

[RufusTFirefly]

14. De nada!

[carolinayellowdog]

25. Innocents Abroad and Christian Science are HILARIOUS

Not one to laugh out loud at many books, I found myself doing so with both of these-- his first and last non-fiction works IIRC.

[RufusTFirefly]

26. Read Innocents Abroad. Great fun. But haven't read Christian Science

I'll have to put it on my list. Also greatly enjoyed the original Autobiography. Not the multi-volume one that came out with much fanfare just a few years ago, but a single-volume one that was published in the 20s. True to form, Twain's non-fiction is full of fiction and his novels tell more truths than many histories do.

Thanks for the recommendation!

[jwirr]

15. I do think that the Steinbeck saying may not be totally true today. Most

workers today can see that they are not going to be a millionaire any time soon and the poor can easily see that without the safety net they are dead.

When Steinbeck wrote that we did not have the communications that we have today. True television is still trying to convince us but then some big fail happens and they just cannot ignore it. So we hear about the income inequality. The internet does an even better job of informing us.

Of course there will always be those who want to be blind.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. I'm glad to hear that -

except, not to pick nits or anything, isn't airport security a TSA function not controlled by the airlines? Or was the lady just griping about poor customer service in general? (BTW, having formerly worked for an airline I can tell you the airlines aren't huge fans of the TSA either.)

[hifiguy]

21. General grouching but this woman

Definitely has HAD it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. We went from "the customer comes first" to "the shareholders come first"....

That led to the emphasis going from a good product at a reasonable price to ASSUMING sales while increasing margins by lowering production costs and increasing return on investment through equities, dividend payments and the ultimate gamble known as futures which is no different than counting chickens before they hatch.

[LiberalArkie]

19. And they don't care about "The Shareholders". It is who the shareholders are they care about.

The shareholders who are the executives, the shareholders who are the rich investment bankers, and the shareholders who are the hedge fund brokers. The normal shareholders, not so much.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. That's why they don't want CEO salaries disclosed.

[hifiguy]

20. Until around 1981, an interesting coincidence,

the customer was king. Now the only person below the customer is the employee.

Gee, I wonder what happened in '81?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. A spokesmodel was elected.

[Roland99]

18. Bernie's still gonna need help from us to restore the House and Senate!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/11/opinions/parini-bernie-sanders/index.html

[Enthusiast]

24. That give me a warm feeling.