bippity boppity boo

I had that Fairy Godmother song from Cinderella stuck in my head today while I was drawing more drainage plans, the part where she is changing the pumpkin into the carriage and the whole bit. I haven't thought about that story in ages, and I have to wonder where it came from. It's almost like I'm sleep-dreaming while I draft. I can only guess that it's vaguely related to the Christening I attended this weekend. I can sum up the Mass like so: 'you can't avoid death. You can delay it. In fact our retired priests are doing that now, and they need money. So give us money. (varying intervals of singing, standing up, sitting down) Did I mention you should give us money. Soooo.....Give us money. Now? How about..Now? Ok now.' I've only got a peripherally Christian influence and have attended services here and there with relatives or friends over the years, but I can't say I've ever encountered such a blatant hustle tied directly to the sermon. Truly distasteful.

I also came upon this interesting man, Joey Skaggs, while cruising my own link to urban legends. He is a master prankster whom I may have seen trotting around the village with his whole Jesus getup, unless that was a copycat. I didn't realize the extend of his hoaxes until I saw this letter he sent to animal shelters across the country in 1994, pretending to be a Korean company looking for extra dogs to make into soup (Dog meat is actually banned in Korea). The goal was to reveal cultural bias and reactionary, irresponsible tendencies in the media and he succeeded remarkably; primarily by setting up a phone line with only an answering machine in both Korean and English in attendance, and a PO Box. He received tons of hate mail and virulent messages against the 'yellow devil' demanding deportation (and also offers to sell dogs to him) , as expected, but the media storm included reports of having spoken to his company's representatives when in fact nobody ever did and there was no such company. Those of you who know me well know that I'm a purist when it comes to vegetarianism. I tend to believe that if you don't believe in eating animals, which is perfectly honorable, you can't pick and choose which ones are ugly/stupid/not cute enough to make them okay to eat. Which is why I could never really be Buddhist. I would have to be a super ascetic, completely vegan Buddhist, and I know I have no such discipline...esp. since I love BBQ. So I have to remain a pagan. Of course I know vegetarians who simply don't like certain types of animals for taste, texture, or whatever icky factor, which is fine too. I just don't like this whole righteous selectively carnivorous thing. Yes dogs are cute and friendly and our pets, but I understand that pigs actually are quite smart and would make wonderful pets were they not prone to growing so huge and being so messy. So while I used to hate this whole myth of all Asians eating dogs and would insist there was no such practice, I realize it does exist in parts of Asia and instead came to terms with the idea that as repulsive as it is to me, the American practice of eating pigs or cows is equally repulsive to other cultures- it is just a matter of your background and perspective.

More amusing and on a lighter note was Skagg's response to the tour buses circling the Village to observe the then hippies in their native habitat (this was in 1968). He set up a bus tour of suburban Queens, filled a rented Greyhound with aging hippies, and set about with his hippies taking photos of the Squaresville inhabitants washing their cars and mowing their lawns. It was so successful that although Greyhound apparently asked him to guide more hippie tours of the 'burbs. He declined.

So today's bad news is that Elite Design Company has already filled the position I was applying for, as learned by my insider while he submitted my portfolio. I wonder when that happened since their website, which was allegedly updated this morning, still lists it. My first thought was that it was like the 'I have to rearrange my sock drawer' excuse to get out of a date, but for a recruiter. But then I don't see why they wouldn't simply say it wasn't a good match...It's perfectly reasonable since they are Elite and competitive. So that's highly disappointing, although not terribly surprising. I will be On File....Something I always thought was bogus, except that I think they really do keep files since while I was in NYC I got calls for interviews many months after submitting applications and being long since sucked into my last firm. So back to the drawing board...in the meantime my annual review is coming up and I have to come up with some reasonably thoughtful input on myself and my company goals. The forms remind me of the types of questions on final exams of my history classes. You know, 'The City in History: discuss'. 'Christianity: Discuss'.