On being irreplaceable

In times of economic crisis, people worry a lot about being replaceable. Everywhere in the media these days--in blogs and business columns, in opinion pieces and video interviews--corporate pundits and pop psychologists are struggling to explain how we can stand out from the crowd (in a good way) so that our employers will see the need to keep us on.

When Steve Jobs had to take some time off work, the words "No one is indispensable" became both reassuring and terrifying to millions of cogs in a host of corporate machines.

In good times and bad, the only business with a really, truly indispensable and irreplaceable person at its core is the one that runs off an individual creative vision. John Updike was irreplaceable. Picasso was irreplaceable. Eartha Kitt was irreplaceable. So was Yves St. Laurent.

Artists often undervalue their own contributions--probably because for most of us it takes so long to attract the only meaningful measure of our worth, which is money. We should not be discouraged. Some of us may not make a living from our art just yet (in that regard, for us there is no difference between the good times and the bad!), but we cannot be replaced, and we will always be "employed."

We have what everybody wants. We should be happy (and even a bit snooty) about that.

Got the driving-around-the-hospital-parking-lot blues again

Are there, in any North American cities, any hospitals that have adequate parking facilities?

How many stress-related medical conditions have actually begun in hospital parking lots?

And shouldn't someone do some research about this?

Skimming around Web 2.0

One of the main reasons why I love the Internet is that it is text-based.

TV news and information shows have always felt too slow to me. Can you skim a video for the info you want or need and ignore the rest? Nope.

I avoid information-based videos on the Internet for the same reason. I’d rather read a transcript of a news or information video any day than take the time to watch it. And I would always prefer a succinct and well written news item over the transcript.

With the increasing proliferation of online news sources, blogs and social-media exchanges, the ability to write well is again becoming a distinguishing feature that allows the best to rise to the top. As a reader, not to mention as a writer/editor with 30 years of experience, I find that situation very appealing.

Branta canadensis

I would like to propose that the bird species known as "Canada goose" be renamed. They are being blamed for a lot of crap (literally) in a lot of places, and most recently for the emergency landing of an entire airplane in the Hudson River. They are giving my country a bad reputation. They are not our fault.

Tracking the Transit System

I am looking forward to the day when they put computer chips in city buses so I can use my GPS to see the buses on my route, figure out how far behind or ahead of schedule they are, and plan accordingly.

Update: Readers of this Notion have informed me that the computer-chip system already exists in certain cities in North America. Very good. I will wait to see how long it takes for the technology to reach Saskatoon, SK.

Diet Tip #1 (aka Notes to Self)

It is of no benefit to wash and dry your jeans during the first week of a diet. The scale may tell you you've dropped a few pounds and are doing really well, but the clean jeans will dispute that. If you want to keep your spirits up, wait a while to do the denim laundry.

In Support of the Establishment of National Wear-Your-Wedding-Dress Day

The declaration of a National Wear-Your-Wedding-Dress Day (annual date to vary by geographic region, with a view to maximizing odds of fine weather locally) would provide the residents of participating communities with a range of benefits, including:

• Opportunities for women (and men, where applicable) to be recognized for their beauty and good taste at least once a year by friends and families (not to mention fellow workers and grocery-store attendants) as they moved resplendent from the morning to the night in the gowns, gloves, tiaras, veils and even shoes they had chosen with such care for days on which they were married;

• Enhanced justification for the investment of millions of dollars in elaborate dresses and accoutrements that are traditionally worn for one day only, after which they are consigned to the darkest reaches of the nation’s basement closets or the remotest corners of its attics;

• Motivational artillery for the newly married to keep their sylph-like figures so that they are able to fit themselves anew into their matrimonial finery every year.

Those with two or more wedding gowns would wear whichever dress they preferred unless, of course, the most recent marriage had taken root, in which case they would be well advised to choose politics over sartorial preference.