An idea re Andrew Cuomo. Do a full investigation. Invite all accusers to come forward. The allegations are published by a 9/11-style commission. Then have an election, let the voters decide. I explained in some detail how I feel about this situation in a podcast I recorded yesterday. Summary: No I don't think Cuomo deserves our mercy, I think we deserve it. He led us very well during the darkest days of the pandemic, and for all we know even darker days are ahead. We are not out of the woods yet, although some states are acting as if we are. The very things that make Cuomo such an asshole may also make him a great leader in times of trouble. In this way it's totally parallel to the Al Franken cancellation. Also I suggest his daughters, whom we've heard a lot about (too much, although his critiques of their boyfriends were funny, I guess, you may have to be from Queens to get the humor), have a talk with him. Sit him down and make him listen. Dad we can possibly save your ass if you listen now. I'm guessing they know how unacceptable his non-apology apology is. But ultimately this is not a decision for the press, or for other politicians, it's for the voters of New York to make. I think that in all but the most egregious emergencies, that's the right answer. #One of my favorite words is egregious. It rolls off the tongue so smoothly, and the spelling is fairly gorgeous. #
BTW if you asked me when I was a kid if Queens would someday elect a president, have the best Chinese food in the US, and pretty much every other kind of Asian ethnic food, I would have thought you were out of your mind. On the other hand no one expected the Mets to win the World Series in 1969, so there's that. Queens is a weird place. But it's kind of nice that the world comes to Queens these days, and it emanates from Queens too. #On this day last year, in a dream, my father, who never apologized for anything to anyone at any time in his life, as far as I know, apologized for something. I accepted it, and we became friends. Does it mean my subconscious is ready to forgive and move on, or did my father, after being dead for 11 years, process his life and realize it was time to make amends? I don't know, but re-reading the post, I was able to feel the relief today that I felt last year. One of the many wonders of having a blog. I went back looking for comments about the looming (then) pandemic. #
Yesterday with the power outage, I listened to a lot of podcasts, including The Argument from the NYT. They had a two-sided discussion of the filibuster. One side for getting rid of it, and the the other for preserving it. The latter was argued by a establishment Republican conservative from the Heritage Foundation. I kept thinking, they aren't the other side any longer. They represent possibly 10 percent of the Republican Party which represents maybe 40 percent of the electorate. The real "others" are the nutjobs and fascists. They want to burn the whole thing down. I doubt if they have anything specific to say about the filibuster. I'd love to hear a debate between the Ezra Klein faction (smart, thoughtful, polite) and the guy who runs the US Postal Service or Josh Hawley. I also listened to the Michael Cohen podcast. He has something. A real radio personality. A Lawn Guyland guy for sure. Surpringly it held my interest. #- I think some of my friends might enjoy a little thing I put together a while back called thesaurus.land. #
- It's a word navigator. Enter a word in the text box, click the button and you get a list of synonyms. You can then double-click on any of them to see its synonyms, on and on as long as you like. #
- I love words, maybe you do too. #
- PS: Here's a video demo I did in 2016.#
- I was founder and CEO of a small Silicon Valley company in the 1980s. A few dozen people at its peak. I had invested everything in the company, and it was touch and go all the way. If I lost, I would have been totally broke, financially and personally, so I didn't have time to play around. #
- I also had a girlfriend, a long distance relationship, and remember being frustrated that her friends told her no man could be faithful that long, but I was. Maybe I was a fool because I got blamed for it anyway. But that's not the story. #
- There were plenty of women in the company, including execs. I wanted the best people I could get for the job, and I was raised by a woman who was accomplished and smart, so I believed in the idea of gender balance and practiced it. #
- I also was propositioned a fair number of times by women who worked for me. Totally inappropriate. I brushed them off, but occasionally had to sit down and say this was something you could get fired for, if it didn't stop. #
- There was so much sex going on in the company. And there was also gossip about who I was sleeping with (CEOs get gossiped about, no surprise). The whole thing was depressing. Our company was often on the brink of going under, and to some it was just a job, and maybe they felt it was hopeless, but I couldn't afford to. And there was no way to stop the gossip without making the issues even bigger. #
- Eventually we had a hit product, and noticed that when the company was growing the gossip became less important. #
- The point of the story is that sex in the workplace is complicated. It isn't just about men with power using it to take advantage of lower level employees. I think a lot of people must know this, and are overlooking, deliberately or not, when discussing this topic. #