Stormbringer's Thunder

This steak still has marks from where the jockey was hitting it! — Rodney Dangerfield in "Caddyshack" I tried to tell people before, but did they listen? Noooooooo! What is it, really? morgueFile/MaxStraeten So I'll say it again, and appeal to the wallet instead of ethics: This is not the kind of economy for businesses to be cheap! There are reports of horse meat in various products [ 1 , 2 ] ("contanimated" is such a strong word...it's just not what people paid for) and speculation that the merchants are cutting corners. "Generic" or "store brand" items thaqt were formerly comparable (and sometimes superior) to their name-brand counterparts are getting less desirable ; t he name-brand products are often reducing quality themselves. Customer service? In many cases, fuggedaboudit! Little to no help. You have to learn how to work that gadget yourself. Restaurants that water down the soup? How cheap can you get?

Today's thundering rant has some advice for business executives. Uncle Bob has been hearing some unpleasant things from Neil and his friends. Too bad I can't get them to join my crew. It's dangerous and sometimes borderline legal, but my organization shows appreciation. Well, I do, anyway. Neil's department at a huge Fortune 500 soulless company is run from ivory towers with incompetent stronzos. They have to process forms in a "timely manner", and the semi-sentient subhumanoids that run the show have made the situation worse by quadrupling the work load and not providing extra staff to cover the work. The amazing thing is that the upper managers have no concept of how the work is done! They just come up with schemes and make things worse. And yes, the people that actually do the work resent the meddling of the ivory tower managers. Let me interject something that puzzles me here. How is it that his department resents having a manager that has no experience i

Buona sera. I received some distressing news from Neil. (Yes, he's fine and the Bulletproof Bitch's influence is less pronounced in his life.) He works for a huge company that shall remain nameless for now. It's a "Fortune 500" company with international activities. They count their profits in the tens of millions of dollars each quarter of the year. The distressing news? No raises this year. Neil's company sent out a memo announcing that not only would there be no raises ("economic uncertainties"), but employees should work harder and be happy. Stronzos! Who likes to work extra hard without appreciation? Everyone wonders how big the salaries are for the CEO and the Ivory Tower Management, and if those will be frozen as well. Not bloody likely. Part of the problem is that this company has regulations to follow. So, they are in and out of court a great deal. If they are late or foul up somewhere, they have to pay fines. There seems to be a lawsui