This Week in Its Briefs - Mostly Hearts & Flowers

Because I like traditions, and I like to make most of mine up, I've decided this will be a regular feature here. So, without further ado, a special extra-schmoopy Valentine's Day version of This Week in Its Briefs:

1. Tales of the Cupcake: (I call my boss the Cupcake - probably not to his face but over the six years I've worked for him, I've likely slipped. I did ask him one time if he was fucking nuts, so...maybe the nickname has come up.)

He'll be 65 in a week, and has over the last few years been inexorably sliding into a charming netherworld of his own invention. He redeems himself by having an astonishing good humor about his many memory/hearing lapses. This week's exchange is no means unusual, to wit:

Cupcake (calling from office): What's the date today?

Me (calling merrily back): It's the 9th.

Cupcake: No it's not, it's the 9th.

Crickets chirping in the pause...

Me (smaller voice, still merry): Okay.

Tip of the iceberg, people - stay tuned for more tiny and comic vignettes from his corner. I did tell him this week that I've dined out on stories about him for some years now and do plan to tell all in my memoirs, but will wait until he's dead. This statement elicited nothing but peals of laughter from him, however, so we must conclude he is well and truly mad.

2. An extremely dear friend of mine was quite disappointed and hurt by a recent reproductive failure. I really wanted to say more than just "I'm so sorry but I know you can try again", but in this case it seemed to be the only thing to say. I've been sending out some very positive thoughts on her behalf, and do hope they get to her as planned.

3. I found a new shoe repair guy - people, this is a skill that is fast growing out of vogue, as it was difficult, even in my neck of the woods of New York City, to find a good shoe repair guy who doesn't charge an arm and a leg for replacement heels.

4. Google has a TV channel - it's called Current TV. One of the nice things about it is people put together podcasts, send them in, and they actually show them. On the other hand, can't Google keep their pesky little paws to themselves? Apparently not.

5. I'm not a huge fan of manufactured holidays mandated solely for corporate profit - call me crazy, but I find them egregious and intrusive (seriously - Grandparents' Day? What about people that loathe their grandparents?).

Take as a particularly foul example Administrative Professionals Day (it used to be called Secretaries Day, at least until, as I envision it, a fed-up assistant heaved yet another shoe at the head of the last of countless clueless executives in a fruitless attempt to gain a sliver of dignity for her position as an exalted babysitter).

One can then understand that I find it hard to condone, much less celebrate, Valentine's Day. Oh, sure, I'll exchange hearty holiday greetings with one and all, even Mr. Fresh Hell, but I'd like to think he and I have progressed enough with our relationship that we don't need the Hallmark/chocolate/floral/jewelry/restaurant industries to remind us of how much we cherish each other - shouldn't the cherishing be a function of our everyday behavior toward each other?

6. Given last weekend's Northeast snowstorm, I'm unbearably glad I don't live anymore in a 100% driving environment. Even though 26 inches of snow was dumped on the region, I was able to get to work on Monday as if it were any other day, thanks to the excellent public transportation system I help prop up with my hard earned dollars every day. Bonus brief: when I moved to NY in 1984, the subway cost 90 cents per ride. 22 years later, it is $2.00. Is this reasonable inflation or am I grousing my way into Cupcake Territory?

And on that note, until the next set of This Week In Its Briefs, I remain your humble and devoted, blah blah blah.