Marketing again

Could I get anymore disgusted with American business if I tried?  What is it this time?

I'm getting really tired of getting "IMPORTANT INFORMATION CONCERNING MY ACCOUNT" which turns out to be paper telemarketing.  What I'm wondering about is what the rationale is here.

I've been told that when I get something like this the entire reason for doing it this way is so that I will open it.  I can't see how my opening it, becoming angry, and discarding it adds anything except the middle step.  They've taken away moments of my life.  I want them back.  I want them to clearly mark on the envelope that this envelope contains a miserable attempt to get you to buy life insurance and has sod all to do with your account.  We, the company you chose to do business with, have again wantonly sold your information to a third party without your knowledge or consent.

I'm not interested in life insurance.  In face I don't believe in it.  If I want my money invested for my old age, I don't need an insurance company as middle man to do this for me.  I can do this just fine myself.  And if I can't, I don't have the money to give someone else to do for me.

My point is here, admittedly obscured by the ranting, that I am much happier with straightforward advertisements.  Just tell me what you have to sell, and I'll act accordingly. Don't treat me like a patsy.  My reaction to being treated as if I'm too stupid to realize what you're doing is to quit doing business with you.  And to write you scathing letters and emails.  That you then have to deal with because I mark them important.  Two can play at this game.

Just tell me what you are after.  No "courtesy calls" or "important" or anything.  State your business and move on.  We'll both be happier.

J. K. Rowling

I just read the end of the trial story about the suit brought by Rowling against someone trying to publish a fan book of Harry Potter.  I'm trying to ignore the David and Goliath aspects of the suit and not think about all the trite sayings about using nuclear weapons to kill a gnat.This is purely a protection of copyright case.  But it so not simple.

From an economic point of view, why should someone make money from Harry Potter besides Rowling?  From years of working at a book store, I can tell you that this new Lexicon would have sold like hot cakes.  When something is as hot as the Potter series, anything remotely connected with it flies off the shelves.  That includes books that are "kinda" like it.  She hasn't tried to stop publication of the various fantasy/witchcraft young adult books obviously "inspired" by the incredible success of her series.  Some are painfully close to plagiarism.  But she has let other writers profit in this way from her success.  She hasn't even made tacky remarks.  I'm sure I couldn't have restrained myself when the main characters are named something almost as blatant as Henry Porter.

Apparently her concern is only with her own characters.  And this is essential in maintaining copyright because you can lose some protection if you don't actively pursue those who try to use your copyright.  It's why Disney prosecutes all the piddly stuff like children's cakes sold commercially with Mickey on them.  The Mouse is the franchise.  Lose him, lose the company. Rowling wants to maintain a tight hold on her own work.

The next point gets so sticky that I'm not sure how I feel about it.  The person writing the Lexicon says it falls under the same category of any other critical work about a piece of literature.  This means that Tolkien guides and guides to James Joyce and all sorts of explanations of books could only be published under the watchful eye of the author or and here's the real catch, the author's estate.  This has caused all sorts of misery for literary critics and biographers.  What can someone say without going beyond the limit for quoting material?

My experience with other critical works makes me side with the Lexicon author here.  I would never have made it through Ulysses without lots and lots of critical help.  And sometimes, especially with place names, I was so lost in Middle Earth without some sort of guide.  I'm glad someone did the work so I could look up all the places and get situated.  

That being said, I don't think Harry Potter is that complex.  I don't see what you actually need a lexicon for.  Exposition is at the ready in all the books.  And the place names and spell names, etc. are puns.  Diagon Alley, indeed.  If you need someone to explain that as diagonally, you are way too slow on the uptake to be reading these books.

I'm at impasse along with the judge in the case.  This is a part of the law that is ill-defined.  My puritan soul says you shouldn't profit from someone else's labor.  Or words.  But my sense of fair makes me wonder how bad it would be for this guy to make several thousand on a dictionary.  If it were a novel that used the characters, no contest.  But criticism is different. Absolutely.  So if it's criticism, fine.  If it's her novels broken into smaller units, not fine.  Where's Solomon when you need him?

Nascar, Part Deux

I realize I'm a poster child for, oh wait shiney thing, attention deficit, but I'm getting bored with Nascar.  I really used to like to watch the exciting races which came right down to the line with at least 2 cars beatin' and bangin'.  Not so much.

And really I can't decide if it's them or me.  I became irritated with the ignorant cracker and the rhinestone cowboy way before I usually do.  The "definitely probably" construction started to bug me the second time this season that it came out of his mouth.  If I see another cowboy hat, it'll be too soon.  And a gopher?  Is this Caddyshack?  Is it even the coverage?  Or is it the races?

The races should have had me in hog heaven.  No Hendrick car won, and they were trading around who was gonna win.  Even Jeff Burton already won.  But watching the network wring its hands over poor jeffy and jimmie and above all jr, sorta took the edge off.

Then Nascar weighed in and docked a zillion points from Carl because he getting uppity.  Oh wait it was that they cheated.  It wasn't 'cause it looked he was gonna blow Hendrick outta the water with a Roush car.  Hey, Ford can you please increase your payments to Nascar?

And I am stunned by the unraveling of Richard Petty Enterprises.  Can someone not help these guys with a net to stop the free fall?  It pains me to watch Kyle struggle week and week.  I do remember when Kyle was competitive.  And then Davy died and it all went south.

Maybe I miss the old guys.  Maybe I'm not as engaged by the new young guys.  That's a dumb thing to think when it is so very much fun to watch Kyle Busch have his way with a car.  I don't know that that is driving in the old sense of the word, but it is entertainment.  And sometimes, comedy.  He has every bit as much talent with car handling as The Revered Intimidator.  And he's more fun.  

I guess it's mostly fox, who apparently can ruin anything.  I don't watch the pre-race stuff because I can't stand jimmy the mouth spencer.  No that's not just cable blowhard.  His comments about Kelly Earnhardt woulda got him tossed and and tarred and feathered on any other venue.  And not because of who she is.  Because of the lack of respect for women.  Who watch the sport.  And don't appreciate it.  

Maybe when the dust settles and we're on to ESPN, it'll get interesting.  And maybe it's the on again off again nature so far.  Every weekend I could really watch, no race.  Every weekend I was traveling,  races up the wazoo.  The races haven't reached their stride yet.

Here's hoping.

Menopause

First of all it's not funny.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Menopause the musical comedy being advertised.  Comedy?  This isn't comedy.  I wouldn't wish this on well wait there are a few people I might wish this on.  Most of them male.

There is a poignant irony about how things change.  I used to hold my breath to be sure that another period was coming and not another child.  I wanted it to come to reassure me that I wasn't pregnant.  Again.  Now I would do lots of things just to get a break from my period.  Any break.  Just skip one.  Just go away.

And I think when you notice your own mood swings that this is real trouble.  Mostly you think it's someone else when you start perceiving the world differently.  Nope I know it's some hormone rush from somewhere.  I'd just like it to stop.

For the squeamish, this is a warning.  Turn away now.

The periods themselves are from hell.  I used to be able to almost ignore the fact that I had a period.  No cramps, no real excessive bleeding.  Just a gentle little thing.  Maybe every 30 days, maybe 45.  No bigs.

Now I cramp so much it wakes me up.  But that's ok because i have to check the bleeding every 45 minutes to an hour anyway, so I shouldn't be sleeping in the middle of the deluge anyway.  I am hesitant to go out of the house for fear I'll flow all over.  

And the fact that people having this invasion are not spring chickens makes all this too much fun.  I'm really not at my best at 2 in the morning having to do a minor clean up in aisle 4 since I slept more than I should have (more than an hour at a time).  I kinda forget where things are and why I'm awake and who else is in the house.  I'm too old for this shit, in other words.

I could go on, but I keep promising to find something to say that makes me happy.  I really do have more on my mind than ranting at the world.  Oh wait.  What would my heroes Diana Trent and Slappy the Squirrel think of me?  

Gardens

So I've been thinking about gardening because it's spring, I'm hopeful around this time.  I look for inspiration, being sucked in by all the seed catalogs and an unwillingness to accurately match the time it takes to garden with how much time I have available.  In looking at various blogs and forum kind of gardenporn, I'm struck by a term I've run across.  Show me a real garden. Hmmm.

What is a real garden?  Well my garden is one.  It has a stick pile and compost bins and no grass in the backyard.  Would looking at this inspire someone to garden?  No.  It looks like it needs work.  It does.  It's in its post-winter mess.  No ideas could be gleaned from it right now.  It's a mess.

My house is a mess too.  I don't see decorating  sites ever wanting to show me real rooms. Would anyone know what color the walls are when stacks of books are sitting on the floor?  Can you see the countertop in the kitchen for the dirty dishes?  Would a "real room" have any kind of a life in a decorating magazine?  Well no.  The elements which make you want to beautify your life are being obscured by your life.  You have to see the elements in the room to get the idea that yellow and blue really can look less twee than you thought.

The same is true in my garden.  One year the baby's breath and the roses bloomed together.  It was a giant rose bouquet from the florist in my garden.  It was a real garden.  But it was blooming and clean and if I do say so myself, breathtaking.  I'd hoped for it.  But who knew?  And at that point, it was worth showing to anybody.  Before that it was a bunch of green.  No one could imagine what it was gonna do.  And it would have been a real oh yeah I see ya planted roses moment.  Maybe they'll bloom.  

My winter squash making its own way across the all the beds to the edge of the property was a real moment too.  It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen.  And beautiful.  But only because the garden around it was cleared enough to show the squash.  Before its travel, it was a vine in a bed.  Oh yeah ya got squash.

Most people don't wanna see the construction or the weeding or the blueprints.  Real gardens, real rooms, real food for that matter make an impact when they do what they are supposed to do.  Otherwise it's pretty much watching paint dry or watching grass grow.