Saturday Brunch, August 31, 2019

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Labor Day weekend! Quick question: If money or likely success were not issues, what job would you love to have?

That’s a good way to start off our Labor Day edition of the brunch. We’ll be asking a few more job/career related questions as we go along. It’s a good way for our regular commentators to get to know each other better; It’s also a good chance for some of you lurkers (you know who you are) to join in

When and how did Labor Day begin? It’s complicated.  One versions of the story is set in September 1882 with the Knights of Labor, the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations at the time. The Knights in New York City held a public parade featuring various labor organizations on September 5 — with the aid of the fledgling Central Labor Union (CLU) of New York. Subsequently, CLU Secretary Matthew Maguire proposed that a national Labor Day holiday be held on the first Monday of each September to mark this successful public demonstration.

In another version, Labor Day in September was proposed by Peter J. McGuire, a vice president of the American Federation of Labor. In spring 1882, McGuire reportedly proposed a “general holiday for the laboring classes” to the CLU, which would begin with a street parade of organized labor solidarity and end with a picnic fundraiser for local unions. McGuire suggested the first Monday in September as an ideal date for Labor Day because the weather is great at that time of year, and it falls in between July 4th and Thanksgiving. Oregon became the first U.S. state to make it an official public holiday. Twenty-nine other states had joined by the time the federal government declared in a federal holiday in 1894.

What are your plans for the weekend? Here’s a handy chart to see how most people are spending it.

What are the most and least stressful jobs?  CareerCast evaluated 11 stress factors including travel required, industry growth potential and hazardous conditions — like putting your life at risk. Here is the list they came up with:

The 10 most stressful jobs and their median salaries:

  1. Enlisted military personnel of three or four years: $26,802
  2. Firefighter: $49,080
  3. Airline pilot: $111,930
  4. Police officer: $62,960
  5. Broadcaster: $62,960
  6. Event coordinator: $48,290
  7. News Reporter: $39,370
  8. Public relations executive: $111,280
  9. Senior corporate executive: $104,700
  10. Taxi driver: $24,880

The 10 least stressful jobs and their median salaries:

  1. Diagnostic medical sonographer: $71,410
  2. Compliance officer: $67,870
  3. Hair stylist $25,850
  4. Audiologist: $75,920
  5. University professor: $76,000
  6. Medical records technician: $67,870
  7. Jeweler: $37,960
  8. Operations research analyst: $81,390
  9. Pharmacy technician: $31,750
  10. Massage therapist: $39,990

Any surprises to you? What was the most stressful job you have ever had?

Chief executives at the US’s top companies took home $17.2m in pay last year – 278 times the salary of their average worker.

Between 1978 and 2018, the average pay of the bosses of the US’s largest 350 companies has grown by 1,007.5%, adjusted for inflation, according to the Economics Policy Institute’s latest survey.

The increase far outstripped the typical worker’s salary growth, at 11.9%, adjusted for inflation.

George Whitefield was in the news this week. The great evangelist died 1770 at age 55 in the parsonage of the Old South Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He was buried soon thereafter beneath the pulpit. In London, a funeral service was held for him at which John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and a contemporary of Whitefield’s, preached.

Yet according to Whitefield’s great-great-niece, Vicki Kenderline, an American, the famed preacher wanted to be buried in England next to his wife and she claims that the historic church is ignoring his wish. In a Tuesday interview with the Sunday Times (UK), Kenderdine said that soon after he died the church where he had preached his final sermons quickly buried him.

“It is my wish to go to Newburyport and finally collect my Uncle George’s body and fly him back to Gloucester, England, so he may rest in peace alongside his wife and only child . . . in the church he first preached in and attended as a child in school.”

Thus far, the church has shown no indication of releasing his remains to his ancestors, telling the outlet that Whitefield’s dying wish was to be buried in the church crypt and that they have no authority to grant an exhumation.

Question: What was your favorite job?

Some headlines from the Babylon Bee:

Nation’s Chick-Fil-A Employees Begin Marching Around Popeyes Restaurants Blowing Trumpets

Millions Of Unbelievers Flock To Atheist Paradise Of North Korea

Trump Announces He Was Born Of A Virgin And Will Bring Balance To The Force

Witty Church Sign Sparks Revival

Here’s the copy on that last one:

DELPHI, IN—A strikingly clever pun on the marquee of Beacon Baptist Ministries has reportedly sparked revival in the town of Delphi, Indiana.

“I’ve never talked to God in my life,” claimed area resident Darrell Jones, “but when I saw that ‘Son screen prevents sin burn,’ I pulled right over, dropped to my knees, and begged God for forgiveness. Right there on the side of the road I gave my life to Jesus Christ.”

“Later on, Brother Dwayne told me that’s called ‘sending God a knee-mail,’” he added.

Brother Dwayne Baker, who has managed the church sign for years, told reporters that he knew it was just a matter of time before massive revival broke out. “When I first started, I thought ‘1 cross + 3 nails = 4given’ would do the trick. I was young and naïve. ‘Boaz was a Ruthless man before he got married’ was popular with the congregation, but wasn’t helpful as an outreach tool. Then a couple years back, when I posted ‘What’s missing from Ch__ch? U R,’ we preemptively bought honey baked ham for 700. The folks here just weren’t ready—we’re still eating that ham at my house.”

“But this week we finally nailed it.”

Jeffrey Shaw was a staunch atheist before chatter around town caused him to check the church sign out for himself. “I thought Christians were bigoted hatemongers worshiping a cosmic child abuser. But when I saw that marquee, I saw the light. Literally—thousands of headlights up and down the road. All of Delphi came out. And there was Brother Dwayne, shouting, ‘How will you spend eternity? Smoking or non-smoking?’ I’m a new man. I’ll never be the same.”

For Brother Dwayne, “God gets all the glory. It’ll be tough to squeeze all of Delphi into Beacon Baptist on Sundays. I’m just glad the church is prayer-conditioned.”

Do you enjoy a harmless prank?

Have you heard of Disney’s new theme park, Galaxy’s Edge? In the rush to make everything in the park look and feel like you’re on a planet in the Star Wars universe, their “Imagineers” had to come up with a way to make it look like Coca-Cola’s corporate reach had extended beyond our own galaxy (which it will, in due time). But, in retrospect, it probably wasn’t a great idea to make the novelty Star Wars Coke bottle look like a grenade.

By the way, hope you enjoy your $5 sugar water grenade in the park, because you can’t take it on the plane. The TSA, when asked about the bottles, responded, “Replica and inert explosives aren’t allowed in either carry-on or checked bags.”

Question: What is one mainstream job you would NEVER do?

Massive Study Finds No Single Genetic Cause of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior. That’s the headline from Scientific American, reporting on a new study published in Science. Subtitle: Analysis of half a million people suggests genetics may have a limited contribution to sexual orientation. You can read the Science article here.

Drug to boost women’s sex drive? The US Food and Drug Administration approved a drug to return sexual desire to some women with low libido, the agency said Friday.The drug, bremelanotide, sold under the brand name Vyleesi by AMAG Pharmaceuticals, is an injection to be taken before sex. It’s intended to treat women who are premenopausal and have a lack of interest in sex. It will be available in September, and the company has not yet determined pricing or reimbursement information, according to AMAG spokeswoman Sarah Connors. Experts say the diagnosis is the most common type of sexual dysfunction among women, estimated to affect between 8% to 10% of women.

Can we refreeze glaciers, or even the arctic?  Each summer, residents of the Swiss Alps make their way through the mountains to the edge of the famous Rhône Glacier. There, fleecy white blankets in hand, they cover up the ice. They’re trying to reflect the sun and prevent the glacier from melting.

Similar protective coverings are used on other glaciers, as well, in places like Italy and Germany — and scientists have begun to propose higher-tech solutions for the future. One research group from Utrecht University hopes to save Switzerland’s Morteratsch Glacier by blowing reflective artificial snow across its surface.

Scientists are now beginning to consider ways to refreeze the waters of the arctic. Here is one of the top proposals:

Well, that’s it for this week. Let’s end with some images of Labor Days past.

Labor Day, New York’s Union Square, 1882.
Buffalo, New York, 1900. “Labor Day parade crowd, Main Street.”
Labor Day parade float with rows of girls wearing white dresses and men wearing military uniforms, riding down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, September 5, 1904.
United Mine Workers of America Labor Day float, 1908.
A sight-seeing bus filled with members of Woman’s Auxiliary Typographical Union circa 1909.
Could not find date for this photo, but too good not to include

A 1934 Labor Day parade in Gastonia, North Carolina, composed of ten-thousand labor strikers.

AF LABOR DAY PARADE, Detroit 1938
Units of the American Federation of Labor marching in the Labor Day Parade, Detroit 1938

 

A large float being driven through the Labor Day Parade, Detroit 1938
Potato race for children at Labor Day celebration, Ridgway, Colorado, 1940
Labor Day Parade, Philadelphia 1941
Ford workers carrying flag and banners in the Labor Day parade in Detroit, 1942
Labor Day Parade Hot Dog Float circa 1950-60 – Issaquah, WA
John F. Kennedy in Flint, Michigan on Labor Day, 1960
1967 Labor Day Parade in Aurora
Labor Day Parade, , New York City, late 1960’s
Labor Day weekend brings the annual Garfield County Fair Parade in Rifle, Colorado, September 1973
Children participate in the 2011 Louisville Fall Festival ‘Magic in the Air’ during the Labor Day weekend.
Labor Day picnic Monday at Cook Park in Colonie, NY
The annual Labor Day picnic took place today at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, 2018
2018 Dragon Con Parade on Labor Day Weekend, Atlanta, 2018

97 thoughts on “Saturday Brunch, August 31, 2019

  1. CM, IM Massmind:

    I came across an odd “flyer” on the freebie table of a local wargamer’s convention this Labor Day weekend. (Freebie tables are for handouts, cards, and flyers for new and/or upcoming games, LARPs (Live Action Role-Playing games/events), projects, KIckstarters, movie ads, and meetup groups germane to the subculture(s) frequenting such cons.)

    The oddity is a 3×6-inch (75x150mm) card typical of this type of ad/announcement titled “Give up the Ghost – An immersive journey between life and death”. Production values and title graphic on the front are good, and the text on the back reads as follows:

    —–

    Give Up the Ghost
    The living also haunt the dead.

    Give Up the Ghost is not your typical Halloween haunt. Here you play your own ghost, called back from the shores of Eternity to bear witness to the sorrows – and terrors – of the living.

    This is not a gore fest, extreme haunt or jump-scare maze. Instead, you will interact with characters at the edge of life and death in scenes that can be violent, tragic, and occasionally darkly humorous. The choices you make will haunt you, will change your own story, and just might change the story for all.

    What choices will you make, as your light grows dim?

    [below is a time and place announcement — Friday nights between 8 & 10, Sep 27 through Nov 15.]

    [And the address of a local church in the area. The URL goes to a ticket/reservation website where the event is described as ” An immersive, interactive, reverse haunted play where YOU’RE the ghost!” by a “Spectacular Disaster Factory, LLC”. Tracing the ticket URL led me to a site by an actual LARP designer/promoter, but no further details except that this is based on some sort of interactive play.]

    —–

    After reading it (and noting the church address at the bottom) I wonder (and would like comments on):

    IS THIS A STEALTH ANNOUNCEMENT FOR A CHRISTIANESE “HELL HOUSE”?

    Normally I wouldn’t think much about it, except the location address IS a church during Halloween season and they seem to be holding their cards real close to their chest about any details. The emphasis on “what choices will you make” sounds suspiciously like the Altar Call Ending of a Hell House. Are they getting sneakier about luring in Those Heathen? Or is this a legit LARP or “interactive drama” thing and I’m just reading too much into it? Or both – a LARP event commissioned by a church?

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  2. I have always found it ironic that we celebrate “Labor Day” by not working. Am I the only one?

    “Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
    I’ve seen that attributed to Mark Twain and have also heard the claim the original source is unknown. I used to believe that. I have also had the experience of finding a job doing something I really love and having it turn on me. Such a job could cause a person to loathe the thing they used to love. (I had a bad experience, worked a few jobs in other fields, was unemployed for a bit, considered a career change, I’m okay now.)

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  3. Thanks, I’ll have to check that one out. I do know a guy in my beta readers group who’s been moderately successful with self-publishing, so I feel like I’ll at least know where to start if I go with that route.

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  4. You could always go Indie regarding publishing. Cracking the Indie Egg by Patrick Craig is a good source.

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  5. Long-time lurker here – I think I’ve posted twice in the last ten years.
    So, best and worst jobs…
    Worst was a programming job at a small software company. It started out well, with great benefits and a real family feel, but the company grew into a medium-ish company that was still being run like a small company. My reward for doing my job well was getting to do other people’s jobs on top of my own with no increase in pay, and the obscure programming language we used made it difficult to find another job. There was a lot of overtime too.

    I finally escaped, and now program for a credit union. It’s not always exciting, but it’s steady work with very little overtime, and I work with some great people.

    Dream job… I’d love to make a living writing for humans instead of computers. I’ve finished several novel-length manuscripts, but haven’t managed to get an agent yet. It’s a tough business to break into.

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  6. Red beet eggs are a folk art form, when prepared by practiced and careful hands. None of those disgusting ones residing in big clear jars for God-knows-how-long on bartops.

    I was just kidding about the Kraft Singles. Honestly.

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  7. Labor Day was not so colorful and pageant-like in my family during childhood. Cook out and bocce in my uncle’s back yard, or some variant thereof depending on changes in the identity of the host as the years passed.

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  8. Yeah, kinda like me and movies. I like artsy stuff and deep stuff and really crappy guilty pleasure stuff.

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  9. chicken salad on cranberry-walnut bread with slices of garden-fresh tomatoes and green lettuce from the garden

    oh yeah

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  10. I am upset that my Dragon Con photo of me portraying a Spartan perhaps number 300 was used without my permission. I just found out that Manual Labor is not , I repeat not the President of Mexico. My nephew is out looking for a job, he needs to be careful he may find one, then he would be upset. Hope Labor Day is safe and the hurricane misses the continent entirely. I enjoyed the music on yesterdays post, music I was unaware of and how am humming. God Bless us All.

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  11. unfortunately, among the homophobic faithful, there is little appreciation for the ‘complexities’ of Creation.

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  12. Home town Labor Day Celebration: Paul Bunyan Days, begun when logging was what you did if you lived there. Gem & Mineral Society displays, Olde Tyme fashion show and other dressing up from the late 19th century, Volunteer Fire Department barbecue, kids’ parade, Little Theatre melodramas, and a real life Paul Bunyan who was enacted by the scions of the same family for generations. Lots of other celebretory exhibits and activities. Climax was the Big Parade on Monday, with Paul leading the way. My favorite part of the parade was the the Flying Fillies, the Shoreline Riders precision horseback riding group – all girls, all known to me, half from the same family (9 children who lived on a cattle ranch). They wore white Spanish-style dresses with wide flounced skirts that spread out behind them over the rumps of the horses; each dress had a different color ribbon trim, and the girls beribboned their horses to match. And the horses were always so beautiful and seemed to like giving their performance. Except for the horde of tourists, it was a lot of fun 😉

    Dana

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  13. >What job would you like to have?

    Ditto on perpetual student… but for something for which one could be paid: scriptorium copyist/calligrapher.

    >Most stressful job?

    Maitre d’ in a restaurant – when I was a teenager (!). Most people are understanding, but those who aren’t really spoil your day. Second most stressful is what I’m doing now, substitute teacher. Most kids are great, but the ones with problems I can’t solve can really upset your day. Why am I doing this? I need something to bridge the gap between the medical transcription career and my 65th birthday when I apply for Social Security, and I can work as much or as little as I wish, so I can limit the potential stress. My goal in college was teaching (partly to be able to have the same hours away from home as my future children), but that didn’t work out for various reasons. I have this crazy idea that I have things to give that can make a difference in students’ lives. My secret weapon: my guitar. Even the high schoolers generally like it when I sing something for them.

    >Favorite job?

    Medical transcriptionist. I could work at home on my own schedule, and I worked with local doctors who were very flexible. I was able to raise my own children, for which I will be forever grateful. (Not disparaging those who have to work outside the home, not at all – I’m simply glad I didn’t have to.) And I got to work with WORDS every day!!! It was hard to be edged out by the double whammy of voice recognition technology and medical practice/hospital administrators who are slaves to the bottom line, even in non-profits. Only about 50% of medical professionals know how to use the technology correctly – and all medical dictation still needs to be proofread by a human being because VRT isn’t perfect – odd noises creep into the digitization, and, well, speakers with accents, foreign and otherwise. The humans who are doing the proofreading now barely make minimum wage because they are paid as for piece work.

    >Mainstream job I would never do?

    Anything having to do with trash and other human waste – and I greatly appreciate those who do such work.

    Dana

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  14. Hello SUSAN,

    I was never taught to sew and I have regretted it all of my life. In Newman Club at university, we girls for some reason took up knitting and crocheting one winter . . . . well, we tried. I laugh thinking about it. We didn’t know what we were doing.

    Your gift of sewing sounds wonderful! And creative.

    My eldest aunt, until she passed away, crocheted hats for children in hospitals to wear who were losing their hair from cancer treatments. What beautiful work she did! And for what a good cause.

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  15. I once — ONCE — broke 90 (a blistering 89!). The funny thing is, when you’re used to 95-105, that 89 felt like I was one fire! I can’t even imagine what a low 80 to upper 70s must feel like.

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  16. There are discrete genes, or genotypes, for lots of non-trivial attributes including cystic fibrosis and several forms of early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease. But you’re correct to note how naive it is to assume a discrete genetic cause could ever be found for a complex behavior like human sexuality. There may be discrete genotypes that are somewhat more or less common in homosexuals or heterosexuals but nothing ‘causative’.

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  17. Yeah, I’m a both/and, not an either/or, kind of guy when it comes to cuisine: both gourmet and vulgar foods are good with me.

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  18. I wonder if that figure reflects housing allowance; if you don’t live on base, you’re paid extra to cover that expense, which brings the pay to “livable”. (Base housing is generally substandard and is not reimbursed.) Nonetheless, the rate of pay for the armed forces is a scandal. And my son-in-law (12 years USMC) has given me the run-down of how education and other benefits have become more and more restricted, since the later Obama years and continuing with him who shall not be named (who claims to love our military families but would rather have more parades and expensive weapons).

    Dana

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  19. Egyptologist.

    I did get to be an archaeology lab director for a few years–not in Egypt, though–and loved (almost) every minute of it.

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  20. Richard, if you see this…

    Bought your book the other day and find it utterly fascinating. Gonna encourage my other baseball nut friends of mine to buy it.

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  21. Maybe they were butchers and soldiers-of-fortune. I think Roland was one such….before the tragic incident that befell him, of course.

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  22. Another reason we’re friends, Robert… I like some of them thur fancy cheeses, but Velveeta is my guilty pleasure….

    Dana

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  23. What career?

    “Sitting in the gate” – I’ve been privileged to know what’s it’s like.
    __________

    NOW: I sit in the cubicle; maybe 3 hrs a day, maybe less. It’s totally up to me.
    Independent contractor.

    I play a lot of poor average [ on a good day ] golf. I’ve never broken 90. I still love it.

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  24. As our former mayor in snowy Buffalo said before another white-out blizzard, get a six pack and stay home!

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  25. Never say never, because “Only a Sith deals in absolutes” (“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself….”).

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  26. I’ve often wondered how they determine such from ‘studies’ of the double helix and the innumerable combinations of A, C, G, and T codes.
    Oh well, it’s a good bet that only the Tleilaxu would know for sure.

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  27. “Satan is Cheez Whiz”
    — Backwards Masking track on “Nature Trail to Hell”, Weird Al Yankovic

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  28. Or “Salaried Exempt” fixed-salary (not hourly).
    At my first shop, they’d “promote” workers from hourly to salary-exempt just before demanding lotsa compulsory overtime. Bosses there were more pointy-haired then anything in Dilbert.

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  29. And outside the USA, May 1st is Labor Day.
    (Though I think ours predates theirs; and the USSR’s making May 1 the High Holy Days of their “state religion” didn’t help.)

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  30. A bit like cyclones being good for the economy because of all the rebuilding activity, I suppose.

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  31. Ha! A mature cheddar, some tomato, a bit spice – like cajun spice… Hmmm.

    “My” pub, The Yard and Flagon here in Saskatoon makes the following grilled cheese:

    WILD MUSHROOM GRILLED CHEESE
    roasted wild mushrooms, sliced and seasoned, between melted cheddar and smoked Gouda cheese on toasted marble rye.

    Goes well with a pint of good local ale.

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  32. “I said cheese. Not wet cardboard masquerading as cheese…”

    Exactly. Growing up in the Midwest, I thought I hated cheese. Turns out I only hated American “cheese”.

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  33. I worked as a waiter for 6 or 7 restaurants during college and seminary. Very demanding and high stress, but good pay for a student (if you were in the right restaurant).

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  34. There was, and is, an imperative in the LGBT community to establish (correctly, I believe) sexual orientation as an inherent trait rather than a choice. I don’t doubt that this sometimes manifested itself as a naive interpretation of genetics. The trope of “a gene for [x]” is widespread. So a gay man, for example, might express his innate sense of his being gay in terms of its being genetically determined. But genetics per se was never the point.

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  35. Best for grilled cheese sandwiches ever!

    But then, you probably don’t like those either. Or you would prefer some kind of concoction of grilled brie on brioche with slices of avocado.

    Sad.

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  36. Because of any number of reasons, like living in a “right to work” state where organizing unions is severely handicapped.

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  37. What career would I choose? That’s like asking which is my favourite cheese…

    Astronomer
    Astrophysicist
    Botanist
    Archeologist
    Photographer
    Food writer
    Brewer
    Vini/viticulturist
    etc etc

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  38. “Quick question: If money or likely success were not issues, what job would you love to have?”

    Answer: Christian radio talk show host. Seriously

    It’s not all that different to some things I’m already doing, which perhaps reflects a certain contentment.

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  39. Would like to work in a smallish bookstore. Read when it wasn’t busy. I own a painting business so I’m sort of blue and white collared. I wear paint clothes every day but call myself a CEO. Anyway, one day I walked into Sherwin Williams and there was David, the God fearing, America loving manager of the store. Just being my goofball self I said, “Batman is my hero!”. There was some little bit more to the context which made it mildly funny but David saw no humor in it. He let me know that Batman was a made up figure and that my hero worship was way off base. Well that made me more insistent that Batman’s skills were highly to be admired. At that point he was actually getting annoyed. He pointed out to the highway where there were some blue collar guys hand digging something or other. He said, “Those are my heroes. You want a hero? Those are the guys that keep our country strong.” At that point I couldn’t help myself. I pointed at my painted clothes and said, “Oh, you mean guys like me!” Then he was really annoyed and after a, “No, definitely not you”, asked what I needed so he could get me out of there. I’d say the long and short of it is that I’m pretty much a hero. At least most people think so.

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  40. “If money or likely success were not issues, what job would you love to have?”

    Career student. I want to study everything – geology, philosophy, music – all of it. My personality is more jack-of-all-trades than specialize-in-one-thing-and-one-thing-only.

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  41. That is, if they’re not less than honorably discharged for misconduct, when their behavior is in fact the result of mental illness, likely caused by their service. In the case of such a discharge, they get nothing for health care, including mental health care. They’re just left high and dry. Some time in the last couple years NPR did an in depth story about this, you can find it easily; there are many such discharges, 22,000 since 2009, according to the story.

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  42. Richard, I think early on the LGQT+ community/movement (it did not call itself that at the time) supported the proposition that there was a gene, or relatively small package of genes, that determined sexual orientation. It was thought that would make sexual orientation like race, a genetically given and not chosen characteristic, and provide grounds for the LGQT+ community/movement to argue that they should be accorded the same legal rights that people of color had gradually won and been accorded down through the decades, and for the same reasons. If it could be shown to in fact be the case, it also was thought that it would work against the general cultural paranoia that being around and influenced by non-heterosexual people could turn heterosexual people homosexual; this was an especially pronounced paranoia when it came to children and adolescents being around non-heterosexuals.

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  43. Those who service do get access to medical services for life. In America that is worth buckets of money.

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  44. Many workers at least get time-and-a-half for working on a federal holiday.

    Workers who don’t should ask themselves why they aren’t organizing.

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  45. > If I could combine the three

    That might do really well.

    P.S. There is a lady who bought a building down the road from me in order to fulfill her dream of opening a Tiki Bar. I want the opportunity to give her a high five.

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  46. The notion that there is a discrete gene for any non-trivial attribute is largely a popular myth.

    No gene for heterosexuality, no gene for homosexuality.

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  47. > “Quick question: If money or likely success were not issues, what job would you love to have?”

    Parking Enforcement (aka Meter Maid). Best possible job. You get to be outside, somewhere where it is easy to get to, where someone else clears the sidewalks, get lots of exercise, have lots of lunch options, have lots of options for a cocktail after work, and you get to punish Evil Doers – Entitled Motorists, basically the worst of humanity. What’s not to love?

    > “Question: What is one mainstream job you would NEVER do?”

    Waiter/waitress. Always swore I’d never do that, have managed to keep that oath. Carry stuff around all day for demanding people, for ridiculously low pay, only to get no tip from the irate jerk who just noticed someone putting a yellow slip under his windshield wiper. Most thankless job ever.

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  48. The notion that there is a discrete gene for any non-trivial attribute is largely a popular myth. I think it comes from those high school biology books that talk about smooth and wrinkled peas. Even assuming that those textbooks are right, it is a huge leap from this to “the gene for homosexuality” (or whatever).

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  49. If I could just dream for a moment…

    Art museum curator/director.

    Back to reality…

    Meteorologist (which I love doing btw)

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  50. “If money or likely success were not issues, what job would you love to have?”

    Homemaker — which is to say gardener, cook, craftsperson, decorator, economist, nurse . . . I am forever grateful to my husband who gave me 17 years of fulltime homemaking.

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  51. “If money or likely success were not issues, what job would you love to have?”

    Depending on what day it is, I’d love to own and run a gaming store, a cigar lounge, or a tiki bar. If I could combine the three, I’d be in heaven. 🙂

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  52. My wife works for a restaurant chain, and will be on the job both today and Monday. Funny how, on a “holiday” called Labor Day, the ones who actually do the laboring are the ones still expected to work. 😦

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  53. “I wonder about technological solutions to the environmental problem, especially ones that require the use of lots of fuel and energy.”

    BINGO

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  54. I’d like to be your apprentice, Susan.

    I love working with my hands and brain to make something beautiful and/or useful. Sewing and cooking are things that go almost unnoticed when women do them at home, and only get the respect they deserve when done “for a living”, generally by men. That annoys me.

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  55. I wonder how many of those ice-berg making submarines would have to be manufactured to do the job, what their fuel source would be and how much environmentally deleterious byproduct it cause, etc. I wonder about technological solutions to the environmental problem, especially ones that require the use of lots of fuel and energy.

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  56. Massive Study Finds No Single Genetic Cause of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior.

    Though I don’t know if this study is substantially conclusive rather than suggestive, it neither surprises me nor changes my mind about the accommodations that society (and church) should make for same-sex sexually oriented people. Non-heterosexual people should be fully included and accepted in every facet of society (and church). My support for that idea has never been contingent on finding a single genetic cause, nor the confluence of a number of them, for same-sex sexual orientation. Even if genetics turn out not to “cause” sexual orientation, it does not mean that sexual orientation is “chosen.” I know that I didn’t “choose” my heterosexual orientation, though many choices have been involved in having and reinforcing that orientation; I have seen nothing to suggest that that is different for gay people, or LGBT+ people in general.

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  57. I live on the East coast of FL. Dorian appears to be in my future over Labor Day and beyond. As they say in the South, We’re gonna “hunker down.”

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  58. Quick question: If money or likely success were not issues, what job would you love to have?

    Retiree.

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  59. If I was two generations younger I would wish to be designer and costume maker for the Australian Opera Company.

    Sigh.

    (My dad wouldn’t let me go the the college that taught these skills as it was located in the ‘wrong part’ of Sydney.)

    I have had reasonable success on a lesser scale for which I have been commended. A small consolation.
    I sewed for a Theatre Company for 10 years. I have sewn lots of Church vestments and created Altar Linens and Altar Frontals. Much satisfaction in these.

    There was so much more I could have learnt.

    I still design and sew when ever I can. The urge has not left me.
    My family say I will sew Angel Wings.

    Susan

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  60. I have always been interested in the way Americans laud those who serve in the Armed Forces. I can appreciate it more now after seeing what they get paid $26000 after 3-4 years for laying your life on the line? That’s appalling!
    Aussie soldiers get paid more than twice that amount, and it doesn’t take 3-4 years either. I’m surprised anyone joins up.

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  61. “Quick question: If money or likely success were not issues, what job would you love to have?”

    Answer: Park Ranger

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