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Getting Things Done
I wish I worked in the kind of job where I could call in a few favors. That just sounds so cool to say.
How'd you manage that?
I called in a few favors.
It's always "a few" favors, unless you happen to mention who it was that did you the favor, then you can say "Well, old
Doc Jones owed me a favor." It's funny that you never see anyone actually do someone a favor, unless they're saying "Ok.....but
you owe me!"
It's like these old movies and cop shows have their own underground economy based on personal favors. They trade them
and save them and cash them in. And everyone always keeps track. They're always saying things like "You owe me one" and "Now
we're even". No one ever argues about what favors are worth or who owes whom. And you can be out of favors.
If you are all out of favors, though, you can always pull a few strings. Pulling a few strings is different than calling
in a few favors. I'm not sure how, except maybe that it's a little more vague and mysterious. I don't think I've ever pulled
a few strings, or would even know how to do it. No one ever pulls one string, and I'm not really sure that pulling one string
all by itself would do anything, although sometimes someone will say "Do you know how many strings I had to pull...?"
If you call in a few favors or pull a few strings, you can do anything. And you never have to offer any additional explanation,
and no one ever asks questions...
Who owed you a favor? Why did they owe it to you? How many strings did you pull? How far did you have to pull them?
What was on the other end of the strings? Did you pull them all at once or one at a time?
I'm not sure where the expression about "pulling a few strings" comes from, but it always reminds me of Pinnocchio. I
don't think that's where the expression came from, though, because Pinnocchio had no strings.
And if nothing else works, you can always get angry, end every other sentence with the word "see" and call everyone "kid".
"Now you listen to me, kid. I called in a few favors, see? And they're not buying it, see? It's just you and me this
time, see?"
I don't have a colorful job like that. I do get to sometimes use initials like "ADR" and "P&L", which is kind of
cool. But mostly all I do is answer stupid questions.
Brain Dead
I think I am officially brain dead. I just watched the same TV show for the third time, and now I'm watching a TV show
with Harry Hamlin and Valerie Bertinelli. He's a small town sherriff and she's a federal agent and I think she's psychic.
There's a missing kid whose mom is a doctor and whose dad is apparently just very angry all the time. There's also a Catholic
priest who runs some kind of mission for runaways and is helping them with all his missing-kid savvy. The State Police guy
is a chauvinist who is getting all up in Valerie Bertenelli's face. There's a creepy one-eyed Zamboni driver who spends time
in "chat rooms" online. There's a deputy guy who is always there every time they turn around. And there is a stack of photos
of the missing kid going about his daily life that Valerie just set up on a shelf somewhere.
Hmmmm.....
Here's what I know from five minutes of watching this:
- The one-eyed Zamboni guy didn't do it, even though they're going to spend a lot of time (a lot of time) trying
to prove that he did,
- There's something in one of the pictures that's going to clue them in, and it's going to be something that they've all
overlooked so far,
- Harry and Valerie are going to kiss,
- And, of course, we all know that the Catholic priest is the one who did it, because on TV, Catholic priests, preachers,
or anyone with a Bible is an axe-wielding maniac.
The worst part is that, even knowing all this, I am still watching.
I am so brain dead.
If there was a machine hooked up to my brain, here is what it would read:
O, a movie on TBS
There's Harry Hamlin, that L.A. Law dude.
There's a Priest. O, he did it.
Is that Valerie Bertinelli?
Sex
A kid is missing. That sucks. O, I know that woman who plays the mom.
Sex
O, yeah, she played the wife on that Dave-something show with the Night Court guy.
Sex
Sex Sex Sex
O, here's a new character. A reporter played by that woman from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She
has long hair here though.
I've thought all I am going to think for the rest of this movie.
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