The Pankian Metaphor 3020

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Well, I wasn't making a point about which party has or has not gone completely insane -- we're not going to agree about that, are we? -- but about the general irritatingness of living somewhere where the local (for suitable definition of "local") government is run by people with whom one vehemently disagrees, with little prospect of that changing. I thought we might agree about *that*, and that you might be entertained by the exact words I used ....

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This was someone who generally did seem to have arrived at his positions on things by thinking them through (as opposed to just repeating what he'd been taught as a child, or what some popular media figure). So "at every possible opportunity" might not have been the way to say what I meant. He was just several years ahead of me in the process of changing from young and idealistic to middle-aged and cynical, maybe. Now we both seem to be pbutting through that stage on the way to elderly curmudgeonhood .... Well, but that's another story.

Sounds like you're more of an optimist than I am.

People may, as you say above, be more trainable than I give them credit for, but in order to be trained, one has to be both able and willing, and I'm not optimistic about most people being willing to be trained.

And I say this despite working in an academic environment where most people seem fairly clueful and trainable. Outside that environment, though ....

That probably explains it -- I don't currently spend a lot of time in medical people's waiting rooms (and I guess when I do I'm not paying a lot of attention to my surroundings).

Care to share a sample of the receptionists' ventings?

-- B. L. Mbuttingill ObDisclaimer: I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.