Friday Donuts

Dear Members and Constituents, This week, sprinkled-in with spring break vacation, I had the opportunity to visit a traveling relic exposition. If you’ve never been to one, it is quite a site. Imagine one hundred and sixty golden reliquaries neatly arranged on 19 tables. Next to each, a brief fact sheet for the saint whose fragment of bone, flesh or personal belonging is visible through the glass opening. As I wandered the exhibit, I could not help but wonder at the large number of nearly two thousand-year-old remnants in the room. Yes, the fragments were, for the most part, very small, however the thought of actually beholding a piece of Dismas, the good thief or Mark the evangelist was humbling. And that’s just the warm-up. There were two special tables –with corresponding long lines. Unlike the rest, one was not allowed to lift these relics and time with them was limited to thirty seconds. I only made the line for one –which had bits of the crown of thorns, the spear that pierced J

Dear Members and Constituents, It's March so, logically, our attention turns to… football? On one hand we have Peyton Manning's horse trading –going from colts (young horses) to broncos (wild horses). On the other, a Tim Tebow trade to Tampa, Texas or the Tennessee Titans would have made for a cool alliteration. Instead, real life is somewhat less poetic –although I suppose one could argue the high-flying quarterback is appropriately landing with the Jets. I like David Letterman’s take on whole situation, "I guess that answers the question of what would Jesus do?" (even if Pat Robertson doesn't agree). I guess this is why they call it March madness. I realize some of you may be more attuned to that other March sport… hoops. You'll be happy to know Caroline Reuss has delivered four dozen sweet hoops. Come grab yours before your favorite is eliminated. Happy Friday!

Dear Members and Constituents, Sometimes in life, it’s good to take a step back and laugh. Laugh at ourselves. Laugh at the absurdity of a situation. Above all, laugh at jargon, routine and the people so immersed in them they’re unintentionally funny. This morning, I wanted to share a couple of examples of the latter. Exhibit A: Microsoft error report My computer can be less than cooperative. It sometimes decides it’s too tired to do what I want –or perhaps just does not want to do what I want. It slows down, becomes unresponsive and then stops working altogether. On the bright side, when I reboot it, I get this message (screen shot below). It always puts a smile on my face to imagine the folks at Microsoft discussing this error message. Who thought it would be a good idea to use the antiquated 56K Modem as the standard for network speed? (and who believes 21 minutes is a reasonable amount of time to spend sending Microsoft information about their unexpected error?). Somebody at th

Dear members and constituents How old are you? I'm not trying to pry into your privacy or get you to reveal your chronological age. I'm talking about that age you think you are when you forget yourself. Those times you're lost in the moment, unaware of social conventions or proper etiquette –that is of course, until you're reminded by some ache or sideways glance at a mirror that you're older (or younger). You know what I'm talking about, don't you? I realize some of you may be shocked to hear I'm mentally out of my teens, but if I'm honest about it, I am about 22 at heart. Out of school, old enough to buy a beer and cool enough to hang with the other kids. Although I've been frozen in this state for a while, it hasn't always been that way. At 15 I was 18, at 10 I was 40 and at five I was... five. So, without telling me how many times you've orbited the sun, can you say how old you are? Really? Well, regardless of your age (mental or oth

Dear Members and Constituents, How do large companies prevent employees from using the visitor parking? The answer is not as straightforward you’d expect. Granted, clearly marking the spots is a good start, but what of enforcement? Security may have police aspirations, but they have no real power. Compounding the problem, false positives could upset vendors –or worse, customers… so you issue official-looking threats on paper. This morning we explore this question, thanks to Anne Claeys, who was kind enough to share her experiences –and ticket– with me. Having flown-in from Rochester, this employee parked her rental in visitor parking. Consider the following, if you will: She is based out-of-town, so technically, one could argue she is visiting She does not have a Parking Permit, so she can’t very well park in the employee parking (and getting a permit for such a short period of time seems wasteful). Furthermore, the car for which she would get the permit is a rental. The tic