Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone. Rachel has had the house decorated for over a month; I'll post pictures when I have time to get them from my camera to the computer.

Quote of the Day: Novel Comments

I happened to overhear a group of people (not from my office) discussing a book one of them was reading (sorry, I didn't catch the title; I'm not listening THAT closely to random conversations around me). The person who had read the book commented that it was hard to read and that he sometimes couldn't understand what the writer was saying. This bothered him because he had to reread sentences, leading to this quote: "When you're reading a novel you shouldn't have to read something twice." Hopefully this person has just been used to reading the Pokey Little Puppy and not The Brothers Karamozov all his life, otherwise he's missed a lot.

Richard E. Winn, 1917-2007

I don't know how to write a proper eulogy for my great-grandfather Richard Winn, so here is the obituary that ran in the Brazil Times.

Richard E. Winn, age 90, Brazil, died at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007, at Holly Hill Healthcare.

He was born Oct. 20, 1917, in Clay County, as the son of Clifford and Helen Barndollar Winn.

Following graduation from Brazil High School he attended Indiana State University, Indiana University and University of Missouri.

He then began a long career as a teacher at Indiana State University.

He was a member of the Brazil First United Methodist Church.

He married Gretchen Lancett in 1936.

He was preceded in death by his parents; one brother, Jim Winn and two sisters, Marie Bennett and Mary Beaman.

He is survived by his wife Gretchen; one daughter, Karolyn. M. Wegner; one son, Richard E. Winn, Jr.; grandchildren, Cindy Stiffler, Candy Clerk, Dan Wegner and wife Linda, all of Brazil, Christy Prulhiere and husband Paul, Camby, Cathy Short and husband Shawn, Beaver Creek, Ohio, and Sally Ann Winn of Helena, Mon.; great grandchildren, Troy Stiffler and wife Rachel, Indianapolis, Amanda Sebastian and husband Andy, Coal City, Trent Clerk, Tiara Clerk and Tressa Clerk, all of Brazil, Danny Wegner and wife Allyson, Terre Haute, Amos Wegner, Brazil, Natasha Wegner and Aaron Prulhiere both of Camby, and Emily and Hannah Winn both of Helena, Mont.; great great-grandson, Brian Sebastian, Coal City, and two brothers, Harry Winn, Indianapolis and Don Winn of San Antonio, Texas.

Moore Funeral Home was chosen to provide cremation services. A memorial service will conducted at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24 at Moore Funeral Home with Rev. Tony Alstott officiating.

Should friends so desire, expressions of sympathy may take the form of donations to Alzheimer’s Association, 9135 N. Meridian St., Ste. B-4, Indianapolis, 46209.

Visit www.moore-funeral-homes.com to send condolences to the family or for more information.

Praising the Engineering Fountain

OK, most of you who know me know that I love Purdue. I also loved going on Fountain Runs when I was a student there. As part of Boiler Gold Rush, I initiated many freshmen in the joys of getting soaked by running through the fountain (no longer possible because of a bizarre cylinder now placed around the fountain). However, bowing down in worship of the fountain was never something I thought of. Check out the crazy antics now going on at Purdue:



Read more about what is going on (although even the press can't explain WHY this happened).

Harassed at Work

I just came from our annual anti-harassment training. This is always a humorous occasion for me. It's humorous not because the topic isn't serious, but because no one has effectively come up with a way to instruct 100+ people in an hour how not to harass people. This year the company ditched the speaker (who basically stands up front, reads Power Point slides, and answers embarrassing questions from the audience). Unfortunately, they did not ditch the cheesy After-School Special-type videos.

We were greeted by one of the HR women (no men in the HR department, I'm sure no stereotyping was involved though) welcoming us to "Harassment Training." Unfortunately she misspoke or that would have made the session much more interesting. On to the videos.

First up was the awesomely titled "Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts!" (With Vignettes!) It featured a bunch of actors/waiters (yes I'm stereotyping actors, but they're not my coworkers. Hopefully this is allowed for the sake of comedy.) commenting on why harassment hurts. (I think I learned this when I kindergarten, but apparently others are slow learners.) The main host finally gave us a 6 or 7 step process to use when faced with harassment. I won't bore you with the entire process (largely because I have forgotten most of them already), but one of them was "Ask a question." This could be done, the host pointed out, by asking "What do you mean?" when someone makes an inappropriate comment. This was proceeded by five random people looking at the camera and saying "What do you mean?" for those of us who are really, really slow. Another suggestion, as foreshadowed by the video's title, was to just say "Ouch!" If someone makes a comment stereotyping someone and we don't feel like asking questions or delving into the issue, we can just say "Ouch!" And if you thought this was immediately proceeded by over half a dozen people looking at the camera and saying "Ouch!" than you've caught the gist of this video.

The second video wasn't nearly as interesting. Titled "Harassment is..." it was basically a host talking with short vignettes shown in between. No 6 step program here. The one standout vignette was an American lady making fun of a Indian woman because the Indian didn't speak English. The American lady then said in a Real World confessional-style interview (in black and white, no less!) that "Those people can't even speak English good." Finally my coworkers were allowed to laugh. Apparently stereotyping Americans is still OK. Thank goodness!

Back to work. I'll try not to harass people.

Biscuits and Gravy Canal

There are more serious (and sadder) things going on in my life, but the trivial makes for much better (and more humorous) blog topics. So let me tell you about what they're doing to the body of water to the West of my office.

For those who are regular readers (hi mom!) you'll know that my new office building is on the East side of the Downtown Canal. Before being on the canal regularly, I thought it was a beautiful sight and would be wonderful to walk along on my lunch hours. Well, it is great to have the canal and walkways, but it isn't exactly beautiful. Algae, weeds, leaves, and debris clutter the canal. My office is at the North end where the basin is. Often that basin is so full of gunk that it looks like you could walk across it without getting wet. Thankfully the city of Indianapolis is going to clean the canal up. They are going to drain the canal and then scrape the bottom clean. That's the good news. Now the bad news. Today's Indianapolis Star reports the following:

- "[The project] will temporarily transform the urban waterway into a sludge pit."

- "Any non-native species [of fish] will be removed. 'Like if it's a piranha or something'"

- "It'll eventually get to a biscuits-and-gravy-type consistency"

Yes, that's right. Starting next month I can look out the windows or take a walk along a canal filled with sludge that has a "biscuits-and-gravy-type" consistency. Also, since this is a city-funded project and I happen to also live in Indianapolis, I get to pay for this as well. Woohoo! So if anyone has a gas mask or maybe just a clothespin to protect me from the smell of sludge, I'd appreciate it if you could lend it to me.