Change Is Good

Over the years I've received a lot of memorable memos. Not necessarily memorable in the way the writer intended -- usually it was a completely unintended effect.

My favorite was the stiffly worded memo about not watching porn at work sent by our devoutly Catholic director (who had a picture of the pope on the wall above his marital bed).

The worst was a memo sent by someone very high up in the company congratulating the "heroes" from the company who rushed to Columbine after the massacre and set up temporary cell phone towers so the media could make telephone calls.

One of the oddest, though, was a memo from someone in a position of power that included the sentence "Change is good". It wasn't qualified in any way -- according to that person, any change whatsoever was a positive move. I hope it is written on his tombstone when he dies.

What made me remember this was my walk downtown yesterday morning. I passed a shop without a visible name that had a banner claiming "Under New Management!" and there was red sheeting covering all but the front few feet from view. I had to think about it for a while to figure out what was there before since about half of the downtown spaces are vacant. Then it hit me -- Jim's Store was gone.

What is Jim's Store when it's under new management? Obviously the new management couldn't figure it out either since they took down the name sign that used to hang in the window.

So... change is good? Maybe, but they've taken away the skulls, knives, and dragon clocks and put up a Valentine's Day display so I'm not that hopeful.