They're Not Just a Line on the Resume

 

July 5, 2026

 

The St. Louis area seems to be particularly friendly to people who get high-paying jobs without actually being able to carry out their duties. I’ve lost track of the number of news articles in which a highly-paid person was let go from a municipal (including education) position because they weren’t performing well; and upon investigation, it was found that the person left his or her previous employment because of (at best) underperformance.

 

And do you know how they got hired? Because nobody checked their references.

 

As I offered to do for the police board, I can provide vetting for the candidates; that is, I can hire somebody to hop on the internet and look these people up. They can start with the news feeds in the candidate’s former city to see if there is a reason the person left. (Seriously—some of these people made the news in their former towns for the bad work they did.) For an additional fee, I can have my subcontractor contact people by telephone (that being more of a specialized skill these days) to confirm certain facts of employment. I guarantee you that my fee will be a lot less than the settlements the area has been paying to these people when they kick them out.

 

Or we can continue to hire people for an exorbitant amount of money, and then pay them lots of money to go away.

 

Any takers?

 

The World's Biggest Non-Problem

 

July 5, 2026

 

 

I continue to get mind-boggled by the number of tips there are for cleaning crusted-on food in the microwave.

 

How does that even happen?

 

For civilized people, these are the only tips you need to know:

 

Anyone who uses the microwave should cover the food. There are actually plastic, microwave-safe covers sold at grocery stores or in the home-goods section at other stores, made just for this purpose. Use them. (Tip: Store the cover IN the microwave so that anybody who uses the microwave will have to handle the cover, and can't say that they forgot it.)

 
When the food is finished heating, you or whoever takes it out should clean up anything that spilled. If you’re in the middle of a dinner party, and you don’t want to clean the spill RIGHT THEN, wipe out the microwave when you wipe down the stove (as I assume that you do) when you’re doing the dishes.

 

Seriously.