Okay, this one still bugs me, because I would think a respectable business would have more ethics than this. For the purposes of brevity, lets call the Respectable Business, “RB.”
One day, I get a call from RB. “Hey we’ve heard about you, we like your work, we’d like to hire you to do ___.” I’m a lawyer in private practice, I want to know more before I accept a contractual position.
“Oh, we’ll fax all the paperwork over.” Note that in the legal profession, faxes are not outmoded, they are normal in the legal profession. If it’s not on paper, it didn’t happen. As I have so often said, the legal profession is not one to get into if you want to save the trees. Paper rules, and we lawyers use a lot of it. Including faxes.
So I looked at the contract on paper when I received the fax. Holy hannah, there was so much illegal in there that was wrong. In fairness, it was not criminal, but it broke the laws of Alberta’s Employment Standards Code. I called the job offeror back, with my objections and how they broke the Alberta Employment Standards Code.
“Meh. You’re too good at reading contracts. No thanks, we withdraw our offer.”
Not sure what else to say except perhaps a PSA: If offered a contract, have a lawyer look at it and tell you what it means, and what your rights and obligations are under it.
I’m just going to throw this in here because … why not? “America’s Got Talent” has gone to the dogs, and I’m now a Simon Cowell fan because he’s clearly a dog lover. And it may be the only time in AGT history that Cowell goes up on stage and pleads with the two “no” judges on behalf of the dog to change their vote. Howie Mandell does.
As a lover of dogs, and being a dog myself, I’d like say to the cat lovers in our community that cats are great creatures, too, and contrary to popular opinion, they can indeed be trained. This video shows a turbulence of cats doing remarkable tricks, though if you look closely, unlike happy dogs, the cats look rather grumpy and generally pissed off!
I confess that I’ve recently become somewhat addicted to watching these silly YouTube videos, but you just gotta see these two (the first two in the video):
If for some unfathomable reason you’re not partial to cute dog videos, here’s a direct link to the second one, “Wiggle-Wine”! The whole production crew goes nuts!
I never had a problem with the goofball acts. I was a big fan of this show when Howard Stern was one of the judges (very smart and completely professional; not like his radio persona at all), and ridiculous acts were rife then. But there were also an amazing variety of genuinely good acts, everything from street painting to martial arts to bicycle acrobatics to archery. Then a combination of three things… the obnoxious buzzers which the judges weaponized to a degree that makes Lego Masters’ “twists” seem tame in comparison, mass-destruction formats that ensured that only a very few types of acts had a chance (Elite was robbed, dammit), and the sixteenth-witted peanut gallery that howled BUUHEEHHEUEUEUWWW at everything that didn’t wow them in the first two seconds… chased out nearly all the unusual or creative contestants, leaving a largely homogenous mush in the finale. Last season there were three rappers. Three!
Personally, I think the show would be vastly improved if the entire audition round took place with no audience, or just the NBC crew, and no buzzers. Everyone could do their acts in their entirety, and if it was awful, the judges could say so quietly without two minutes of grandstanding, and that would be the end of that. Look, I’m aware that “cringe” mania has grown to such an absurdly astronomical degree that one less-than-professional song on YouTube that a random girl did as a birthday present can spark a national outrage, but these people have come a long way and are making an honest effort. However inept they are, I really don’t think giving them four uninterrupted minutes once in their lifetimes is too much to ask. Heck, I’ve seen Shark Tank entrepreneurs who deserved far less. Sometimes a bad act can be funny, or amusing, or interesting, or just an opportunity to poke fun at some goof on TV, and it’s a much smaller waste of time than listening to a bunch of children in the audience howl and the judges needing 200 words to say “no”.
I remember Ssaulabi (called the Taekwondo Demonstration Team or something stateside; very impressive), Lea Kyle (gorgeous, probably not a full-length Vegas act but deserves plenty of success in life), and Lightwire (gorgeous, completely robbed but I’m used to that by now ). Singers were great but run together after a while. Never liked any of the comedians (I thought even Josh Blue was passable at best).
Be covering the season 21 finale at the usual place, of course. Not expecting much, but as long as they don’t ramrod another Ben Lapidus through, I won’t complain. Too much.
I generally concur with your views here. I’m not really at all a fan of the genre, but I did get hooked on watching YouTube highlights, so your mention of Ben Lapidus the Parmesan lover did not go over my head. To be fair, he wasn’t “ramrod through” – he was buzzed out by all four judges, but they reluctantly acquiesced to the will of the silly crowd.
Anyway, all that aside, here’s another short clip I’d like to share. It’s unusual in that it takes place outdoors at night after a rainy day when everything is wet and slippery, which turns out to be a significant obstacle to climbing up to the top of a wet 60-foot pole. This is a freaky thing to watch on a large screen, especially if you’re afraid of heights! I admire this young woman’s courage but I cannot understand why people put themselves through this!
). Singers were great but run together after a while. Never liked any of the comedians (I thought even Josh Blue was passable at best).
