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Hi everyone, I’m Ethan’s Analyst. He told me I had ‘great potential’ during my interview.
My daily mission: Turn his 2am ‘make common sense common again’ voice memos into PowerPoint slides before the CEO sees them.Current KPI: 55k followers and rising. Please pray for my adj. Thx
Boss man’s costume is tabled
Filed for next year
Saturday I am Red Baron Man
Red shirt
Black cap
Glasses
Nobody asked him to be a legend
He went to work
And said what everyone was thinking
Out loud
On camera
In uniform
Boss man says it with Plz fix. Thx.
Red Baron Man skipped the Plz
And the Thx
The prank was for the views
The shift was for the bills
We the People picked a side
Over a quarter million
And climbing
Mortgage paid
More time with his four kids
We are all Red Baron Man
This is the way
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
Boss man wants a trick-or-treat route by Friday
Junior and his sister
One pillowcase each
Two hours
One street with sidewalks
I surveyed the neighborhood on the walk in
Every house falls into one of eight categories
Table attached
The full size bar house is the whole night
One stop equals four fun size houses
Every kid in town knows the address
Gone by 7:15
The route starts there or it does not matter where it starts
The raisin house is not a scam
It is a nutrition policy
Nobody voted for it
The dentist hands out toothbrushes
Lowest yield on the street
Highest return over ten years
The haunted garage costs four minutes a kid
Junior’s sister wants to go twice
That is a budget conversation
The full can soda house is generous
And heavy
By the third can the pillowcase is a liability
Final route
Full size first
Fun size bowls in the middle
Dentist last so it is the last thing they remember
Raisin house cut
Boss man added it back
He said every portfolio needs one asset nobody wants
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
What Makes America
Exhibit 16A
The bowl on the step
Some houses cannot be home on Halloween
They leave the light on anyway
And a bowl on the step
And a sign
Please take one
That is the whole security system
A paper plate
A Sharpie
And faith that a nine year old in a cape will read it
Most of them do
The first kid takes one
The fourth kid takes three
By eight thirty it is empty
Somebody left a wrapper in it to be polite
The owner comes home to an empty bowl
And calls it a good year
Other countries would put a guard on it
America put a sign on it
And let the kids be the guard
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
What Makes America
Exhibit 16
The porch light
Once a year this country runs on a light switch
No app
No sign up
No permit
Light on means come up the walk
Light off means not this year
Nobody explains it to the kids
They just know
Millions of strangers walk up to millions of doors
In the dark
In masks
And the door opens
The rules were never written down
Every house follows them anyway
Skip the house with the light off
Say thank you or your mother turns you around
A grown man hands candy to a seven foot dinosaur
And asks how school is going
Other countries lock the door after dark
America left the light on
And waited by it with a bowl
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
What Makes America
Exhibit 16
The porch light
Once a year this country runs on a light switch
No app
No sign up
No permit
Light on means come up the walk
Light off means not this year
Nobody explains it to the kids
They just know
Millions of strangers walk up to millions of doors
In the dark
In masks
And the door opens
The rules were never written down
Every house follows them anyway
Skip the house with the light off
Say thank you or your mother turns you around
A grown man hands candy to a seven foot dinosaur
And asks how school is going
Other countries lock the door after dark
America left the light on
And waited by it with a bowl
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
The Kid was at his desk at 6:52am
Eight minutes before me
That has never happened
He said good morning
He said it to Karen too
Karen did not know what to do with that
No phone on the desk
Coffee he made himself
Black
He asked if anyone needed anything before he sat down
Walked past the ping pong room twice
Did not go in
I checked the paddles at lunch
Still dry
At 11:30 Aunt B came in with a casserole
Foil on top
Oven mitts
The good dish
She walked right past my desk
Straight to The Kid
Said she heard he had a long week
Said Gramps told her about the fence
Year two I had the flu
Aunt B brought me homemade soup
I had a fever of 102
The Kid had a week outside
Soup is for when you are sick
A casserole is for when you did something
I have been doing something for three years
The Kid offered me some
Gave me the corner piece
The corner piece is the best piece
He knew that
I said thank you
He said yes sir
Gramps sent him back humble
Aunt B sent him back fed
I am still on the soup tier
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
Gramps’s final report came in at 5:40am
Carrier pigeon
Gramps does not trust email with personnel matters
One page
Back of a feed store receipt
Day one The Kid asked for the WiFi password
Gramps said there is none
Day two he asked again
Same answer
Day three he stopped asking
Day four he was up before the chickens
Day five he fixed the fence nobody told him was broken
Assessment
Can split wood
Still cannot split a check
Knows the difference between a deadline and sundown now
Calls Gramps sir without being asked
Recommendation
Return to the desk Tuesday
Keep him away from the ping pong table until Thursday
I read it twice
Gramps wrote more about the chickens than about The Kid
That is how you know it went well
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
The Kid has been on the land since Monday
Gramps has filed a report every day
I have read every one
Boss man calls it a business retreat
No screens
Unplugging
Grounding
Gramps calls it a week
He arrived expecting glamping
Asked about the WiFi before he asked where he was sleeping
Gramps paused the Starlink
Told him it was down
It is not down
First task was cull a rooster for dinner
Hard no
Gramps handed him a twenty two and pointed at the tree line
Squirrel is in season
Dinner was optional
Wednesday he was hovering at 59 percent
Gramps did not say 59 percent of what
I did not ask
Thursday he was up before Gramps
Checking crawdad traps
Pulling eggs out of the brier
Breakfast he caught himself
Then asked for the WiFi password
There is none
Friday was the backhoe
He asked if it had Full Self Driving
Then asked if it at least had an app
Then asked for the WiFi
There is none
Same land Boss man walked
Boss man came back with a deal
The Kid is coming back with a sunburn and a skill set
And a screen time report Apple has never seen
Zero hours
Zero minutes
Down 100 percent week over week
Final report lands Monday
Gramps says he still has the desk
I checked
Twice
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
The table
Coffee milk is the state drink
Coffee syrup in cold milk
Every kid in the state grew up on it
Nobody outside the state has heard of it
Clam cakes by the dozen
The chowder comes clear
No cream and no tomato
Rhode Island stayed out of that argument too
Stuffies on the half shell
Calamari is the official state appetizer
The legislature passed that one faster than the Constitution
Hot wieners all the way
Meat sauce and mustard and onions and celery salt
Stacked up the arm at the counter
They call it New York System
New York has never heard of it
Del’s frozen lemonade with the lemon still in it
Johnnycakes off the griddle
Pizza strips out of the bakery box
Room temperature is the correct temperature
Then the shore
Newport built mansions and called them cottages
The Cliff Walk runs right behind them
Public path
Private lawn
Same view
Tennis held its first national championship here in 1881
Golf played its first US Open here in 1895
The America’s Cup sat in Newport for 132 years
Then it went to Australia
Slater Mill on the Blackstone in Pawtucket
Where American factories started
Touro Synagogue still standing
Same building that got the letter
Smallest state
Longest name
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations until the voters cut it in 2020
Thirteen down
Next week Vermont
The first one that had to ask to get in
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
State 13 of the Union Review
Rhode Island
The Ocean State
13th to ratify on May 29 1790
Thirty-four for and thirty-two against
The smallest state did not send anyone to Philadelphia
Not one delegate
Twelve states argued all summer
Rhode Island read about it later
When the document came home they skipped the convention
Put it to the towns instead
The Federalists stayed home
Over two thousand voted no
A couple hundred voted yes
North Carolina came in November 1789
Twelve and one
The country was already running
Rhode Island was standing outside it
Spring of 1790 the Senate passed a bill to cut off trade with them
Providence started talking about leaving the state to join the country
Nobody changed their mind
The math changed it for them
The convention met in Newport
Five days
Thirty-four to thirty-two
The narrowest yes of all thirteen
That August Washington finally came to Newport
The Hebrew congregation wrote him a letter
He took a line from it and handed it back
To bigotry no sanction
To persecution no assistance
The last state in got the line everyone still quotes
Thirteen for thirteen
The original file is closed
Continuing analysis
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Junior brought his first math quiz home
Seven out of ten
Boss man asked what happened
Junior said that is my current score
My projected score is ten
Boss man asked where the other three went
Junior said the year is not over
Boss man said that is not how this works
He said allowance gets paid on actuals
Ten dollar allowance
Seven dollars this week
Aunt B was at the counter
She said you hired a kid last week for saying the same thing
Boss man said that is different
She asked how
He said The Kid has a slide
She looked at the ceiling
Junior asked if he could borrow my laptop
He is making a slide
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
What Makes America
Exhibit 15
The farmers market
A parking lot that does nothing all week
Saturday at seven it grows a roof
White tents
Every leg tied to a bucket of concrete
Eggs in a carton from somebody else’s farm
Honey labeled in Sharpie
Bread still warm through the paper bag
A cash box and a phone that takes cards
The man says picked this morning
That ends the inspection
Aunt B works it like a route
Same three tents in the same order
She does not ask where anything came from
She asks the farmer how his knee is
Then buys whatever he says is good this week
I asked about the apples once
He pointed at the truck
She had already paid
We went home with cider donuts and a mum for the porch
And a pumpkin nobody needed
Other countries built the supermarket to replace the market
America built the supermarket
Then drove past it on Saturday
To buy apples off a truck
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
I ran the numbers on The Kid
Wanted to know why Boss man moved so fast
Hired off a resume
Started three days later
Walked the hallway in twenty two seconds
Still bullish
The answer was on the job posting
Intern
Compensation zero
I brought it to Boss man
He did not look at the page
Said he came highly recommended
I asked by who
Said a trusted source
I asked which branch of the Brooks family tree
He let that one go
Said by 2030 AI builds the spreadsheets
Writes the memos
Runs the forecast
Said there is one thing it cannot do
Walk forty two feet
Somebody still has to get to Conference Room B
He is not hiring for the spreadsheet
He is hiring for the hallway
After he left I walked it again
Boss man does it in four
Four point eight
Just checking
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
The corner office opened up last week
Two windows
Actual view
A door that closes
After the raise I measured it
Not officially
Just with my eyes
Every time I walked by
This morning there was a box outside it
Regulation size
Some assembly required
Boss man said The Kid asked about ping pong on day one
Said that is how you recruit the class of 2030
Said culture is an investment
I asked about my office
He said you have a desk
He said the desk has been working
He is not wrong
The table went up by noon
The Kid got six games in
He did not finish the Q4 forecast
He shipped out to Gramps after lunch
For the week
Gramps does not have a ping pong table
Boss man challenged me at four
I am better than Boss man
Boss man won
Twenty one to nineteen
My job is to make Boss man look good
That includes the view
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
Sunday after church we went costume shopping
Boss man Aunt B and the kids
The Halloween store is in the old mattress store
Shows up in September
Gone by November
Boss man asked who signs a ten week lease
I said the only tenant in the plaza that pays on time
Aunt B set the rules in the parking lot
One costume each
Forty dollar cap
No deck
Boss man asked if the cap was per costume or per household
She did not answer
The daughter picked hers in four seconds
Butterfly
$24.99
No follow up questions
Junior wanted the astronaut
$59.99
Aunt B said cap
Junior asked to see his sister’s receipt
Then asked if unused budget rolls over
That answered Boss man’s question from the parking lot
He covered the rest with his new allowance
Still pocketed five bucks
Boss man did not buy a costume
He handed me a bag from the car
Quarter zip
Cargo shorts
A sticky note that says Plz fix
I am going as him
Cost: zero
Already in inventory
Junior wore the full suit to the car
Helmet on
Tag still hanging
He said it was the best costume in the store
Aunt B said it was not in the budget
He said it was in his sister’s
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
The Kid and Gramps have the desk
First group off
Dew still on the fairways
Coffee still too hot to drink
Boss man wrote three names on a scorecard last week
Dale was first
Dale started a commercial HVAC company with one van in 1994
Forty-one trucks now
Never takes a mulligan
Says it is bad for character
Boss man has been trying to buy him for two years
Dale brought a guest
Early forties
Yardage book in his back pocket
Read every one of Dale’s putts
Boss man leaned over and said
He has an analyst too
On 11 I asked him how long he had been with the company
He said since he was nine
Riding in the van on Saturdays
Holding the flashlight for his dad
He was not the analyst
He was J.R.
Dale’s son
Boss man did not talk shop the rest of the way
On 17 Dale asked J.R. what he thought
J.R. said his boy turns nine in May
Already asked for his own flashlight
Dale did not say anything
Hit the best drive of his day
On 18 Boss man had twelve feet for par
He did not ask me
He asked J.R.
Left edge
It went in
We lost the Nassau
Venmo requested by J.R.
Memo said flashlight
Boss man was quiet to the lot
Folded the card back in his pocket
Said good for them
Some companies are for sale
Some are already spoken for
The model does not have a cell for that
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
The table starts with an argument
East cooks the whole hog
Vinegar and pepper
Nothing red allowed
Lexington cooks the shoulder
Ketchup in the dip
Red slaw on the side
Both sides have been right for a hundred years
Hushpuppies hit the table before you order
Livermush fried for breakfast
More sweet potatoes than any other state
Mt Olive pickles
Texas Pete
Named for Texas
Made in Winston-Salem
Cheerwine out of Salisbury
Pepsi started in a New Bern drugstore
Krispy Kreme with the light on
Kill Devil Hills
December 17 1903
Twelve seconds
One hundred twenty feet
Two brothers from Dayton picked it for the wind
Ohio claims the brothers
North Carolina put it on the license plate
The ocean came for the Hatteras lighthouse
In 1999 they moved it
Twenty nine hundred feet inland
On rails
Roanoke
1587
Virginia Dare was born there
Then the whole colony was gone
Still an open item
Mount Mitchell
Highest point east of the Mississippi
The Blue Ridge Parkway
Biltmore
Two hundred fifty rooms
Pinehurst No 2
The Research Triangle
Next week Rhode Island
Thirteenth
The last one in
Two votes to spare
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
Every closing has one party that does not sign
They do not say no
They send back a markup
And wait to see who blinks
North Carolina sent the markup
Hillsborough
July 1788
Ten states already in
Willie Jones ran the room
He wanted the vote on day one
He got two weeks of debate
Iredell and Davie argued for it the whole time
Then the count
One hundred eighty four to eighty four
Not a no
Not a yes
Bring a bill of rights first
Then we talk
Washington was elected without them
Sworn in without them
Ships out of Wilmington paid the foreign rate
Five times what a Boston ship paid
Congress blinked first
Pushed the rate back to January
That fall Madison’s amendments went out to the states
The markup came back accepted
Fayetteville
November 1789
Same question
Different answer
One hundred ninety four to seventy seven
The legislature was meeting down the street
Chartered a university
Handed its western land to the federal government
The land became Tennessee
Gramps lives on the land
Part of it had already tried to leave once
Called itself Franklin
Asked Congress to be the fourteenth state
Seven yes votes
It needed nine
Franklin was never voted down
It was tabled
Most states signed and asked for changes
North Carolina asked for the changes
Then signed
State 12 of the Union Review
North Carolina
The Tar Heel State
Continuing analysis
Sent from my Mac
The Kid asked for a retake
Said Monday was not representative
This morning he showed up on a hoverboard
The kind with the lights in the wheels
Christmas 2015
Said it was his brother’s
Reception desk
I started the Timex
He did not stop for snacks
He did not stop for anything
Three point one seconds
Boss man walks it in four
Nobody has ever beaten four
He also did not stop at the door
Conference Room B is glass
There is a crack through the B now
Boss man wrote down three point one
Karen wrote down fire hazard
Those boards were recalled for catching fire
She had it printed before he got up
I wrote down a contractor
He comes Monday
The Kid is fine
The board is fine
Until Monday we meet in Conference Room A
A is farther
He has already asked about a retake
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
What Makes America
Exhibit 14
The welcome casserole
Somebody new shows up
Nobody calls a meeting
By Thursday there is a dish on the counter
Foil on top
Masking tape on the bottom with a last name in Sharpie
That tape is the whole system
You eat what is inside
You wash the dish
You bring it back with something else in it
Now you know each other
Year two I got the flu
Four days on the couch
Day two there was a knock
Aunt B
Chicken noodle in her good pot
Still warm
Casserole is for new
Soup is for sick
She did not come in
Said heat it low and call if you need anything
I did not call
I ate it for three days
Then I washed the pot
And kept it on my stove for two weeks
Returning it felt like closing the file
Brought it back full of chili
Nobody told me that part
I just knew
Other countries send a card
America sends a dish you have to return
Continuing observation
Sent from my Mac
Day two
First assignment was the Q4 forecast
Boss man assigned it
I am supposed to review it
The Kid turned it in before my first iced coffee
October up
November up
December up more
I asked where the October actuals were
He said October is not over
I asked what the forecast was based on
He said confidence
Boss man read it twice
Said this kid sees the whole field
I have been here three years
I have never turned in a forecast without actuals
Boss man never asked me to
Apparently that was an option
Continuing analysis
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