No rest for anyone, even when you are told to

There is a nice article in the NYT about how people are coping (or not) with work furloughs. For those of you not familiar with the idea, think of them as mini-layoffs. You get a couple of days of unpaid leave and hopefully the aggregate savings your employer enjoys allows them to keep you on the payroll. I have a friend who works for an agency that is contemplating this measure and I have met others whose companies have gone as far as shutting down for a month as a way of coping with a fall off in business.

The article was most interesting in examing the dynamic with public employess who have not been furloughed in the true sense of the word. Rather they have just had their pay cut. Why? Well it turns out that they have to schedule their furlough days (much like a vacation or personal day) and they are so busy and short staffed that they can't get approval to take the days off. Since the days aren't covered in the normal employment scenario there are no rules to govern their use or lack there of.

In the end it says more about our desire to work (and the role that plays in our self-worth and self-image) than anything else. We all aspire to a life of leisure, but most of us would have a hard time with it even if we could.

30 Rock and the Muppets

A persuasive case for 30 Rock being a rip-off of the old Muppet Show. Now if they could get John Denver to do a guest spot...

How smart is it to have a smart phone?

So I have a smart phone (for the curious it is an HTC S620 aka T-Mobile Dash). I have taken to using it as phone, calendar and most often as a web browser. I probably consume a good chunk of the NYT on that tiny 3 inch screen. Often sitting on BART I see fellow phone readers. They are reading e-mails. surfing the web or in the case of Iphone-ers playing games. There is a nice article in today's Times about our little "problem" and why its been a winner even is a recession.

Does this even need an entry?

Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest

A logical sequel to the bacon craze

Slate has a short piece on the return of lard. It makes sense now that bacon has been put into everything from meatloaf to chocolate. Now if I could find a recipe for pork chops deep pan fried in lard, oh there it is.