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[at-l] OT- one last note re lawyers, harassment, feelings and such



At 07:19 PM 1/1/2005 -0500, Clark Wright wrote:
>well said, well said - one of my closest legal friends does that kind of 
>legal work, and it is unbelieveable some of the things that she comes 
>across that (mostly male) supervisors think is "just good fun" that end up 
>causing very real pain and damage to the female employees under their 
>control . . .
>
>I think one of the hardest things for me to learn as I "grow up" (project 
>still under construction!)  is that ALL jokes that disparage ANYONE are 
>just plain NOT RIGHT and better left unsaid . . . the thing I hate about 
>myself the most is thinking back to how often I "laughed along" when 
>someone around me who was a client, higher ranking management person, etc. 
>told a terrible joke  . . . ya' know what?  We ALL ought to work to try 
>and stop saying them, sending them all over the internet , and laughing 
>with others who say them - period!  Not a bad New Year's resolution, for 
>this New Year's Day! :)
>
>Take care,
>
>Clark

I think I may have told this story on AT-L before but for those who haven't 
heard it:
After graduating from college I was unable to find a teaching job and in 
desperation went to work in a cider mill owned by an elderly man who had 
known me from childhood. Homer Rebb was nothing like Homer Simpson. He was 
a lifelong bachelor and an independent businessman. He wore a suit and tie 
every day. If he was working in the shop he put on coveralls over his suit. 
I never once heard him swear.

One day in the pressing room during a break Bernie, the head pressman, 
started telling jokes and was in the first line of a "Polack" joke as Homer 
came through the door. Homer interrupted Bernie saying he knew a better 
one. He proceeded to tell how all the poor farmers his father had dealt 
with through the Depression were Polish and to a man they were all hard 
working family men who always paid their bills, in goods if they could not 
in cash. He ended by saying "and that's the only Polack joke that will be 
told here". And it was.