I knew exactly what I was going to write earlier but then had to go out. Now I have no idea what to write. Maybe if I write about the interruption it will come to me. Yesterday I told you that I had buy coffee beans and was going to get it at the local Dunkin’. Did you know it is now officially Dunkin’ not Dunkin Donuts? The coffee and sandwiches are a bigger part of their business than the doughnuts. I did a mobile order on the app so I wouldn’t have to wait on line when I got there. Then I got dressed for the cold, it was cold, and walked over It’s not that far, maybe 8-10 minutes away. I arrived and my order wasn’t ready. One of the women manning it asked me what kind of coffee I wanted. I put that in my order, whole bean regular. I asked if I should just walk over to the shelf and take what I wanted, and she said yes. One problem with that, they had no whole bean coffee. They had no regular blend coffee. Most of what they had was ground hazel nut, there was also ground vanilla and one ground dark roast. I ordered three as it becomes much cheaper when you do. As they didn’t have what I wanted I wanted a refund. She said she couldn’t do that as it was a mobile order. When I insisted she called her manager? Her manager talked to me and told me to come in tomorrow, (now today), and get my coffee because she didn’t know how to give a refund for a mobile order.
I did that, I arrived, and they hadn’t gotten any new coffee in. I asked to speak to the manager. She came out and asked me if I wanted a refund. I of course said yes. It was a very simple procedure. All she did was punch in something on the scanner then scanned the app on my phone. I asked her why she didn’t just tell the worker last night what to do. She just looked at me. I told her that I was inconvenienced and had to walk their twice and not get what I wanted, and she was taking no responsibility. Then she offered me a free hot coffee. I took it. I went in expecting that. The marginal cost to them for a cup of coffee is minimal. She should have offered that without prompting and at some point she should have apologized. I would happily accept an apology and not only not had hard feelings I’d have left feeling good about her and the business. Sincere apologies are wonderful.
I tried the air fryer again last night. This time I made the fries the way the manual said to, on the sheets not the drums and with the automatic setting. They got a little browner but were dried out. Conventional oven roasted potatoes are better. I will try again. Maybe tonight. I’m having boneless country style ribs, unless it doesn’t defrost in time. I still need to buy coffee for tomorrow so perhaps I’ll get chicken wings and try them in the air fryer.
I remember what I wanted to write about. That’s pretty much a miracle. Now let’s make it a double miracle and see if I can figure out how to make it coherent.
Why do the Oscars, Emmy’s, Grammys etc have separate awards for male and female performers? They are doing the same thing. There are no separate awards for male and female directors, songwriters, and other creative fields, only performers. But then you look at the nominees in the single gender awards and you find them male dominated. All five nominees for last year’s Best Director Oscar were men. In 2018 it was four men and one woman. In 2017 five men. That’s just one woman out of the last 15 nominees. Do we need to make a best Woman Director category? If we did that would it devalue a woman winning it; accept that women can’t compete with men in directing? The nominees for best director are made by the directors’ branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. They are for the most part men. Would women be as shut out if the voting were done by women or is the problem more than most current directors are men. Is it a vicious cycle? Most directors are men, so most winners are men, so people get the idea that the best directors are men and hire more men than women to direct. Would a separate category for women highlight that women can direct or reinforce they idea that they can only direct well, “for a woman.”?
Prejudice is not just difficult to deal with because people are naturally prejudiced, it’s also complex. It’s hard to determine what are the causes and what are the effects. Then to make things even more difficult, no matter what you decided to do to ameliorate the situation some people will complain that you are being discriminatory and prejudiced. That’s not just the reaction of the people doing the discriminating. If they started a category for best Women Director you can be sure that many feminists would object that it is the equivalent of the segregationist doctrine of separate but equal. You could also be sure as some misogynists would be for it as they’d see the alternative as “undeserving women” being nominated just because they are women, proving the objecting feminists’ point. Yet many feminist women would be for it as it gives a chance for deserving women to get recognition and eventually lead to more women directing. Producer’s love to point out the Academy Award Winners on the cast and crew of a movie they are making.
I don’t know the best solution. I don’t even know there is a best solution. It could very much depend on butterfly wing effects. How the narrative grows, not something objective. The one thing I do know we can do, is better ourselves. Encourage those in historically discriminated groups in any field. Mentor them when you have the chance. Hire them when you have the chance. Praise them when you have the chance. Give them emotional and practical support.
Things can change. When I was young, women medical doctors were a rarity. Now 60% of the doctors under the age of 35 are women. The thing is they still change by profession, not societally. When we picture certain professions, directors, CEOs, and presidents to name three, we picture men. Doing anything to change that helps everyone. If everyone in a profession that doesn’t require size and strength, is a man, then it’s a certainty that there are women that can do the job better half the men. We are not using resources efficiently, so we all pay.
Wise Madness 