Coffee with “Tiberius”

I ran into one of my first and best TDWI friends this morning. Even after all this time, he cannot yet be named publicly and, perhaps because of that, is free with musings on the industry and other things. We’ve tentatively code-named him Tiberius, after a meeting room at Caesar’s Palace.

This morning he’s thinking of […]

I ran into one of my first and best TDWI friends this morning. Even after all this time, he cannot yet be named publicly and, perhaps because of that, is free with musings on the industry and other things. We’ve tentatively code-named him Tiberius, after a meeting room at Caesar’s Palace.

This morning he’s thinking of a New Yorker cartoon. Two men at a bar are talking, and one says, “Are you just pissing and moaning, or can you verify what you’re saying with data?”

Our conversations are not always fact based, but we do our best. This morning we did it over coffee and, in his case, a crepe, and in my case a yogurt parfait.

Oh, please, he says of the Republican response to Obama’s fine speech last night. Oh, please, “let’s get the stupid out of the discourse.” Bobby Jindal complained of research money for honeybees, as if the rationale for it were not fact based. Honeybees sound silly, and he relishes a teenage-like snicker, with no mention of the peril to agriculture. Let him eat stupidity.

“People do things differently,” Tiberius sighs. “Even this,” he says holding up a USA Today, “is probably too complicated for [the Republicans].”

Finally, it’s the season for rational problem solving, something faith-based Republicans have forgotten about. Too bad they’ve left so much wreckage.

Our shared fascination with con artistry came to mind. That may seem to explain our tolerance for Vegas, but it does not. We actually like the camp—for a few days. We’re both going home today.

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