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So, we added a consent popup to our site.
Do you allow this site to collect data and store cookies on your browser?
And it saves your choice… as a cookie.
People complained that they had to tell it no every time they came to the site.
“That’s because we store your answer as a cookie… and you’re blocking cookies.”
They complain over and over about it.
But we don’t remember their complaints, because we aren’t tracking that data.
Category: My stories
Greta
Oh, Greta.
You little Nazi.
Hitler Youth wet dream, blonde and blue-eyed.
Chiseled features, the Nordic ideal.
Danish? Dutch?
It doesn’t matter which master race you come from.
Like any child star, you’ve memorized your lines.
Your father’s words, hurled at the audience from your mouth like a plunger thrusting sewage down a clogged toilet.
America is bad. America is evil.
The America full of universities researching solutions to the ills you blame it for.
While Chinese factories spew more poison and death into the world.
But your blind hate knows no reason.
Leni Reifenstahl’s ghost smiles, and says “Cut.”
George the pollster
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
His captain asked him how the crew felt, and George conducted a poll.
“Your approval ratings are down,” said George.
“Maybe if we had a battle,” said the captain. “That always boosts approval ratings for politicians.”
So, the captain set course for the nearest ship and they fought it.
They won, but took heavy casualties.
George polled the crew again. And the numbers were even lower.
“But we won a battle!” said the captain.
“Yes,” said George. “But unlike the politicians, I polled the people who did the fighting.”
George frees the slaves
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
When the crew raided a slave ship heading for the Americas, George insisted that they free the slaves.
At first, the captain resisted the idea of letting a valuable cargo go, but in time George wore him down.
“Okay, fine,” said the captain. “But let’s be realistic… we can’t just release them in the middle of the ocean.”
“Then we’ll teach them how to be pirates,” said George happily.
And George taught them everything he knew.
It didn’t take long for the slave ship to sink without a trace.
George is George
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
“What kind of pirate was he?” asks someone from the audience.
The author thought about that for a minute.
He’d established that George wasn’t a very good pirate, so what did that make George?
Average? Below-average? Awful? Horrible?
Or did “very good” refer to his nature and character?
If George wasn’t very good, was he evil?
The author hadn’t meant to delve into ontology and the spiritual realm.
“George is just George,” he said. “Can I please continue?”
The audience agreed, but the author had run out of words.
George hangs
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate
Somewhere, he’d read about people hanging themselves to get more out of sexual pleasure.
So, George tied himself by the ankles to the boom and let himself dangle.
Then, he tried to lower his breeches. Which, him being upside-down, was kinda hard to do.
After a few minutes, he felt a warm stickiness hit him in the face.
“Blech,” said George. “That wasn’t enjoyable at all,”
The captain was tempted to say “That’s because you’re supposed to hang yourself from your neck.”
So, he did, and walked away smiling.
George and the shitholes
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
He’d been all over the world, and he’d seen some marvelous places.
He’d also seen some horrible and awful places. Total shitholes.
George preferred the marvelous and amazing places.
Because those places had a lot of stuff he could plunder loot.
There’s not much you can plunder from a shithole.
George felt guilty about it, and what he plundered from the marvelous places, he would give to the people in the shithole places.
They’d thank him, but ask if they could please get a ride away from that shithole.
George’s fault
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
He caused a lot of accidents, and the entire crew hated him.
So, why didn’t they get rid of him?
Because they weren’t much better than George.
They just did a better job of hiding incompetence and blunders than George did.
“It was George’s fault!” they’d say. “George did it.”
Everyone agreed to blame George for everything.
Cannon misfires, torn maps, bent swords, and lousy food.
It was always George’s fault.
And when George would make a mistake, he’d say “It’s George’s fault!” too.
Even though that was him.
George and pronouns
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
While he plundered towns, he always said “sir” or “madam.”
But when he said “sir” to a transgender woman while looting her store, he caught hell for it.
The local paper was filled with angry letters to the editor.
Picket lines surrounded the ship.
The captain sent George off to sensitivity training.
Several weeks later, George returned and issued a public apology.
The next time George pillaged that town, he called the transgender woman “madam.”
She smiled and nodded.
Then George bought a purse and looted her store again.
George elected captain
George was a pirate, but he wasn’t a very good pirate.
There’s only one way that a pirate can become a captain of a ship:
The crew needs to elect him as the next captain.
The problem is, you need to get rid of the current captain first.
Oh, you could push him overboard… call for a mutiny… poison his food…
George was treated well by his captain.
Who else would put up with George?
Which is why George was very careful to put up guard rails, quell any dissent, and taste-test the captain’s food.
He threw up a lot.