Rant #2,060: You Can Make It If You Try

Yesterday, I thought I would try another tactic to land a job, one that could actually backfire on me big time ...

But with the way things are going, I truly feel I have nothing to lose.

I received one of those "Dear John" letters yesterday, basically a firm telling me via an email that they would not pursue me as a viable candidate for a particular job.

Here is the letter I received back in my email. It is a form letter, and I have edited it so as to not reveal what company sent it to me.

"Dear Lawrence, 

Thanks so much for your application for the copywriter position at xxxxxx. We received a large number of applications and we wanted to let you know that we have gone in a different direction and have hired another candidate. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to apply for a position with our company.  Best of luck in your future endeavors. 

Best,

xxx"

I have received numerous letters just like this, and I file them away in a folder in my email and I move on from there.

But this time, I thought I would send a reply back to this company, basically asking them, in a very congenial way, why I was not thought to be a viable candidate.

I know that the rejection letter that I received was most probably "signed" by someone who doesn't exist at the company. These names are used for tracking, as well as protection, purposes.

But if they used that name, I would reply back to the name. If it is good enough for them, it is good enough for me.

Here is the letter I wrote back to them. I figured I had absolutely nothing to lose, as they didn't even say they would keep my resume on file, they pretty much dumped me in the vertical file with their return email.

"Dear xxx:

Thanks for sending me this letter.

I have not ever done what I am doing now, and that is, asking you what I lacked in order to be considered a viable candidate for this position.

I have been looking for a new job for the past 14 months, and I have probably applied for about 250 jobs. 

I have had a few phone interviews and one face-to-face interview. 

That is it.

It is frustrating, to say the least.

Is it my age, is it my background, what is it that made your company not want to pursue this with me?

I would like you to be honest. What knowledge I gain can be used to further my pursuit of a new position.

Please, let me know what made you set aside my resume from other viable candidates.

I mean no malice, but I just want to know. After 14 months of looking, I am at my wit's end trying to figure out the job marketplace.

Thanks."

Let me tell you, it is something I have wanted to do for a while. 

No, I don't expect any reply, but I just wanted to see if there was even the slightest chance I would get one.

I guess it was a form of a "vent," but to me, it was a good vent.

I probably won't ever do this again, but I figured that I had nothing to lose. 

If the company was offended by this, then so be it. They weren't going to hire me anyway.

I figure that I have to try some new things, new ways of doing things, thinking outside of the box, in order to get a job in this market.

This might be the lesser of all the different things I do to find a job, but at least I did it. 

Once only.

You cannot understand what I am going through unless you have been through this yourself. I just read an article asserting that 56 percent of those polled feel the time is right at the current moment to look for a new job. I am sure that most of the respondents have not been looking recently, because based on my experiences, this is the worst time in the past 30 or so years to look for a new job.

You can read the article here if you like: http://news.gallup.com/poll/225071/americans-optimism-job-market-hit-record-high-2017.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

Again, I am basing this pessimism on what I have gone through. Maybe if I was in a different situation, things would not be so bad, but no, I don't have the least bit of optimism about the job market in 2018, which I hope somehow, someway, is better than the job market in 2017 was.

At least I still have my job while I am looking ... I keep telling myself this, but it doesn't soothe me as much as you might think.

I know that one day, sometime soon, I am going to come to work, only to find out that there is no more work.

There are so many question marks hanging over my head, including the fact that I cannot plan for anything in the near future, because I don't know what is happening a day, a week, a month from now.

And that pretty much sums up the reasons why I did what I did today, and I have to say it made me feel good ... at least I was being proactive in my approach ...

Maybe a little stupid, too, but maybe that is the way to go about this.

I am in a box already, so maybe thinking outside of the box a little bit will get my juices flowing again.

Who knows?

Classic Rant #712 (April 9, 2012): Bunny Hops To 86

Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner is 86 today.

He looks kind of silly today, having phony relationships with girls that can be his great granddaughters and wearing his sailor hat, but during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, this guy was a trailblazer.

There had been "girly" mags before Playboy, but when he started up that magazine, he added a touch of class to the big breasts that were featured in the magazine.

He took a real journalistic approach to the whole thing, figuring that since most men would buy the magazine for the pictorials, why not put something a little "heady" into the magazine for men to read before they got to the treasure trove of skin.

And he was right on the money.

Playboy's legacy is not only the beautiful women who have adorned its pages, but the interviews, stories, words and other material that has been featured in the magazine during the last 50-plus years.

Everyone from Martin Luther King to George Clooney has had his words and thoughts published, and you had to read those before you got to the good stuff, so to speak.

And he was smart. He used the magazine as his personal platform for everything from human rights to sexual rights to his own rights as a publisher of what some simply referred to as a skin mag.

And he allowed others to voice their opinions too.

He was a trailblazer.

And today, in this Internet-driven world where magazines are almost something of a relic of a prehistoric age, he continues to oversee the entity that his empire started from.

Playboy has branched out, first into men's clubs and records and now into subscription television, but it all comes down to the magazine.

And yes, Hefner does look like a dirty old man now, and yes, his phony behavior with young girls is pretty much appalling.

But he is still around, still kicking, still trying to keep viable as he comes closer to his ninth decade.

I still remember the first Playboy magazine I ever saw.

I must have been eight years old, and I had a friend who was one of about six kids, with him being the only boy.

We were in his room, and he asked me if I wanted to see something. He reached under his bed, and took out a Playboy.

He opened up the magazine, and actress Kim Novak was posing provocatively on the page he opened to.

She wasn't nude, but it was enough for these two eight year olds to snicker like any eight year olds would at the sight of a nearly naked lady who was old enough to have been our own mother.

We had our laugh, he shoved the magazine back under his bed, and that was that.

It's funny how vividly I remember that incident, but probably every male in America can recall his own story of the first time he saw Playboy magazine.

That's how vivid the magazine stands out in our culture, even to this day.

And for that, I salute you, Hugh Hefner, on your birthday.

Happy Number 86, and have many, many more birthdays.

But take off the sailor hat, please. We can all live without that.

Rant #2,059: What You See Is What You Get

This weekend was a pretty drab one for my family and I.

Our son was just getting over his illness, so on Saturday, we made sure that he had one last day to completely relax, which meant we didn't do much of anything on that day, and when he went back to work on Sunday, well, my wife and I didn't do too much on Sunday, either.

With absolutely nothing to watch on TV, I again decided to watch a couple of off-the-deep-end movies, films that I had never heard of, and probably few have heard of, mostly for good reason.

I watched films that really were on the far side of reason, but somehow got made.

One of these that I discovered on YouTube is called "Shanty Tramp," and let me tell you, the only reason that I watched this film was that the title itself was intriguing.

What I got in return was something a bit more.

This 1967 black and white film, which looks like it was actually shot three or four years prior to that date, stars Eleanor Vaill as the title character, a young girl named Emilie who grew up in a broken home ruled by her alcoholic father who uses what God has given her to get around.

The very first segment sets the tone for the film, as a la "The Girl Can't Help It"--where Jayne Mansfield struts her stuff, leading to a milk container exploding--the Shanty Tramp does much the same, walking through town in a form-fitting outfit and turning her deep-South town on its ear while we hear "The Saints Come Marching In" in the background.

She happens upon a traveling revival show, where the crooked preacher talks about fear of God to ignorant disciples, and takes their cash willingly.

The Shanty Tramp makes a date with the preacher for some private, personal healing, and just a short time later, after visiting a local watering hole, she is sexually attacked by another man, but the situation is short circuited when a young black man--who had been at the revival meeting with his mother--breaks up the attempted rape, and with her clothes tattered, he gives her his shirt to cover herself up.

The Shanty Tramp chooses her conquests, and the attempted rapist was not one of those "lucky" people. But to pay back the young black man for helping her, he becomes her latest conquest.

But word gets around pretty quickly that this young black man had sex with this young white woman, and all hell breaks loose in the town, where it is assumed that since she is white and he is black--her well known reputation be damned--that he raped her, and her father, who has repented for his sins at the revival meeting, recruits every man he can find to hunt down the young black man.

Catching wind of what was brewing, the young black man runs into the thick underbrush to escape the growing gang looking for him.

Two things are not known to him as he runs away--the first thing is that in the wave to get him, his mother has been murdered by a biker gang, and the second thing is that the Shanty Tramp, who agreed to back him up and tell the authorities that she was not raped, and that their encounter was consensual, has decided to plead just the opposite, and say she was attacked by this guy.

I won't spoil the ending for you, but just let's say that the Shanty Tramp continues to get her way, in a strange sort of way.

Yes, this is a sexual exploitation film if there ever was one, using as many stereotypes as possible to get whatever message it has across to viewers.

What I liked about it is that it is deep, dark and pushes the envelope, once again, for what was allowed in a film during that time period.

Vaill has an excellent figure, and it is shown off mainly clothed in the film, although after her encounter with the young black man, there is some nudity, including showing off her charms with him next to her, a pretty risky move for a film that looks like it was made several years before nudity was deemed acceptable in films.

There are also some other scenes showing off her unclothed figure, and even by today's standards, the film is pretty raunchy.

But this is not a mainstream movie by any stretch of the imagination. Although the acting is pretty bad and the film is poorly made--written by K. Gordon Murray and directed by Joseph Mawra--it shows a place and time that is light years from 2018.

These types of films usually have something to tick off just about everybody, and with one stereotype piled on top of another, well, you have plenty to get angry about here, but somehow, the film works, because it is so bad that it forces you to stick with it until the bitter end to see what happens to the Shanty Tramp.

On a day where you need to kill less than 90 minutes, I guess I would recommend this film, which you can see at this YouTube address: https://youtu.be/6Ra_FtPXCIs

If nothing else, you will find out exactly what a Shanty Tramp is, and although Vaill is a nice looking lady, the definition of Shanty Tramp ain't too pretty.

Classic Rant #711 (April 6, 2012): Happy Easter, Happy Passover

With a full moon out brightly this morning, I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter and a Happy Passover.

It's kind of weird that Good Friday and the first night of Passover are on the same date, but that is how it is this year.

I don't remember the last time this happened, but it makes it kind of nice.

Now many of us have holidays to celebrate and those holidays begin on the same day.

I guess there is some type of benefit to being in a leap year, with the one extra day positioning the two holidays together.

And these are nice holidays, minus the crazed gift giving that highlights those other holidays at the end of the year.

The significance of these holidays stand out, as family oriented events.

And I like that.

Sure, Easter has been commercialized to a certain extent, and Passover is getting there, but right now, the two holidays are kind of unique and unto themselves as far as crass commercialization is concerned.

Easter has to do with the resurrection of Jesus, and Passover has to do with the flight of Jews out of Egypt.

Those are the basics, there's much more to the holidays than that, of course.

But they are holidays where families get together, actually sit at the table together and eat and talk and go over the various rituals each holiday literally brings to the table.

In our world, it is so rare for families to sit down and eat meals together, so these holidays are a brief respite from the everyday run-and-gun eating that we normally do.

And when you don't eat meals together, you don't talk with each other, so these holidays give us occasion to do that.

My family only eats together on the weekend. During the week, I eat at one time, my wife another, and my son another.

We haven't eaten with my daughter in months.

But finally, on this first and the second night of Passover, we will all eat together, and celebrate the holiday together.

I am sure it is a similar situation for other Jews, and for others who celebrate Easter.

So when we celebrate these holidays, take it all in and enjoy yourself, because these occasions don't come around very often during the year.

Have a great holiday, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #2,058: Bits and Pieces

Welcome to another week, the first full work week of 2018 for many of us.

Here are a couple of stories that I wanted to cover, none of which really demand a full-coverage Rant, only a smaller mention.

Here goes ...

Jerry Van Dyke Passes: Jerry Van Dyke died this weekend. He was 86, and with him, went a lot of good TV memories.

The younger brother of Dick Van Dyke, he could never compete with his older brother's overall popularity with the public.

I think he knew that early on in his career, and he carved out his own niche, but it took a really long time for it to take hold with the public.

Poor choices probably led to that situation.

Among other things, he chose the lead role in "My Mother the Car" over the lead role in "Gilligan's Island," which probably didn't seem that significant then, but with more than 50 years of reruns under its belt, well, Gilligan won out, made Bob Denver one of the most recognizable faces in TV history, and, well, "My Mother the Car" is often called the worst sitcom in TV history.

Upon further review, it really wasn't, but it could not compete with the popularity of "Gilligan" in any way, shape or form.

He also had the recurring role of Stacey Petrie in "The Dick Van Dyke Show," further solidifying himself as Dick's kid brother, both in real life and in the classic sitcom.

Van Dyke starred or was featured in numerous other TV shows and films--he was the comedic foil on the short-lived and highly controversial for the time "The Judy Garland Show," but it took him well into the 1980s to make his real mark on TV, as one of the stars on "Coach."

Not only did that show allow him to separate himself from his brother for good, but it netted him four Emmy nominations and, according to the man himself, "a lot of money."

He will be missed.

Golden Globes Protest: Well, the Golden Globes went on last night, and continued the political slant of recent years of the Academy, where actors and actresses appear to wear their gowns and tuxedos all the while protesting one thing or another in their own personally insipid way.

Last year, they ranted and raved against the new president, who they felt wasn't up to their supposedly high standards, and this year, the protest was sexual harassment, which, evidently, is so rampant in their industry that even though it was so clear in black and white, nobody saw anything happen, or at least shut their mouths when it did.

All of a sudden, everything supposedly is out in the open, and to show solidarity for their current cause, most of the participants wore black to demonstrate that they were all in for the cause.

However, not every actor and actress wore black, which was interesting, almost as interesting as many of the women still showing lots of skin in their black gowns, protesting sexual harassment with their chests hanging out for all to see.

Obviously, this group still doesn't get it; they are far from heroes. If you have heard many of them speak over the past few months about this problem, you know that so many of them saw this type of harassment, and some even were pawns in it, but few did anything to stop it.

All of sudden, now they are in solidarity. Or at least almost all.

Please, enough already, I don't think the American public is as stupid as the Academy thinks it is, falling for this nonsense.

Yes, sexual harassment does happen, nobody is going to doubt or argue that.

It is an absolutely horrible crime.

But the witch hunt going on now ... you can't blink at a woman now without being accused of this, and it negates the situations of the real victims of this crime, both inside and outside of the movie and TV industry, people these actors and actresses haven't a clue about.

And what do these champions of decency say to those who did not join in the "black" protest?

Weather Stabilizes This Week: According to the weather forecasters, the northeast part of the country, at least, will be getting back to more "normal" weather as this week unfolds.

Last week and into yesterday, single and low-double digit temperatures hit this part of the country, coupled with a midweek major snow storm that brought the northeast to a standstill.

My family was greatly impacted, as my son was pretty much out most of the week with a stomach ailment that was certainly brought on by him going in and out of the cold.

I, personally, was frozen to the gills, which, if you know me, is kind of unusual, because I generally am rarely what you would call "cold."

Heck, last Friday night, after doing the family food shopping, I was so cold that I put off getting gas for the car until the next day, when it was colder--3 degrees--but there was less wind.

Anyway, today is supposed to be in the 30s with a wintery mix of rain and show later in the day or into the early evening, and by the end of the week, we will supposedly be in the 50s with some rain, so a lot of this slop will be gone.

Good. I hate the snow anyway, so let the piles from last week's snowstorm go away as quickly as possible.

My Job Situation:

Speak to you again tomorrow.

Classic Rant #710 (April 5, 2012): Play Ball!

Ah, with the scent of tree pollen and allergens throughout the air, and with a winter that never was behind us, we know that the warm weather is coming because the Major League Baseball season, for all intents and purposes, starts today.

Yes, the Mariners and the A's actually opened the season last week in Japan, but how many of us really paid any attention to that?

And yes, the Marlins officially opened their new stadium yesterday with a game against the World Champion Cardinals, but although their 500 real fans paid attention to that, most of us didn't.

Today is the day, and I can't wait.

You just know that summer is around the corner when baseball begins.

Sure, there is a little nip in the air this morning in my neck of the woods, but baseball almost brings out the warmth.

It's like the two go hand in hand.

Baseball is the game that brings me back to my childhood (see photo). I can be a kid again when I watch a major league game, not the 55-year old that I nearly am right now (we'll have to wait 23 more days for that occasion to happen).

It's just such a fun game, with nuances that only fans can truly understand.

The Cardinals will be looking to defend their title without Albert Pujols, who went for the money to the greener pastures of California with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, or whatever they call themselves now.

The Texas Rangers have won the American League pennant two years running after never having won anything under that name. Remember, they are the descendants of the old Washington Senators, so losing is almost their middle name ... but not for the past two seasons.

The New York Yankees, my team, won't begin their season until tomorrow, when they play the Tampa Bay Rays. That is a good way to begin the season: two of the best teams in baseball facing off against one another.

I just hope that they get some fannies in the Tropicana Field seats for these games, and that the Yankees come out on top, of course. When you go to a Yankees-Rays game in Tampa, you swear you are in Yankee Stadium South, with so many Yankee fans at the game. I've done it, and it really is amazing.

Right now, the only game I know I am going to is at the Trop. When my family goes on vacation, we will be seeing the Rays and the Mariners. Not the best matchup, but I hope to fulfill my quest to get a foul ball this year, a quest that began in 1965 at my first game.

We have seats right behind the Mariners' dugout, so maybe our wish will come true this year. I will have to wait until July to find out.

We will go to a Yankees game, but that won't be for a while. I will get tickets later in the season, probably through a secondary source. The Yankees basically sell out every home game, or at least sell out in the seating areas that are barely affordable for people like me, so I have to go through a broker to get a seat.

My predictions: I think the Yankees and the Cardinals will face each other in the World Series, and the Yankees will bring home another World Series championship to the Bronx.

We'll know if I'm right in about six months.

Anyway, let's not jump ahead of ourselves: the 2012 season is about to begin, and I can't wait.

Play Ball!

Rant #2,057: Cold As Ice

No, I did not have to go to work yesterday ...

But my wife did, at least for a few hours.

Yes, the 14 or more inches of snow that we received yesterday did not fully close her place of business, so she trudged on to work in the middle of the year's first major snowstorm, as if she were part of the brigade of essential emergency personnel that help to maintain some degree of normalcy during such weather events.

She does not work in a hospital, she does not work in telecommunications nor is she an EMT, and she doesn't work at a TV or radio station.

She works in a bank.

Yes, banks are important. They hold our money, and anything that holds my money is an essential ingredient of who I am and the financial health of myself and my family.

But to be open during such a weather assault?

Heck, although I am sure they were in and working, we didn't even get any mail delivery yesterday.

My wife told me that several people did come in during the two hours or so that the bank was open.

You have to wonder about the type of person who would lug over to a bank during a major snowstorm, but she said that most people were making deposits, and if I remember correctly, one had to get a bank check, as he was closing on his new home yesterday.

But to go out into the snow that was coming down like it was, with the wind and the low temperatures, to do routine banking is beyond my comprehension.

To each his own, I guess.

As for me, I did call my work, and eventually, we were closed down for the day, but I, myself, was prepared to go to work if we were open.

Thank goodness that we weren't, that is all I can say.

Later in the day, I did try to shovel our walks, but the wind was so heavy that for every shovel-full of snow I picked up, another double shovel-full of snow blew back into the place I had just shoveled.

It was a fruitless and useless exercise, and after about a half hour of trying, I finally gave up.

So yesterday was a classic snow day, and today is a classic ice day.

I will soon go outside and try to de-ice my car, and with the roads still pretty iced up--it isn't expected to be even near 20 degrees today or tomorrow--I will go into work.

Today is pay day, and I need to be there to get my check.

And no, if you were wondering, we do not have direct deposit--don't ask--so yes, for me to get paid, I have to be there.

Personally, I would like to direct deposit the day and climb back into bed, but that ain't happening, if you get my (snow) drift.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a good weekend.