When I first started at the government site, I was a little overwhelmed. There was a lot to take in. In one of many meetings during the first week, our government boss asked how we liked "drinking from the firehose." I have since heard lots of other people use the expression "firehose mode," so I guess she didn't coin the phrase, but I thought that it was a good, apt description of a person trying to take in a very large quantity of information in a very short time.
"Tiger team," on the other hand, is ridiculous. What can a team of tigers do for you other than protect their young and prey on large mammals? I'm pretty sure they don't have any other skills, though I wouldn't tell one that to its face. Pigs and dolphins are smarter. I can easily see why you'd want to avoid standing up a pig team, given that recruitment would be difficult, but everyone would want to join a dolphin team. OR--you could just use regular words, and call it a special projects team.
Or an A team! Because everyone loves it when a plan comes together.
*****
Ignore what I said last week. I totally want the Capitals to win the Stanley Cup.
Obviously, I'm delighted that they beat Columbus in the first round, but of course, now they have to try to get past Pittsburgh again, and if Thursday night's third period shit show was any indication, then the climb is Mount Everest-style uphill.
Meanwhile, I have an official complaint to lodge with Mr. Leonsis and the Capitals organization. We attended Game 1 of the Columbus series, and although that series turned out happily, the first game ended badly, with an overtime loss, notwithstanding an early game 2-goal lead. We had hoped, when we bought the not-at-all-cheap tickets, that the traditional Game 1 giveaway would be something good, like maybe a bobblehead, or a rally towel. Instead, we got light sticks. And when you picture that in your mind, don't think about a decent, self-respecting miniature flashlight kind of thing. Picture instead a styrofoam tube wrapped in cellophane (and there's two archaic words in one sentence). Because it was a styrofoam tube wrapped in cellophane, which Boeing unwisely allowed its logo to be imprinted upon.
Insult added to injury--the Penguins gave away t-shirts at their first-round Game 1. T-shirts, for Penguins fans! Those bitches have Stanley Cups out the proverbial yinyang and they get t-shirts!
Light sticks. Hmph. You can't cry into a light stick. Round 2 continues.
*****
This is my family in 2014, at the Pyongyang Platform at Dorasan Station. Dorasan Station is the northern terminus of a railway line that used to run the entire length of the Korean peninsula. It's less than a kilometer from the Demarcation Line at the Demilitarized Zone. The sign in the upper right corner reads: "When the Trans-Korea Railway (TKR), the Trans-Siberia Railway (TSR), and the Trans-China Railway (TCR) are connected in the future, Dorasan Station promises to emerge as the starting point of the Transcontinental Railroad." As my husband explained it to me, after he visited in 2008, the South Korean government maintains the station, though it's no longer operational, so that it's ready to transport passengers between Panmunjom and Pyongyang when the two Koreas reunite.
At the time, nothing seemed less likely than reunification. Now, I guess anything is possible. Maybe Trump deserves some credit (and now my hands hurt, from typing those words). Or maybe it's a case of Tired Mountain Syndrome. Whatever. If one or the other or a combination of those two things represent the first step toward collapse of the worst regime on earth, then it's good news. I can't imagine how beautiful and energetic South Korea will be able to absorb and integrate the undereducated and impoverished North Korean people, but that's a problem for later. Hope springs eternal, for Korea, and Capitals fans during Round 2 against Pittsburgh, and for the rest of the whole world.
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