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WITandWISDOM(tm) - April 22, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you are doing is work or play. - Warren Beatty Source: Quote Lady's Quote of the Day, mailto:quote-a-day-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: This beautiful story comes from Sherman Rogers' old book, "Foremen: Leaders or Drivers?" In his true-life story, Rogers illustrates the importance of effective relationships. During his college years, Rogers spent a summer in an Idaho logging camp. When the superintendent had to leave for a few days, he put Rogers in charge. "What if the men refuse to follow my orders?" Rogers asked. He thought of Tony, an immigrant worker who grumbled and growled all day, giving the other men a hard time. "Fire them," the superintendent said. Then, as if reading Rogers' mind, he added, "I suppose you think you are going to fire Tony if you get the chance. I'd feel badly about that. I have been logging for 40 years. Tony is the most reliable worker I've ever had. I know he is a grouch and that he hates everybody and everything. But he comes in first and leaves last. There has not been an accident for eight years on the hill where he works." Rogers took over the next day. He went to Tony and spoke to him. "Tony, do you know I'm in charge here today?" Tony grunted. "I was going to fire you the first time we tangled, but I want you to know I'm not," he told Tony, adding what the superintendent had said. When he finished, Tony dropped the shovelful of sand he had held and tears streamed down his face. "Why he no tell me dat eight years ago?" That day Tony worked harder than ever before -- and he smiled! He later said to Rogers, "I told Maria you first foreman in deese country who ever say, 'Good work, Tony,' and it make Maria feel like Christmas." Rogers went back to school after that summer. Twelve years later he met Tony again. He was superintendent for railroad construction for one of the largest logging companies in the West. Rogers asked him how he came to California and happened to have such success. Tony replied, "One minute, you change my whole life." Source: The Funnies, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/andychaps_the-funnies ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Only a Mother . . . Can listen to the same knock-knock joke 27 times without hollering, 'Nobody's home.' Will be a Scrabble partner with a kid who thinks 'cookie' begins with a 'k.' Sees a Picasso in those scribbles decorating the frige. Knows all the verses to 'This Old Man.' Invests fifty dollars in stale macaroons to help send the French Club to Disneyland. Can look across town and locate a missing shoe from her office desk phone. Has a bathtub that's filled with little yellow duckies. Knows the location of every drive-through window in town. Source: Sunday Funnies, http://www.net153.com/best.htm ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: A police car pulled me over near the high school where I teach. As the officer asked for my license and registration, my students began to drive past. Some honked their horns, others hooted, and still others stopped to admonish me for speeding. Finally the officer asked me if I was a teacher at the school, and I told him I was. "I think you've paid your debt to society," he said with a smile, and left without giving me a ticket. Source: The Funnies, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/andychaps_the-funnies ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: TOKYO 2-27-05 -- Japan created what engineers here call the world's longest overland tunnel on Sunday, when railway workers blasted through a final layer of rock with a governor and other dignitaries looking on. The 16.4 mile Hakkoda Tunnel will become part of a new bullet train line under construction to link Tokyo with the northern city of Aomori about 360 miles to the north. The tunnel burrows under Mount Hakkoda in Aomori prefecture. http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=131408