The Crowhill Journal

Imagine you’re asked to implement one of two coronavirus policies for your company.

The first was written a month ago by the most brilliant person in the world.

The second was written this morning by three average managers who have been trying to deal with this over the last month.

Here’s the trick: You can’t read either one. You have to pick based on what I’ve told you.

Which do you choose?

I ran into someone who wanted to argue about a religious topic, and I was tempted to think, “People sure like to argue about religion.” (Of course I’ve done my share of that.)

Then I thought of other topics people like to argue about, like politics.

But then I thought, “people argue about everything. Sports, fashion, TV shows ….” Which got me thinking, “maybe that says something about a person — what sorts of things they like to argue about.”

The guy who likes to argue about sports is a different sort of person than the guy who likes to argue about religion.

Doesn’t that seem like something that should be included when we try to classify / organize personalities?

Generally speaking, if you have the foresight to anticipate that people might want a commodity, and you put your own money on the line to try to profit from that — well then, good for you. If the demand doesn’t materialize, you’ve lost your investment. If it does, you make a profit. That’s the way markets work.

The same rules don’t apply when you’re trying to profit off a catastrophe.

We all get a warm feeling when brewers stop production of beer and use their supply lines to provide millions of cans of water to people after a flood, or hurricane. Or when Chick-fil-A employees take free food to people stuck on a highway after a horrible wreck.

But when some guy tries to hoard lots of hand sanitizer to sell it to people during a health crisis, the public collectively gives him a middle finger.

Also, you don’t need hand sanitizer. Washing your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water is more effective anyway.

P&C review Pigweed’s latest homebrewed pale ale, made with homegrown hops. Then they discuss that monstrous bastard, Leopold the 2nd, King of the Belgians.

Leopold’s reign began in 1865. At that time, slavery was on the outs in most of the world, but Leopold didn’t seem to mind it. He thought that in order to be a major world power, Belgium had to have a colony. But the Belgian constitution forbade it. So Leopold did a fantastically sneaky end-around. (He was a bastard, but a clever one.)

Leopold hired Stanley, the famous explorer, to go trick the people of the Congo to sign phony treaties. This set loose a horrifying series of abuses in the Congo River basin.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Leopold is being praised as a humanitarian.

It’s a horrific story.

Mrs. Crowhill and I were thinking of something to do on #coronavirus weekend, so … we came up with this.

DC Hand Dancing is actually a style of swing that developed in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s. It’s a very versatile style that you can dance to lots of different types of music. But I’m afraid this silly video illustrates what most people think when they hear the name “hand dance.” If you’re curious about real hand dancing, check out https://www.dchanddanceclub.net.