LM1187 Don’t Be Like Mad Mike

LM1187 Don’t Be Like Mad Mike

LM, Episode 1187, 3/20/23, (Remaster Episode 108, 3/2/20), Management Monday

My Grandma Rader had a wicked sense of humor.  Once when Dad was little,someone commented how much he looked like his mother.  Grandma told Dad, “Thank the nice lady.”

One Sunday morning when I was ten our preacher mentioned my name at the beginning of his sermon.  Grandma whispered to me, “Oh, my, this can’t end well for you.”

And when mom heard me laugh out loud in church, Grandma’s premonition came true, it’s like she’s Nostradamas or something.

In school I was a class clown, but not the typical one because I made good grades.  I’d be in class thinking, “I understand this, maybe I can deprive someone of their education.”  Like Grandma Rader, I’d say something to my friends under my breath and they’d laugh and in school, like in church, it’s the person who laughs that gets in trouble.

When I was in the eighth grade, I had an English teacher, Mr. White, who became a hero of mine because in the eighth grade I was completely immersed in puberty and Mr. White was married to a former playboy bunny.

After a couple of weeks of school, Mr. White asked me to stay after class and I thought, “Maybe he’s going to have me over for supper.”

Mr. White says, “Kent, I can’t have you continuing to disrupt class, how about, if you are quiet all week long and do your work, the last five minutes of class on Friday is yours? You can get up in  front of the class and make us laugh before we go home.” 

“Okay.”

I immediately started watching Johnny Carson’s monologues every night so I could steal jokes.  “Evil Knievel jumped over 25 cars last night.  Unfortunately, there were 26.”

And when I heard a group of people laugh, it was the most joyous sound I ever heard and I behaved all year for Mr. White because I lived for those Friday afternoons.

Just before the pandemic, Evil Knievel wanna be, Mad Mike Hughes died when his homemade rocket crashed while he was trying to prove the earth is flat. It’s unusual when, quote, “trying to prove the earth is flat,” isn’t the dumbest part of a sentence. That award goes to, “died in a homemade rocket.” Evil Kenevil used a Harley for his stunts, not a Schwinn with a lawn mower engine. 

Humans have known the earth is round for 2500 years.  Pythagoras and others observed eclipses and figured it out.  Today for Management Monday I want to encourage you, don’t be like Mad Mike.  Base your business decisions on facts, not on what you hope to be true.

Years ago when I was doing accounting for home care agencies, Medicare changed how they were reimbursing them.  I met with all of my clients, informing them, if they didn’t cut the number of visits per patient, they were not going to be in business long.

I had a client, one of the nicest people I ever met, yet she refused to believe reality, insisting that God would keep her open.  She didn’t last 90 days.

Pythagoras said, “Truth is so great a perfection that, if God would render himself visible to men, he would chose light for his body and truth for his soul.”and, if Pythagoras were here today, I am sure he’d say, “never ride on a homemade rocket.”  Always remember laughter matters.