Feeling All A’Twitter Over The Best Gift Ever

How cool would it be to own your own fire truck? That’s what ran through my mind the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when I saw a flurry of tweets from our locality’s surplus auction site.

It’s part of my job to post Twitter and Facebook updates from my employer (a local County government) to the masses. I had helped our surplus department set up a separate Twitter account a few months back, but I hadn’t seen anything come over the wire yet. Usually the auctions are for old computers, file cabinets, office chairs and other such. I decided to take a peek and see if there was anything Santa would consider bid worthy.

I almost didn’t believe the first item at the top of the list: a 1985 Pierce Pumper Fire Truck! The listing read “Vehicle runs good, just removed from active service, batteries weak, no generator.” And the current bid was only $1,255! What a deal! My first instinct was to place a bid – but while Santa may be an opportunist, he is also pragmatic. Where would I put a fire truck. I’m pretty certain there’s no mention of street side parking of emergency vehicles in my homeowners covenants, at least not until I would drive my newfound toy into the neighborhood….

Instead I did my duty, and reposted the link to our main Twitter account and 700+ followers after the words “Best gift ever for the person who has everything! Fire truck now on auction, Roanoke County Surplus!”

Driving back from a fine Thanksgiving dinner with relatives, I saw a note on my phone from my boss, directing me to the local newspaper, which had picked up my post and a few other details, with a small headline of “Surplus fire truck is up for bid online.” What a thrill to see my few simple works picked up and put into print, extending my little message to 70,000+ newspaper readers!

For a little reality check, the item did run at the top of A17, seventeen pages into what is probably the least unread printing of this newspaper all year. After all, this is the day that every major and minor retailer inserts their sales catalogs for the imminent Black Friday festival of shopping. Who wants to read news, when flat screen televisions, iPads and new X-Box Kinect consoles are on sale?

But it was flattering to see something I put out into the ether make it into print. It made my short note a little more real, more substantial than just another shout into the digital void. At 11:30 p.m., just one day and 15 hours before the auction’s scheduled end, I sneaked another look at the Pierce Pumper. The bidding was now up to $3,100, and a note saying the reserve for this item was still unmet and that the auction may be extended.

I get the feeling that this little dream will end up costing way too much for this guy’s Santa, but still…wouldn’t it be cool to wake up Christmas morning to see your entire front yard taken up by a real, honest to goodness fire truck? And I’m pretty certain it would only take a few rides around the block to cinch up that coveted “Coolest Dad Ever Award” from the neighborhood kids.

Proof is in the eye of the beholder

I ran across something today that I’m really not ready to comment on, but felt compelled to share. It’s a short video on YouTube from a filmmaker in Belfast, who spotted something odd on some vintage Charlie Chaplin footage. Check it out, check out the comments and make you own supposition.

Last Argument of Kings – Why?

“The Last Argument of Kings” is, I believe, one of the greatest historical quotes ever. France’s King Louis XIV had this stamped onto his cannon, in effect proving the maxim “might makes right” for all who crossed his path on the military field. But we all know how King Louis’ story ends, cannon or no.

There are two sides to every argument, or so the saying goes. And let’s admit it, no one likes to be on the wrong or losing side of an argument. Many of us will do whatever we can to convince the world that we’re in the right on any particular topic, even if somewhere in the back of our minds, way down deep, we feel the niggling fingers of doubt begin to unravel our logic and righteousness.

King Louis had no doubts. The divine right of kings meant that he didn’t have to worry about uncertainty. As Mel Brooks said in The History of the World Part I, “It’s good to be king.”

I think it’s a basic human need to be right sometimes. Being right nourishes our sense of self-respect and dignity, certainly good survival traits in themselves. After all, by the laws of probability, no one can be wrong all the time, or so I keep telling my wife.

But modern leaders have become more and more accountable to the people they represent. Time and again across the globe we’ve seen citizens rise up and make leaders realize it’s NOT good to be king, if they don’t consider the needs of their subjects above their own “rightness.”

I believe that sometimes our leaders need to inspect the high ground on which they place their standard, and make certain they are standing on bedrock, not shifting sand that may collapse when the cameras turn away. And sometimes dear leaders, it’s even wise to consider if the ground is worth the battle in the first place.

And finally, “The Last Argument of Kings” is also the title of a great fantasy novel by Joe Abercrombie, but that will have to wait for another post.