A rainy GOOD MORNING to you all from a beautiful rainy morning in Seaside!!! Thought it was snowing but turns out it was just big rain drops!
Today’s bit o trivia: The Hyphen War. Yup. Hyphen. Like the line you put between words and not warring families. See, back in 1900s there was this country called Czechoslovakia. It’s a region in central Europe that the Austro-Hungarian Empire mashed together. Well, after WW2, the USSR came in and made it one of the Warsaw Pact satellite countries. After the USSR fell apart, the people in Czechoslovakia decided “hey, we should break up so we can have more people at the Olympics.” Not really but from 1989 to 1993, they implemented all the steps to make that happen and in 1993, it was done. The problem was what do they refer to the Old Country as. The Czech folks wanted the Czechosolavak Republic. That minimized the Slovak contribution. The Slovak folks wanted a hyphen which was Republic of Czecho-Slovakia. The Czech were like “aw hell no.” So, instead of calling it a hyphen, they called it a dash. HUGE difference… HUGE
Anyway…
What Would You Do Wednesday Ed-vise today
When you are in a staff meeting, do you pay attention to the people present? Do their movements catch your eye? Cast a quick observation to see what they are doing?
Here’s the scenario: a staff meeting. You are seated around a table with your peers who you have worked with for some time. Though that really doesn’t matter. The meeting goes along, no issues. Then, for whatever reason, one of your colleagues stands up. and reaches behind their back. What do you do?
Do you adjust your casual seated position? Do you get your legs under you so you can move? Have you already spotted your hide spots… Run, Hide, Fight? Are you ready?
This happened in the early 2000s at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Three people killed along with 3 severely wounded and everyone shook up. A shooting in the academic world. Think it’s not possible? Add to that impossibility the fact it was a woman.
Once the shots rang out, one of the doctors dove under the table. Almost instinctively. She then crawled under the table and fought the shooter. Her actions helped in preventing a worse scenario…maybe. See, the gun jammed or ran out of bullets.
If you can envision this scenario, you are one step ahead of the game. A sudden movement should catch your attention. Odd placement of hands along with odd movements of arms should cause you to adjust. If nothing else, one tactic: speak up. Feel free to ask that person “What’s up!” It might stop something bad from happening. I’m just saying
That’s it for today. Take care of yourselves. Check in on each other and remember if you have time to scratch your dog behind the ears, you also have time to scratch your loved one behind the ears as well.
Peace
Ed-vise 