Comments on: Glenn’s staff ruins irreplaceable fishbowl hand painted and autographed by Orson Welles

By: DON WAGNER

DON WAGNER — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 23:08:00 +0000

I’m not just sorry. I understand your grief I really do. Three years ago, my wife Harriett at age 46 died from a seizure and the image of giving her cpr while I waited on the medics will not be erased in this lifetime.
About a year ago, I was vacuuming under the sofa, when the vacuum head caught an extension cord. As I retracted the hose, I saw a hidden power cord coming with it. In my peripheral vision I saw something moving, but the distance was too great to reach and in a moment it smashed on the floor and shattered!
What I had saw moving in slow motion was a ceramic lighthouse sitting on an end table; one of several gifts Harrie had given me the first Christmas we spent engaged to be married the next year. The lighthouse gift just amazed me because she had remembered; and what I thought was such a tiny gift had meant a great deal to her. It was just costume jewelry but I liked it, a small inexpensive little gold lighthouse pin with a tiny diamond for a light.
It seemed like an eternity as I watched the fragile lighthouse tumbling to the floor, the top breaking into ten or more pieces. I sat there for a minute – then started shaking and grieved for several hours, thinking, ‘so this is what a breakdown is all about’. Someone is going to find me out of mind sitting on the floor next to a vacuum and broken ceramic. After sticking my head under cold water for a couple of minutes, I gathered my wits, picked up the pieces and tucked them away in small box. Then I set the lighthouse back on the end table with the top missing; found the little switch and the light came on!
I know how much that fish bowl means to you, but it is not broken, it’s just faded a little and now it has a story that you and Orson can laugh about in a place where fish bowls, lighthouses and people can be renewed by the Master Craftsman of the universe.
With all of our love,
Don & Harriett

Smyrna, Georgia, 20120623SA

By: Judy

Judy — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 03:28:00 +0000

By being so nice about this you have probably succeeded in making the cleaning lady feel really rotten. Seriously, I think you shouldn’t have even talked about it today. Dig deep and see the real reason you did.

By: Jeremiah Nierras

Jeremiah Nierras — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:22:00 +0000

Oh God, I feel bad for laughing now. Sorry, Glenn, we lose some, and we lose some A LOT.

By: Yitz Garfinkel

Yitz Garfinkel — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 17:25:00 +0000

Glenn, I am so prud of you that you can be the man we should all aspire to be if the same thing would have happened to us. I know things like that have happened to me and I know what it took to not go ‘ off the deep end’. You’re a real “Mentch”. God bless you!

By: Cheryl Glodowski

Cheryl Glodowski — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:31:00 +0000

Oh, I feel your pain, but I agree…all you can do is laugh and look at it as “stuff”. Stuff doesn’t matter in life. Your treatment of the lady that did it is what matters, and you did a good job. Take it home, put a fish in it & enjoy it that way!!

By: Jugears "tricky dick" Soetero

Jugears "tricky dick" Soetero — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 21:29:00 +0000

I hate to say this but knowing many cleaning crews in my days of working and running businesses are all one mistake away from being fired with many just trying to do the right thing …..but it’s kind of emblematic of what’s going on in the nation. Can’t communicate with a quarter of the people and half of those you can aren’t listening. They HEAR you but don’t listen.

Half of it’s one one page, and the other half are on their own page and not leaving IT anytime soon. 150million Chiefs and not ANY Indians.

By: dinker

dinker — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:09:00 +0000

It’s too bad about the value of the fish bowl—but I was wondering about the nationality of the cleaning lady as I think that anyone from this country and of a certain age would know the name Orson Wells or wouldn’t just go ahead and wash off the decorations of anything.

By: Jeffery Scism

Jeffery Scism — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:20:00 +0000

Scenario, A dirty object is on the desk, it wasn’t there yesterday. Do you wash it? Or do you put a note on it that say “Do you want me to clean this?” and wait for the NEXT day? MOST cleaning people will take method 2.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:31:00 +0000

I have worked as a custodian in several places and businesses. One cardinal rule is: NEVER TOUCH anything on the boss’ desk!!!! (Actually, at many places, if it’s on a desk, it gets left alone, no matter what it is.) Dusting is OK, but if there’s even an old burger wrapper, it gets left on the desk. Sorry, but I would probably fire her. If she had been a long time staffer, perhaps a rundown on the rules.

By: ThomasC

ThomasC — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:17:00 +0000

You know, for someone who is constantly preaching about the truth and advising others to seek out the truth, Beck sure loves to believe and live the lie of Abraham Lincoln.