a little hilarity from the front lines...

...of revolutionary struggle. Or if not the front lines, maybe the sidelines, or maybe the line for pretzels & soda.

Story #1

Apparently a group of comrades went to Cuba sometime recently. Among them were Brad, who doesn't speak Spanish, and Laurel, who does.

So Brad shows up somewhere with two Cuban women and asks Laurel to translate for him so he can chat with them. They talk for a while and then the women invite Brad back to their place to stay with them. Stoked at this opportunity to really bond with the revolutionary camaradas, Brad rushes up to his hotel room to get a few things.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Brad asks Laurel. Laurel laughs. "No, Brad, I'm sure." At his blank look, she explains, "Brad, they're prostitutes." "WHAT?????" Brad is shocked and so mortified that he makes Laurel go back downstairs and send them away.

[Interjection into the story from Isaac: "How did you know they were prostitutes?" Laurel: "You've never been propositioned by a prostitute, have you?"]

So apparently the really funny part was when they were reporting back to their branch, when Brad reported earnestly that "you can really see the benefits of state-sponsored health care, because Cuban prostitutes are very healthy, not like the prostitutes here in Detroit." You can just imagine the teasing he got for that, and apparently nobody has ever let Brad forget his report on the healthy Cuban prostitutes.

Story #2:

As part of our attempt to improve the democratic functioning of the organization, and make sure everyone's comfortable, and generally annoy the heck out of people, we have been having "check-ins" to see how things are going. (This reminds me of Franklin's post about his miserable job training retreat thing..I felt guilty reading it even then, because I feared I was going to unintentionally inflict similar torture on folks myself within a few short weeks...)

Anyway, during one of these sessions I was recording people's suggestions & feedback on a big flip chart when several people exchanged glances & started giggling. Later it turned out that I had written "facilitators give heads" as one complete item. Nobody has any idea what I thought I was writing, although we did all agree that if the goal was to release tension and make everyone comfortable, perhaps the performance of sexual services by the facilitators woud be useful....

Yes, it's true, we're just a bunch of big geeks. Havin' a ball, wish you were here....

---

P.S. Apparently while I've been out of touch the AFL split in two (!!) and the London cops shot the wrong guy in the head seven times. I guess they admit it was the wrong guy because they're Brits. I shudder to think what kind of bizarre and elaborate cover-up they'd have pulled in L.A.