Knot Really Working
Jena... Ain't That A Brand Of Frozen Pizzas?
Somewhere in my big pile o' crap is a box containing most of my old corporate training gear from my last job. Pounds & pounds of manuals, certification stuff, handouts, and all the other detritus of schlepping all over North America to deliver the Gospel according to Canton, MA. (old company's HQ location)
Somewhere in that box is a videotape that could get me tarred and feathered by the PC police.
I went through several certification courses on the path to becoming a trainer, the most stringent of which was infinitely less taxing than my college Intro to Geology class (aka 'Rocks for Jocks').
One of the courses required a videotaped session of me teaching the rest of the class how to accomplish a task. The tape was so that you could go back and critique your own performance. The session was to last 10 minutes, you had to have visual aids & handouts, and each classmate must be able to perform the task by the end of the 10 minute period. Easy, right?
Actually, yes. Whatever faults I may have, leading a class isn't one of them. This was going to be a breeze, but I needed a task I could manage inside of 10 minutes, and I was pretty sure that dolphin-flogging was not a viable option.
I thought about it for a while, and finally decided to fall back on my knowledge of ropes and knots learned as a Boy Scout.
You can see where this is going, can't you?
I went to Home Depot for 200 feet of 3/8" manila rope, & Walgreen's for a box of waxed dental floss. I then went home & sat on the couch as I cut off fifteen 12-foot lengths of rope, whipped the ends to prevent fraying, and practiced my performance.
The next day, in front of a rolling camera, I taught 15 people how to tie a hangman's noose in less than 10 minutes. I even had enough time left over to discuss placement of the noose for neck-breaking vs. slow strangulation, and the dangers of too far a drop with a heavy individual. (The head can sometimes pop off...)
Not one person in the class had any issues with what I taught. It must be mentioned though, that not one person in the class was black, either. In fact, that place was so lily-white that it wasn't until 6 or 8 weeks later that someone finally complained about the noose hanging in my office. I had just tossed it up on a shelf after class, but part of the knot & loop was dangling off the shelf and apparently gave some passerby a case of the heebie-jeebies.
I'm sure if I tried to re-run that class now, it would make national news, and I'd be banished to Timbuktu.
Howeve, I believe in preserving knowledge for knowledge's sake. You never know when you might be called upon to help the next Saddam Hussein to meet his maker, so if you want to learn how to tie a hangman's noose, just bring your rope to the next blogmeet, and I'll set you straight.
Somewhere in my big pile o' crap is a box containing most of my old corporate training gear from my last job. Pounds & pounds of manuals, certification stuff, handouts, and all the other detritus of schlepping all over North America to deliver the Gospel according to Canton, MA. (old company's HQ location)
Somewhere in that box is a videotape that could get me tarred and feathered by the PC police.
I went through several certification courses on the path to becoming a trainer, the most stringent of which was infinitely less taxing than my college Intro to Geology class (aka 'Rocks for Jocks').
One of the courses required a videotaped session of me teaching the rest of the class how to accomplish a task. The tape was so that you could go back and critique your own performance. The session was to last 10 minutes, you had to have visual aids & handouts, and each classmate must be able to perform the task by the end of the 10 minute period. Easy, right?
Actually, yes. Whatever faults I may have, leading a class isn't one of them. This was going to be a breeze, but I needed a task I could manage inside of 10 minutes, and I was pretty sure that dolphin-flogging was not a viable option.
I thought about it for a while, and finally decided to fall back on my knowledge of ropes and knots learned as a Boy Scout.
You can see where this is going, can't you?
I went to Home Depot for 200 feet of 3/8" manila rope, & Walgreen's for a box of waxed dental floss. I then went home & sat on the couch as I cut off fifteen 12-foot lengths of rope, whipped the ends to prevent fraying, and practiced my performance.
The next day, in front of a rolling camera, I taught 15 people how to tie a hangman's noose in less than 10 minutes. I even had enough time left over to discuss placement of the noose for neck-breaking vs. slow strangulation, and the dangers of too far a drop with a heavy individual. (The head can sometimes pop off...)
Not one person in the class had any issues with what I taught. It must be mentioned though, that not one person in the class was black, either. In fact, that place was so lily-white that it wasn't until 6 or 8 weeks later that someone finally complained about the noose hanging in my office. I had just tossed it up on a shelf after class, but part of the knot & loop was dangling off the shelf and apparently gave some passerby a case of the heebie-jeebies.
I'm sure if I tried to re-run that class now, it would make national news, and I'd be banished to Timbuktu.
Howeve, I believe in preserving knowledge for knowledge's sake. You never know when you might be called upon to help the next Saddam Hussein to meet his maker, so if you want to learn how to tie a hangman's noose, just bring your rope to the next blogmeet, and I'll set you straight.
posted by El Capitan | 11:45 AM
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