Observer Online | Keep on Truckin'

Edition of March 23, 2007

Keep on Truckin'

Can there be anything better for a boy than a fire truck?

Not according to my son, who happily celebrated his second birthday on Saturday. While he was exceptionally pleased with all the other children he had to play with, the food and, of course, the cake, when it came time to open his gifts, there was only one on his mind.

The first gift he opened, with the insistent help of his 4-year-old sister, was a nice, shiny, plastic fire truck. And that was all he wanted. Forgetting about any other gift that awaited his unwrapping skill, he just begged for someone to get the truck out of its box.

And, as any parent can tell you nowadays, that's no easy task. The truck was passed down from adult to adult, as Charlie followed closely, never taking his eyes of the prize, until it got to Bumpa, Charlie's cheery ol' grandfather.

Bumpa worked feverishly to unfasten the truck from several feet of twisted metal ties, tape, glue and who knows what else. Finally someone else had to step in and help out with some scissors. Charlie meanwhile, jumped up and down like a poodle in anticipation.

Behind him, Charlie's sister was happily opening the rest of the loot, and uncovering such great items as a baseball bat (which Charlie will eventually use to bonk his sister on the head), a large toy lawn mower (which Charlie will eventually use to terrorize his sister in one way or another), and other toys.

The adults all had a great time, talking at a high decibel level because the children in the house were also having a great time. The food was great, the pictures will be precious.

The only thing Charlie is likely to remember about his second birthday, however, is that it was the day when he got his favorite toy of all time: a fire truck. Who could ask for more?

'Gifting' is Getting Out of Control

What's happening to the word "give," anyway? A few years ago I heard of "gifting" as it pertained to accounting and taxes. Well, I thought, that's the Internal Revenue Service for you. Take a perfectly good word like "give" and zap it with a bureaucratic spin.

Since then, it seems that everyone is "gifting" everything and nobody is "giving" anyone the time of day. When I purchased music online the other day, one option for purchasers was to "gift this music" to someone.

This week there was a headline in The Washington Post, of all publications, calling out the "gifting" of something in relation to a news item. Sheesh.

This reminds me of the great corporate terms my wife used to come home with before I converted her to the language of the family-owned business. Phrases like "Let's meet real-time," or "We've got to leverage the buy-in," or how about this one: "human capital." Kind of makes you feel like a member of a herd, doesn't it? "Moo."