Send In The Clowns

When I was in the second interview for the CFO job I have now, the President/CEO of this architecture firm was in the room. He was clearly bored by all the accounting talk and I thought I was doomed. Then he turned to me and asked, “What do you do for fun?” I said, “I write comedy for Gary Burbank.” My boss saw the chance to be the only architecture firm in town with a comedy-writing accountant and he grabbed it. Humor makes mind-numbing financial tedium more palatable and SOME people in our federal government need to learn that

.“The Treasury Department revealed Friday that it is scrapping plans to hire a cartoonist to lighten the mood of its employees who manage the nation's $1 trillion-plus debt…”

I was referred to this story via Dave Barry’s blog. Dave captioned it with “Instead, They’re Going to Hire a Clown”. But, really, why would they hire a clown when Joe Biden is just down the street? (I was going to say “why would they hire a clown when Tim Geitner is right upstairs” but Tim is actually more of a weaselly racketeer than a clown.)

"Our training staff felt that at a time when employees are working extra hours, it might have been helpful," said Kim Treat, a spokesman for the bureau…. The contractor would have to be able to "create cartoons on the spot" about jobs at the bureau, according to the text of the solicitation.

Imagine you are working extra hours for the 20th day in a row. The cartoonist approaches your desk and hands you his latest cartoon. “I have drawn an amusing scene to capture the futility of your efforts and mock the way in which you waste the taxpayer money in this mindless bureaucracy. Don’t get up. I can just insert it into my behind with all the others your coworkers have placed there”

What Treasury needs is a full-time regular financial type employee who can bring the funny. Dear Tim Geitner, let’s talk, I could be available for the right price. What? That racketeer remark? Just a sample of my work, Tim.


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