Familiarity

Perhaps in Nigeria they have a different standards for business communication in Nigeria? Because Dr. Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, Deputy Chief Governor of The Central Bank of Nigeria, sent me an email this morning letting me know that someone, somewhere, has approved a payment of TEN MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS (Dr. Kingsley is less clear about whether I am supposed to get this money or send it--clarity counts, Dr. Kingsley!). He says I have to make a choice between wire transfer, Diplomatic cash payment*, or ATM card payment.

But that's not what I'm wondering about. You see, Dr. Kingsley never even uses my name. He doesn't even say, "Dear Friend," or something vague but almost businesslike. He greets me as my mother-in-law greets me: "Hello Dear." I'm sorry, Dr. Kingsley, I will not be sending you $10,700,000, or receiving such a sum from you. I was raised better than that; I don't take money from someone who greets me so familiarly--at least not until after the first date.


*I have no idea what this is, but it evokes the image of two men in expensive suits and mirror shades meeting in the dark of night behind a warehouse somewhere, moving suitcases full of unmarked bills from one car with DIP plates to another.

Olbermann on Robertson and Limbaugh

Perhaps because I'm reading Walter Cronkhite's A Reporter's Life, I'm thinking about the difference that good writing can make to a news report--even a balanced report that is as close to unbiased as human nature permits. If it's an opinion piece, of course, there's real elbow-room for eloquence, if the writer wants to use it. Keith Olbermann clearly likes his elbow room, particularly when he's outraged. In this particular piece I have to say, I not only agree with him, but I really like the eloquence that flirts with orotundity but doesn't quite go there.

I particularly love his characterization of Robertson's comment as "dripping, self-satisfied, holier-than-thou senile crap, " and his coda: "You serve no good, you serve no God, you inspire only stupidity and hatred, and I would wish you to Hell, but knowing how empty your souls must be for you to be able to say such things in a time of such pain, I suspect the vacant, purposeless lives you both live now are Hell enough already..."

Dude.