Another Day at the Petting Zoo

Today began with a blog post on the PZ blog. It was in response to something in the news. Didn't seem like a big deal. The day went something like this:

Me: "Hey everyone! There was a big splash outside. Shall I write a blog post about the splatter pattern?"

Enviro Shark and the Big Dolphin: "Sure, that's a great idea." So, around 11 AM, I take a half hour and write the post. It's about 400 words. But the PZ is big on review, even for something this short, so when I'm done I circulate to Enviro Shark (ze is another analyst).

Enviro Shark and I usually see things more or less eye to eye. Ze gets back to me an hour later: "This is great! I suggested some links and changed three words."

Me: "Thanks for those great suggestions." I make the changes and then circulate to the Big Dolphin and the Jackal (they run stuff).

Big Dolphin and Jackal around 3:30 PM: "This is great! Add these four words and send to Sleepy Tiger."

Sleepy Tiger posts things to the website. At this late hour, I am concerned Sleepy Tiger will not post the post today, and it's already so late the splatter pattern has mostly dried off the pavement. But at the PZ, "rapid response" can sometimes easily mean three weeks.

So I am pleasantly surprised when Sleepy Tiger replies promptly that ze has posted my post. Yay. Woot! I send around an email that the post is up.

No sooner have I done this when Polar Bear, who is the program director of a program I am not part of, lumbers over to my office: "That post was all wrong. Why did you write that post? It wasn't radical enough to save my iceberg. You let the polar bear hunting corporations off easy. They need to die Die DIE!!!"

Me: "Um, do I work for you? The Big Dolphin and the Jackal approved it. They run the Expanding Habitats program. You run Frozen Tundra. Thanks, but, you know, um ... no thanks."

Polar Bear: "You're gonna get some nasty comments."

Me: "OK ... And?

Polar Bear: "I'm telling ya, you're gonna get NASTY comments."

Me, puzzled: "Uh, okaay. Do I look scared?"

Polar Bear, lumbering towards the door, shaking hir head: "Umhumhum, yes indeed, those comments might be mean."

We'll have to see whether I get ANY comments. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say, based on previous posts, that's a nope, probably not. I'd actually be excited to get mean comments. I could play at being Defender of Expanding Habitats. Yeah!!!!

Polar Bear then lumbers over to Enviro Shark's office and gives hir the same speech. WTF? Enviro Shark didn't even write the post. And doesn't even have the power to give it thumbs up or thumbs down. We run posts by each other to test out before sending to the jackal and the dolphin.

Whatever ... Enviro Shark and I are apparently in cahoots to start a revolt in the PZ.