Denny Crane saves the day

Whew!
Boy, did I have diarrhea of the keyboard yesterday (May 29, 2007). I guess when you haven't written for a week or so, there is so much inside that wants to come out.

Anyway, some of the blog got picked up by Max Hartshorne, a blogger who owns a travel cafe in South Deerfield, Mass., and a blog about parking at airports.
http://www.airportparkingreservations.com/blog/index.html
The direct line to my pickup is
http://www.airportparkingreservations.com/blog/2007/05/great-little-airport-except-for-parking.html

Did you see "Boston Legal" last night. My man Denny Crane was the hero of the episode.

Crane, played by William Shatner, saved the day for two boys accused of killing their father. I won't ruin it for those who missed it and will see it in reruns, but Denny was the man.

One reason I liked the show so much was that it redeemed an older man who had been the butt of age jokes in this episode and other previous shows. The jokes were mostly about Denny's pants and his forgetting to put them on.

In this episode, he's shown as a man who not only pulled his own weight, but whose experience and clear thinking pulled his partner Alan Shore (played by James Spader) out of a difficult situation.

The New York Times, among others, has been featuring stories about the plight of older workers who want to return to work after retirement or those who want to work past usual retirement age.

It seems that although employers know that older workers bring a lifetime of experience, panic less in difficult situations, have faced nearly every situation that can occur on a job and tend to be more loyal, work harder and take less time for personal business, bosses still don't want to hire them.

The rap on older people is that they get sicker than younger folks, use up more medical resources and just don't fit in the fast-paced workplace. It's just not so, the Times article said

So, let's hoist one for Denny Crane, the man who comes through in the clutch, even if he forgets his pants from time to time.

You didn't think you were going to get through Len'sLens without a complaint about something, did you?

This one is simple. People, don't hang, place, stuff, attach or otherwise put sales fliers where they can be seen by passers-by.

I returned home today to see a bright orange piece of paper sticking out of the screen door. It was from a home improvement company, soliticing work repairing roofs, decks, siding, windows and a host of whatever can go wrong with the house.

Fine -- companies have to let you know about their services and I've hired people after receiving their fliers.

But folks, put the bloody thing in the door, the mail slot, the mailbox, IN SOMETHING.

What if I wasn't due to come home for a few days. It's late spring. People go away. I just got back from a week's trip. What if this bright orange piece of paper had been there telling all and sundry that I wasn't home.

What would happen? Maybe nothing. But even 25 years later, I still remember the feeling in my stomach and the look on my wife and kids' faces when we returned from a two-week vacation to a house that had been burgled. OK, it was decades ago, pre-alarm, but it still haunts when my wife talks about the keepsake given to her by some long-dead aunt that the thief took.

Thanks for taking the extra two seconds. I promise to at least read the flyer put into the mail slot. I also promise to discard the one stuck on the door, unread.