Scot is an Idiot.

[scot]

You're stereotyping, Ethan.

[The Gin Genie]

A magician and an employer.

Allow me to introduce myself.

My real name is Nigel, my stage name is "The Gin Genie." I do a stage act which uses some good props and an assistant.

I am also a retired mechanical engineer. I say retired, I own my old company outright and it currently employs about 250 people at three locations.

A long time ago, I used to hate unions. I was a partner in a new business which was growing steadily and with the almost full employment enjoyed in the 50s and 60s it was tough being an employer.

I thought I was a fair man. I wasn't. I was never a bad man, never a racist, never knowingly sexist. However, I was a man of my time. I paid girls less than men, I paid black men less than white men (we called them "coloured" in those days.)

However, I liked people, always have.

When the sex discrimination act came in I was indignant, rather like Taxi is on this thread. I agreed totally with the race discrimination act, if my competitors had to pay a fairer rate, then so could I. But you know, there were times that I would think "you should be grateful I'm giving you this chance" if an employee was black and he was complaining. Never ever thought that about a white employee. I'm older and wiser now.

In those days, boys did mailing, van driving and engineering and mechanical stuff. Girls did paper pushing, secretarial stuff, made the tea and so on. It was the way it was.

To add insult to injury, while girls did girls jobs, they were supervised by men. Men clerks always had more money and status than girl clerks except women over the age of 50 who we called battleaxes.

In the mid 70s we went through the farce of interviewing girls for mens jobs and men for girls jobs.. We moaned about it, laughed at the candidates behind their backs, and knew that the people who made these rules did not have a clue about the real world.

We were wrong.

After you have interviewed ten girls for an apprenticeship in mechanics, the idea stops being funny. It took some considerable time, true, but girls began to apply, and then we interviewed them, scoffed at them, but eventually, in the early eighties we had a girl mechanic.

I bought my business off my partners in the mid eighties. This enabled me to manage the personnel. I hired proffessionals to do almost everything else that a board needs to do, and I became the company personnel officer.

I had by then learned that the best person for the job, is the best person for the job and you can't find out who those people are until you hire them. And by sorting out the personnell, I turned around a company that was shrinking and we survived that terrible recession in the early nineties very well indeed.

I found that my managers and foremen were prejudiced and often reluctant to take on certain people from certain groups. Race, Age and Sex were a factor.

Age discrimination is normally used to describe a prejudice against older (over 50yrs) people in the workforce. However, it works on many many levels, and the people most guilty of this are the 18 to 25 year olds.

I do light duties now, I still own the company but I have delegated almost all of the work. I work in a delivery bay two mornings a week, it's fun. Lots of people on the shop floor talk to me like I am retarded or stupid because I am obviously (alcohol makes me look very old for my age) over the hill (and they haven't got a clue that I am their boss.) Lots of young people are mistrusted.

My biggest regret is that we have a great relationship with a trade union, but we struggle persuading our employees to join. I normally find that treating them like shit for a fortnight has them signing up in no time.

In my experience with magicians, I would say that Jester is probably right to challenge that advert. It is crap. Stephons comment "She needs to be lovely" has to be sarcastic. I use three different ladies for my act, they are all the wrong side of 40, but in costume, with make up, they look lovely. They are glamorous, charismatic and their timing is superb.

Its the legs that do it. When we've tackled agism there will be another argument about appendagism I'm sure.. However, my point is, the ability to perform on stage should always take precedence over hair colour and percieved tastes. And maybe if more of us challenged these absurd views there would be more models with some body on them modelling the lingerie.

That speech by Martin about "I care about P'net, you devalue these boards" and other guff. I could hear the US national anthem playing in the background. I nearly threw up over my keyboard. Who's intelligence was that Republican trying to insult?

I used to dismiss everything I didn't understand as PC. I have to say, forty years after I started my business, the PC people have slowly but surely changed all of our lives for the better.

I recently spent £625,000 making all of our premises accessible to the disabled. It was worth it, because a lot of our older staff can get about the shop floors much more comfortably now.

Reading the comments on this thread tells me why prejudice exists. You are like I was. You are good people, how can what you practice possibly be wrong? It's a syllogism.

Ageism is not a farce.

[martin ewen]

Dear Jesters dad.

You know instead of buying out your partners at the period in time where Thatcher was crushing the unions therefor reducing the overhead and the cost price of the enterprise you now own and using the business as your own amusing charade where you rub shoulders with the common folk making their working lives better or worse at your whim.
You should have spent more time with your son and less time drinking such that now your son wears a hat with bells in a vain passive aggressive attempt to seek vengence and your attention.
Does your factory produce hankies? I fear I may need them in bulk before this soap opera is over.
I'm glad you spent all that money on disabled access just as you yourself grew old enough to appeciate it.
You appear to be a collection of anecdotes rather than an actual individual.
But then I must not presume to know what or who you are else I come to the wrong conclusion.
In closing I would just like to add that I think George Bush is a wonderful man and has made the world a better and much safer place.
Apparently You mention you have a history of heavy drinking. So has our esteemed leader. Perhaps you have more in common than you thought.

[jester]

My Dad

Martin the master of insult has lost the plot.

First I am Magrat, then this man is my Dad.

Let me put this simply for you Martin. This man is accusing you of conservatism... He was a conservative, but life taught him not to be. Now you are a conservative.

Before long you'll be saying "thats political correctness gone too far.."


That of course is just my opinion. Here's a fact:

You once asked what I contribute to this board. If you look at the gigs board you'll see quite a lot of gigs which either I posted, or I told the agent where to post. That more than makes up for the one loss of a job which I doubt anybody on this board could have applied for anyway.

Oh, and several of those postings have led to gigs for people who read these boards.

I had thought this thread finished, but I'm glad it's been revived. Bless you Nigel.

This is the blah de blad thread and this is my "spam" as Martin puts it. Maybe, I'm not an actual person, maybe I am several other people pretending to be me.

If you don't like me, please put me on your ignore list and ignore me. Don't sing a song about how I'm on your ignore list, don't peek at me everynow and then, take a snipe and then pretend you are ignoring me, Just ignore me. I'll ignore you too. You will be far happier and I will be no worse off.

[scot]

I'm an idiot for starting this thread.

[gav]

me too

yeah well I'm an idiot for contributing to it, and for also thinking that 'gin genie' was most likely jester or someone else that he put up to the task.
or am I ?

Why would someone sign up and post only in this thread ?
Seems rather odd to me.

[le pire]

Hey Mart,

Even though your post made me laugh out loud, give the guy a break. I mean hey, who ever thought you could teach an old bigot new tolerance.

I don't pretend to know the guy, or even if he's real but I'm willing to give his sincerety the benefit of the doubt.

That being said, casting of a show is at the discretion of the producers and if you don't like it than produce your own bloody show and hire a 67 year old for a "lovely assistant" and quit your griping. Oh wait a minute-- if you gave a preference for an older person that would be ageist, too. Ok, ok then just hire a talented person. Oh wait a second, then your playing into a MERITOCRACY and who wants t do that when there is a perfectly well established "good old boys" club in place. Speaking of which, giving a female preference is SEXIST!!! YOU'RE ALL PIGS!! ALL OF YOU!!


I'll shut up now.

etienne

[Peter Voice]

Nijel (the wannabe barbarian and I assume pronounced Nigel), the Djin (pronounced gin) and the Genie are all characters from "Sorcery", Terry Pratchett's fifth book in the Discworld series.

Some coincidences are fascinating aren't they?

[martin ewen]

The gin genie is also a character that lasted one comic in the Marvel comics family.
She was introduced and killed off in the one episode.
She , fueled by alcohol, could make things shake. Earthquakes if directed at the ground or individuals.
I feel your pain Scot.
"Scot redirects his libido into creative comic pursuits to produce handicapped mexicans who drool their seminal fluids on others for laughs....you have to be there."
Happier?

[jester]

Originally posted by le pire
Hey Mart,

Even though your post made me laugh out loud, give the guy a break. I mean hey, who ever thought you could teach an old bigot new tolerance.

I don't pretend to know the guy, or even if he's real but I'm willing to give his sincerety the benefit of the doubt.

I think many people have evolved with the times and I think he had stopped being bigoted long before he got old..

You're absolutely right there Ettiene. Give him a break.

I think the response he got from Martin might explain why he has been loathe to post before. I don't know. I've tried looking him up on the internet and can't find a trace of him although I've found quite a few magicians called Nigel.

I found his post quite refreshing actually... somebody who agrees with ME.. No wonder you're all suspiscious.

[jester]

Originally posted by Peter Voice
Nijel (the wannabe barbarian and I assume pronounced Nigel), the Djin (pronounced gin) and the Genie are all characters from "Sorcery", Terry Pratchett's fifth book in the Discworld series.

Some coincidences are fascinating aren't they?

If you rearrange the letters "ELVIS" it spells "Lives." Conclusive proof that he didn't really die by your logic.

Terry Pratchett has to be one of the most widely read authors in Britain so that doesn't really prove much. However thanks for telling me. You are this weeks Golden Anorak.

[scot]

and the bleat goes on...

[jester]

Yep! But you have become a much more likeable idiot.

[Frisbee]

Scot,

Are you going to post something cool about your up and coming fame and fortune in the "hype yourself" forum...say around April?!?!?!

I hear things....the walls have ears.

congrats on everything you are doing...

[scot]

what? I'm getting an apartment? That's right everyone, I'm sharing a one bedroom in a college party building! Keep toiling and your career will explode like mine.