Sold

Here's why I would never be a good salesman: there is something inside of the people who can make a career in sales that pushes them to complete the deal when the potential customer is wavering. I don't have that; in fact, I go the other way and back off. I just don't have the pushy gene in me. This was made apparent the other night. We recently had a gas fireplace installed at our house. [Sidebar: Let me just say it is very pimp to have a remote-controlled fire. I am one remote that makes a disco-ball come out of the ceiling away from being Glen Quagmire.] Anyway, because of the new fireplace being self-contained we no longer needed the glass surround which was on that chimney. I figured I would see if we could get a little money for it on Craig's List. I only wanted $40, so I asked for $50 (as you do with Craig's List). For six days I got exactly one real email about it (and my reply to that email went unanswered) and 40 emails that had "Fireplace" as the email heading, only to turn out to be spam about getting free government money.

However, on that sixth day I got an email from an actual person who wanted to know if the surround was still for sale and if I would take $40. (Apparently waiting until the day an ad expires and then under-bidding is not exclusively an eBay thing). I told the guy sure and he said he would be by on Monday. This is where my not having the pushy gene came in. I spent the rest of Monday going over the fireplace surround like I was inspecting a painting that was to hang in the National Portrait Gallery. I was noticing every little crack and area of rust. I was suddenly convinced this thing wasn't even worth $40. (It is at this point I should point out that it was in front of a fireplace that didn't work for the last 15 years and was in great shape. Also, a new fireplace surround with glass doors and steel mesh curtains would cost you about $300. In retrospect, this guy was getting a deal and a half.) None the less, I was convinced this guy wasn't going to want it and I had wasted his time making him drive over. As it turned out, the entire transaction took about 45 seconds. The guy came in, double-checked my measurements to make sure it would fit over his fireplace, handed me two crisp twenties and was out the door. I guess I'm a better salesman than I thought.

-The Golden Globe nominees were announced today and I have to say something bothered me about them. The Fighter got several nods, as did The King's Speech, which is all fine because they are allegedly very good, except those movies haven't actually come out yet. I understand that the rules state the movie only has to have been released by the end of the calendar year, but what fun is it to honor movies no one else can go see yet? If anything, you would think that it would be better for the film industry as a whole if they stuck to only nominating movies that are already in nation-wide release, because it would help spark ticket sales (look how well The Hurt Locker did after it got all those Oscar nods). This would be like the NFL boarding up training camp, cancelling all the exhibition games and then leaving it to the beat writers to tell me how good the Patriots look for the upcoming season. The point I'm trying to make is this: film critics rarely speak for the masses. Just because they say something is going to be great doesn't mean it will be. After all, according to all the hype I was supposed to love Avatar and let's just say I was under-whelmed by the final product.