"A man or a mouse?"

This morning I read this in an article about high-powered Hollywood agents: A standard morning greeting from one agent to another, "So, are you a man or a mouse, today?" Of course, some days, it pays to be the mouse. There's also this description of a successful agent, and I think, 'that's me': 'you present yourself as the Maynard G. Krebs of the avant garde, the smart, high-integrity, I take care of you by not going out presentation.' In the world of business, this is the role I think I cultivate for myself.

There's a big board meeting today at the company where I work. I am on standby, in case they want to hear from the man on the 'front lines.' My question to my business collegues yesterday, 'should I describe the reality of the situation?' Man, you should have seen the uncomfortable looks, the back-pedalling, the hyper-spin. Reminds me of a line I read in Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle": In a world that has been really turned on it's head, truth is the moment of falsehood.

This attitude was on display yesterday at the hearing in Washington on "Steroids in Baseball." Probably the only 'truth-teller,' of the bunch was the guy everyone considers a shill, a stooly, a scum-bucket, a man just hustling for a buck, Jose Canseco. Of course, Jose was probably the only one 'telling the truth.' But isn't it all much more convenient to want to hear the lie?