You ever see that Seinfeld episode called “The Revenge“ where George is fired, but he goes back to work as if nothing happened? I’m sure you have.
This is a true thing that happened to Larry David, who wrote the episode, and it happened to me, too! When I was 16.
I worked for Sears in the stock room. My family was going up to New York from Miami for a few weeks and I asked my manager for time off. He told me no, but I guess I thought he was kidding, he was a very dry person, never cracked a smile. And it was my first job, and I didn’t really know how things worked.
So, I went to New York with my family. We were gone for a couple of weeks.
When we returned to Miami, I went back to work. I guess I just walked in and started working. Vince, the manager, called me over and asked what I was doing there. I don’t remember the whole conversation, but I said I was back. I guess that didn’t sit well with him, and he told me I had been fired because I left town when he said I could not.
I don’t remember walking out after that, but I guess I just said, “OK,” and walked out.
I was a 17-year-old high school boy, loading boxes at Sears. This jerk felt I should be fired.
Many years later, I was in church and saw Vince sitting a few pews in front of me. He had a long Polish last name, which I still remembered. And I said in out loud, but in a whisper – which I have a tendency to do – say things out loud that I think I am thinking in my head, “Is that Vince so-and-so?” I spoke.
I said it loud enough for my sister-in-law who was sitting next to me hear. She said, “Yes, that’s him, he’s a jerk.” I asked, “You know him?” She said, “Yes, he’s a member of the church.”
The odd part is that he looked the same as he did so many years ago – guess this church-going-jerk made a pact with the Devil to stay young.
I was talking about AI and licensing last week and coincidentally, the next day, I was contacted by someone at Cartoon Stock to tell me that someone was using my work without being licensed, which I thought was strange since it had my copyright on it, so I know they didn’t get it from Cartoon Stock. But it was nice of them to keep an eye out.
They wanted to go after the people and charge them a fee. I told them I would handle it.
I emailed them and asked them to remove it, only because they did not give me credit by linking back to me and they basically cut off most of the copyright info. So that to me is a no.
They removed the cartoon and all is right with the world.
I only mention it here because I had recently written about it and here it was come to light.
Until next time . . .
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