those darn cups

I am having a cuppa tea with my good mate, J, and we are having a laugh about all of the horribly branded cups that are floating about the office.

In other industries you may get sexy, little-items, of envy as gifts, but don't expect to receive anything so grand or imaginative in big-BAD-oil-and-gas rather expect to receive the following items:

1. A logo'ed tea cup;
2. A rather innocuous t-shirt (or cap) that you are to embarrassed to sleep in;
3. A set of coasters;
4. Pens, clocks, calendars - like a beauty contest - results in no particular order.
5. And finally something digital now that everything is rather cheap perhaps a memory stick with a presentation on it.

It's all very conservative but that's what the industry epitomises, a deep sense of neutrality. Yet it does make for surreal conversation, and reminds me of a recent joke which I read and will share as it's Friday after all:

A man dies and goes to hell. There he discovers that he has a choice: he can go to capitalist hell or to communist hell. Naturally, he wants to compare the two, so he goes over to capitalist hell.

There outside the door is the devil, who looks a bit like Ronald Reagan. "What's it like in there?" asks the visitor. "Well," the devil replies, "in capitalist hell, they flay you alive, then they boil you in oil and then they cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives."

"That's terrible!" he gasps. "I'm going to check out communist hell!" He goes over to communist hell, where he discovers a huge queue of people waiting to get in. He waits in line. Eventually he gets to the front and there at the door to communist hell is a little old man who looks a bit like Karl Marx. "I'm still in the free world, Karl," he says, "and before I come in, I want to know what it's like in there."

"In communist hell," says Marx impatiently, "they flay you alive, then they boil you in oil, and then they cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives."

But… but that's the same as capitalist hell!" protests the visitor, "Why such a long queue?"

"Well," sighs Marx, "Sometimes we're out of oil, sometimes we don't have knives, sometimes no hot water…"

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7412

bon weekend.