Clarence The Weasel

 When Clarence was my supervisor at the old paper mill, it was often said of him that he could fall into a vat full of shit and come out smelling like a rose.  What that means is he was always able to weasel out of the consequences of his bad decisions.  I suppose he made some good decisions as well, but for some reason, I don't seem to remember any of them.  It's hard for me to be objective about Clarence, since he refused to hire me back after he re-opened the mill under a new name, but to be fair, he did a lot of good for the town by keeping the mill open all those years, almost as long as Procter & Gamble had done before him.  Now this new owner promises to expand the operation, which would be nice if they really do it, only time will tell. 

I suppose that Cheboygan has its share of backroom dealings, all I know about any of them is what I read in our local paper.  I can see why a company would want to hold its cards pretty close to its chest, so it won't look so bad if the deal falls through.  Other times, though, there are big promises publicly made that never come to pass, like the last time Clarence announced that he was going to sell the mill.  He was in some kind of trouble with the DNR over a water pollution issue and had criminal charges filed against him.  He claimed that he had a buyer lined up, but they were reluctant to close the deal with those charges hanging over Clarence's head.  The DNR dropped the charges so that the deal could go through for the good of the town, but the buyer backed out anyway.  They said that they couldn't get financing because there was a banking crisis in the land, which eventually led up to the Great Recession of '09.  Our local banks, however, claimed that they were unaffected by the crisis.  One of them even had a big billboard on the edge of town that read, "We have millions to lend. Come get your share!"

It looks like the war in Ukraine is going to drag on forever, just like COVID.  After the Russians got their asses kicked trying to take Kyiv, I had hopes that it would wind up sooner rather than later, but it was not to be.  I never thought that the Berlin Wall would come down in my lifetime, but it did.  Of course, I had more lifetime left in those days than I do now, but you never know about things like that.