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I got a call from the Seattle Times last week. Actually, it was their lawyers who called me. They wanted to know more about this new “Yays and Nays” feature we’ve been running in the TBTL newsletter. “It sounds a lot like our Rant and Rave column,” they said. “Your what column?” I asked. “Rant and Rave,” they said. “We know you know about it. You once spent like fifteen episodes of your podcast talking about your efforts to get a rant published.” “Oohhhh,” I said, “that Rant and Rave column. Sure.” “Yes,” they said. “You clearly stole our idea. We need you to stop publishing your knockoff version.” “Gee,” I said. “I don’t really see much similarity between the two features. For example, when your readers have a complaint, you call them ‘rants’. We don’t do that.” “Right. You call yours ‘nays.” “Exactly!” I said. “And you refer to your ‘raves’ as ‘yays’.” “See, you get it!” I felt like we were making progress. “This is your last warning,” they said. “Oh, phew!” I said. Warnings make me nervous. They hung up without saying a proper goodbye, but that’s okay. I think it was a pretty good meeting all around. And now that we got everything cleared up, I’m happy to bring you the latest batch of YAYS and NAYS from your fellow Tens! YAY to the school custodian who lets our first grader help him each week. School is a struggle for our son, but he LOVES working with tools and fixing things. The custodian has gone above and beyond to include our son, letting him help fix chairs, change the lightbulbs and refill the paper towel dispensers. This man is a gem, and we are so lucky he is part of our lives. YAY to Sharon, who was staffing the desk at Enterprise Rental Cars at the Sault Ste Marie airport a couple of weeks ago. I was going to visit my sister, who was in a rehab place after breaking both of her legs. Sharon pulled my car around to the front door and warmed it up in the 8 degree weather! AND there was a snow brush and ice scraper already in the car. Just lovely in the midst of stressful travels. NAY to Luke for playing the gong/crashing cymbal sound effect so loudly a couple of episodes ago when I was nearly asleep that it almost startled me out of bed. Take it easy on us sleepy Tens! NAY to my boss, who uses speech-to-text for emails but doesn't double check them for clarity and then gets annoyed when things aren't done how she wanted. YAY to all the Tens who are raising their voices by calling senators and representatives and showed up at the 50501 protests. Let's stay strong! YAY to the tween girl running the snack stand at my son’s baseball game. I did not anticipate a second breakfast of nachos, but your enthusiasm for your job got me. The PeeWee league is benefiting from your salesmanship and high standards. You were right, nachos were delightful on a chilly morning. If you have a Yay or a Nay you’d like to submit, just email me here! Just make sure not to call it a rant or a rave. Some people are touchy about that. I hope you all have a wonderful, yay-filled weekend. Luke and I will talk to you on Monday! — Andrew
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