Friday, Dec. 02, 2011
JUST SO YOU KNOW: No penny for my thoughts
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By Dennis Minich, Special to The Democrat Missourian
I have all kinds of opinions, and I am usually not afraid to share them.
For example, some have noted I have little love for the St. Louis Cardinals. Good catch. And even though I did pick them to win, it was much more a case of other teams choking than anything the old Red Birds did to win it. I also have two other opinions in baseball for which I am unwavering: the DH makes the game more exciting and interleague play kills the uniqueness of the game.
But I have lots of opinions which have nothing to do with baseball: paper or plastic? Paper. The chicken or the egg? Chicken. Plain or peanut? Obviously peanut. Yes, it is okay to wear white after Labor Day. Mary Ann beats Ginger hands down and the best late night is not Jay or Dave, but Craig Ferguson.
Of course there are a few topics for which I have no opinion. Big 12 or SEC? Don’t know, don’t care, see ya. And of course I don’t understand the distinction for shaken not stirred. Not a martini guy so don’t care. As you can see, I am not afraid to share opinions, even when they aren’t solicited. So when someone asks my opinion, I light up. And that includes those telephone surveys. I always love they will take about five minutes and end up taking the better part of an afternoon, but how can you complain when someone really wants to know your preference in brands of tuna fish or if I shop for Velcro or am willing to purchase any generic hook and stitch fastener.
Even better are the political calls. For example, I once got a call and asked me if I was familiar with Candidates A, B, C? They then asked if I would vote for A, B, or C? Then after I said I would not vote for candidate B, they read off a stream of facts about candidate B, like he beats his dog, once kissed a toad and was once heard humming the French national anthem. They then inquire if knowing those facts makes me less likely to vote for him? How do you answer that? Am I now less likely to vote for someone for whom I said I would not vote for? There has got to be a logical answer for that, I just have no idea what it could be.
With all that being said, I expect a national survey to come out sometime soon singing the praises of AARP. I suspect that most people surveyed will have great things to say about this group of older folks. I know this because I was surveyed recently. It started normally with a young lady who I think said she was from the Penn State survey group or something like that. She wanted to know if I had ever heard of Costco, AARP and some other assorted things which seemed unrelated. She then focused in on AARP and unleashed a series of questions for which I answered: I have heard of it, I don’t belong to it, I have no desire to join it. No, I do not agree they are a lobbying group which reflects my concerns and opinions and no, I don’t support their lobbying efforts. Then asked for what I thought they should lobby for I said, “IN MY OPINION: they should concentrate on programs and services including insurance and travel and stay the heck out of politics. I don’t think they should be lobbying Congress at all.” At that point the line went dead.
Having done some telemarket surveying in my past, I am familiar with the kill switch available to callers and monitors, used primarily for calls which seem to be fraudulent or for when a caller becomes belligerent. It appears it works equally well when someone doesn’t like your product. So I fear the survey may be skewed, but that might just be my opinion.
Now, all you AARP supporters can line up behind the Cardinal lovers in booing my thoughts, but I just ask, please don’t ask my opinion if you don’t really want the answer.
