Tuesday Tuneage
"Hello Hardee's"
Mid-To-Late 1970s

So that Triumph/Hardee's blog post from a couple of weeks ago sent me on a trip down Hardee's Memory Lane. Weird, as I'm not even that big a fan of the chain. I worked at one for a couple of summers in college and those summers I bet I ate the employee-discounted food two or three times total. (Though to be fair, in the second summer they dropped their signature char-broiled burgers in favor of fried ones in a misguided attempt to save bucks.) But still … I can probably name all the towns that I have ordered Hardee's in: Crookston, Detroit Lakes, Elk River, Grand Forks, Long Prairie, Milaca, Minneapolis (remember the West Bank location off of 35W??), Moorhead, Sauk Centre, St. Cloud, St. Paul, Staples, Wadena. Like I said: Weird memory trip.

This Hardee's thing I have going is likely caused by this commercial, a favorite thirty seconds of TV of mine as a kid, one that has always stuck firmly in my memory. Ten years ago or so while driving to Minneapolis from St. Paul, I stopped at the Hardee's off of I-94 to get lunch and brought it to my afternoon client. Queries were made by the folks there as to where I had scored the Hardee's. As by this time they had brought back their signature char-broiled burgers, I proceeded to riff on this old commercial, pumping my fist and yelling: "CHAR-BROILED BURGERS! CHAR-BROILED BURGERS!" As everyone in the room was quite younger than me and had no recollection of this commercial, things went quiet after my outburst. And the commercial wasn't on the web to show, so I was left looking like a raving madman.

Now it is on YouTube and of course it has brought me much joy in this new year. And this Hardee's nostalgia has me craving Hardee's char-broiled burgers and some fries, we're talking Taco John's-like craving here (blasphemy, I know.) If I had a car, I'd make the trip to St. Paul for that Hardee's right now. But don't be surprised if you're on a Metro Transit commute sometime and you hear a middle-aged man yell: "I WISH THIS BUS WAS GOING TO HARDEE'S!"

Tuesday Tuneage
Link Wray &His Ray Men - "Rumble"
1958

MEMO
February 1, 2013
To: Evan Ruud, CEO Tuomala Worldwide
From: Bill Tuomala, Jack Of Some Trades
Re: LinkedIn Account

Evan -

I appreciate the company's move towards social networking, but can I close my LinkedIn account? It's useless! Words fail me on how crappy the LinkedIn experience has been in my six years or so of dealing with it.

"LinkedIn is a wasteland of the hopeless, overeducated, unemployed. It's a hope-free zone." - Def Jeff Johnson

LinkedIn has gotten me zero new accounting clients. I suspect folks just Google my name and after they read my assorted irreverent essays and my inane tweets, they take a pass. Obviously, my twenty-five years of experience and self-proclaimed title of "Best Bookkeeper in Minneapolis" does not help me online.

"I suspect that my antisocial minority will soon be a majority, and we'll have an antisociety! Imagine that! Will Rogers the ultimate outlaw!" - Lester Bangs

You can probably guess how I feel when I get those requests to "Join my network on LinkedIn." Do you think my heart skips a beat or do I think "Ah, crap"? Yep, you know it. They've replaced the forwarded "this is funny" emails from the days of yore. Why deal with this type of nonsense in my inbox? I've got lists to make, inspiration to ponder, and work to contemplate.

"He's on LinkedIn, Lemon. He might as well be dead!" - Jack Donaghy

Let me know how I should move on this issue.
thanks
BT


MEMO
February 2, 2013
To: Bill Tuomala
From: Evan Ruud
Re: LinkedIn Account

Tuomala -

For a figurehead, you have a lot to say. My advice: Terminate with extreme prejudice.
Evan