On a Blog Tour with Judy Berman

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Kate very smallThanks to Judy Berman for including me on her blog tour. Judy is a former reporter and current teacher (isn’t that a combo!) who can make any story interesting. She writes about her family, her travels, her work and sometimes just a fictional novelette. Always interesting and always different.

I am expected to talk about how I write. Perhaps to inspire someone. That’s like asking a centipede how they walk. If they stop to think about it they will be crippled for life. So I have no idea how I write.

Erma Bombeck is my idol, followed by Dave Barry. (If you didn’t read his column on colonoscopies, you are missing the boat! If you want to laugh all day, click on the link and read it!) There are many others. Most but not all are humorists. I like snark in my humor along with some digressions, tangents and a pinch of sacrilegious or irreverence (depending on my spice du jour).

For many years I wrote as a human resource professional. I wrote policies, procedures and a lot of thou-shall-not-memos. All serious stuff. You know what that means. Here are some examples of my best work:

• Dear valued employee, please be aware that you are expected to wear proper business attire to work. Actually we would be delighted if you wore any clothes at all! (Seriously, do I need to put a mirror next to the entry door??)

• Dear valued employee, we have good news and bad new. First the bad news is that your contributions for benefits is going up a gazillion dollars. The good news is that there will be dessert at the company picnic. Anyone wishing to volunteer to bake should contact us.

• Dear valued employee, we are reorganizing to meet global challenges. Please remain calm and do not jump out of the windows which by the way are locked.

I was always sensitive in my communications…always.

Originally this blog was a way to showcase my writing skills in hopes of professional business gigs. I gave up that idea after the first post. It’s way more fun to write about cats and stupid people. There are enough stupid people to last a lifetime and unfortunately cats too. Worse yet, they (the cats not the stupid people) live in my house. Like with me.

Just watching people at Starbucks gives me inspiration. Do people not know how to order a cup of coffee??? There are stories I can’t write because you wouldn’t believe it really happened.

Writing makes me feel fulfilled. It’s my justification for my daily Starbucks mocha latte. It’s my contribution to…umm…society.

As for being different from other humorists, I believe we all have our topic niches. That and the degree of irreverence differentiate us from each other. As much as I enjoy inane rants, I don’t like profanity for the sake of profanity. You won’t find it here but neither will you find epistles to be read at church.

That is certainly enough about me. Now I have to check on that centipede. Hopefully he is walking by now.

Thanks again Judy and be sure to stop by and visit her.

32 thoughts on “On a Blog Tour with Judy Berman”

  2. Haven’t laughed this hard for awhile. It’s a great anti-dote to my seriousness! I’ll be sure to read Dave Barry and Judy Berman 🙂 Damn, you are soooo funny!

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  4. I do love reading your stories, and I agree there are a lot of stupid people that could keep us all entertained.
    I still need to find my style and get back into the grove, but for now I live my blogging dreams vicariously through you, my mom and others.
    Thanks for the laugh!

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  5. I loved this! I haven’t read Dave Barry’s take on colonoscopies and, since I am supposed to get one this year, maybe I’d better not just yet.

    But I love your take on stupid people and cat antics — fun fun!
    MJ

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  7. Good job Kate. I don’t know if this means that you’ve hit the blogging bigtime, but I certainly hope so. You deserve it. Will now go visit new-to-me Judy Berman.

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  8. So many reasons to love you, starting with our shared love of Erma Bombeck, Dave Barry, snark-ism and cat-blogging. But the HR humor! That gets me every time! I would have been proud to join you in putting my name on any one of those memos!

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    • OMG! We had issues with flip flops, doorags (on women), baseball caps and spaghetti strap tops with bare midriffs. We had an executive wear Bermuda shorts but call them NY high style implying we were frumps. I didn’t like the roll of fashion police so we called the managers together and told them they were responsible for dress code in their areas. They were called on it if they didn’t follow through. When someone came in with the wrong attire, there was a group complaining at my door. I could do a whole post on business attire!

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  10. Like Erma Bombeck and Dave Barry, you have the ability to write with humor about the inane antics of our fellow beings.

    “Would you like a side of snark with that?”
    “Yes, please. In fact, super-size it!”

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  11. Congrats on being selected for the blog tour. There’s nothing better than recognition from another writer to keep the juices flowing. Love this post and the Dear Valued Employee examples…brings back memories for me too. Well done!

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  12. What a hoot! I love this, Kate. I will, indeed, check out Dave Barry’s Colonoscopies, and I have loved Erma Bombeck since our girls were little. Thanks for the shout out. You keep me laughing. 😆

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  13. This was great… I’m glad for some insight into your previous life.
    “Corporate” and I make lousy dance partners. I used to complain that company policy makes for some pretty stupid outcomes. You nailed it in your memos.

    Off to visit Judy!

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    • Corporate is about business. Most people never get that and get offended in the process. I worked for a company that tried it’s best to be compassionate most of the time but sometimes the government regulations are against that too.

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