October 19

Am I missing something or was that my two weeks' notice? Sometimes the subtleties of office protocol make it difficult to assess your standing in a concern’s hierarchy. On the 19th in 1953 Arthur Godfrey informed his music director, Julius LaRosa, that LaRosa’s services would no longer be required by announcing, on live national television, after LaRosa had just finished an upbeat musical number, that the song just played was LaRosa’s swan song. After the show, somebody had to tell LaRosa what Godfrey had meant by calling the number a swan song. It means you’re done, you’re outta here, fuhgedabout it, or words to that effect. From what I can determine, there was no matching ashtray and lighter set or shiny gold watch involved in the deal. I’m convinced that if Godfrey were alive today he would have told LaRosa by posting the termination notice at some blog or other, though perhaps a simple text message might have been sent to ‘all network users’. However, that sort of thing takes the personal, human side out of publicly humiliating a co-worker and where is the fun in that?