Tomorrow will tell if second poll was right
Like most kids, back when I was growing up I had chores to do around the house. One of those chores was washing the dishes — a chore I really hated more than any other for some reason.
So, given this disdain for the feel of ivory liquid on my hands, one day I had a flash of brilliance. I would do a subpar job washing the dishes and then, just perhaps, I would be relieved of the chore. After all, no one wants to eat off a half-clean dish.
Well, guess what. My plot worked perfectly. Rather than having young Duane do a half-baked job on the dishes, I was soon relieved of kitchen patrol duty. I guess they figured I had a learning disability when it came to properly cleaning dishes.
Unfortunately the same thing didn’t work for mowing the lawn. I was simply sent back out to keep doing it until I did it right.
While this subpar performance got me out of some chores when I was a kid, I forgot the lessons learned at my younger age. In the real world, employers are trained to get as much out of you as possible. If, for instance, you are working on a production line and one day during a burst of energy and a zeal to overachieve, you make 100 trinkets in one day, then, for the rest of your life there, you’ll be expected to make at least 100 trinkets or more each and every day.
However, if you set the standard at say 60 trinkets, your workload will likely be much less plus you’ll likely earn just as much as you would making 100 trinkets a day. That is, unless your company finds someone who can make more trinkets for the same price. In that case, you’re looking for work at another trinket factory.
This whole walk down memory lane comes after I recently did a second candidate’s poll for the upcoming election. If you will recall, back in May, I did a poll. Frankly, even though I’d taken class in polling in college, I wasn’t sure it’d be anywhere near right. However, it ended up being dead on the head. Thus, I was commissioned to conduct yet another poll.
So, I’m standing out in front of the early voting place, sweating like a pig, getting toasted by the sun, asking people to take my poll. While I’m doing this, an elderly man walks up and imparts a great bit of wisdom to me. After I explained the relative success of my first poll and the pain of doing a second one, since I get paid no extra for doing these polls, he noted something obvious.
“You know, where you made your mistake is by getting it right the first time,” the man said. “If your first poll hadn’t been right, there’s no way they would have wanted another.”
He has a point. While excelling is good for the pride, it can sometimes only bring on more work. After all, there is an old adage that a good horse will get worked to death.
And what did the poll determine anyway? That Carol Hamblen and Kenneth Rogers were running a close executive’s race? That Bart Stanley and Robert Newman were the front runners for judge? Duh. I could have told you that without a poll.
With that said, will the poll be right this time? I fear it will be, although polls are fickle. There’s no guarantee just because it was dead on the first time that it will be right this time. Even an election official told me I was just “lucky” in the May poll.
Granted, I’m allergic to extra work; however, by the same token I’m also an egomaniac and have a constant need to always be right. I suppose pride is stronger than laziness in my case. And, I’d like to show the first time wasn’t a fluke. I guess we’ll know for sure sometime Thursday evening.
(Duane Sherrill is crime and court reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)