<p>^^^
Well, at least I know he didn’t learn this by talking to plumbers. Because, as I recall, he can’t talk to plumbers.</p>
<p>He’s an interesting writer. He has a lot of ideas. Some of them seem contradictory. Or maybe that is just because I truly am not a very close reader.</p>
<p>I frankly do expect my plumbers to be passionate about their work. Only commenting because I’d like to be party to a thread hijack. (“Is it possible to be passionate about blue collar work?”)</p>
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<p>I was just wondering if this is the same guy who is a favorite of the OP of this thread. I guess so. In that case, the thread has curiously come full circle. I thought it was coincidental, but now I’m seeing that maybe you posted that quote intentionally because of that fact. :)</p>
<p>Absweetmarie - how do you figure out if your plumber is passionate about his work (is it sexist to assume all plumbers are male?). Is there a way to measure that?</p>
<p>Many of the carpenters I know really do love their work. I think they get as much satisfaction out of seeing their finished projects as my uncle did of getting the best of the IRS (tax lawyer), or my Dad did as a diplomat, or my brothers do producing websites and databases or teaching people to be better programmers.</p>
<p>I think WD is a dope.</p>
<p>My mind is going to kooky places, texaspg, thinking about how to measure passion in a plumber. But, in fact, the ones who’ve done work in my 100-year-old condo have seemed to be into their work in a way that made me feel confident. And proud of my old toilet and tub. I learned how to talk to plumbers since I didn’t go to Yale (an inside Deresiewicz joke) and come from a family of union laborers.</p>
<p>Inversely, does it extend to Yalies not being able to measure the passion in a plumber since they don’t know how to talk to a plumber? :p</p>
<p>On a side note did you order your union buddies to go on strike in Chicago because it no longer affects you?</p>
<p>Is he really saying there is no passion in lawyers or plumbers and they are just all working for the money? Or is he saying that is how “the public” views them? I don’t know. I keep reading and reading and giving him the benefit of the doubt. </p>
<p>Is it deliberately provocative? Or unintentionally elitist?</p>
<p>fwiw he has a website with links to most of his writings</p>
<p>WD, like too many, is making his money riling people up. People like OP, who took him on his word. My plumber is passionate about his work- you should see the way he ties pipes and get him talking.</p>
<p>I think, alh, that Deresiewicz is saying in this instance that “the public” does not demand that plumbers be passionate. He may or may not mean to provoke. He asserts a lot, though, about academia, what “the public” thinks about academia, what Hollywood thinks, what the true nature of the student-teacher relationship is (should be?), etc., in what I would describe as a muddle of articulate but ultimately not very profound prose. </p>
<p>As for you, texaspg, you are a provocateur! Teachers on strike! Let’s discuss that dispassionately!</p>
<p>texaspg and absweetmaire, common, from all your posting history it seems you are thinking adults, and you don’t know how to tell whether a plumber is passionate or not? Really? Any ten year old will tell you that you can tell the passion by the plumber’s butt.</p>
<p>My entire family on dad’s side were craftsmen-carpenters, woodworkers, bricklayers. If anyone ever doubted their passion, they should have spent a Thanksgiving dinner spent discussing drywall, sheetrock and the quality of output from the local brick factories. </p>
<p>However my Thanksgiving with lawyers and paralegals seemed to involve stories of offensive clients, derision and dislike for their jobs. </p>
<p>mhmm-vote for the best post of the thread.</p>
<p>I agree with mizzbee on the best post! Being a male, i don’t wonder about correlation between plumber’s passion and his derrier but i was curious how absweetmarie graded passionate plumbers.</p>
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This reminded me of a time when we had to call Roto-Rooter late at night for a clog disaster. The guy who showed up was this huge, bald guy with a strong Polish accent. He was extremely passionate about Roto-Rooter. He showed me the device at the end of the snake. “You see this? The other companies, they have only two prongs here. Roto-Rooter? Three!!!”</p>
<p>“is it sexist to assume all plumbers are male?”</p>
<p>Not sexist perhaps, but wrong. Romanigypsyeyes was a plumber, and I’ll bet she knows plenty of passionate ones.</p>
<p>I have been more passionate about my blue collar jobs than my white collar ones. Who is to say what things are meaningful to others?</p>