Never Judge a Book By Its Cover
Written by Gordon on April 17th, 2009
Gordon Graham here with a sincere apology for being late (way late) with this piece but between taxes and traveling and preparing and planning and family duties – not to mention getting ready for the auction of MJ’s stuff at Neverland – there has been so much to do. Just kidding about the Neverland thing – I have a nose (the original from 1951 albeit bent just a bit from some pavement contacts) and I am happy with it!
And before I get going on my focused topic today, I want to thank each and every one of you – and all of the rest of the firefighters around California for their show of support and concern at the funeral of the four police officers who were murdered in Oakland. What was done in so many cities up in NorCal was just classy – and one of those things that will not be forgotten – by me, by my former peers on the law enforcement side – and by our public. Enough said. Thank you.
So what can I focus on today? I don’t know if you have watched the show “American Idol”, but it is my wife’s favorite show – and as such it is “our favorite show” if you get my meaning and when I am home in the evening I will watch Simon and Paula and Randy and the fourth person who has not said anything stupid enough to make me remember her name and if you want to waste some time doing nothing this is a harmless way to do so. I could be watching reruns of CHiPS (season two is now on DVD) but Mrs. G does not want to do that so we watch Simon and friends instead because that is “our favorite show”.
And I did not know this, but there is a British version of the same show – I think it is called “Britain’s Got Talent” and I could be mistaken on the name and I don’t know which came first but my guess is that the British show preceded the US show but I may be mistaken on that also.
So anyhow, I get the email with an attachment yesterday – and the email is titled “Never Judge a Book By Its Cover” and it was from a friend so I was pretty confident it was not a virus plagued piece of junk that would destroy my hard drive forever and it was a clip from the British version of the “Simon and Friends” show with a woman singing a song about a “dream” from a famous play and I know the name but if I tried to type it I would screw it up but it is the one that looks like “Les Miserables” and I think it had to do with someone stealing a potato or something and ending up in prison for life (and I see that Les Miserables has prompted the spell checker and I will ignore both of those red lines).
And I will be very frank with you – and I have watched enough of the American version of the “Idol” program to know this – that some of the “contestants” are “stooges” that are so devoid of talent that they actually become a “draw” and increase the numbers of viewers of the program which allows them to increase ad prices and thus revenue and the whole capitalist thing continues on.
So the clip starts with this woman on the stage – somewhat unattractive – and her name was Susan Boyle. And Simon is asking her some preliminary questions about herself and she has an odd voice (odd even for someone from the UK) and she has the less than perfect British teeth and her hair is 1950’s and she is a bit heavy and her nose looks a bit like mine but I think hers is naturally like that and she is a “wise guy” with some flippant remarks directed at Simon the Terrible and then the other British host – Pierce – (I think that is his name) asks her who she wants to be like and apparently the name she mentioned is some famous female star who got their career started on the same show – and everyone on the judging panel got a smirk on their face – and they invited her to sing and I knew it was going to be like “The Gong Show” where she would get the “gong” early on and Ms Boyle started to sing – and – “oh my gosh” could that woman sing. I know just a bit about good singing – and she was fantastic. For a moment I thought it was a “lip sync” trick being played – but it was her and my “oh my” could she sing.
And then the camera panned to the judges – and each of them had this look of utter shock on their face – true shock. And then the cameras started to pan the audience – and the same – literally mouths hanging open – this woman had a voice beyond belief. And she got a “standing O” from the audience and the Judge One said that she was the biggest surprise in three years and he gave her “the absolute strongest Yes” he could and then Judge Two gave her higher praise and then Judge Three (Simon) said that he knew the second she walked out to the stage that she was something special and everyone laughed because everyone knew she was going to “bomb” – prior to her singing a note.
So back to the title of this piece – “Never Judge a Book By Its Cover”. I sure have made that mistake in the past – and although I make a conscious effort not to – my guess is I still do it. We all have “biases” and “pre-conceived” notions based on appearance, clothing, and other outside indicators – and sometimes you are right and sometimes you are wrong.
Not to digress, but this is my piece so I will, I was up at CHP in service training in the 70’s – every other year I go to the academy for a week of training – and no one looks forward to that and it is a pain – and there is the old guy (a CHP officer) sitting in the front row of the class – a semi auditorium with leveled seats and he is spread out quite a bit because he was heavy – well actually he appeared to be fat and he was pretty quiet and kept to himself and took notes – which impressed me – and we had these two young “studly” type Physical Training officers come in to show us some of the newest self defense stuff and the importance of staying in shape etc. and after a bit it was apparent that their “weight” comments were directed at the old guy in the front row.
So they call for a “volunteer” to come forward to be the “officer” on an arrest and these two kids are going to show us how suspects practice maneuvers to take officers down and get their guns and kill them and that is why you have to remain in shape etc. etc. and no one volunteers – so they call on the “old guy” in the front row and it was pretty obvious that they were going to make a mockery out of him and use him as an example as to what can happen if you are out of shape (and you already know where this one is going) and he is supposed to try to handcuff this one officer (who is playing a bad guy) and it is pretty obvious to all of us that the other officer (playing the other bad guy) is going to make a move and it played along as intended and the old guy starts to handcuff the first guy and the second officer made the move – and just like the singing of Susan Boyle – “oh my gosh” – both of the young studly guys are on the deck (one got hurt) and frankly I don’t know how the “old fat guy” did it. I have never seen a guy move that quick – particularly a guy that big. And both of these PT guys are on the floor – and the old guy walked back to his chair and sat down. And of course there were a lot of smiles around the room and if there had been judges present – he would be going to Hollywood.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called “Blink” a few years ago. Your brain gives you the unique ability to sum things up quickly and make good quick decisions. While that is true, we must also remember that sometimes our “first impressions” are wrong – and can get us in a lot of trouble.
So, never judge the book without reading it – at least reading the synopsis of the book. Sometimes the cover can fool you – and that might be a costly experience.
Well that is it for me. I am running to a plane in a moment. Thanks for all your great work and I look forward to meeting with you again here soon.
Gordon Graham
Co-President, Lexipol
