Ed Greenwood IX has been fired

[Monte Smith]

Why doesn't the New York Times, the nation's premier journalistic organ and paper of record, ask this joker how he became the IX?



Solitaire Costs Man His City Job After Bloomberg Sees Computer
By WINNIE HU
NYT - 2/10/06

Playing computer solitaire on the job has become one of the more common, if stealthy, ways of passing time in the modern-day office. But people who work for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg may want to think twice before playing the game.

Edward Greenwood IX was fired Jan. 30 from his job as an assistant in the city's lobbying office in Albany, not long after the mayor spied the game on his computer screen during a Jan. 4 visit to the state capital.

Mr. Greenwood, 39, said he was dismissed with no notice, and no severance pay, after working there for six years. He earned about $27,000 a year for duties that included sending legislative bills to city agencies and copying and circulating office memos.

Mr. Bloomberg confirmed yesterday that Mr. Greenwood's firing offense was the game of solitaire, saying that city employees were not paid to play at the workplace. The firing was first reported yesterday by The New York Post.

"I expect all city workers — including myself — to work hard," Mayor Bloomberg said during a news conference in Midtown Manhattan. "There's nothing wrong with taking a break but during the business day at your desk, that's not appropriate behavior."

In response to a reporter's question, Mr. Bloomberg, who built his own financial information empire, added that his own lack of computer skills had probably kept him from using his work computer for anything else.

Mr. Greenwood said yesterday that he always finished his work in a timely fashion, and that he played solitaire only when there was nothing else left to do, usually a few times a week or during lunch breaks.

"Any and all work I had to do, I did with a passion," he said. "If I have a stack of things to be done, I'm not the kind of guy to put it off."

Mr. Greenwood said that he had left the solitaire game on his computer while going to pick up tickets for the mayor and other city officials to attend the governor's annual address to the state. When he returned, Mr. Greenwood said, the mayor had arrived and was posing for pictures with other office workers.

Mr. Greenwood said that he asked for a picture with the mayor, too, and that was when Mr. Bloomberg went into his office and saw the solitaire game.
"I don't have any real animosity towards the guy," he said. "He's the boss, so if this is the way he wants it handled, there's nothing I can do about it. But am I happy about it? No."

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

Mr. Greenwood, 39, said he was dismissed with no notice, and no severance pay, after working there for six years. He earned about $27,000 a year for duties that included sending legislative bills to city agencies and copying and circulating office memos.

S.O.P. up here in Albany. One of my favorite public officials here is the female, minority Democratic state senator civil rights leader from Queens who calls her female, minority Democratic staff members c****. Needless to say, she doesn't have to fire them. They just leave after a couple weeks of verbal abuse and harrassment.

But, afterall, what is the use holding public office or being a billionaire if you can't rub shit in the faces of people who make $27,000 a year?

Hell, Monte, as a Republican you should appreciate that.

[Gentle Giant]

Given how much posting goes on here during work hours, we'd all get shit-canned if we worked for Bloomie.

[tippy]

It's the technology, stupid. He was just developing his mousing muscles.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Given how much posting goes on here during work hours, we'd all get shit-canned if we worked for Bloomie.

One benefit of self employment.

[tippy]

>>Why doesn't the New York Times, the nation's premier journalistic organ and paper of record, ask this joker how he became the IX?<<

His father was a prolific George Foreman type.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by tippy

>>Why doesn't the New York Times, the nation's premier journalistic organ and paper of record, ask this joker how he became the IX?<<

His father was a prolific George Foreman type.

I think it has to be that or a legal name change. Surely if there existed Edward Greenwoods I thru VIII, we'd have heard of this ancient dynasty of men.

EG9 is a phony!

[tippy]

>>Surely if there existed Edward Greenwoods I thru VIII, we'd have heard of this ancient dynasty of men.<<

You would think. The legendary Greenwoods. Masters at solitaire.

I'm agreeing with Bloomberg's decision more and more.

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Given how much posting goes on here during work hours, we'd all get shit-canned if we worked for Bloomie.

I dont post anywhere BUT from work. My leisure time is too valuable for you bozos.

[jeff54]

I'm sorry but this type of thing really pisses me off. Doesn't anyone take any pride in what they do anymore. Everyone knows that if your goofing at work by playing solitare you should always close it down before you leave your desk. Ok so I know that sometimes your in the middle of a really good run when you have to get up, but the least you can do is minimize the window or hide it behide a spread sheet. All this cutting of corners is why this country is going to pot.

[tippy]

Absolutely! LOL.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by jeff54

I'm sorry but this type of thing really pisses me off. Doesn't anyone take any pride in what they do anymore. Everyone knows that if your goofing at work by playing solitare you should always close it down before you leave your desk. Ok so I know that sometimes your in the middle of a really good run when you have to get up, but the least you can do is minimize the window or hide it behide a spread sheet. All this cutting of corners is why this country is going to pot.

So take pride in what you do, and quit cutting corners! Distinguish between "your" and "you're," for starters. Then proofread for spelling and punctuation.

But maybe your gripe doesn't apply to posts on a message board.

[jeff54]

Originally Posted by bluenoter

But maybe your gripe doesn't apply to posts on a message board.

I'm not getting paid when I post on a message board, so I feel no obligation to do it well. I am however paid when I goof off at work so I owe it to the corporation that employs me to give it my best effort.

AFWIW I did proof read it, I just didn't catch the mistakes so there.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by jeff54

I'm not getting paid when I post on a message board, so I feel no obligation to do it well. I am however paid when I goof off at work so I owe it to the corporation that employs me to give it my best effort.

AFWIW I did proof read it, I just didn't catch the mistakes so there.

Okay. I just couldn't help it.

[Pete C]

The Benjamin Franklins are only up to V.

"Benjamin Franklin V is Professor of English at the University of South Carolina. He has published widely in early American literature and edits Literary Criticism in Perspective for Camden House. He is co-author of Anaïs Nin: An Introduction (1979) and is a long-time jazz writer and broadcaster."

http://www.ohiou.edu/oupress/recollectionsnin.htm

[crawjo]

It sounds like it was a shitty job. Probably good for him that he got fired. I had a job during college where I spent probably 90 percent of my time not working, because there was nothing to do. And yeah, I could have shown initiative or something, but showing initiative led to even more pointless work being thrown at you. Anyone with a brain would have cut my job from the payroll to save money, and given the tiny sliver of work I had to do to someone else, but fortunately for me, no one with a brain worked there during my two years of employment.

[Mike Schwartz]

"Why doesn't the New York Times, the nation's premier journalistic organ and paper of record, ask this joker how he became the IX?"

Rumor just in:
Nobody in Ed's family can count to ten.

[Lester]

Monte---

Perhaps you didn't read Andy Newman's article in February 11th's New York Times? There is a lengthy, well written article about the Edward Anthony Greenwood name. I suggest you take a look at that before running your mouth anymore.

[Scott Dolan]

Welcome back Mr. Albertson!!

[Monte Smith]

Thanks for the heads up, Mr Sunshine. It certainly is a quirky name, well deserving of a little mouth running.

A Man Fired for Playing With Kings and Queens Has a Name Fit for Royalty

By ANDY NEWMAN
Published: February 11, 2006

In the beginning there was Édouard-Etienne de Nevers, sieur de Brantigny, later known as Édouard Boisvert. He immigrated to Quebec from France and in 1654 settled along the St. Lawrence on a prime plot he bought for a cow and two barrels of pickled eel.

In the middle was Édouard Antoine Boisvert V, who moved down to Massachusetts and Anglicized the family name to Greenwood.

Today, history lives on near Albany, N.Y., where Edward Anthony Greenwood IX, late of the New York City Office of State Legislative Affairs, became nationally famous two days ago as the man who was fired after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spotted a game of solitaire on his computer screen.

To some, Mr. Greenwood has become a symbol of arbitrary injustice, dismissed for doing what millions do every day. Others who are less charitable have called him the living embodiment of the public employee work ethic.

But enough about the solitaire incident. What's with that IX? What man who does not rule a large country has a number like that after his name?

The executive director of the National Genealogical Society, Diane O'Connor, said she had never run across anyone higher than a V. "Off the top of my head," she said, "I would say that it is unusual."

She did not, however, rule it out, and researchers at the University of Montreal said that many French Canadians can trace their roots back a dozen generations, thanks to excellent record-keeping by the early settlers.

Edward IX said he had never doubted his bloodline. His half sister, Denise Reneau, who researched the family's history, said she was sure the numerical claim is legitimate. Their father, Edward VIII, said carrying on the family name had been a passion of Edward VII, an uncle who had no children of his own.

So assuming that the Edward Greenwood/Boisverts are indeed that rare family that has kept a name alive for centuries, and across an ocean, what have they been up to all these years? And what is it like being a IX?

Edward IX said that for most of his life, it has not been a big deal. "A lot of times people see IX and just put IV because they think it's a V, not an X, or that I wrote it wrong," he said.

As for the history, the Greenwood/Boisverts turn out to be pretty much your average American family. In 1888, Ms. Reneau said, Edward V's estranged wife had him over for tea and forgot to rinse out the lye she had used to clean the kettle. "Supposedly she killed him," she said.

A relative, Chester Greenwood of Maine, invented earmuffs. Edward VI had nine children. Edward VII was a chief petty officer in World War II who, Ms. Reneau said, survived the sinking of an aircraft carrier thanks in part to the fishing skills he inherited from his great-great-great-great grandfather the eeler.

Edward VII's brother Arthur was the first chiropractor in Pittsfield, Mass., to have an X-ray machine. "He loved to stand in front of it to show his patients how you could see your ribs and all that," Edward VIII said. "Needless to say he died from overexposure."

Edward VIII, 66, himself was a railroad conductor on the New York Central and the Penn Central and Conrail. He is an accomplished bluegrass musician. For a time he followed the Grateful Dead in a van.

Which brings us to Edward IX, 39, of Ravena, N.Y., who is also a gifted bluegrass guitarist and singer, but that's not all. He is a trained operating-room technician, a certified airplane mechanic and a former Greyhound bus driver. He is a member of a single-malt Scotch society. He knows quite a bit about cheese.

"I've been referred to as a renaissance man," he said.

As of yesterday, though, he was the former sole breadwinner for a family of three, freshly unemployed and uninsured. His son, Edward X, age 3 1/2, sat in the next room, watching an old Superman episode on TV.

Edward IX said he hoped that out of all this publicity he might get a job. He was asked if the illustrious numeral might add weight to his résumé.

"Maybe that'll be a bolster to my cachet," he said.

[bostontricky]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

His son, Edward X, age 3 1/2

Doesn't the Nation of Islam have some sort of age requirement? Sheesh.

[Monte Smith]

Edward X

Yuk yuk yuk. What's the family motto? Solitaire by any means necessary?

[Scott Dolan]

If nothing else, this thread has reminded me how much I miss having al-Bertson to tweak.