Don't know if too many of you will be familiar with the original. It's a really nice early Lightfoot song off "Did She Mention My Name" and appears on a lot of his collections. I got it off "Early Morning Rain, The Best of Gordon Lightfoot". Anyway, the other day I wrote a parody for a sick "amiright" colleague. This one is for my Manager, Lilian, and all the people in our Department. Over the next 7 months we all are being sent on our way incrementally and our jobs are moving to the mid-west where they can pay about 25% less and weaker overtime rules apply. Hey, maybe this is my next gig; condolences and get-well parodies for all occasions. How does "PaulMark" sound? I'll be mentioning my work colleagues in the bottom notes section here. Oh, we support a professional Income Tax Preparation Software, so FYI - "FID" refers to "Fiduciary Estate and Trust Returns". "FAQ's" are "Frequently asked Questions" and are pronounced phonetically as "eff-ay-cues".

Well, guys, I'm out of here soon. We've still got the party of the 16th at Lilian's and of course Larry and I will be performing one of my parody selections that I posted on this site, "Bong Time Coming" about Tommy Chong's conviction for selling bongs. We've been practicing and trying to figure out how two of us can make it happen. Progress has been made. When I posted the parody originally I referenced Cheech Marin in error and one of my "amiright" friends; "Johnny D" was nice enough to point it out to me. You might want to look around the site at his and some of the other authors work. There is a lot of really funny, well-done stuff here. You can either click on "New Entries" or go to the "Parody Authors" list to find stuff. Or look up original song titles and go from there. I'm also doing one for Sabry, "It's All Bullshit" to the Beatles original "It's All Too Much" that I will just do with the original recording if I can come up with it. The one I'm posting here? Not sure if I will just play it or try to sing it with the record. We'll have to see. Anyway....I want to thank all of you for your kindness, understanding and camaraderie for the past 6 years. It's been great and I will miss you all. I need to thank Orville, without whom I would not even have known about the job. He initially encouraged me to apply and kind of nudged me a little when I was hesitating. Then John, who taught us all so well when we were new. Joe, who knows Consolidations from "A to Tsze". To my friend and carpool buddy, Larry; there are just too many things that you've done for me to even begin to mention them here. Solely on a professional level you are greatly responsible for a large part of what I have done here (Lilian, he's not responsible for the crazy stuff, I swear). On a personal level, well, all I can say is you are a true friend and a true "mensch". To Mary, Colleen, Mariam, Tracie, & Mona: thanks for putting up with some of our male antics through the years. Mary & Mariam, thanks especially for the encouragement with my writing. I will make sure to send you my poems & stuff after I leave. Colleen, some day maybe I'll see the same seals or sea lions you see out at the beach. Mona, glad I could share some of my rowdier writings with you. Even if nobody else ever read it I would have done it just to hear you giggle over the cubicle walls. Oh...GO USC! Tracie, you are one of the better sports I've ever been around. Take care of the little one. Sabry...ah Sabry, "Swami Fahmy"...yes, it is all bullshit, but you have made it a lot of fun. I'm glad you enjoyed my humor. Mark, thanks for all your help with Partnership and for all the "Please go on available" Network Broadcast messages. When I get set up at home I want you to send me one of those, OK? Narain, thanks for all the humor items you passed on to me. To Stephen M; Huge thanks for all the pictures to play with and more seriously for lending me your web-surfing expertise on so many occasions. I especially appreciated the Cable Regulators contact list. Hey, I got the $4.48 overcharge back from those bastards at Comcast!! So I figure I owe you 10% (45 cents). Nansan, we didn't really get to know each other too well but I've enjoyed working with you. And finally, OC...just about the only person who can get me to re-evaluate any of my political views. Your reservoir of knowledge and powers of observation, deducton and logic are truly impressive. Your sister is right about you. Your friendship and professional help have been invaluable. Actually, I just remembered a second time you were wrong about something (besides the one where you had thought you were mistaken); remember when we were first placed in cubes next to one another? We were talking about the song "If You Want To Be Happy For The Rest of Your Life" and I mentioned it was done by Jimmy Soul and you said it was U.S. Bonds. The next day you came in with a printout off the web showing that Jimmy Soul had indeed done that number, although you did point out that he used U.S. Bonds band for his back-up (a useful bit of information I was pleased to add to my trivia knowledge bin). Well, that's everyone still here. Of course, I must mention Charles, Barry, Khurram, Alex and Kyoko who have managed to hook on in other areas or locations with the company. Good folks, too. Khurram, I miss the ping-pong. Charles, it was fun and the Lakers won every year since you got here until the last one. Probably was a bad omen for our jobs. I'll have to rag Swami Fahmy for not predicting it. And the Steve W's, , who left earlier. Miss you guys. Well, this is long enough. Oh wait, LILIAN!! Yeah, best boss I've ever had, and that's no bullshit. Thanks for everything. You did a helluva job and you deserved a lot better for it. Jeez, it's a good thing they don't charge me by the word here. Stick a fork in me 'cause now I'm done.