Close Encounters of the Same Kind

Dear God!

The long and the short of it is that I've found a joke about politicians that works just fine for Entergy executives.

A busload of politicians were driving down a country road when the bus suddenly ran off the road and crashed into an old farmer's field. The old farmer heard the tragic crash so he rushed over to investigate. He then began digging a large grave to bury the politicians.

A few hours later, the local sheriff was driving past the farmer's field and noticed the bus wreck. He approached the old farmer and asked where all the politicians had gone. The old farmer explained that he'd gone ahead and buried all of them. "Were they ALL dead?" asked the puzzled sheriff. "Well, some of them said they weren't," said the old farmer, "but you know how them politicians lie."

Will we never learn?

Nukeworkers.com is a web site with jobs for nuclear workers. Apparently Entergy has advertised on Nukeworker.com for employees to fill a total of 453 jobs. (That statistic is from the Nukeworkers.com web site.) I certainly have not checked all 453 job postings, but it seems to me from the ads that I have checked that the Vermont Yankee ads consistently give misinformation about the ownership of Vermont Yankee.

Actually, in a prayer on July 16, 2007, I pointed that out to you. All Nukeworker.com Vermont Yankee job postings that I referred to in that prayer said that Vermont Yankee is owned by…

Entergy Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, ... [and] an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. We own and operate power plants, and are the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. This position will be located at our Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon, VT.

In my prayer of that date, I also said,…

Odd, huh? I thought that the "message" we are all supposed to "be on" at Vermont Yankee is that Entergy Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, doesn't own Vermont Yankee. The relatively asset-free Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee does.

In the intervening month and a half, not much has changed in the Vermont Yankee ads on Nukeworker.com. Entergy is still identified as the owner of Vermont Yankee. For example, in Nukeworker.com job postings dated August 12, 2008:

• An ad for an Auxiliary Operator specifies that the plant is owned by Entergy, "a Fortune 500 company, etc., etc." The ad extols Entergy's benefits program and assures everyone that Entergy is an equal opportunity employer.
  
• An ad for a Senior Engineer has the same specs and assurances, and
  
• The ad for a Maintenance Coordinator does, too, though that ad does specify that "This posting is for a prospective Enexus/Equagen position" and then qualifies that statement saying that it is pending regulatory approval.
  

Whatever.

Does this mean that the first two positions will actually be Entergy positions at an Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee-owned plant? Will the third position will be an Enexus/Equagen position or an Entergy position? And if it's the former, why did the ad even mention the latter? And if it's the latter, why did the ad mention the former? For isn't the plant actually owned by Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee and not--as we've been saying repeatedly and ad naseum whenever we're asked about our financial responsibilities regarding the toxic mess we've created--Entergy?

How loosey-goosey can companies be when writing employment ads? Could Pepsi Cola, for example, claim in an employment ad that its people will work for Boeing at Six Flags? Could Vermont Yankee claim that new hires will work for Wal Mart, a Fortune 500 Company etc. etc., at the local multiplex cinema?

I'm reminded of a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when, in the midst of serenely observing the most confounding of situations, the chief scientist Claude Lacombe (played by Francois Truffaut) says, "Major Walsh, it is an event sociologique."

So now, Lord, you know why I love space alien movies. It's for the same reason I love French. Someday there will be a lot of explaining to do about everything that is going on here. Though I will be nervous, all eyes will be upon me and I will have to appear serene and sound smart. This means that I'll need to serve clever lines to reporters as quickly and deftly as if I were a master badminton player and truths and half-truths mere shuttlecocks.

Either that or get buried prematurely.

Amen,

Fake-Rob