Ha, Shirley! This is a damn-fine piece of writing! You remind me of the refugees from Corporateworld who live around here. One showed me a printed copy of a routine email from a VP at a chemical manufacturer to the managers who reported to him. It casually reminded them to maintain a tense, ongoing crisis atmosphere in their groups, as a means to goose productivity. My friends echoed your comments about shit flowing downhill, and that they’d spent way too much of their lives at this company livin’ in the valley. As we’d say back in the Navy, this piece earns you a hearty Well Done, Shirley!