An Example of Who Not To Be

We were talking about this chap who had been made redundant some years ago and couldn’t get another job. He wound up living from his wife’s salary, his savings, and some fill in posts which were extremely temporary and not repeated.

As we discussed him, I thought of a particular American actor I had acquaintance with some years ago.

This actor, (I’ll hide his identity and call him Ham Cakes) seemed fantastic.  He was very good looking, had great stage presence. He appeared in a serial and was very popular.

Ham Cakes, however, had one of those snobby personalities,  a pretentious attitude and behaved as if he ‘knew everything’.

He was the kind of guy who would meet a doctor and begin to pontificate on some medical point, or a lawyer and discuss the intricacies of a plea.

Ham Cakes knew nothing about the topics, just trying to impress, which resulted in people excusing themselves to escape him.

I wasted some breath trying to get him to understand how obnoxious he was, which, of course, resulted in a discourse on my failings, so I left him as is/where is.

He soon was dropped from the serial because his co-stars couldn’t stand him. He couldn’t get another job, because word travels.  The best he could do was appear in one offs on stages far from Broadway.

As of writing, Ham Cakes has been absent from the ‘Hollywood Scene’ for about thirteen years, and no one has missed him.    His name only comes up as an example of a repulsive person.

The chap we were talking about is one of those minor people who is a legend in his own mind.  No one wants to be around him, no one wants him pontificating in their office, and although he may be competent there’s not much to recommend him.

When he went to job interviews, speaking in his ‘speaky spokey’ voice as if he were interviewing the panel, they quickly appreciated that he was not what they wanted and truncated the discussion.

He, like Ham Cakes, never learned that if you aren’t pleasant to be around, no one wants to be around you.