But for this post, I am going to tell a story that I feel is fictional, but I hope you may find some humor in it.
Here goes.
Duffis College is in a sore way. Its administration also in a sour state of mind.
They want their college to grow and have lots of students, especially the kind of students with wealthy parents. Wealthy parents who don't live anywhere near Duffis, so they won't really muddle in Duffis' affairs.
Times have been tough lately at Duffis College. Their long-standing and ever-ongoing plans to attract more wealthy parents to send their kids there, hasn't been going well.
They have tried just about everything except offering objective honesty about their plight and usually arguing that it is others and not their own administration and supporters who are to blame.
One night, one of their supporters met with some representatives of Duffis and they all had a conversation.
The conversation revolved around the idea that sooner rather than later, Duffis would fail as a college and everyone would need to look for new employment and other issues to support.
Everyone in the room started talking about their plight and their own personal futures. They all agreed that it certainly would look bad if Duffis failed on their watch and they had to be responsible for its failure.
One supporter had what he thought was a brilliant idea. He thought if they all found a way to watch Duffis fail and be able to completely blame others for its failure, they would be off the hook and their resumes would show they did all they could, but Duffis failed anyway.
This supporter and others in the room were all well-practiced in blaming others for some long-standing problems at Duffis. They seem to have memorized a set of talking points about others, even neighbors of the college's site, as the ones who created and maintained the plight at Duffis.
As they were mumbling to each other about how they can watch Duffis fail under their administration and support, a small voice rose above the croud and everyone stopped to listen to that solo voice.
"Let's put on a Play." That person said. "If people like the play and they approve of it, I know what will happen next."
"What would happen next and how does the play relate to this terrible plight we continue to administer?" Said the Administrator.
"If the play goes really really well, then I am absolutely sure that our neighbors will try anything and everything to poo-poo our play and they will force it to be stopped for a long time." The person continued. "While the Play is delayed and Duffis College fails, then we can say that those neighbors were the ones who killed off Duffis!"
"That's certainly sounds reasonable." Said the Administrator. "If our Play is great and gets delayed, it's not our fault if Duffis fails."
The originator of the idea then stated, "If our play stinks, we can then blame those who came to see it, but didn't like it, can't we?"
"Brilliant!" was the sound that seemed to come from everyone in the room.
"If the play does not work on the people and Duffis fails, it will be because they didn't like the play and we're off the hook!"
So, it seemed to come down to having both results of the play allowing Duffis to fail while no administrator or supporter would be responsible for the failure of Duffis.
Everyone in the room also knew that much of the plight at Duffis was also caused by poor play-writing in the past. They also knew that there were play critics who they have had to deal with that were not buying any thought that they or Duffis' neighbors caused most of the plight.
"What should we call the Play?" Chimed one of the meeting's attendees.
"The Poison Pill" came the response.
This is a work of fiction and should not be assumed to be related to anything currently being played out anywhere on the peninsula.
I hope you got a chuckle. If not, it's not my fault. I have been writing not very well for some time and you should have known that.
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