The Mendoza Principle.

In the Simpsons‘ universe, there is a character by the name of Ranier Wolfcastle. He is the governor of the state the Simpsons live in and is also an action-movie star. In nearly every movie clip we see of Wolfcastle as action hero, McBain; his arch-nemesis has perpetrated a nefarious something-or-other and Wolfcastle/McBain is left alone, standing on a rubble of sorrow. He shakes his fist at the sky and shouts, “Mendoza!!!”, the name of his arch-nemesis.

Back when i worked for Howard, my coworker Greg and i developed the Mendoza Principle. It goes something like this: Everyone has a Mendoza in their life. Everyone has that person who always seems to be at the back of all the mischief for a given period of time. It may be a customer who always demands outrageous add-ons for free. It may be one of your employees. It could last only for an afternoon- or as long as a week. If it goes longer than a week, you should probably seek professional help, we determined.

The Mendoza Principle extends beyond people, though. Greg declared, “Smoking is my Mendoza.” And the timeframe becomes a bit more elastic now. The thing he couldn’t shake that was always interfering with his plans and purposes. Smokes were to Greg as Princess Maragurite’s spiritual life was to King Stephen’s grand schemes. We would occassionaly have troubles with the automated expresso machines and would be unable to pour shots for an hour or two. We would apologise to customers about the machines and say, “Sorry, it’s been our Mendoza today.” without bothering to explain.

I believe Ranier is my first “succesful” picture posting. Picture posting has, heretofore, been my blog Mendoza. What’s your Mendoza?

Filed under: Blogging, Interdisciplinary Action, Psychology , expresso, Howard Schultz, McBain, Mendoza, Simpsons, Starbucks, Wolfcastle