Thread by @RadioFreeTom

So I have a true story about "Total Quality Management" and an early career social faux pas on my part.
I had to teach "TQL/TQM" at the Naval War College in 1991 and I thought it was a load of horseshit and said so.
I left in late 1991 to back to teaching at Dartmouth. /1

While at Dartmouth, a local lecture society asked me to come talk about the 1992 election. My host took me and my wife to dinner at a country club. On the way, he asked me how things were at the Naval War College - since he was a retired admiral and former President of NWC. /2

I said: "Well, they're all wrapped around the axle with this TQL nonsense," I said. The admiral looked in the rear view. "Oh? You're not a fan of Deming?" [Deming is the guy who created the idea.] "We not making cars, admiral," I said. "It's silly and a waste of time." /3

The admiral was LeBourgeois. The guy who instituted TQM/TQL at the Naval War College. I did not know this at the time.
Silence all the rest of the way through the New Hampshire darkness until we get to dinner. /4

At dinner, we all try to be nicer, and my wife compliments the admiral's wife on her sweater. Irish wool! Gorgeous!
And then Dr. Tom spears a cherry tomato that explodes all over the... Irish sweater. We are now zero for two and maybe I will not live to get to the lecture. /5

I redeemed myself at the lecture by trashing the idea that a WWII vet like George Bush should be pushed out of the way by someone like Bill Clinton. I made a pitch for keeping the Silents in power and not handing it yet to the Boomers. All was forgiven. Sorta. /6

But to this day, when I hear "TQL" I see my first wife cringing as a tomato explodes all over the sweater worn by the wife of the admiral who loved the TQL nonsense that I had just slagged so impudently. My ex still winces at it.
(This has been a @quinncy style Small Story ©)
/7x