The Queen on the couch

What motivates the Black Queen? What makes Queenie run? Part of the reason we have trouble with the Black Queen is lack of understanding. She says she's just cutting central administrative expense. But she doesn't seem to care whether or not the cuts she makes will result in an educational establishment that still functions, i.e. educates. In some ways, it's like she's just going through the motions. Is that the real problem? Is the Black Queen just another Duchy burn out, counting the days to retirement? She certainly doesn't seen to enjoy her job. Clearly the Diva enjoys her job. The White Tornado has a pretty thankless job, attempting to paper over the ruptures caused by the Black Queen's bull-in-the-china-shop approach to management. However, the White Tornado finds ways to enjoy that job. The White Queen seems to enjoy her job. Even Duke Phfffer seems to find paths to job satisfaction. The Black Queen just seems singularly joyless. Long term depression? Serious self-esteem problems? Some have suggested that the Black Queen is extremely power hungry. Why would someone so joyless want more power. She doesn't seem to enjoy the power she now has. Or does she go home at night, disappear into her bedroom, close the door and then chortle hearily over that days exercise of power for the sake of power? Geez, I hope so. Otherwise, I'm going to start feeling sorry for her.

The way of the Duchy

I think I'm finally beginning to see how things work. I could not understand why the Black Queen would try so hard to make the Dots get fed up and leave. After all, if she wants to get rid of the Dots, she has the power. And then I realized what would happen if she turned the remaining Dots in Dits like Pink and Navy. In order to make the Dots into Dits, she would have to claim that there was no more work for Dotland. And after claiming there was no work for Dotland it would be extremely embarrassing if the villages complained about work that the Queen said didn't exist not getting done. In addition she wouldn't be able to hire replacement Dots ever. However, if the Dots would quit, take better jobs, retire, whatever, then the Black Queen could say " We are trying very hard to hire replacement Dots but the paperwork just keeps getting lost. " This is an excuse that she could use for years (after all, look at Silver's new robes that still haven't come) and she could use the Dots salary to buy more new tech toys. Probably the SmartyPants Boards could use Hello Kitty holders for their markers and things like that. Unfortunately for the Queen's plans, the Dots are hard to discourage. After all, working in a library is sort of like being in the Marines...the few, the proud, the Librarians and all that.

Breaking up is hard to do

The latest Duchy debacle has reactivated calls for breaking up the Duchy into smaller Duchies. (Is it like Dune where the giant sandworm sort of explodes into millions of little baby sandworms? Do we want a lot of little baby Duchies?) Several proposals have been put forward for breaking up the Duchy. I have my own proposal. I think it could be broken up into two duchies. The first would encompass the area bounded by 10th Street on the North, Park on the West, Broadway on the South, and Fremont on the East. The North boundary is somewhat flexible. It's possible that the North boundary could be moved from 9th to 10th. This would pick up any stragglers and allow space for parking. That new district could be called District Zero. The second Duchy, called District One, would encompass the rest of the current Duchy. I think a lot of Duchy employees would agree that such a reorganization might drastically improve education. All in favor say Aye.
Of course, most people don't realize that the Duchy is already breaking itself up. (It's a process similar to shooting oneself in the foot but involves a chainsaw, the Black Dot Queen, and Site-Based Management.) First they took away central support of library purchasing, meaning that all of the villages are on their own dealing with vendors, po's, requisitions, and other paperwork. Then they took away central hiring of library assistants, meaning that the villages had to figure out for themselves how they were going to talk someone with an associates degree into taking a no benefits 10 hour a week job. Then they took away the money for Summer School meaning that each village has to come up with the money for summer school themselves. So this summer there will probably a lot of disappointed parents. Sooner we will just have a lot of isolated villages and, in the center, The CASTLE, thrashing around like a maddened octopus. Hey, this could work out! After the villages are completely isolated and the Castle is busy with the chainsaw, the villages could band together in a buying co-op to bulk buy library books, hire assistants, and have summer school!