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Phil and Steve McQueen
What is the Blameline?
Do you remember the movie and TV show M*A*S*H? On that program, whenever the clerk, Radar O'Reilly, approached the Colonel, he was usually busy tying fly-fishing lures or having a heated conversation on the phone with the General. Radar would hand the Colonel some papers, and say "sign these sir." The Colonel would rarely read the papers, and always scribbled his signature in the right spot. It was a pretty good joke, that the Colonel entrusted his signature to the Corporal who only took the time to type up the papers, and probably knew more about the operations of the command than the Colonel himself.
Well, a few years back, the Army conducted a study, and found out that this story was actually more true than they liked to believe. Commanders frequently had no idea what they were signing. The good news is that many of the papers they signed did not have far reaching consequences.
For that reason, they developed a rule that the last paragraph of every memo will have the name of the proponent of whatever action the paper was about. This was called the blameline (not its official name-just a slang reference).
I found that my name was on the blameline more than I wanted it to be. Soon, memos were pumped out in my unit without many changes, especially to the last paragraph. I really noticed this at one point, when my Captain asked me to carry a stack of papers to another officer's desk. As I walked down the hall, I glanced at the title of the papers; let's say it was "Operation Head Banger." I dropped off the papers, and walked back to my desk. No sooner did I sit down, when my telephone rang. It was an officer from another unit. He started out by saying, "I heard you're the proponent of Operation Head Banger." At that point, I began referring to myself as the Blameline.
Well, a few years back, the Army conducted a study, and found out that this story was actually more true than they liked to believe. Commanders frequently had no idea what they were signing. The good news is that many of the papers they signed did not have far reaching consequences.
For that reason, they developed a rule that the last paragraph of every memo will have the name of the proponent of whatever action the paper was about. This was called the blameline (not its official name-just a slang reference).
I found that my name was on the blameline more than I wanted it to be. Soon, memos were pumped out in my unit without many changes, especially to the last paragraph. I really noticed this at one point, when my Captain asked me to carry a stack of papers to another officer's desk. As I walked down the hall, I glanced at the title of the papers; let's say it was "Operation Head Banger." I dropped off the papers, and walked back to my desk. No sooner did I sit down, when my telephone rang. It was an officer from another unit. He started out by saying, "I heard you're the proponent of Operation Head Banger." At that point, I began referring to myself as the Blameline.
Today's Hindi Phrase of the Day:
आपका का उपयोग आंतरिक स्वर
Blog Archive
About Me
Movies that have had a profound influence on me
- Rumble Fish (1983) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
- Rocky (1976) Directed by John G. Avildson
- The Duelists (1977) Directed by Ridley Scott
- The Killing Fields (1986) Directed by Roland Joffe
- Monster's Ball (2001) Directed by Marc Forster
- Memento (2000) Directed by Christopher Nolan
- Passion Fish (1992) Directed by John Sayles
- Clean and Sober (1988) Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron
- Lost in Translation (2003) Directed by Sophia Coppola
- Koyaanisqatsi (1982) Directed by Godfrey Reggio
- Field of Dreams (1989) Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
- Man in the Wilderness (1971) Directed by Richard Sarafian
- On the Waterfront (1954) Directed by Elia Kazan
- Life as a House (2001) Directed by Irwin Winkler
- 21 Grams (2003) Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
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