Bena Mae’s Kitchen: Take this job and shove it

On a bad day at work, during an I-can’t-take-it-any-more moment, we’ve probably fantasized about outlandish ways to quit our jobs.
This week, Steven Slater, a flight attendant for JetBlue Airways, made a dramatic job exit: cursing and sliding down the plane’s emergency chute with beer in his hand.  He had just had an unpleasant experience with a rude passenger who had placed her carry-on luggage over her seat and it had fallen out and hit Slater on the head.
Slater’s job quitting performance has been hailed as heroic by some people.  Some people thought he was a hero and others thought he was a zero.
In Slater’s defense, I can say that I have been there and done that (well, not specifically) in jobs I have held that pertained to working one-on-one with the public. And I can truthfully say that these jobs are the hardest in the world.  For every ten customers, nine of them may be nice but the tenth can make you wish you were a goat herder in Outer Mongolia. Yet, all you can do when confronted by an irate customer is to smile and say “have a nice day.”
I admit that I walked away from one job during my working years. And it had nothing to do with a customer. It was because of a boss who needed psychiatric counseling. (My diagnosis.)
Let me preface that by saying that I have worked for several bosses, most of whom were very nice but a few that appeared to be the missing link.  They had learned to stand upright and drag their knuckles on the ground, but beyond that, still had a long way to go in the evolution process.  But back to my story.
It was early in my working career.  I was living in Louisville at the time, in an office staffed with four other ladies.  Our boss was very moody, sometimes going for days without speaking to any of us.  There was never an explanation for his behavior and it made for very unpleasant working conditions.  This had gone on for months and created a lot of tension among the staff.  It was hard to concentrate on our work in this atmosphere.
One day when he was out to lunch, we five ladies put our heads together and decided upon a strategy.  We had taken it as long as we could.
So when the boss came back, he passed us all without a word and took his place at his desk, still looking as grumpy as ever. It was at that moment that we put our plan in place.  We signaled each other, cleared our desks, picked up our purses and started walking single-file toward the door, never glancing at the boss, none of us saying a word. We had no intentions of ever coming back.
“Wait a minute, where are you going?” the boss said, desperation in his voice. At last he had found his voice. He could talk!
We didn’t offer an explanation, just kept on walking. And we never went back.
It was now up to him to explain our walkout to his superiors. And it felt good!
WOMEN POWER!

Mouthwateringly good.

Coconut Cream Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 (8 ounce) can coconut cream
1 (16 ounce) package confectioners’ sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.
In a medium bowl, combine the cake mix, oil, eggs, sour cream and cream of coconut. Mix until well blended. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
Make the frosting while your cake cools. In a medium bowl, cream together the confectioners sugar, cream cheese and milk. Stir in the vanilla. Frost cooled cake then sprinkle with coconut.