Church bells ring,
Are you snoozin’?
Yesterday,
You were boozin’.
It’s really alright,
You’ll be fine tonight,
Walkin’ in a winter summerland.
Gone away,
Are the Sunbirds.
Here today,
Are the snowbirds.
They make the long drive,
Down I-95,
Walking in a winter summerland.
On the beach, we can build sandcastles,
And pretend that these are our dream homes.
He’ll say, “Do you own them?”
We’ll say “No, man.”
We used to but, then the bank foreclosed.
Later on,
We’ll perspire,
As we grill,
By the fire.
It’s sixty at night,
And eighty by light,
Walkin’ in a winter summerland.
On the beach, we can build sandcastles,
And pretend that these are our old homes.
He’ll say, “Are you homestead?”
We’ll say “Yes, man.”
But we’ll still pay ten times the tax you owe.
See the snow, that’s been gustin’?
That’s roach powder, I’ve been dustin’.
The bugs are so grand,
As big as your hand,
Walkin’ in a winter summerland.
We’ll frolic and play,
The tropical way,
Walkin’ in a winter summerland.
Merry “Crist-mas” everybody!
Credit where credit's due: The lyrics above are a rewrite of "Winter Wonderland." Winter Wonderland was written in 1934 by composer Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard B. Smith.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Foreclosures helping landlords
Rentals filling with families
I assumed that when the going price for homes dropped in Seattle, I would lose my tenants who’ve been renting my four-bedroom house for a little over a year. The husband has a good, high-paying job; passed our credit check with flying colors; and says he and his wife are interested in buying a home so that they can settle permanently in Seattle near their grandkids.
Instead, my tenant asked for a long term lease. He says he is tired of moving, likes the house he’s in, and wants stability. If he does buy, he wants the prices to drop even further. I’m not complaining – he’s a good tenant.
Similarly, the area where I currently live in Central Florida has also seen a boom in rentals. Because I live in a tourist area, many of my neighbors have subdivided their homes into apartments and rent rooms to seasonal workers during the height of the summer tourist season. When two of my neighbors recently lost tenants this fall, they expected a long wait to fill the vacancies since tourism related employment is down. Such was not the case. Even my neighbor on the corner who lives next to the noisier commercial buildings, put out a sign for a studio apartment last week and had it rented by the next weekend.
The main difference in renters is that where a single person has moved out, a family has moved in. The top floor of the house to my north is a converted apartment that was vacated by a single man who took advantage of lower home prices to buy a condo. It was quickly rented by a family of four: two brothers who work in construction, one of the brother’s girlfriends from Russia, and their new baby. The vacant one-bedroom apartment in the quadraplex to the south was also quickly filled by a girlfriend and boyfriend and their new baby, along with at least two other friends. (Just in case you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, I should mention that all of the above are white.)
Without being overly intrusive, I’ve wondered if the new renters used to own a house and were foreclosed upon, or found that they could no longer afford to each rent their own spaces. Normally, if you were to rent a place, you’d prefer to be alone. After sharing living quarters with friends all through college and sometimes many years after, there is no better statement to say you’d finally made it on your own than getting your very own apartment, or even better, buying your own condo or house.
In any case, I’m the winner here, along with my neighbors. Our neighborhood, once filled with sometimes questionable transient seasonal workers, is now filled with growing families, buzzing with laughing children, and smelling of grilled hamburgers (It was 80 degrees outside today). My neighbors have a further advantage because they qualify for Florida’s homestead property tax exemption by living in their homes (unlike apartment complexes), while making money by renting out a portion of them.
In the meantime, the newer developments sit empty with “For Sale” signs dotting the landscape. Neighborhoods are blighted with unkempt, overgrown lawns filled with weeds at foreclosed properties. City and Florida state tax coffers are drying up, since the banks won’t pay the property taxes after they kick out the would be owners.
Like Mr. Rogers said: It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Instead, my tenant asked for a long term lease. He says he is tired of moving, likes the house he’s in, and wants stability. If he does buy, he wants the prices to drop even further. I’m not complaining – he’s a good tenant.
Similarly, the area where I currently live in Central Florida has also seen a boom in rentals. Because I live in a tourist area, many of my neighbors have subdivided their homes into apartments and rent rooms to seasonal workers during the height of the summer tourist season. When two of my neighbors recently lost tenants this fall, they expected a long wait to fill the vacancies since tourism related employment is down. Such was not the case. Even my neighbor on the corner who lives next to the noisier commercial buildings, put out a sign for a studio apartment last week and had it rented by the next weekend.
The main difference in renters is that where a single person has moved out, a family has moved in. The top floor of the house to my north is a converted apartment that was vacated by a single man who took advantage of lower home prices to buy a condo. It was quickly rented by a family of four: two brothers who work in construction, one of the brother’s girlfriends from Russia, and their new baby. The vacant one-bedroom apartment in the quadraplex to the south was also quickly filled by a girlfriend and boyfriend and their new baby, along with at least two other friends. (Just in case you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, I should mention that all of the above are white.)
Without being overly intrusive, I’ve wondered if the new renters used to own a house and were foreclosed upon, or found that they could no longer afford to each rent their own spaces. Normally, if you were to rent a place, you’d prefer to be alone. After sharing living quarters with friends all through college and sometimes many years after, there is no better statement to say you’d finally made it on your own than getting your very own apartment, or even better, buying your own condo or house.
In any case, I’m the winner here, along with my neighbors. Our neighborhood, once filled with sometimes questionable transient seasonal workers, is now filled with growing families, buzzing with laughing children, and smelling of grilled hamburgers (It was 80 degrees outside today). My neighbors have a further advantage because they qualify for Florida’s homestead property tax exemption by living in their homes (unlike apartment complexes), while making money by renting out a portion of them.
In the meantime, the newer developments sit empty with “For Sale” signs dotting the landscape. Neighborhoods are blighted with unkempt, overgrown lawns filled with weeds at foreclosed properties. City and Florida state tax coffers are drying up, since the banks won’t pay the property taxes after they kick out the would be owners.
Like Mr. Rogers said: It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Budgeting by carrying only cash —
An experiment in self-controlled spending
For the first time in about twenty years, I went on vacation with just cash in my pocket: $500 for 5 fun-filled days in New Orleans over the Thanksgiving holiday. I picked the amount of $100 per day arbitrarily out of a hat. I had no idea if it would be enough for both my husband and myself, and if not, if I’d be able to resist the urge to pull out the “plastic.” We had a free place to stay at my Cousin Carla’s house, so we only needed to cover meals, entertainment, and souvenirs.
I haven’t lived on a cash budget since college in the late 1980s, when I took $20 out of the ATM every week and spent it until it was gone. My boyfriend at the time took up the slack, treating us to dinner out at restaurants with his weekly allowance of $40 from his parents (I had to work for mine).
In those days, neither of us had a credit card and couldn’t have gotten one even if we wanted. Credit cards weren’t given out nearly as readily as they are now, which was a good thing. I didn’t qualify for a major card until I was out of college, working full time, and only after building my credit score by successfully managing an account from a major department store (JCPenney) for a little over a year.
The cash method is a tried and true method of budgeting, still practiced by those who don’t trust putting their money in a bank. I’ve known many a man who turns his paycheck into cash every Friday, then pays any bills that are due before blowing the rest by having fun going out over the weekend. By Monday, he’s nearly broke and living off a tuna fish, frozen vegetable and macaroni and cheese casserole until the next paycheck arrives.
My husband and I loosely follow the cash method of budgeting with our weekly lunch allowances. However, this was the first time either of us had tried to follow a budget on vacation, a time when I tend to live high on the hog, then pay the price when I return home after racking up hundreds of dollars on my credit card.
To make the budget work, we didn’t include filling up the car with gas. First, there was no telling how much gas would be since prices yo-yo up and down like a bungee jumper from day-to-day and vary from station-to-station, as well as from city-to-city and state-to-state due to locally imposed taxes. Second, we had to have gas, so running out of money to pay for it was not an option.
The first road block to staying on budget occurred on the way to Louisiana. My car overheated in Tallahassee and my husband and I and the nice man at the Costco gas station couldn’t find any busted hoses, mostly because it was raining buckets and water was everywhere. Everyone we surveyed expected that the thermostat had gone bad, a cheap fix. I had to get a tow, but expected it to be free through my new AAA membership. It wasn’t — only the first five miles were free and the rest were charged at $5 per mile.
Cha-ching! Tow at $20.
I have a reasonably new car, still under partial warranty, and only felt comfortable getting work done by a licensed dealer. The repair shop found the problem right away – critters eating the hoses, probably squirrels – no kidding! Although many gnawed hoses could wait, the one to my radiator had to be replaced. (I got to keep the old hose with the gnaw marks for proof — knowing no one would believe me.)
Cha-ching! Dealer repair at $267
Unfortunately, the repair shop didn’t keep parts in stock and had to order them. It would take a day to repair, so we had to stay overnight at a hotel where the dealer got us a discounted room.
Cha-ching! Hotel room at $44.
Including meals, we had now spent $378 of our $500 budget and we hadn’t even made it to New Orleans, yet. Bah humbug! We had no choice but to break the budget and go to the ATM for more cash, a small portion of which we would use to pay for meals on the trip back home. This left us roughly $65 per day for two fun-filled days in New Orleans.
The details of how we spent the money will completely bore you. However, the attitudes of the people around us who we informed of our “daily budget” were both surprising and unexpected.
My cousin Carla watched with amusement our regular habit of pulling out our cash to see how much we had left. It didn’t sink in that we were serious about following our budget until we were nearly out of money that first night. “I would just use plastic,” she kept saying.
“Normally we would. But, that’s what gets us into trouble,” I explained. “I just paid off the credit card with my non-FDIC insured money market, since I had to close it out anyway.” Although there was nothing to stop us from racking up the credit card again, we decided we’d rather save the “plastic” for emergencies.
My cousin’s boyfriend, Ricky, was disturbed by my husband’s public display of cash. “You’ll get robbed. I know this town,” he warned. “Promise me, you’ll never do it again.”
“Okay, I won’t,” my husband promised and agreed to count his money inside his wallet, under the table. He wasn’t used to paying with cash and is very trusting.
“I’ll pay for it. Don’t worry about it,” said Ricky.
“Save it. You’ll need money tomorrow,” said my cousin Carla.
However, our goal was to spend all our money by the end of the night. The next day, we would start fresh with our next day’s budget. I didn’t want to be a leech, but agreed to let my cousin’s boyfriend pay for dinner because he really wanted to impress us and treat us to something nice. We would make up for it by buying their drinks the rest of the night until the money ran out.
The next day, when my cousin called her boyfriend to discuss the plans for that night, we heard her sigh and say, “They’re doing the money thing again.”
The money thing? Since when is budgeting with cash considered unusual and odd?
That afternoon, we met up with one of my husband’s friends from work with his wife, also in New Orleans for the holidays. We treated for brunch at the Café du Monde, which sells an affordable small cup of coffee for $2 and a decadent pastry called a beignet. The total cost for the five of us, plus a souvenir mug, was only $25. We mentioned to Carla that we had $40 left of that day’s budget, enough to pay for her parking and for the three of us to eat dinner at a sandwich shop we’d passed the day before.
What we didn’t anticipate was that my husband’s friends, who overheard us, assumed that we are hard up for cash. “We aren’t,” my husband tried to explain. “We’re just on a budget.”
At work the next week, the friend insisted on buying lunch for my husband, still under the impression that because we are limiting our spending, we must be in financial trouble. The friend is in his mid 20s and has carried a credit card since his teens. The concept of voluntarily limiting spending has never occurred to him and his young wife, who buy nearly everything on credit.
Although our budget did cause some awkward moments, we’re laughing all the way to the bank. I just balanced my checkbook and we actually saved a small amount of money last month despite going on vacation (a challenge after grocery prices and utilities went up this summer).
I only wish I’d used the same method of paying in cash to buy Christmas presents — I’m already over budget!
I haven’t lived on a cash budget since college in the late 1980s, when I took $20 out of the ATM every week and spent it until it was gone. My boyfriend at the time took up the slack, treating us to dinner out at restaurants with his weekly allowance of $40 from his parents (I had to work for mine).
In those days, neither of us had a credit card and couldn’t have gotten one even if we wanted. Credit cards weren’t given out nearly as readily as they are now, which was a good thing. I didn’t qualify for a major card until I was out of college, working full time, and only after building my credit score by successfully managing an account from a major department store (JCPenney) for a little over a year.
The cash method is a tried and true method of budgeting, still practiced by those who don’t trust putting their money in a bank. I’ve known many a man who turns his paycheck into cash every Friday, then pays any bills that are due before blowing the rest by having fun going out over the weekend. By Monday, he’s nearly broke and living off a tuna fish, frozen vegetable and macaroni and cheese casserole until the next paycheck arrives.
My husband and I loosely follow the cash method of budgeting with our weekly lunch allowances. However, this was the first time either of us had tried to follow a budget on vacation, a time when I tend to live high on the hog, then pay the price when I return home after racking up hundreds of dollars on my credit card.
To make the budget work, we didn’t include filling up the car with gas. First, there was no telling how much gas would be since prices yo-yo up and down like a bungee jumper from day-to-day and vary from station-to-station, as well as from city-to-city and state-to-state due to locally imposed taxes. Second, we had to have gas, so running out of money to pay for it was not an option.
The first road block to staying on budget occurred on the way to Louisiana. My car overheated in Tallahassee and my husband and I and the nice man at the Costco gas station couldn’t find any busted hoses, mostly because it was raining buckets and water was everywhere. Everyone we surveyed expected that the thermostat had gone bad, a cheap fix. I had to get a tow, but expected it to be free through my new AAA membership. It wasn’t — only the first five miles were free and the rest were charged at $5 per mile.
Cha-ching! Tow at $20.
I have a reasonably new car, still under partial warranty, and only felt comfortable getting work done by a licensed dealer. The repair shop found the problem right away – critters eating the hoses, probably squirrels – no kidding! Although many gnawed hoses could wait, the one to my radiator had to be replaced. (I got to keep the old hose with the gnaw marks for proof — knowing no one would believe me.)
Cha-ching! Dealer repair at $267
Unfortunately, the repair shop didn’t keep parts in stock and had to order them. It would take a day to repair, so we had to stay overnight at a hotel where the dealer got us a discounted room.
Cha-ching! Hotel room at $44.
Including meals, we had now spent $378 of our $500 budget and we hadn’t even made it to New Orleans, yet. Bah humbug! We had no choice but to break the budget and go to the ATM for more cash, a small portion of which we would use to pay for meals on the trip back home. This left us roughly $65 per day for two fun-filled days in New Orleans.
The details of how we spent the money will completely bore you. However, the attitudes of the people around us who we informed of our “daily budget” were both surprising and unexpected.
My cousin Carla watched with amusement our regular habit of pulling out our cash to see how much we had left. It didn’t sink in that we were serious about following our budget until we were nearly out of money that first night. “I would just use plastic,” she kept saying.
“Normally we would. But, that’s what gets us into trouble,” I explained. “I just paid off the credit card with my non-FDIC insured money market, since I had to close it out anyway.” Although there was nothing to stop us from racking up the credit card again, we decided we’d rather save the “plastic” for emergencies.
My cousin’s boyfriend, Ricky, was disturbed by my husband’s public display of cash. “You’ll get robbed. I know this town,” he warned. “Promise me, you’ll never do it again.”
“Okay, I won’t,” my husband promised and agreed to count his money inside his wallet, under the table. He wasn’t used to paying with cash and is very trusting.
“I’ll pay for it. Don’t worry about it,” said Ricky.
“Save it. You’ll need money tomorrow,” said my cousin Carla.
However, our goal was to spend all our money by the end of the night. The next day, we would start fresh with our next day’s budget. I didn’t want to be a leech, but agreed to let my cousin’s boyfriend pay for dinner because he really wanted to impress us and treat us to something nice. We would make up for it by buying their drinks the rest of the night until the money ran out.
The next day, when my cousin called her boyfriend to discuss the plans for that night, we heard her sigh and say, “They’re doing the money thing again.”
The money thing? Since when is budgeting with cash considered unusual and odd?
That afternoon, we met up with one of my husband’s friends from work with his wife, also in New Orleans for the holidays. We treated for brunch at the Café du Monde, which sells an affordable small cup of coffee for $2 and a decadent pastry called a beignet. The total cost for the five of us, plus a souvenir mug, was only $25. We mentioned to Carla that we had $40 left of that day’s budget, enough to pay for her parking and for the three of us to eat dinner at a sandwich shop we’d passed the day before.
What we didn’t anticipate was that my husband’s friends, who overheard us, assumed that we are hard up for cash. “We aren’t,” my husband tried to explain. “We’re just on a budget.”
At work the next week, the friend insisted on buying lunch for my husband, still under the impression that because we are limiting our spending, we must be in financial trouble. The friend is in his mid 20s and has carried a credit card since his teens. The concept of voluntarily limiting spending has never occurred to him and his young wife, who buy nearly everything on credit.
Although our budget did cause some awkward moments, we’re laughing all the way to the bank. I just balanced my checkbook and we actually saved a small amount of money last month despite going on vacation (a challenge after grocery prices and utilities went up this summer).
I only wish I’d used the same method of paying in cash to buy Christmas presents — I’m already over budget!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sears Sales Down? I Blame the Bad Lighting
Enter some Sears stores today, and it feels as if you’re walking into a cave. The lighting is dark and gray and makes the store feel depressing, old, out-of-date, and filthy.
The last Sears I visited in Florida was at the Volusia Mall in Daytona Beach, Florida last June. The mall itself was built in 1974 according to Wikipedia, but was renovated as recently as 2006. The common spaces and food court are appealing.
At left: Dark utility lighting, gray walls and ceilings, and flat-finish floors shown in a Northridge, Los Angeles, CA Sears store. (AP photo by Stefano Paltera, 2006.) At right: Macy’s sports a brighter ceiling, warmer cream-toned walls, and a shinier floor in a Columbus, Ohio store . (AP photo by Kiichiro Sato, 2007).
Some of the stores, especially the Volusia Mall Macy’s with its cream colored walls and good lighting, appear pleasantly sunny, despite being indoors. The environment is the perfect backdrop for their colorful, shiny, sparkly merchandise and I rarely find myself leaving the store without at least one purchase – a new blouse, a purse, or a lovely pair of earrings. However, walk into the Sears at the other end of the mall and you feel as if you’ve suddenly entered the discount shopping center.
I imagine that Sears is trying to cut costs and be politically correct by installing low-cost energy efficient fluorescent lighting. However, the particular bulbs they have chosen seem better suited for a warehouse, parking garage, basement, or storeroom than for a retail store. Products, which should appear new, fresh, shiny, bright, and colorful look old and pre-worn. The store looks more like a dollar store than a large and important retail outlet. The floor in many Sears stores is even dirty, perhaps because the workers can’t see the dirt or because the strobing fluorescent lights give them a headache. I assume that this particular Sears store has not been renovated in sometime, but perhaps the bad lighting is fooling my perception of it.
Despite falling sales, Sears occupies the largest contiguous retail space at the Volusia Mall at 192,096 square feet, and is one of the original anchor tenants. The Sears space is larger than the more successful Macy’s at 157,530 sq. ft and JC Penney at 145,668 square feet. Dilliards occupies a larger total space when you add their three disconnected store spaces at 323,249 square feet, but each store space is still smaller than Sears. (Facts on square footage from Wikipedia).
Lighting and color can play a very large role in effecting the moods of shoppers. The study of ergonomics, man’s relationship to his environment, has shown in countless studies that a correctly lit space greatly effects the mood and production of workers. Why not shoppers, too?
In 2006, a study was published called, “The impact of light and colour on psychological mood: A cross-cultural study of indoor work environments.” Summaries of the study can be found at Informe Design, and at Cat.Insist. In the study, five scientists, Rikard Kuller, Seifeddin G. Ballal, Thorbjorn Laike, Byron Mikellides, and Graciela Tonello, found that color and good lighting improve workers’ moods. 988 workers completed the study. Mood was at its lowest when lighting was perceived as too dark and at its highest when the lighting was perceived as just right. Moods were slightly lower when spaces were perceived as too bright.
A previous study from 2002 “The importance of light for health and well-being in outdoor and indoor environments,” by the same team of scientists showed that dark environments made workers feel tired and depressed.
A study by Laike and Kuller in 1998, titled, “The impact of flicker from fluorescent lighting on well-being, performance and physiological arousal. Ergonomics,” found that the flickering from fluorescent lighting actually causes certain individuals to speed up their work, but not do their work as well and make more mistakes. The flickering actually caused measurable nervous stress in the workers when their brain waves were analyzed. When electronic high-frequency ballasts of good quality were used, the flickering of the lights decreased.
So in other words, the cheap fluorescent lighting in Sears retail stores is causing shoppers to feel stressed and want to hurry out of the store. The dark lighting makes shoppers feel depressed and tired. This doesn’t sound like a very good recipe for retail success.
I love to shop at Sears because they carry an excellent collection of my favorite sports shoes: Reeboks; have a wonderful return and warranty policy; and carry some of the best quality brand tools and appliances (Craftsman and Kenmore). They also sell very nice clothing and housewares, if you can stand being inside the store long enough to look at them.
All Sears are not so dysfunctional. I recently visited the Sears in the Ala Moana Center mall in Honolulu, Hawaii. My family and I spent two valuable hours shopping in the store and left with over $300 in new shoes, clothing, and beautiful Hawaiian shirts.
I hope that Sears re-evaluates their lighting choices. A penny saved is not always a penny earned, especially when it comes to putting customers into a buying mood.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Obama right to change his mind
Within any organization, including the government, there are secrets kept hidden which are not revealed to anyone except to those who need to know them.
Original diagram ©2008 Smart Spark – free to use with written permission only.
Pull out troops from Iraq within 16 months as promised on the campaign trail? Hopefully, but maybe not. The answer will be determined by what on-the-ground military commanders recommend.
Increase taxes in 2009 for individuals earning more than $250,000 per year as promised on the campaign trail? Perhaps that wouldn’t be prudent. Let’s just let them expire in 2010.
Private or public campaign financing? Daughters allowed to be interviewed by the media or kept out of the spotlight? Public schools or private? Tapping the national oil reserve to lower gas prices? News reports and internet blogs are filled with criticisms of Obama for changing his mind.
Why shouldn’t he change his mind?
Within any government, organization, company, and family there are secrets kept hidden which are not revealed to anyone except to those who need to know them. Although we the general public can guess what these secrets might be; and we the media can dig for facts via the freedom of information act; together, we can only come up with bits and pieces of truths at best. The burden of making the big decisions must lie with those who are most informed.
After being elected President of the United States, Obama became a member of an exclusive club, the club of the “need to know’s.” Beginning on November 6, 2008, two days after the national election, President Elect Obama began to receive official national daily security briefings from a CIA briefing team and from Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence. This was more information than Obama had received as a candidate.
In electing a president or other official, we are putting our trust in an individual to take this very detailed information and make informed decisions about how to best run our country. We must allow our elected officials to do their job.
Haven’t you ever changed your mind?
Perhaps you promised your 16-year old daughter she could go to the movies on Friday, then found out the boy who was taking her was over 21, so you changed your mind, retracting your promise. Perhaps you agreed to go on vacation with another couple to the Grand Canyon, but then found that they were taking their 85-pound German Shepherd with them in the car, so you decided not to go. Maybe you took a job and found out that it didn’t pay as much as you thought, so you quit. Promises only count when facts are presented truthfully and in full.
I recently agreed to purchase a house in Central Florida. I signed a contract, essentially promising to buy the house and paid a good faith deposit. The house was old, but had been renovated, and looked lovely. However, before sealing the deal, I hired an inspector to find out what condition the house was in. The inspector brought out a few gadgets: a moisture detector, which found rot hidden in the walls and an infrared camera which allowed him to see extensive termite infestation. The owner had assured me that the roof was brand new, but the inspector found that only one third was new, the rest was original to the house, and the new shingles were laid on rotten boards. The “new” appliances turned out to have been salvaged. The termite bond turned out to not be a bond at all, when you read the fine print. The property taxes had not been paid and over $9000 was due which would have fallen on the shoulders of the buyer.
I backed out of the deal quickly, running, not walking away. Legally, I was allowed to do this because the condition of the house was not presented truthfully. I lost my $400 inspection fee plus several weeks of time that I could have used to look at other houses. However, I was glad I changed my mind.
There is no sin in changing your mind, especially for the big stuff. I would rather have a leader who changes their mind after learning new facts, than have a leader who stubbornly plows forward just to keep a promise.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Shopping Cart Etiquette
My biggest pet peeve – not putting back your cart. A photo of a Walmart parking lot by Tara Leigh Cobble shows carts unceremoniously abandoned by shoppers.
While you browse for your turkey, pumpkin pie, and stuffing ingredients this holiday season, please be considerate of your fellow shopper. Follow the “rules of the aisle,” just as you might follow the “rules of the road” while driving.
CART STEALING
While shopping in Lowes one weekday evening when the store was not very busy, I warned my husband to not let his lumber cart out of his sight. I’ve been a victim of cart stealing in the past and for some reason, a little voice warned me that our cart was in danger of being nabbed. I learned long ago that you have to put something – anything – in your cart, just so that no one walks away with it.
We traversed the seemingly mile-long warehouse, picked out some light bulbs near the entrance, a sink stand in the plumbing aisle, and backtracked to the appliance department so we could pick out a new refrigerator (ours was moaning like a ghost) before picking up shelving board – the reason we got the lumber cart instead of a regular cart. My husband parked the cart near the replacement stove burners where we could keep an eye on it. We then entered the maze of dishwashers, stoves, and washing machines and worked our way back to the taller appliances.
Sure enough, the cart was nabbed the moment we had our heads turned. Fortunately, the items we had painstakingly selected were discarded by the thief, unceremoniously piled up on top of the small appliance shelves. We went through the store attempting to find the perpetrator, someone driving a lumber cart with a squeaky left front wheel, but were unable to pin down the perpetrator. Was it the roofer with two assistants or the Sunday deck builder? Perhaps we’ll never know.
This wasn’t the first time I had been victimized in such a fashion. A few years earlier I lost my cart in a department store during harried Christmas shopping. I was not so lucky that particular time, for I could not find all my items and had to start over at the front of the store, reselecting what I could. I later found in someone else’s cart, the unique wrapping paper I’d picked out – the last roll with that print – and confronted the driver of that cart. The woman was very apologetic, but swore she picked it up from a shelf and didn’t steal the actual cart.
What kind of person would do this? – perhaps the same thoughtless person who parks their car in the loading zone so that when you want to load your lumber, you can’t find a place to park. (If you’re that decrepit, get a handicapped tag so that you can legally park close to the door.)
Of course, if you take a cart by accident, it is quite forgivable. I myself stole someone’s cart yesterday in Costco (a thousand apologies). I had stopped for a complimentary sample of roast turkey and parked my cart loaded with prepared Thanksgiving delights in the precooked meat aisle. I left with what I thought was my cart, got a few aisles over, and realized my shrimp was missing and in its place, a bundt cake. I quickly retraced my steps and found the bewildered older couple whose cart I had accidentally nabbed. “Every item is identical except one,” I explained, “I’m so, so sorry.” They were relieved to know it was an honest mistake and they would not have to start their shopping over.
If you are in the back of a store and happen to see an empty cart sitting alone in an aisle, please announce loudly, “Is this anyone’s cart? I’d like to use it if not. Excuse me, ma’am, did you see anyone using this cart? Sir, did you?” and so on... If no one comes forward to claim it, feel free to take it, for you can rest assured that you did the best you could. If someone comes back to claim it, offer to go up to the front of the store and get them another cart.
SHARE THE ROAD
While navigating packed grocery store aisles, please keep to the right. Otherwise, you are asking for a nasty traffic jam, perhaps with bumped children’s shins and snagged clothing.
SLOW TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT
Drive on the right and don’t be offended if someone zooms past you. They probably need to get home to rescue the turkey from a house packed with in-laws that believe that cats should eat off the dining room table with the humans.
NO LOITERING
This is Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas – thirty days of the biggest feasting of the year. You have to grab and go, grab and go. Don’t be picky. Move along. If you don’t think your indecisiveness is a problem, turn and look deep into the pleading and very tired eyes of those shoppers politely waiting for you to move forward. If that doesn’t grab at your heartstrings, you might as well have frozen peas for feelings.
My solution, park your cart somewhere out of the way and go into the aisle sans cart. That way, you can take your time browsing the various varieties of cranberry drink in search of the only one that actually contains 100% real cranberry juice.
OFF THE ROAD DRIVING
Carts are not intended for fast food lines, lottery ticket lines, dining areas, and the tire sales lobby. If you want a Polish hot dog, put your groceries away in your car and go back to the fast food line. If you must keep your cart near you, put it somewhere out of the way such as up against a wall or on the side of a freezer.
PROPER SIGNALING
Whoever said that you can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar must have been talking about grocery store etiquette. If you need to turn against traffic, stop, look into the eyes of the oncoming driver, and ask nicely, “Do you mind if I go down this aisle?” Add a sweet smile, and they will melt like butter on homemade rolls, stop, and kindly let you pass.
TAILGATING
We sometimes become bullies driving metal boxes with wheels, whether behind the wheel of a Hummer SUV or behind the wheel of a metal grocery cart. It’s easy to push our way into lines, jump in front of others, and force our way into places we would never feel comfortable going if we didn’t have a cart to protect us.
It happens frequently. I’m in line, unloading my groceries while the cashier is still checking out the customer in front of me, and I feel the cold metal nudge of a cart on my backside. The shopper behind me is in a hurry and imagines that by pushing on my buttocks with their cart, they will somehow get through the line faster. Of course, this never works. This isn’t a two-lane freeway and I couldn’t “get over,” even if I wanted to. Pushing on me won’t speed up the the cashier or the customer in front of me, just as tailgating me with your car and flashing your lights at me when I’m stuck behind a slow poke myself won’t do any good, either.
WHOOPS! WRONG EXIT
You are now in line, your groceries piled on the conveyer belt, and you just remembered you forgot to pick up that one item that you came to the store to buy – the Dijon mustard. You panic “I must have the mustard!” and run blindly back to the condiment aisle to find the rare imported French mustard that makes your pigs in a blanket hors d’oeuvres perfect. In the meantime, the clerk is about to begin ringing up your order, only to discover that the person standing in line before them is not intending to pay for this fine array of groceries. What to do? What to do? Everyone exchanges looks and the clerk debates whether or not to void the whole order and toss all the groceries in a cart for return.
Just like on the road, if you’ve already started down the exit, you have really no choice but to keep going. Buy the groceries, put them aside by the manager’s office or service desk (keep your receipt with you) and explain to the person in charge that you forgot something. Buy the mustard in the express lane. It’s the only decent thing to do.
PARKING YOUR CART
When I arrived in Florida, I was shocked to see a Walmart grocery store parking lot strewn with dozens of carts amidst the parked cars. A lone cart sat in the cart corral, where one conscientious person cared enough to put it away. I watched as shopper after shopper unloaded their groceries, then pushed their carts aside, onto curbs, between cars, in bushes, and sometimes just abandoned them behind other cars (who might hit them), despite the cart corral being located only a few feet away.
The behavior was more than mind boggling. I had never seen anything like it before, despite living in several states including North Carolina and Washington State and shopping at grocery stores from Alaska to California where customers sometimes take their carts all the way back up to the store entrance.
Apparently, Florida is not the only state where this is a problem, as indicated in Tara Leigh Cobble’s photo from a Walmart parking lot in Sugarland, Texas. My theory is that perpetrators feel less guilty about not putting their carts away in a flat parking lot (as opposed to a sloped one) since they assume the cart can’t roll into a parked car. However, I still find myself pulling into a parking spot, only to discover a stray cart hidden from view that I must maneuver around or attempt to gently nudge out of the way with my bumper.
Grocery carts can do considerable damage to a car. I used to joke that my car had only been hit twice – by shopping carts. It was hit once in a Kmart lot on a hill in Raleigh, NC, when a stray cart went rolling, rolling, rolling down the hill and went *SMACK* into the rear passenger side of my car. It was hit again in a grocery store parking lot in Seattle where I tripped in a pot hole and did the damage myself to the other rear side. In both cases, I was able to remove most of the dent, but a slight crease remained and the paint didn’t match up quite right.
Perhaps the biggest inconvenience is felt among those with the least ability to manage stray carts – the disabled. I was mortified to see carts jamming the center sidewalk access between handicapped parking rows. I once took several minutes to clear a path for a woman with a cane who was practically in tears when she discovered she could not get through the mishmash of abandoned carts.
JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD
There are no “cart” police. Our fine American Democracy allows numerous freedoms and these freedoms come with responsibilities. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Remember the golden rule, “Treat others as you would have them treat you,” or in this case, “Don’t do something to others you wouldn’t want them to do to you.”
Happy Feast Holidays!
WHOOPS! WRONG EXIT
You are now in line, your groceries piled on the conveyer belt, and you just remembered you forgot to pick up that one item that you came to the store to buy – the Dijon mustard. You panic “I must have the mustard!” and run blindly back to the condiment aisle to find the rare imported French mustard that makes your pigs in a blanket hors d’oeuvres perfect. In the meantime, the clerk is about to begin ringing up your order, only to discover that the person standing in line before them is not intending to pay for this fine array of groceries. What to do? What to do? Everyone exchanges looks and the clerk debates whether or not to void the whole order and toss all the groceries in a cart for return.
Just like on the road, if you’ve already started down the exit, you have really no choice but to keep going. Buy the groceries, put them aside by the manager’s office or service desk (keep your receipt with you) and explain to the person in charge that you forgot something. Buy the mustard in the express lane. It’s the only decent thing to do.
PARKING YOUR CART
When I arrived in Florida, I was shocked to see a Walmart grocery store parking lot strewn with dozens of carts amidst the parked cars. A lone cart sat in the cart corral, where one conscientious person cared enough to put it away. I watched as shopper after shopper unloaded their groceries, then pushed their carts aside, onto curbs, between cars, in bushes, and sometimes just abandoned them behind other cars (who might hit them), despite the cart corral being located only a few feet away.
The behavior was more than mind boggling. I had never seen anything like it before, despite living in several states including North Carolina and Washington State and shopping at grocery stores from Alaska to California where customers sometimes take their carts all the way back up to the store entrance.
Apparently, Florida is not the only state where this is a problem, as indicated in Tara Leigh Cobble’s photo from a Walmart parking lot in Sugarland, Texas. My theory is that perpetrators feel less guilty about not putting their carts away in a flat parking lot (as opposed to a sloped one) since they assume the cart can’t roll into a parked car. However, I still find myself pulling into a parking spot, only to discover a stray cart hidden from view that I must maneuver around or attempt to gently nudge out of the way with my bumper.
Grocery carts can do considerable damage to a car. I used to joke that my car had only been hit twice – by shopping carts. It was hit once in a Kmart lot on a hill in Raleigh, NC, when a stray cart went rolling, rolling, rolling down the hill and went *SMACK* into the rear passenger side of my car. It was hit again in a grocery store parking lot in Seattle where I tripped in a pot hole and did the damage myself to the other rear side. In both cases, I was able to remove most of the dent, but a slight crease remained and the paint didn’t match up quite right.
Perhaps the biggest inconvenience is felt among those with the least ability to manage stray carts – the disabled. I was mortified to see carts jamming the center sidewalk access between handicapped parking rows. I once took several minutes to clear a path for a woman with a cane who was practically in tears when she discovered she could not get through the mishmash of abandoned carts.
JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD
There are no “cart” police. Our fine American Democracy allows numerous freedoms and these freedoms come with responsibilities. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Remember the golden rule, “Treat others as you would have them treat you,” or in this case, “Don’t do something to others you wouldn’t want them to do to you.”
Happy Feast Holidays!
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Crowd Goes Wild.
World Series? No, Just Politics
You can bet on both sports and elections on Gamblerspalace.com
“It’s like you’re following your favorite sports team,” I said to him, one day this summer.
“Yeah, I guess it is like that,” he agreed.
Consider the comparisons:
PRIMARIES AND PLAYOFFS
Since January, Presidential candidates have competed with each other to win two coveted spots, the Republican or Democratic party nominations. Likewise, since April, Major League Baseball teams have competed with each other to win two coveted spots, the American or National League Championships.The winners of the political party nominations go on to compete in the national election for the United States Presidency. The winners of the baseball league championships go on to compete in the World Series.
STATISTICS AND SCORECARDS
Charts and maps are published. CNN posts a “racehorse” scorecard with red-white-and-blue Democrat donkeys running neck and neck. Bets are placed in Las Vegas. The news media goes wild. John Edwards, the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate from the 2004 election, drops out at the end of January after receiving a handful of delegates. Hillary Clinton wins California in the Super Tuesday, February 5 primary election and must simply defeat Obama to go on to compete in the World Series of politics, the National Election.
It’s September 30, 2008 and the Chicago White Sox of Illinois have just beaten the Minnesota Twins to advance to the American League Division Series championship. They are favored to beat the Tampa Bay Rays, the worst ranked team of 2007.
Statistics are recorded. A June 2, 2008 poll by the Daily Yonder shows that rural voters favor Clinton 56.6% to 43.4% for Obama. I don’t see how Obama can pull it off.
But wait a minute. Does Barack Obama still have a chance? Will the underdog defeat the favorite? I think so. He’s still in the running. Look at ‘em go! February 12 primaries earn him the delegates from Virginia, Maryland, and DC, enough to push him slightly ahead of Clinton.
In a surprise upset Tampa wipes out the Chicago White Sox on October 6, 2008 by winning all of the first four games in a row. They’ve advanced to play the Boston Red Sox on October 10.
ONLY ONE STAR PLAYER
In January of 2008, Rudy Giuliani attempted to win the Republican party nomination by campaigning only across the state of Florida. The headline of the St. Petersburg Times reads, “Giuliani bets all on Florida.” (Photo from CNN).
That’s kind of like China putting all of their faith in Yao Ming at the Olympics this summer. He’s a great player and towers over most competitors, just as Florida has a lot of delegate votes. But putting all your eggs in one basket rarely works. The United States defeated China 101 to 70. Rudy Guliani only earned 15 percent of Florida’s delegate votes, compared to McCain’s 35 percent and Mitt Romney’s 31 percent (according to the Jan. 29, 2008 New York Post).CONFLICTED LOYALTIES
Eenie-Meenie-Minie-Moe
I myself, am conflicted. Early in the election, I am rooting for my longtime-favorite, Hillary Clinton, but I do admire my “homeboy,” former NC Senator, John Edwards. My husband, on the other hand, is a staunch Obama supporter.
In the 2006 Superbowl, I was also torn. Four teams were in the playoffs and I had allegiances to three of them. I grew up in North Carolina where we had no team at the time, so I became a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan instead. I still have my black and gold Steelers knit cuffed hat with a tassel, practically a relic, from the 1970s Superbowl wins. However, North Carolina, the place where I was born and raised and where most of my family still reside, now has its own NFL team, the Panthers, who will also compete in the playoffs. To divide allegiances further, my husband was rooting for the Seattle Seahawks, the team he grew up with in Seattle.
In the end, I didn’t care if any of my three teams won. I would still be happy. Similarly, I didn’t care if Clinton, Edwards, Obama, or any other candidate won the Democratic primary, as long as they won the big race, the White House. Any Democrat is better than none.
OUTRAGEOUS SELLS
The Republican party Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, has been branded “Caribou Barbie” after the news media learns that she is a gun-toting former beauty queen. She is parodied on Saturday Night Live, earning the comedy show its best ratings ever of a estimated 14 million viewers, according to the NY Daily News.
Dennis Rodman – AP photo from 1996
It’s 1993 and NBA basketball star, Dennis Rodman, best known for playing for the San Antonio Spurs and later for the Chicago Bulls, has begun to dye his hair red, blue, and purple. His flamboyant lifestyle attracts the attention of the rich and famous and he has an affair with Madonna as well as a ten-day marriage to Carmen Electra. He publishes an autobiography, “Bad As I Wanna Be,” and wears a wedding dress to promote the book. Despite leaving the NBA in 2000, he is still a huge crowd pleaser to this very day. He’s starred in movies, wrestled professionally, and been a contestant on numerous reality TV shows, including Celebrity Mole where he won the $220,000 grand prize. He currently hosts a blog on Opensports.com.
SCANDALS
During the presidential campaign on October 10, 2007, the National Enquirer accused Democratic candidate John Edwards of having a secret extramarital affair with Reille Hunter, a documentary filmmaker he hired to film his campaign. In December, an Enquirer article accused Edwards of fathering Reille’s child, and said that one of his aides, Andrew Young, had set up house for her in a posh home supplied by a campaign donor. Although Edwards denied the allegations, the rumor handicapped his performance and he quit the presidential race in late January, 2008 after voters put him in a distant third to Hillary and Obama. (NOTE: In an August 2008 ABC interview with Bob Woodruff, Edwards admitted to the affair, but said the child was not his.)
L’Equipe cover, “Armstrong, the lie”
Bicyclist Lance Armstrong, seven time winner of the Tour De France from 1999 to 2005, and cancer survivor, is accused of doping. A book titled L.A. Confidential is released in 2004 where Armstrong’s former masseuse, Emma O’Reilly, claims she helped cover signs of his drug use by disposing of syringes and covering needle marks with makeup. A former teammate, Steve Swart, claims he and Armstrong began using drugs in 1995. Also, a test in 1999 did show traces of steroid use. Armstrong agrees to more drug testing, denies any drug use, and argues that his rigorous training schedule and self-discipline are what really led to his victories. However, Armstrong retires from bicycle racing -- the negative publicity isn’t worth the hassle. (Info from Wikipedia)
INJURIES
After the 134th Kentucky Derby on May 3, 2008, second place winner Eight Belles, a crowd favorite, had to be euthanized after losing the race to Big Brown. She has broken both her front ankles during the post-race cool down.
Only four weeks before the election, Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani backs out of the 2000 Senate race against Hillary Clinton after discovering he has developed prostate cancer. Clinton, already leading slightly, is able to race past Giuliani and win the NY State Senate seat. Fortunately, Giuliani recovers from his cancer, but to this day, Clinton is still secure in the coveted Senate seat. (Giuliani may have an opportunity to win the seat if Clinton leaves for a position in Obama’s cabinet.)
THE UNDERDOG SQUEAKS BY
It’s June 3, 2008 and the presidential race is still on. After competing neck and neck, Obama has pulled away in burst of energy and just won North Carolina. Obama has 2201 delegate votes to Hillary’s 1896. Hillary is out. Obama is the Democratic candidate! What an upset! Obama will run against Rebublican candidate, John McCain in the national Presidential election.
It’s October 19, 2008 and the Tampa Bay Rays of Florida have beaten the Boston Red Sox of Massachusetts in game seven of the American League Playoffs! By golly, the underdog has done it! Tampa will play its first World Series! Whoopie!
MARKETING AND MOTTOS
In the 2006 Superbowl, I was also torn. Four teams were in the playoffs and I had allegiances to three of them. I grew up in North Carolina where we had no team at the time, so I became a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan instead. I still have my black and gold Steelers knit cuffed hat with a tassel, practically a relic, from the 1970s Superbowl wins. However, North Carolina, the place where I was born and raised and where most of my family still reside, now has its own NFL team, the Panthers, who will also compete in the playoffs. To divide allegiances further, my husband was rooting for the Seattle Seahawks, the team he grew up with in Seattle.
In the end, I didn’t care if any of my three teams won. I would still be happy. Similarly, I didn’t care if Clinton, Edwards, Obama, or any other candidate won the Democratic primary, as long as they won the big race, the White House. Any Democrat is better than none.
OUTRAGEOUS SELLS
The Republican party Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, has been branded “Caribou Barbie” after the news media learns that she is a gun-toting former beauty queen. She is parodied on Saturday Night Live, earning the comedy show its best ratings ever of a estimated 14 million viewers, according to the NY Daily News.
Dennis Rodman – AP photo from 1996It’s 1993 and NBA basketball star, Dennis Rodman, best known for playing for the San Antonio Spurs and later for the Chicago Bulls, has begun to dye his hair red, blue, and purple. His flamboyant lifestyle attracts the attention of the rich and famous and he has an affair with Madonna as well as a ten-day marriage to Carmen Electra. He publishes an autobiography, “Bad As I Wanna Be,” and wears a wedding dress to promote the book. Despite leaving the NBA in 2000, he is still a huge crowd pleaser to this very day. He’s starred in movies, wrestled professionally, and been a contestant on numerous reality TV shows, including Celebrity Mole where he won the $220,000 grand prize. He currently hosts a blog on Opensports.com.
SCANDALS
During the presidential campaign on October 10, 2007, the National Enquirer accused Democratic candidate John Edwards of having a secret extramarital affair with Reille Hunter, a documentary filmmaker he hired to film his campaign. In December, an Enquirer article accused Edwards of fathering Reille’s child, and said that one of his aides, Andrew Young, had set up house for her in a posh home supplied by a campaign donor. Although Edwards denied the allegations, the rumor handicapped his performance and he quit the presidential race in late January, 2008 after voters put him in a distant third to Hillary and Obama. (NOTE: In an August 2008 ABC interview with Bob Woodruff, Edwards admitted to the affair, but said the child was not his.)
L’Equipe cover, “Armstrong, the lie”Bicyclist Lance Armstrong, seven time winner of the Tour De France from 1999 to 2005, and cancer survivor, is accused of doping. A book titled L.A. Confidential is released in 2004 where Armstrong’s former masseuse, Emma O’Reilly, claims she helped cover signs of his drug use by disposing of syringes and covering needle marks with makeup. A former teammate, Steve Swart, claims he and Armstrong began using drugs in 1995. Also, a test in 1999 did show traces of steroid use. Armstrong agrees to more drug testing, denies any drug use, and argues that his rigorous training schedule and self-discipline are what really led to his victories. However, Armstrong retires from bicycle racing -- the negative publicity isn’t worth the hassle. (Info from Wikipedia)
INJURIES
After the 134th Kentucky Derby on May 3, 2008, second place winner Eight Belles, a crowd favorite, had to be euthanized after losing the race to Big Brown. She has broken both her front ankles during the post-race cool down.Only four weeks before the election, Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani backs out of the 2000 Senate race against Hillary Clinton after discovering he has developed prostate cancer. Clinton, already leading slightly, is able to race past Giuliani and win the NY State Senate seat. Fortunately, Giuliani recovers from his cancer, but to this day, Clinton is still secure in the coveted Senate seat. (Giuliani may have an opportunity to win the seat if Clinton leaves for a position in Obama’s cabinet.)
THE UNDERDOG SQUEAKS BY
It’s June 3, 2008 and the presidential race is still on. After competing neck and neck, Obama has pulled away in burst of energy and just won North Carolina. Obama has 2201 delegate votes to Hillary’s 1896. Hillary is out. Obama is the Democratic candidate! What an upset! Obama will run against Rebublican candidate, John McCain in the national Presidential election.
It’s October 19, 2008 and the Tampa Bay Rays of Florida have beaten the Boston Red Sox of Massachusetts in game seven of the American League Playoffs! By golly, the underdog has done it! Tampa will play its first World Series! Whoopie!
MARKETING AND MOTTOS
The new Tampa Bay Rays logo features sun rays.
The new Obama logo features a rising sun.
The new Tampa motto is, “We are one team.”
Obama says, “We are one nation.”
The year before the season began, Tampa Bay decided to revamp their image. They dropped the name, “Devil” and became simply, “The Rays.” Their team colors are now navy and Columbia blue with gold accents. The iridescent green and pterodactyl-like stingray are gone. Their new logo is cleaner and brighter and evicts sun rays instead of sting rays.
Rays owner Stuart Sternberg announces in a press release, “We are now the Rays.” Tampa Bay Rays president announces the new team motto in the St. Petersburg Times, “We are one team!”
Similarily, Barack Obama has also revamped his campaign image. Marketing firms Sender LLC and mo/de worked together to create the ingenious, “O” logo, an “O” for Obama containing a rising sun evoking a sense of hope. (see Jan. 3, 2008 Under Consideration.) The logo proves extremely versatile and can be used not only in place of the letter “O” in the spelling of states, such as in flOrida, and Ohio, but can also be customized to promote individual pack support groups, such as adding stars for Veterans, or a rainbow for Gay and Lesbians.
“We are one people,” and “We are one nation,” says Obama in his campaign speeches.
MERCHANDISING
Christina, Denise, and Elizabeth Cabicano celebrate a Rays victory. MLB photo.
In September 2008, Tampa Bay Online reports that the Tampa Bay Rays have sold nearly double the merchandise in 2008 over the previous year due to the new logo and team colors. This years winning season is attributed with increasing sales further another 25 percent.
Floridians are getting ready for the Major League playoffs. Businesses deck themselves in Tampa Rays regalia in preparation for the seven game World Series. The Clearwater Publix grocery stores are selling shirts reading, “Beat the Phillies.”
Websites featuring Obama merchandise are created. The August 17, 2008 Boston Globe reports that Obama merchandise is flying off store shelves. Entrepreneurial t-shirt designers and printers walk among crowds at Obama rallies, hawking their wares. On November 4, 2008, At the DNC headquarters where I worked, a woman was offered $50 for a campaign button she got for $1. While at an Orlando Magic Game, I am offered an autographed Dwight Howard jersey, a $300 value, in exchange for my official Obama t-shirt I received for a $15 donation.
A few weeks before the general election, the nation becomes polarized. Republicans wear red. Democrats wear blue. Yard signs and bumper stickers announce the owner’s favorite “team.”
NON-STOP NEWS COVERAGE
Logo for Decision 2008 is from: TheTimesHerald.comTV commercials and news broadcasts are dominated by politics and sports. As my grumpy Republican father noted, “You can’t turn on the television without seeing something about either the election or the World Series.”
On MSNBC, my husband discovers Countdown with Keith Olbermann, hosted by a former sportscaster and news anchor who has evolved into a liberal political news commentator. Olbermann delivers election news the way he used to deliver sports news -- with zest, passion, and fury.
My husband and I begin to only watch WKMG, Local6, since it is the only local news channel in our area that gives equal time to the Democratic candidate visits and isn’t biased in favor of the Republicans.
ACCUSATIONS OF CHEATING
My husband and I watched with dismay in 2006 as officials essentially hands the Superbowl to the crowd favorite, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Although I had no allegiance to either team, it disturbed me that professional officials would be allowed to show blatent favoritism for one team over another. Videos are posted on Youtube showing proof of bad calls by officials. Newspapers publish angry letters. Petitions are circulated requesting a change in the way officials are paid so there cannot be a conflict of interest. Columnists and bloggers say the Seahawks were robbed. (See Feb. 6, 2006 Sports Pulse blog for a list of bad calls. See Feb. 8, 2006 ESPN Sports Nation, Feb. 6, 2006 Sportscolumn, Feb. 8, 2006 East Carolinian, Apr. 1, 2006 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 7, 2006 Seattle Times, Feb. 6, 2006 Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2006 Seattle Times.)
The image of Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, giving a sheepish grin to the official almost as if to say, “You can’t blame me for trying,” after he edged forward to push the ball over the line after the play was already ended, will forever be burned in my brain. The official gave him the touchdown. It was an eye opening moment for me and my delusions of fair play were crushed. Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren protested the call, but official Referee, Bill Leavy, upheld it. Even Roethlisberger himself later admitted it wasn’t a touchdown on David Letterman. (See Feb. 10, 2006 Oberlin Review)
After a very close presidential election in 2000 between Al Gore and George Bush, the outcome was finally decided by the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, a Republican and co-chair of Bush’s campaign. Voters had used paper punch ballots which lined up incorrectly and sometimes did not punch all the way through, jamming reader machines, and causing incorrect results. Recounts revealed several flaws in the system: there were more votes recorded than registered voters in one county, about 175,000 votes had been thrown out due to either two votes or no votes, and 58,000 suspected felons were not allowed to vote (only about 5,800 should have been removed) after being taken off voter registrations by Harris and Governor, Jeb Bush, George Bush’s brother (See investigation in Apr. 29, 2004 the Nation). Since Bush won by less than 600 votes, the 52,200 voters who were not allowed to vote might have given the election to Gore.
Fortunately, unlike professional football, many measures have been taken in Florida to help ensure that elections results are accurate. Florida now uses a paper ballot where the voter fills in their choices with a black pen. The forms are fed into a machine where they are read and locked inside so they cannot be fed again. Early Voting was instituted to give voters more time to work out registration problems. Democrats enlisted hundreds of lawyers to assist anyone turned away at the polls.
Fraud caused by dual voting is still possible (although very illegal), by voting in two states, usually by absentee ballot or early voting. This problem could be solved with a national registry based on Social Security numbers instead of registering using names and addresses.
VICTORY PARTIES
World series victory photo from “Press of Atlantic City.”
October 30, 2008 and the Phillies have cinched the World Series after several snow delays. Champagne corks are popped, fireworks explode, and fans gather in the streets to celebrate.
Obama victory party at Grant Park from the Windycitizen.comNovember 4, 2008 and crowds gather in the street to celebrate Barack Obama’s election win. My friend Selma calls me from Seattle to let me know that people are partying on Capitol Hill. Television news stations show live shots of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Georgia, Times Square in NY, and Grant Park in Chicago.
AFTER THE ELECTION DEPRESSION
It’s been over a week since the election and I’ve found myself wallowing in “what do I do with myself, now,” pity. The excitement after winning has nearly worn off. The sign waving -- a distant memory. The new President is now picking his cabinet. I am finally ready to put away my Obama mementos for future placement in a scrapbook.
The let down is a bit like the “after the Superbowl” or “World Series” feeling. Your team won or lost. The media has hashed and rehashed it. Now, it’s time to get on with your life.
Good thing I bought Orlando Magic tickets. Mom, can you please knit me a bright blue and white hat for Christmas, one with a tassel?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A Week of Republican Hand Holding
The face on the tiki tissue box at left, sold in many stores, looks eerily familiar.Can I get you a tissue? Would you like a shoulder to cry on? Yes, I know, I know. You really don’t like the Democrats. Sigh…
It was this week that I discovered what sore losers Republicans are after losing the “big race,” the Presidential election. Come on, guys, get a grip! Everything’s going to be great! Relax. Just wait and see!
My father was the first grumbler to contact me, by emailing me that McCain and Palin were “lucky” to not win the election since the economy is in such horrific shambles. Hmmm. Sour grapes?
My friend, Selma, who works for me in Seattle, told me she was wearing the American Flag pinned upside down on a red sweatshirt. “It’s a sign of distress,” she said, “Because that’s what we’re in, a time of distress.” Poor Selma, Bless her heart!
My Cousin, Carla, who lives in hurricane ravaged New Orleans, sent me an article from the ultra conservative, Carolina Journal online, dated Nov. 4, about how the Democrats want to “spread the wealth,” by seizing private 401Ks and IRAs and roll them into the social security program. Gullible, you say? Since when did Democrats become Socialists? I consoled Carla – there’s no way this will happen.
I reminded Carla that I had just lost a substantial bit of money when the Bush administration seized Washington Mutual Bank, dissolved the stocks *poof!* and turned over the assets to JP Morgan Chase. Talk about socialization! Talk about spreading the wealth! “This is real,” I reminded her, not just an opinion, such as the doom and gloom in the article you sent me. (See the Nov. 9 Seattle Times.)
Since before the election, hundreds of fear mongering emails have circulated claiming that if Obama is elected, his administration will come into your house, take away your guns, rip the babies from your teenage daughter’s wombs, suck dry your bank account, dissolve the military, and make Islam this country’s national religion. All I can ask, is please consider the news source. Is it the New York Times where you heard this? How about the Washington Post? USA Today? A major metropolitan newspaper? Was it even a real newspaper? Or was it a blog, such as this one? Or an email? Or, God forbid, FOX News?
A “legitimate” news source will be part of the “mainstream media,” (MSM) and most likely be a contributing member to a newswire service, such as the Associated Press, which requires their reporters to be, “dedicated to the same standards – fairness, balance, and accuracy.” Before the election season, the newspaper where my husband works issued this reminder: “News staffers are encouraged to be involved in their communities to the extent that such activities don't create real or apparent conflicts or interest. Involvement in politics, demonstrations, and social causes that would create conflicts of interest or the appearance of such conflicts should be avoided. News staffers should avoid any public political activity, including contributions. They should not run for office, sign political petitions or campaign for any candidate or political cause.” This doesn’t mean that newspapers don’t sometimes print one-sided pieces. However, the difference is that these will appear on the opinion, humor, and editorial pages, not in the news sections.
So, who really wants to slander Obama? Who wants to spread false rumors about him so that people lose their trust in him, thereby reducing his potential power to change the status quo?
The rich and powerful, of course. The owners of FOX News, for one, who will have to pay higher taxes, assuming the new administration will have its way. Greed of money is the strongest motivator for political manipulation. I ask these movers and shakers, do you really need that extra 4.6% in taxes that you will have to pay under Obama’s tax plan? How much money do you really need to live on? Isn’t fixing our troubled nation more important?
I did some research and learned that a person earning, say one million dollars a year, will pay 39.6% in Federal income tax instead of the old rate of 35%. (Social Security will only be taxed up to $106,800 in 2009 according to Wikipedia’s segment on income tax).
Here’s a comparison:
That’s still a lot of jelly beans! You should be so lucky. Federal income tax of 39.6% is really not that high. According to Wikipedia, as recently as 1981, a person earning $1,000,000 would have paid 70% in Federal Income tax, or $700,000 per year without deductions. In 1954, they would have paid 91% or $910,000 per year, without deductions.
Other than high income earners, the only other individual I know personally who might have a legitimate worry is my dear friend, Mirabella, who is the ultimate capitalist. She runs a novelty item manufacturing company where most of her products are made overseas in China, currently her cheapest option.
Due to policy changes under the Obama administration, Mirabella will be motivated to move her outsourcing to factories located here in the United States, maybe even to here in Florida where WKMG Local 6 news reported that 8,000 job applicants showed up for a job fair in Orlando on Wednesday, Nov. 12 where only 2500 candidates were expected, so many that some were turned away. At the time, the Workforce Central Florida website listed only 946 open positions. Moving your manufacturing back to the United States could be a good thing – it’s hard to sell products to people with no jobs.
Today, the U. S. Department of Labor issued a report that 43 percent of the over 200,000 jobs lost in the past month nationwide were due to – you guessed it – a decrease in business demand, a.k.a. no customers.
I understand why the Republicans are afraid. I was once a Republican myself. Although I did not vote for Bill Clinton in the 1992 election, and did not even like Bill Clinton at the time, my life benefited exponentially over the course of President Clinton’s administration. A couple of years after Clinton took office, things began to look up for me personally. Jobs suddenly seemed much more plentiful; prices of food and goods more affordable; I was finally able to qualify to buy a house; and I received good healthcare. I changed my political affiliation to Democrat in 1994. I was a true convert.
So, my message to my dear Republican friends: Just relax. Everything will be okay. Changes will come, but they will be for the better. I promise!
Maybe, even for you, Mirabella…
It was this week that I discovered what sore losers Republicans are after losing the “big race,” the Presidential election. Come on, guys, get a grip! Everything’s going to be great! Relax. Just wait and see!
My father was the first grumbler to contact me, by emailing me that McCain and Palin were “lucky” to not win the election since the economy is in such horrific shambles. Hmmm. Sour grapes?
My friend, Selma, who works for me in Seattle, told me she was wearing the American Flag pinned upside down on a red sweatshirt. “It’s a sign of distress,” she said, “Because that’s what we’re in, a time of distress.” Poor Selma, Bless her heart!
My Cousin, Carla, who lives in hurricane ravaged New Orleans, sent me an article from the ultra conservative, Carolina Journal online, dated Nov. 4, about how the Democrats want to “spread the wealth,” by seizing private 401Ks and IRAs and roll them into the social security program. Gullible, you say? Since when did Democrats become Socialists? I consoled Carla – there’s no way this will happen.
I reminded Carla that I had just lost a substantial bit of money when the Bush administration seized Washington Mutual Bank, dissolved the stocks *poof!* and turned over the assets to JP Morgan Chase. Talk about socialization! Talk about spreading the wealth! “This is real,” I reminded her, not just an opinion, such as the doom and gloom in the article you sent me. (See the Nov. 9 Seattle Times.)
Since before the election, hundreds of fear mongering emails have circulated claiming that if Obama is elected, his administration will come into your house, take away your guns, rip the babies from your teenage daughter’s wombs, suck dry your bank account, dissolve the military, and make Islam this country’s national religion. All I can ask, is please consider the news source. Is it the New York Times where you heard this? How about the Washington Post? USA Today? A major metropolitan newspaper? Was it even a real newspaper? Or was it a blog, such as this one? Or an email? Or, God forbid, FOX News?
A “legitimate” news source will be part of the “mainstream media,” (MSM) and most likely be a contributing member to a newswire service, such as the Associated Press, which requires their reporters to be, “dedicated to the same standards – fairness, balance, and accuracy.” Before the election season, the newspaper where my husband works issued this reminder: “News staffers are encouraged to be involved in their communities to the extent that such activities don't create real or apparent conflicts or interest. Involvement in politics, demonstrations, and social causes that would create conflicts of interest or the appearance of such conflicts should be avoided. News staffers should avoid any public political activity, including contributions. They should not run for office, sign political petitions or campaign for any candidate or political cause.” This doesn’t mean that newspapers don’t sometimes print one-sided pieces. However, the difference is that these will appear on the opinion, humor, and editorial pages, not in the news sections.
So, who really wants to slander Obama? Who wants to spread false rumors about him so that people lose their trust in him, thereby reducing his potential power to change the status quo?
The rich and powerful, of course. The owners of FOX News, for one, who will have to pay higher taxes, assuming the new administration will have its way. Greed of money is the strongest motivator for political manipulation. I ask these movers and shakers, do you really need that extra 4.6% in taxes that you will have to pay under Obama’s tax plan? How much money do you really need to live on? Isn’t fixing our troubled nation more important?
I did some research and learned that a person earning, say one million dollars a year, will pay 39.6% in Federal income tax instead of the old rate of 35%. (Social Security will only be taxed up to $106,800 in 2009 according to Wikipedia’s segment on income tax).
Here’s a comparison:
- Tax on $1,000,000 for 2008:
Social Security: 6.2% x $106,800 = $8,170
Medicare: 1.45% x $1,000,000 = $14,500
Federal Income Tax: 35% x $1,000,000 = $350,000
Total tax: $372,670 (without deductions)
Take home: $627,330
Tax on $1,000,000 for 2009:
Social Security: 6.2% x $106,800 = $8,170 (same)
Medicare: 1.45% x $1,000,000 = $14,500 (same)
Federal Income Tax: 39.6% x $1,000,000 = $396,000
Total tax: $418,670 (without deductions)
Take home: $581,330
That’s still a lot of jelly beans! You should be so lucky. Federal income tax of 39.6% is really not that high. According to Wikipedia, as recently as 1981, a person earning $1,000,000 would have paid 70% in Federal Income tax, or $700,000 per year without deductions. In 1954, they would have paid 91% or $910,000 per year, without deductions.
Other than high income earners, the only other individual I know personally who might have a legitimate worry is my dear friend, Mirabella, who is the ultimate capitalist. She runs a novelty item manufacturing company where most of her products are made overseas in China, currently her cheapest option.
Due to policy changes under the Obama administration, Mirabella will be motivated to move her outsourcing to factories located here in the United States, maybe even to here in Florida where WKMG Local 6 news reported that 8,000 job applicants showed up for a job fair in Orlando on Wednesday, Nov. 12 where only 2500 candidates were expected, so many that some were turned away. At the time, the Workforce Central Florida website listed only 946 open positions. Moving your manufacturing back to the United States could be a good thing – it’s hard to sell products to people with no jobs.
Today, the U. S. Department of Labor issued a report that 43 percent of the over 200,000 jobs lost in the past month nationwide were due to – you guessed it – a decrease in business demand, a.k.a. no customers.
I understand why the Republicans are afraid. I was once a Republican myself. Although I did not vote for Bill Clinton in the 1992 election, and did not even like Bill Clinton at the time, my life benefited exponentially over the course of President Clinton’s administration. A couple of years after Clinton took office, things began to look up for me personally. Jobs suddenly seemed much more plentiful; prices of food and goods more affordable; I was finally able to qualify to buy a house; and I received good healthcare. I changed my political affiliation to Democrat in 1994. I was a true convert.
So, my message to my dear Republican friends: Just relax. Everything will be okay. Changes will come, but they will be for the better. I promise!
Maybe, even for you, Mirabella…
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Dear General Motors, I’d Like a “New” Old Car
Is it too much to ask for a new ’57 Chevy?
General Motors Company, also known simply as GM, is struggling with the broken U.S. economy and is now on the brink of facing possible permanent closure. GM says their factories are losing money employing workers to make cars that no one can get financing to buy due to the current credit freeze. Their brands include Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, GMC, Saturn, Hummer, Saab, and Cadillac.
But could there be another reason? After all, who wants to buy a big ugly gas guzzling Hummer you can’t park anywhere? What about a new sedan with less character than a new vacuum cleaner? What excites the extravagant buyer more? A new red Samsung washer dryer for $2,800 or a new red Chevy Malibu for $28,000? Hmmm…
A 2009 Samsung washer dryer and a 2009 Chevy Malibu.
Losing GM would mean the end of an era. But, am I crying over today’s GM or reminiscing over the past? I long for the classics, the 1950s Chevies with bicolor panels and shiny chrome trim; the sleek and curvy Corvettes, the old prestigious Cadillacs and Thunderbirds.
A 1938 Ford Roadster and a 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser.
In April of 2000, Chrysler debuted the PT Cruiser. It wasn't a very good copy of the 1938 Ford Roadster it was supposed to emulate, but it was still super popular nonetheless. According to a New York Times article from March 5, 2002, the car was listed for an affordable $16,000, but sold for as much as $21,000 with dealer options added. When the PT Cruiser went on sale, dealers quickly ran out of cars. 180,000 sold that year, each earning a profit of $800 per car, or 144 million dollars, which essentially saved Chrysler corporation. With a production goal of 300,000 in 2002, Chrysler would make 240 million dollars in profit that year.
The first car I ever dreamed about owning was a bright yellow 1970 Stingray Corvette which frequently drove past my parents house. Some evenings as a young adolescent on the verge of turning 16 and getting my license, I would sit on the front steps listening to the cicadas, waiting for the corvette to go by on it’s way to who knows where. Years later, I was able to sit in the driver’s seat of a similar model, only to discover I was too short to reach the pedals.
My husband actually owned several 1950s and ’60s vintage cars before I met him, only to resell them or abandon them where they broke down – he’s not a mechanic and an old car is too expensive to pay someone else to repair, if you can even find someone to fix it for you.
After we grew up, got married, and became responsible adults, my husband and I ended up buying two very boring brand new cars. We spent a lot of money on them, so they are quite comfortable, have all the modern conveniences such as seat warmers; automatic windows and door locks; five-year warranties; side panel air bags; upgraded alarm systems; and decent gas mileage. But, when was the last time you heard someone write a song about say, a Ford Escape or a Saturn Ion?
American cars have lost their pizzazz, their romance, their soul. Today’s cars simply don’t inspire the same feelings of pride of ownership. “I love my Subaru, Oh yes I do. I love my Subaru, and I’ll be true…,” just doesn’t carry the same impact as John Wilkin’s anthem about a new 1963 Pontiac GTO (recorded by the Beach Boys in 1964), “Listen to her tachin' up now, listen to her why-ee-eye-ine. C'mon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO.”
What ever happened to cruising? The wholesome teenage pastime of driving up and down the busy strip of road between the mall and the 24-hour McDonalds, showing off your car’s new racing stripes and wax job while you hoot and hollar at the opposite sex? – The very pastime about which Bruce Springsteen celebrated in song, perhaps about a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado such as the one shown at right complete with tailfins and rocket-red paddle lights: “I love you for your pink Cadillac, Crushed velvet seats, Riding in the back, Oozing down the street, Waving to the girls, Feeling out of sight, Spending all my money on a Saturday night.”
What about car clubs and car shows? Carclubs.com lists hundreds of car clubs for all years of models. It’s difficult to find clubs specializing in new models except for perhaps Saturn, but that list contains mostly clubs with 3 to 10 members and one that isn’t even a club at all, but just a big ad for Saturn parts and repair shops. The Ford Model A isn’t even manufactured anymore, but has 23 clubs. Out of 282 total Chevrolet car clubs listed, there is only one “newer” car club, a Suburban club with only 12 members, and no clubs specializing in the newer Aveos, Cobalts, or Malibus. But, look at the old classics, the collectibles, and you’ll find dozens of clubs, some very specialized, such as 50 Camero clubs, 26 Chevelle clubs, over 100 Corvette clubs, and even one Chevy Bonanza pickup truck club. Hubcapcafe.com also lists hundreds of antique car clubs nationwide. Even Alaska has three antique auto clubs, including the Anchorage Corvette Association. When’s the last time you went to a car show featuring new Pontiac Coupes or Chrysler Town and Country’s?
The first car I ever dreamed about owning was a bright yellow 1970 Stingray Corvette which frequently drove past my parents house. Some evenings as a young adolescent on the verge of turning 16 and getting my license, I would sit on the front steps listening to the cicadas, waiting for the corvette to go by on it’s way to who knows where. Years later, I was able to sit in the driver’s seat of a similar model, only to discover I was too short to reach the pedals.
The new 2006 Chevrolet Stingray Corvette, above at right, does a decent job emulating the 1970 model at left. However, the new 2005 Ford Thunderbird convertible, below at right, misses the mark and looks little like the shiny 1960 model at left.
My husband actually owned several 1950s and ’60s vintage cars before I met him, only to resell them or abandon them where they broke down – he’s not a mechanic and an old car is too expensive to pay someone else to repair, if you can even find someone to fix it for you.
After we grew up, got married, and became responsible adults, my husband and I ended up buying two very boring brand new cars. We spent a lot of money on them, so they are quite comfortable, have all the modern conveniences such as seat warmers; automatic windows and door locks; five-year warranties; side panel air bags; upgraded alarm systems; and decent gas mileage. But, when was the last time you heard someone write a song about say, a Ford Escape or a Saturn Ion?
American cars have lost their pizzazz, their romance, their soul. Today’s cars simply don’t inspire the same feelings of pride of ownership. “I love my Subaru, Oh yes I do. I love my Subaru, and I’ll be true…,” just doesn’t carry the same impact as John Wilkin’s anthem about a new 1963 Pontiac GTO (recorded by the Beach Boys in 1964), “Listen to her tachin' up now, listen to her why-ee-eye-ine. C'mon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO.”
What ever happened to cruising? The wholesome teenage pastime of driving up and down the busy strip of road between the mall and the 24-hour McDonalds, showing off your car’s new racing stripes and wax job while you hoot and hollar at the opposite sex? – The very pastime about which Bruce Springsteen celebrated in song, perhaps about a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado such as the one shown at right complete with tailfins and rocket-red paddle lights: “I love you for your pink Cadillac, Crushed velvet seats, Riding in the back, Oozing down the street, Waving to the girls, Feeling out of sight, Spending all my money on a Saturday night.”What about car clubs and car shows? Carclubs.com lists hundreds of car clubs for all years of models. It’s difficult to find clubs specializing in new models except for perhaps Saturn, but that list contains mostly clubs with 3 to 10 members and one that isn’t even a club at all, but just a big ad for Saturn parts and repair shops. The Ford Model A isn’t even manufactured anymore, but has 23 clubs. Out of 282 total Chevrolet car clubs listed, there is only one “newer” car club, a Suburban club with only 12 members, and no clubs specializing in the newer Aveos, Cobalts, or Malibus. But, look at the old classics, the collectibles, and you’ll find dozens of clubs, some very specialized, such as 50 Camero clubs, 26 Chevelle clubs, over 100 Corvette clubs, and even one Chevy Bonanza pickup truck club. Hubcapcafe.com also lists hundreds of antique car clubs nationwide. Even Alaska has three antique auto clubs, including the Anchorage Corvette Association. When’s the last time you went to a car show featuring new Pontiac Coupes or Chrysler Town and Country’s?
Cadillac Ranch, art installation by Art Farm, 1974
Google “car museum” and you’ll find dozens of actual car museums worldwide featuring antique cars of days gone by. What about car monuments? Some are sophisticated works of art, such as the Lanchester Car Monument in Birmingham England. Others are more folksy, such as the Cadillac Ranch on route 66 in Texas where a group of artists called, “Art Farm” (no connection to current groups using the same name) buried a chronologically dated series of cadillacs headfirst in 1974 to lament the slow disappearance of the ever popular rocket-ship inspired tailfins.
The bodies of antique cars are lifted on top of buildings and displayed prominently. Krispy Kreme enshrines vintage delivery trucks in glass cases out front. The San Diego based, Corvette Diner displays a 1960s “little red corvette,” perhaps similar to the one Prince sang about: “I guess I shoulda closed my eyes when u drove me 2 the place where your horses run free.”
My husband still salivates every time we pass a 1957 Chevy. “We can’t afford it,” I say.
“But, It’s only $500!” he says back.
“It probably doesn’t run.” I reply, “And you have no idea how to fix it.”
Maybe someday, car manufacturers will get smart and reproduce their actual 1950s era cars, not just reuse the old names to label another boring sedan, but a much closer copy of the original car reproduced with new engines and all the modern conveniences of a new car. But, that would just be too intelligent.
The bodies of antique cars are lifted on top of buildings and displayed prominently. Krispy Kreme enshrines vintage delivery trucks in glass cases out front. The San Diego based, Corvette Diner displays a 1960s “little red corvette,” perhaps similar to the one Prince sang about: “I guess I shoulda closed my eyes when u drove me 2 the place where your horses run free.”My husband still salivates every time we pass a 1957 Chevy. “We can’t afford it,” I say.
“But, It’s only $500!” he says back.
“It probably doesn’t run.” I reply, “And you have no idea how to fix it.”
Maybe someday, car manufacturers will get smart and reproduce their actual 1950s era cars, not just reuse the old names to label another boring sedan, but a much closer copy of the original car reproduced with new engines and all the modern conveniences of a new car. But, that would just be too intelligent.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Obama is “Our” President
Several “unofficial” pack buttons for Obama. Many can be purchased online from democraticstuff.com and cafepress.com.
While working in the local Democratic party campaign office here in Florida, many of the volunteers I worked with came down with a bad case of “hurry up and wait.” It was mid afternoon on Tuesday on the East Coast. We all felt that we had done what we could – all that we had been asked to do – but we wanted to do even more.
Some of us spent the morning watching the polls, working as advocates for voters who had problems with their registrations. Some of us spent the day handing out Democratic literature, signs, and stickers to voters waiting in line. Others, such as myself, spent the day working out of the office, taking donations, helping voters find their poll locations, arranging rides, transporting absentee ballots, and calling registered Democrats who had not yet shown up to remind them to vote. Although many phone calls still needed to be made, we didn’t have enough phones to go around in the temporary office we had rented. Our volunteer telephone technician was been busy trying to find more open lines that didn’t sound like static or cut off in the middle of phone calls.
While couriering an absentee ballot to another office, I passed a lot of people waving McCain Palin signs but no one waving Obama Biden signs. I returned to find our office filled with eager volunteers with nothing to do.
“Who wants to wave signs?” I asked.
A large group of us carried signs of all shapes and sizes out to the major multi-lane intersection near our office. As we shook the signs and waved, we were very encouraged by the large number of people who honked their horns and waved back. “Look at all the people for Obama,” cried one woman in amazement.
The election had seemed rather personal to me so far. After losing the past two elections to Republican candidates, I felt like a woman against the world. Seeing all the happy Obama faces helped me put a new perspective on the magnitude of the masses of people who also felt the same way I did, that we needed a change, a new party in the White House, with a new agenda based on human rights, environmental preservation, and World peace.
“Latinos for Obama!” shouted a driver to us.
“Canadians for Obama!” shouted a couple on vacation in Florida who asked how to get a sign as a souvenir.
“Yes we can!” shouted a group of little girls sticking their heads out the window. It brought tears to our eyes.
Bus drivers waved as they passed, one policeman flipped on his siren, and an emergency vehicle flashed their lights – all are for Obama.
Students and young people of all colors and creeds hollered loudly, laid on their horns, played music, and cheered as they drove up and down the streets energizing the Obama sign wavers. It was one spectacular group party, and the election results had not even begun to come in, yet. Somehow, we all knew what was to come.
While most older white drivers either turned their heads away from us, some were very boisterous in their opposition to Barack Obama. I’ll never forget seeing a few cars with very well dressed older white ladies in the passenger seat, sticking out their tongues and jabbing their thumbs down at me as I held my sign high. I’d swear their husbands, who seemed to always be the ones driving, circled the block more than once.
Imagine my joy when I saw older white drivers wave and honk their horns – even truck drivers in construction vehicles and dump trucks sporting the names of the businesses where they worked, all waving and honking for Obama.
“Old white people for Obama!” I cheered.
A reserved black couple who were volunteering with me, were a bit taken aback by my statement. “Old white people?” asked Chip, “Well, I guess you can say that. We have signs for everything else, why not that?”
“Hippies for Obama!” shouted Austin at a man who waved at us.
“Cool white people for Obama,” I said to a truck hauling junk with three people jammed in the front seat who waved and honked loudly.
The passenger replied, “You say white people. But, why not purple people?” he asked as he pointed to the black woman waving the sign beside me dressed all in purple.
“Yes, she is purple. And I’m a blue person!” I laughed, pointing to my blue Obama shirt.
Obama really is “OUR” president. Over 64 million people voted for him. The Obama Biden team won by 7.6 million popular votes, 52% of the 120.6 million votes cast. This is more than I can say for George W. Bush who lost the popular vote to Al Gore, but won the electoral college in 2000, thereby securing the presidency.
My prediction of 369 electoral votes for Obama/Biden is very close to the actual 365 tally (after adding in North Carolina and one vote from split state, Nebraska). I was wrong about which states would vote for the Democratic ticket, but I’m right that we won by a landslide. Here in Florida, of all places, Obama won by 195,000 votes.
Just as I put up with Bush for eight years, these naysayers can put up with Obama for eight years. Give his administration a chance. You might like what you get! Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore said it the best on Larry King Live on CNN, November 5, “We're not going to have universal healthcare just for the blue states. We're going to have that for everyone -- all the Republicans included.”
Of course, it will be a few very long weeks before President elect Obama and Vice President elect Biden can take office. In the meantime, I have taken my yard sign in, not because I’m worried about retaliation by white supremacists, but because anything Obama has become a very hot item!
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