Around the Water Cooler 9/30/2011

This week the front page news was pretty varied.  The trial in Italy of  Amanda Knox, the release of the two American hikers released from the Iranian prison after more than two years and a whole lot of political debate. These reports made for some interesting stories that you probably caught on the nightly news programs.

What you might not have heard about are some of these lesser reported (for obvious reasons) stories.

I Am A Total Bitch Before My Morning Coffee

Or at least that seems to be the case for Vicki Reveron, a New York native, this week.  

"I was shocked. I didn't understand why they would do that," says the Starbucks customer who claims a staffer at coffee shop scrawled what appears to be the word "bitch" on the cup holding her caramel frappuccino.

"[M]y name is not bitch," she explains to WABC-TV. "it's Vicki."

She says the incident was the result of her and her coworkers making light of a mistake the Starbucks staffer had made. When she got back to her office, that's when she noticed the five-letter word scribbled on her cup.

After she complained to the Starbucks, a manager gave her vouchers for free coffee. BUT....she says that when she was leaving, another employee said, "Some people will do anything to get a free cup of coffee."

Talk about a bad day at Starbucks. 

As you can see from the image below, the cup clearly does not say "Vicki" (though maybe it says 'Bith'?

Seems that Vicki hasn't heard about the cardinal rule of being polite to food (or beverage) service workers.  I also, got a bit of  a chuckle that she kept explaining to everyone that her  name isn't "bitch".  The lady doth protest too much

The Tooth Toe Suck Fairy

Little Rock (Reuters) - A man known as the "Toe Suck Fairy" for a series of 1990s assaults directed at women's feet was arrested after he struck again more than a decade later, police said.

Michael Robert Wyatt, 50, was arrested on Monday after two women identified him from a photo line-up as "the man who approached them in local stores commenting on their feet and asking to suck their toes.

Earlier in the month an 83-year-old woman told police she was sitting in a chair in front of her apartment when a man approached her. He took off one of her shoes and began sucking her toes, police said.

In the 1990s, Wyatt was convicted and even served time in prison for his obsession.

One of the victims reported that Wyatt's toes were messed up.  Maybe he has toe envy or maybe he is just a freak.


The Final Crunch

DALLAS (Reuters) - The man credited with creating Doritos will be buried along with some of his beloved snack chips, his family told Reuters on Tuesday.
Arch West died September 20 of natural causes at a Dallas hospital. He was 97.

The family requested that friends and relatives who attend the graveside service be allowed to toss Doritos around the box as a tribute.

"He would think it is hilarious," said his daughter Jana Hacker, a resident of the Dallas area. "The cemetery does not mind because they are biodegradable."

I don't know that this is really all that weird...maybe just a little unusual as funeral customs go.

Still if you were going to believe their slogan "Betcha can't eat just one", it is a pretty sure bet that "no, he can't eat just one" or really any at this point.


Don't Name Your Baby Ola Mae

The 81-year-old Alabama woman was arrested this week for allegedly selling crack cocaine from her home in Prichard, a city outside Mobile. Cops reported that a search Wednesday of the octogenarian’s home turned up cocaine and prescription pills that she was peddling.



Obviously, Mama don't go nowhere
without her neck pillow.



Known as “Mama,” Robinson’s rap sheet includes previous convictions for narcotics sales. During a previous police raid at her home, investigators found a green tin (“marked sugar free mints”) inside her purse. The tin contained crack cocaine. Her purse also contained pill bottles containing Xanax and the painkiller Hydrocodone.

Despite her advanced age, Robinson is not, remarkably, the oldest crack dealer named Ola Mae. That distinction goes to Floridian Ola Mae Agee, who was sentenced last October to 18 months in prison. Agee, who was 87 at the time of her conviction for cocaine distribution, died in prison last December.

If I were going to look at this as the "glass half full" which, of course, I rarely do...I would commend Ola Mae for thinking of a creative way of earning extra cash to supplement her fixed income.

World's Worst Police Sketch

Cops in Anderson County, South Carolina have released this sketch of a man wanted in connection with a home invasion earlier this month.

The artist’s rendering is based on descriptions provided by an elderly woman whose home the man entered at 1 AM on September 11. The intruder demanded money from the victim, who told cops that the perp wore a knitted hat and had teeth in need of a dentist’s attention.

This has to be the world's worst police sketch.  Surely, no one looks quite this odd. Well, that is unless you are the person in  the next story.

What's Black and White and Weird All Over?

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian pensioner Alfred David dreams one day he'll find eternal rest in the icy waters somewhere near Antarctica, dressed in his penguin suit and laid out in a coffin decorated with penguins.

 The 79-year-old "Monsieur Pingouin" (Mr Penguin), as he is known to locals in his Brussels neighborhood, dons his favorite hooded black-and-white penguin costume as he looks back at more than 40 years of obsession.

"My ultimate dream is to be buried in a deep ocean close to where penguins live," David told Reuters.

David's life changed in May 1968 when his hip was injured in a car accident. His resulting limp was characterized by his colleagues as a waddle, and they dubbed him Mr Penguin.  After that he "embraced" all that is penguin.  He collected over 3500 penguin related items, started a penguin museum and decided to have his name legally changed to Mr. Penguin.  Mrs. Penguin, obviously didn't share the love and left him. 

Poor Mr. Penguin without his Mrs. Penguin.  This must not be one of the species that mate for life.


The Good for the Day...A couple in the Chicago area were taking pictures of their wedding party prior to the actual service.  As they stood on the dock, it collapsed.  That's not the good part but the fact that everyone was still laughing as they dried out.  Even cracked open a couple of cold ones before heading to the ceremony.




The Bad for the Day..... I am lumping this one with the "Weird for the day". Wouldn't you consider it a bad thing that you are paying lawyers and they can't get the names spelled right for visuals in the opening statement.

The Weird for the day..... OOOOPPPSSSS

The Defense teams exhibits a poster during the opening arguments of the
trial of Dr. Murray.  Do we notice a lack of detail in their poster?
Too bad spell check doesn't work on posters?

Do You Agree?

It occurred to me rather recently that all the big players on the Internet have "AGREEMENTS"  for you to read (presumably read) then you get to click on a agree box before you can participate with their site, software, hardware or whatever product they are insuring your undying loyalty and promise of total devotion to.

I am sure that most of you just clicked  the "I agree" box on those websites without much thought or hesitancy.  How often do you actually read what you are agreeing to?  Surely, you don't read most of them in their entirety because of the length of them.  Itunes Terms and Conditions for example is 18 pages long.  Yep, EIGHTEEN.

So take heart, my blogees.  I have created my own terms and conditions agreement to stay competative and mine is only 1 page.  Feel free to ignore all the fine print and just hit the agree button just like you would with the important people's products.  Oh, so you are treating me differently!  I see how you are.


So here it is.....The Art of Being Conflicted Agreement of Service

THE FACT THAT THERE IS NOTHING LEGAL AND BINDING IN THIS DOCUMENT DOES NOT ALTER THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE ART OF BEING CONFLICTED TO GOVERN THE READING, LAUGHING, SWEARING, CRINGING, EYEROLLING AND BEING TOTALLY CONFUSED BY ANY  SUBJECT MATTER HEREBY WITHIN. IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO NOT AGREE WITH THE TERMS THAT ARE STATED WITHIN THIS DOCUMENT, DO NOT CHECK THE AGREE BOX AND GO ON ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.

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The Good for the Day...now we are all nice and legal and done in only 1 page.


The Bad for the Day... When I was looking on line for a prototype of these types of agreements most of them are rather lengthy.  Itunes was 18 pages.


The Weird for the day...some of the content is directly taken from waivers provided by the big players. The muscle, joint and eye strain is in the Itunes waiver. Most of you probably have already agreed to that one.


Whether you decide to agree or decline...I'm leaving it up to you

Studies, Surveys and Polls

Two Thoughts for Tuesday   

Thought Number One....If we are to believe in polls, studies and surveys, we need visuals.


Call me a naysayer....a doubter...a cynic but I am constantly doubting the results of SURVEYS, POLLS and STUDIES.  I like to think of them as modern fairy tales at best or devious attempts to push an agenda at their worst.  A day hardly goes by without some new  study being done to give us some sort of insight to the "real" state of things.  Of course the fact, that the numbers never seem to support whatever our perceptions are regarding the subject cause me a bit of pause.

Well....that was true until I saw this poll.  It seems that the results are entirely what I would have thought as accurate. 
Still, with 60,000 participants, the Parade/OMG poll asked respondents to vote for which celebrity annoys them the most.  The fact that they only shared the top six was a bit of a  disappointment but here are the:

Winners.....drum rolllll, please....The WINNERS ARE!!!!

1. Kim Kardashian 29%
2. Charlie Sheen 27%
3. Snooki 21%
4. Lindsay Lohan 16%
5. Donald Trump 5%
6. Brad Womack 1%

While I don't question the accuracy of their survey, I do think if they want us to take it seriously it is IMPERATIVE that they give us a graph.  What is a poll without a graph of some sort?  If the Parade/OMG wanted to get my attention....it needed to look like this.

 Another example to really bring my 1st thought home....here is another poll that asked older Americans if they thought the level of their happiness depended on their mental health.   The title of the study was:

STANDARD OF LIVING, HEALTH KEY TO EMOTIONAL WELLBEING AFTER 65


This poll was done by the Gallup Poll people

To understand this poll you have to read all the disclosures such as "how to define" emotional health.

Emotionally well-off Americans are individuals whose scores on the Gallup-Healthways Emotional Health Index are above 90, out of a maximum of 100. The Emotional Health Index is based on a comprehensive measure of emotional wellbeing asking individuals whether they felt "a lot of" each of the following emotions the day before the survey: smiling/laughing, learning/doing something interesting, being treated with respect, enjoyment, happiness, worry, sadness, anger, and stress. In addition, the survey asks people whether they have ever been diagnosed with depression.

So to summarize this poll.....Out of those that were surveyed that weren't totally NUTS...39 percent said they were satisfied, 16 percent aren't nuts but  are not happy and the other 55 percent are MISSING.

Feel free to try to figure out the missing at Your Emotional Wellbeing at the Gallup Poll.


My Second Thought for Today....Because I believe in polls (hhahahahahaha)  I will start doing my own totally accurate, you will believe anything, and it must be true because there is a visual, SURVEY


I have surveyed 15 of my dearest friends to answer the following question (for those of you that are finding it incredulous that I have 15 dear friends, you will just have to take my word for it...if it would help I will send you a graph)


The Question is DO YOU THINK THAT WE WILL ALL BE ABLE TO RETIRE WHEN WE ARE STILL ABLE TO FEED OURSELVES AND LIVE OUT OUR LIVES IN CONTENTED BLISS?

The Good for the Day... I experience all the emotions listed on the emotional wellbeing disclosure, especially the stress so therefore I must be OK...right????

The Bad....those missing pollsters are MIA


The Weird...the myriad of subjects that people do polls and surveys about.










 









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The Evolution of Penmanship

This past Sunday morning I saw a lead-in for a segment of the CBS Morning Show that stated that the average American's quality of penmanship peaks at the 4th Grade Level.  Surely, that can't be right...er...(that's not right or write) is it?

Is penmanship a dying art?????

Let's take a look at a signature on a document from 1776. 

I think we could all read that signature.  In fact, that particular signature is so famous that even today, there is that cliche of "putting your John Hancock" on a document.  Back in that era, people could make a living teaching penmanship.  It was an art form. Prior to the last 100 years, there were professional penman.  Men like Platt Rogers Spencer, one of the first American penman, even has a style of writing named after him.

The Spencerian Script




 I guess we can assume that most people prior to the last 100 years or so exceeded the 4th grade level of penmanship. 

With the advent of the typed word and more recently the computerized word we seem to be heading in the "our written word looks like hen scratch" era.  With 294 Billion e-mails and nearly 5 Billion text messages sent EVERY DAY (according to the CBS report) we just aren't practicing our writing skills.

Here are a couple of signatures from more modern-day writers.  We have made great strides in our penmanship. Can you tell me who these signature belongs to.  No?  Me either and no one seems to know.  They were listed as examples of bad penmanship.

or



I know for a fact that my 4th grade cursive sucked.  I lived with my grandparents that FIRMLY believed that being left handed was a choice.  A bad choice according to their way of thinking so I was only allowed to write with my right hand. I think that was a pretty common thought among people in general in that era. Left handedness = WRONG way of doing it.  This is what my writing would have looked like as I struggled with my right (or in my case, wrong) hand.

If my 4th grade writing was the best I would ever get...I would,
indeed, be penmanship challenged.  Luckily, it improved.

However, with some of today's technology, there is NO POSSIBLE way to have pretty cursive.  I might as well of stayed writing with my right (or in my case, the wrong) hand.

There are times that I get to sign my signature on those little boxes that swipe my credit card in various stores, banks, government offices and the like.  Gosh, even the guy that came to do my bi-annual HVAC check had me sign a little electronic tablet showing that he completed the work.  The little tablet will send me a copy of the work order to my email.

The problem with these little card swiper things for a left handed person is that when I sign one my signature is totally unrecognizable.  I surely could sign as Bugs Bunny or Batman and no one would be able to tell the difference.  AND have you noticed that half the time you swipe your charge card now, they don't even want your signature.  How unimportant I have become.

Still there was a time that we practiced our cursive to get it near perfect.

notice our good posture!! OMG there is a lefty in the bunch!!!

So it comes down to all the time and effort my generation and the generations before me that worked for hours to perfect our perfect cursive letters, pretty much wasted a lot of time. The quality of your penmanship is not going to be appreciated....or required...or read.

Sincerely,

So what are your thoughts?  Do you miss people actually writing letters and cards to you?  Do you ever get love letters from the special people in your life?  Do you care how legible your writing is?  Does it matter?

Here is a video where someone is anxiously waiting for a letter.

The Good for the Day.... We still know what a pencil and ballpoint pen is.

The Bad for the day....That letters and card to no longer part of our lives.

The Weird for the day....Prior to the 1920's children were never taught to print.  They only were taught cursive.  Who knew? According to Tamara Plakins Thorton, a history professor at the State University of New York who is an author of a cultural history of handwriting in America, President Abraham Lincoln never knew how to print. 



Around the Water Cooler 9/23/2011

One of the big stories that have people talking this week is the big changes over at

It seems people are NOT happy about it either.  A lot of unfriendliness is coming out as a result of the new homepage and how the status updates feed into the site.  Oddly enough the most talked about subject on TWITTER today was FACEBOOK.   Talk about social media overload.

As for other stories in the news;

I AM SHOWING AND I AM TELLING

I guess when you live in the "Show Me State" (whoever thought of that as a state motto might want to rethink it about now) you start at an early age with the "show" part. A kindergartner in Sweet Springs, MO surprised his teacher and the police officers when he pulled his mother's crack pipe and and several baggies of "rocks"  from his backpack.

What was not a surprise was the arrest of his mother on a charge of possession of a controlled substance and a count of first degree child endangerment.  Bond has been set at $7,500.00 for 32 year old

Michelle Marie Cheatham.

The drugs were tested and found to be methamphetamine and worth about $3700.00.

According to Police Chief Richard Downing told KCTV5 that this was a "first" in his law enforcement career and that when he called the prosecutor about it, the prosecutor exclaimed, "you're kidding me aren't you?"

Sadly, no!

Seems like this "show and tell" was really a show stopper.

A TRAINED CAT

Down by the station early in the morning...and later in the evening, the commuters in Melbourne, Australia will see Graeme, the cat sitting on the train platform to see his owner coming and going to work. The cat's owner, Nicole Weinrich, says her cat always sits behind the yellow line while waiting for the train doors to open as he is extremely safety conscious.

When not greeting or saying goodbye to his owner, the social cat is mingling with the other commuters or sunning himself.  He has become quite the local celebrity as he works the crowd to get pets and pats from the commuters. The Herald Sun recently interviewed some of Graeme's fans.  He was described as gorgeous, friendly, amazing, regal and aloof, but in a good way,

On several occasions, Graeme boarded trains to take a ride down the line only to deboard  couple of stops later.  His owner worries about that but says he seems very aware of how the station works. 

http://video.heraldsun.com.au/2131780176/Feline-trainspotter


Graeme has a Facebook page.  Seems Graeme has a sense of humor as well.

BLACK CATS REALLY ARE UNLUCKY

At least for Kelly Schaffer of Cookeville, Tennessee.  After having a black cat cross the road in front of her car, Kelly made an X on her windshield.  Evidently this was to protect her from back luck.  But as luck would have it, she lost control of her car and ploughed into a yard. In fact, she continued through the yard and ran head on into another vehicle. Schaffer was transported to an area hospital and charged with not having a valid driver's license or insurance.

Don't X and drive. 

 IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

University of Pennsylvania students were confused on the first day of scheduled class when their professor failed to show up.  In all fairness to the professor, he had an excellent excuse.

He had died five months earlier.

Dr. Henry Teune, was scheduled to teach a political science class at the Ivy League university on September

13th.  An hour after the scheduled class failed to start due to the teacher being MIA, the students received an email telling them of of  Dr.Teune's passing.  The administrator apologized for not having cancelled  the class.

The story was reported on Monday by a Penn student Blog in a post titled "The Worst Thing to Happen To A Class Ever".

Excerpt:

The post began: "How annoying is it when you drag yourself out of bed to class and the professor isn’t there? You’re all like, what the hell is this guy doing, worst class ever, etc… and then you find out, via an email sent while you’re waiting in class, that the professor isn’t there because he died. And the department forgot to tell you."

According to an obituary published in April in the Daily Pennsylvanian, Dr. Teun had been a faculty member since 1961.  He was chairman of the department from 1975-1979 and Vice Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the 1960s.

Gone and completely forgotten.

THE THREE YEAR OLD IS PACKING HEAT

A mother was arrested shortly after her three (that's right...3) year old interrupted her drug deal by firing a 12 gauge shotgun into the roof of her drug buddy's minivan.

Marietta, GA- Shania Sutherland allegedly brought her toddler and 5 year old to the Rite Aid parking lot where she had made a previous arrangement to sell drugs to Brandon Donahue.  She had her friend, Leah Porter,  drive her to her appointment in Leah's Chrysler Town and Country van.

After a passerby heard the shot and called the authorities, police located Sutherland hiding in the drug store and the children hiding in the Donahue's (the drug buyer) car. Porter was picked up a few blocks away.

According to WSB-TV an investigation has been launched to assessing Sutherland's fitness as a parent.

What no babysitters available for scheduled drug deals?  No worries, take the kid and give them a 12 gauge to amuse themselves with.  


The Good for the Day... a smart pet


The Bad for the Day...stupid parents

The Weird for the day....

The Weird for the Day...

I Have Lost My Mind and Can't Find It Anywhere!!!!

AAAAGGGGGHHHHHH

Did you all notice that for the first time since this blog started there wasn't a Two Thoughts for Tuesday??   I hope you noticed and didn't miss me too badly.


**crickets**....OK then let's move this along.

I made a HUGE mistake on my computer that wiped out most of the pictures from 164 of my posts.   It was an error on my part that should have been correctable but it wasn't as it turns out. Damn....double damn!!!

For you bloggers out there be forwarned. If you are a Blogger user and  if you accidently delete a file/album from your Picassa web folder, it will remove those pictures from EVERYWHERE in your computer. AND you can go into the deleted file and do a restore but only about a tenth of it will RESTORE.  The Geeks I have been talking to over the last two days are arguing the point of if that should of happened or not...

But, HEY it did!!!   As a result I have 164 posts that have this (see example below) in the place of every flippin picture.

And here lies the problem.....

When I go back to a post I wrote eight months ago an it says:

How funny is this picture?  and all that I see is a black box....this is how I am feeling

So for most of yesterday, today and possibly tomorrow, I will be trying to edit older posts, putting new pictures in place of black boxes. 

I hope to be up and running by Friday.  For you regular readers that receive TAOBC via email, I  am sincerely hoping you aren't being bombarded with emails.  If you are, I am so sorry and hopefully,  it should all end by tomorrow.

In the mean time, I will be sending some suggestions to Google about putting a

I am getting back to work now.  Just pretend you don't see any of those black boxes.

Still Conflicted

The wavering back and forth.... is it wrong?.... or  is it right?.... seems to rear it's ugly self again...and again...oh yeah...and again.   Yes, I am CONFLICTED.

I don't watch Dr. Phil very often as I find him to be the UBER hypocrite.

SIDEBAR TO MY REGULAR READERS:  Several times,  I have shared  within a number of the 165 posts that I have done this year: that DP bugs me.  Probably the post that take the most direct tact of my  disdain would be the one where Dr. Phil is boarding my imaginary bus heading for a cliff  in the post called  The Bus is Loading.

OK back to my point for today.  I was watching a Tivoed episode of Dr. Phil because they were going to discuss the subject of kids being barred from restaurants.  Now this topic is making me nuts as I can see both sides of the coin. 

Part of me is not OK with any group being banned from any public restaurant but the other part of me feels like some restaurants aren't intended for small children.  OH...and there are some parents that seem to ignore their screaming, run a-muck children and that fact is  currently  steering me toward  the pro-banning column.  I am trying to hold my course that banning all small children might not be the answer. 

It was quite apparent on the Dr. Phil show that there are clearly two sides and both sides are angry.  As the name of this particular show was The Brat Ban, it was clear from the get-go that there were going to be fireworks.  Call me crazy but I don't think you are getting off to a good start with a group of parents when you start by calling their kids brats.

One mother was VERY vocal that her toddler could go anywhere she chooses and it is her right to bring her child into any restaurant that she can afford to dine at. She might as well of just said "Screw the rights of everyone one else". Then...there were a lot of others in the audience that were vehement that she had no right to ruin their dining experience with a crying child.

From my perspective, I think there should be some expectation to maintain a nice atmosphere in a fine-dining restaurant.  So I certainly understand the point of view of the diners paying for "a white table cloth kind of dining experience". They are wanting and paying for a certain ambiance.  Is the way to get there to ban all children?  If not, how do you enforce children that don't behave.  For that matter, how do you enforce loud and obnoxious adults?  Wouldn't they be asked to leave?  See .....I am very conflicted on this.

I personally wouldn't take my toddler or now my grand-toddler to a nice restaurant.  We would be choking down the lousy pizza at Chuck-e-Cheese because that is where they could have some fun and fit right in.  Better yet, lets go to Red Robin.  I like their food and they give the G-Boys a couple of balloons and every one's happy.

Conversly,  if I went to a "white table cloth" kind of restaurant (I am talking without taking small children with me)  and someone's  toddler was making a fuss would I be angry?  I would try REALLY HARD to be patient.  They are children, after all.  If necessary, I might even ask to move to a different table.  I hope that I wouldn't let it ruin my evening.

Another point of view that was expressed was from a waiter that works at a high-end restaurant. (at least that is the impression I had).  He was on the side that children don't have a place in his restaurant and they need to go elsewhere.  He has a blog that is really quite interesting called  The Bitchy Waiter.  I loved some of his answers to the comments he received after the show aired.

SIDEBAR TO WAIT STAFF: I think there are occasions that within our family, we have been traveling and taken small children into restaurants that we might not otherwise take them into.  All I can say in our defense is that the tips were  WHOPPERS as we understand that children make messes. If there was a noise issue, we would be the ones outside walking them around while our meal turned to goo.

Just for kicks...here is a poll that was on the Dr. Phil Show.  What are your thoughts????

1) You take your child out to dinner and they throw a temper tantrum. What do you do?
Calmly ask him or her to settle down.
Ignore the tantrum.
Take the child out of the restaurant.
Firmly tell your child to stop.

2) The child next to you is out of control and the parents are oblivious. What do you do?

Ask to be moved to a different table.
Ignore the child.
Complain to the server and ask them to talk to the parents.
Confront the parents.


 Mind you, I am not linking to Dr. Phil's actual survey so the results will continue to change.  You can click here on his site though and read about both the show and the poll.  The Brat Ban


Now, you might be asking....why am I a hypocrite?

I have mentioned in previous posts that I attend a mainstream protestant church.  This particular church is one of the largest in the country with over 18,000 members and another  6 or 7 thousand  guests on any given Sunday.  As one might expect in a church of this size there is a whole wing of children's Sunday school classes and nurseries.  AND for those that want to attend church with their children there are private rooms that you can sit in that allow you to have your children with you that overlook the sanctuary. (imagine the clubhouses at most ballparks) This allows for fussy children to remain with their parents.   BUT today, the people that sat behind us had a colicky little girl who was NORMALLY as sweet as pie, I am sure. (I don't know this for sure...maybe she cries non-stop)  Never-the-less, she screamed during every prayer, every hymn, and most of the sermon.  The mom left with her for a short time but brought her back in crying.  

I couldn't concentrate.  I just couldn't find my connection with the message today.  I was trying to meditate and pray about some things on my mind, but I just couldn't.  I wanted those parents to take their little one to one of the "quiet rooms".   

I am not proposing that children be banned from the sanctuary.  Really, I am still not comfortable with banning an entire group....

BUT WHY DON'T PARENT'S RECOGNIZE THAT THEIR CHILDREN ARE DISTURBING OTHER PEOPLE AND TAKE THEM FOR A WALK.

Here is one of the poll questions that was on Dr. Phil and as of the time I was writing this post this is how the votes were shaping up.  What are your thoughts?

The child next to you is out of control and the parents are oblivious. What do you do?

45%

Ask to be moved to a different table.

16%

Ignore the child.

24%

Complain to the server and ask them to talk to the parents.

15%

Confront the parents.

There are 1000's of songs about crying but not one that says...no crying in church or in nice restaurants.

The Good for the Day....Generally, I find small kids adorable.  I love being around little ones even if they are a bit fussy.

The Bad for the Day....crying babies causing me to be distracted and making me feel guilty that I am not being more tolerant.


The Weird for the day....I watched another Dr. Phil show that has me asking questions.  I really need to stay away from that show.  I will tell you about that one on another day.

Around the Water Cooler 9/16/2011

Another Friday has come and we have some more weird news stories that you might have missed.  Just in case, here are a few of the lesser reported news items.


We Have A Winner

I am sure you will be relieved to know that there is a new "winner" of the Longest Fingernails in the World competition.  Surely, you would like to shake the hand of Chris "the Duchess" Walton who has nailed the title for having 10 feet 2 inches of nails on her left hand and 9 foot 7 inches of nails on her right hand.

The Las Vegas woman is helping kick off the 2012 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records which will go on sale later this month.  It took 18 years for the Duchess to achieve this prestigious distinction.

The Duchess says she does her own nails and makeup as well as her own household chores.  She is currently working on a singing career.


OK, tell me I am the only one that has questions??? Makeup??? How does she put on makeup without poking an eye out?  AND the obvious question is just too personal but still...how does she do that....???



Ring a Ding from a Ding a Ling

AMSTERDAM -- Dutch prosecutors are charging a 42-year-old woman with stalking after she allegedly called her ex-boyfriend 65,000 times in the past year. The 62-year-old victim from The Hague filed a police complaint in August due to the persistent phone calls. Police arrested the suspected stalker Monday, seizing several cell phones and computers from her home in Rotterdam. Hague prosecution spokeswoman Nicolette Stoel said Thursday the woman argued to judges at a preliminary hearing she had a relationship with the man and the number of calls she placed to him wasn't excessive. The man denied they had a relationship. The court ordered her not to contact him again. Simple math shows that if one were to make 65,000 a year, you would have had to place 1,250 a week or 178 calls each day. That breaks down to about one phone call every eight minutes — and this doesn't take in to account time to sleep, eat or take necessary breaks.  That is one serious multi-tasker.


I wondered if she called him to ask if he thought that the verdict was fair and what exactly constitutes "contact"?  I, also found it funny that in court she claimed 62,000 times wasn't excessive.  Does that mean she crossed the line on  just 3000ish calls


You Snooze, You Lose

WICHITA, Kansas — Wichita police say a burglar's decision to take a nap busted him inside a couple's home late Saturday afternoon.

Goldilocks could probably relate to a man arrested over the weekend in southeast Wichita. Police say a 35-year-old homeless man broke into a house on Saturday afternoon and began collecting items he planned to steal. While he was there, however, he found the opportunity for a hot shower and a nap in a nice bed too much to resist.

He was still asleep when the couple that lives at the house in the 1500 block of East Wassall  returned home about 5 p.m. on Saturday, Lt. Steve Kenney said.  The couple found the intruder in the bedroom frantically trying to pull on clothes owned by the husband. They called 911, and officers found the burglar hiding in a closet.

The man was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail.


Moral of the story:  Burglars out there...listen up...finish your work then take a nap when you get home. 


The Cat Came Back

 The Cat Came Back isn't just a children's song evidently.  Willow, the Calico cat escaped out of Colorado home 5 years ago. But thanks to a microchip that was implanted when she was a kitten, Willow will be reunited in Boulder, Colo., with her owners, the Squires, who had long ago given up hope. 



  Willow was found on East 20th Street by a man who took her to a shelter, and Julie Bank, executive director of Animal Care, said the microchip led to the Squires family. When Jamie Squire received the call she couldn't believe that Willow was alive and well.  How Willow traveled more than 1800 miles is still a mystery.  The cat seems to be well cared for and has a sweet temperament according to the animal care facility. Animal Care and the Squires were trying to arrange for transportation back to Colorado. In the interim, Willow may stay with a foster family in New York.




Perhaps, Willow went to New York to seek fame and fortune...or perhaps she heard about  other "Cats" having made it big on Broadway.

 
It's Not the Food that is the Problem

 COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A New York man is suing White Castle, claiming the booths in one of its hamburger restaurants are too small. Martin Kessman says in the federal lawsuit filed last week that he was embarrassed in 2009 when he tried squeezing his 6-foot, 290-pound frame into the seating at a White Castle in Nanuet, N.Y. He says he slammed his knee into a metal post under the table and was in pain. The lawsuit claims the restaurant could not accommodate a customer of Kessman's stature, in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The suit seeks an unspecified financial judgment. Spokesman Jamie Richardson at White Castle headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, says the restaurant is being replaced and that the new one will have roomier seating. According to The New York Post, Kessman said "I'm not a humongous [but] I'm a big guy. After leaving the restaurant in pain from his injuries related to the under-sized booth, he wrote multiple letters to the corporate headquarters about the inadequate seating situation and his extreme embarrassment in having to try to squeeze himself into a chair at the Rockland County location.  White Castle's response according to Kessman was a series of condescending letters and three coupons for a total of nine free hamburgers.  "But the cheese was extra". he wrote into the lawsuit. Spokesman Jamie Richardson at White Castle headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, says the restaurant is being replaced and that the new one will have roomier seating.


 I can see if one is embarrassed by not being able to force one's fat self into a seat, that going global with a lawsuit is sure to shore up one's self esteem.  Maybe he should use the drive-thru and skip the cheese on those yummy little burgers.




Here is a Tip

A western Pennsylvania jewelry store owner says a man charged with burglarizing the shop called and offered to help solve the case after the owner offered a reward. Police have since charged 28-year-old Emile Pratt Jr. with burglarizing Mark Multari's Gold Mind Jewelers in Sharon, about 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.  Multari tells The Sharon Herald that  after he announced a reward for information pertaining to an Aug. 31 burglary, Pratt called claiming to have heard glass breaking when the alarm sounded at 2:45 a.m. and "said he would help in any way" to catch the thief. Police charged Pratt after tracing some of the 100 items stolen in the burglary to stores and pawn shops where Pratt allegedly sold them. Online court records don't list an attorney for Pratt, who remains jailed.


It is never a good idea for the criminal to offer police help in tracking down the criminal. 


Perhaps this explains why the Amsterdam guy didn't pick up his phone.  He was on the dance floor and didn't want to talk or think anymore.






The Good for the Day....  Numbers can be blocked on cell phones


 The Bad for the Day...Idiot criminals



The Weird for the day..There was another case of "excessive" phoning, this year.

In Athens, Georgia a woman, Diana Jenkins was dumped by her boyfriend, Jerome Murphy in January.  Jenkins purportedly called Murphy 65,000 times. (seems to be the magic number, heh?)  Murphy filed a report with the police and Jenkins was served with a harassment charge.

As evidence the woman's cell phone carrier released excerpts of the messages she left.  Below are just a few of the thousands.

Why?

Why?

Is there another woman?

What are you doing right now?

Are you with another woman?

I'm sorry.  Why?

Are you screening this? Why?

I can change if you tell me why!  Why?

Do you remember why you broke up with me now?

How about now?

Now?