WHEN: Fri, Dec 23rd
TIME: 8-10PM
WHERE: THE DORMITORY, Farmington Rd
WHY: Spread the holiday cheer and enjoy the tunes of Rick and Jim
ANOTHER REASON WHY: Rockin' Christmas Tunes + The night before Christmas Eve is always a good time
YET ANOTHER REASON WHY: It's been said that the building is haunted by the ghost of Bernie Shelton.|W|P|113528510435834938|W|P|ELWOOD PLUG|W|P|
Exemplary Custmer Service During the Holiday Season:
1) Bed, Bath & Beyond
Everytime I've been in there everyone has been so helpful and always asking about gift receipts and boxes.
2) Kohl's
The cashiers seem to be extremely knowledgeable and offer boxes and gift receipts readily.
3) Bergners-Sheridan Village: Women's Department
Cashier took the time to ring up separate gift receipts for all purchases.
Below Average Customer Service During the Holiday Season:
1) Bergner's Sheridan Village-Purse Department
Three girls were working behind the counter. They finished their conversation before turning around to greet, acknowledge, blankly stare at me. Once the purse was rang up and being placed into a bag, I asked for a box. "We don't have boxes that size. You'll have to go ask the Lingerie Department for a robe box." So, my immediate thought is why would you sell expensive, large leather bags and not have gift boxes. I also thought that one of the three girls chatting could have done that for me but I realize that would only happen if hell froze over. I then asked her to place the gift receipt in the bag (without a box). She sort of exhaled and said, "You didn't tell me you needed a gift receipt. I'll have to void the transaction and redo it." Did she just say that? Isn't it Christmas? Why should I have to state that I needed a receipt? Every single retail worker in Peoria should just assume that every item being bought is a gift. So, I told her to forget it because I really didn't trust her to void the transaction and re-ring it. I didn't want to risk being double charged etc...
By the way, a couple of weeks ago at the same location, the same three girls were working. I was looking for a particular purse and they were a little busy gossiping about some of the people that work at Grand prairie to ask if they could help me find anything. FYI, might want to tone the gossip down. You never know who is listening.
2) Fluff-Westlake Shopping Center
Here's another hint for retail mavens. Customers like to be greeted and acknowledged. We may not want you breathing down our throats, but we like to know that you see we are in your store. Two different friends had this problem last week at Fluff. They circled the entire store several times looking for something in particular. (As an aside, children with ADD probably shouldn't go in there. Too much visual stimuli) The clerks were deep in conversation and never acknowledged them. Nice...Once again, please assume that everyone is Christmas shopping and not just browsing.
Has anyone else had any good/bad experiences this year?|W|P|113502941716133699|W|P|Christmas Cheer...|W|P|
|W|P|The problem that I have had is that people don't understand where the end of a line is at. I was at JcPenny's and the line was long and everyone was taking a turn except one lady who didn't understand the concept. At least this time she didn't understand. She said last time the line was there, but she didn't see it this time. Merry Christmas.1) How pissy am I that Fox cancelled Arrested Development and Kitchen Confidential? I just may boycott the channel.
2) Colin Farrell is in rehab for "exhaustion"and addiction to "prescription med." For God's sake, will you just come out and admit to the coke or heroin? I find it hard to believe that the hard partying playboy has a problem with the Vic or the Xan. I'm just sayin'... And you know if Kate Moss wasn't busted with the video of her snorting (insert Tony Montana accent) cocaine, her publicist would claim "exhaustion and prescription meds really sent her over the edge." And yes, I'm very aware of the real addiction to prescription meds that people have-so don't get all NA on me.
3) By far, the funniest name for a couple ever: Lindsay Lohan and Jared Leto (My So Called Life/Cameron Diaz) are now referred to as Jodan Catalohan
4) The Jaycee Christmas Party and the Primedia Christmas Party are both tomorrow night. Which will we go to?????
5) No plans at all for Christmas Evening...We're open to any suggestions. I'm thinking a little open house may be in order. Maybe then we can put to use the 10,000 board games we have stored in the coat closet.|W|P|113468531453913963|W|P|Random Thoughts of Angie|W|P|
|W|P|I felt the same way when they cancelled Cop Rock.Examples:
1) Washing a glass in the sink and crushing it
2) Opening a bottle of wine and breaking the neck off
3) Putting dishes in the sink and cracking two glasses
4) Putting a dish in the cabinet and cracking two dishes
5) Walking down the stairs and ripping the entire back off his jeans
There's a reason I usually do the dishes and he sews.
Last night, he was opening a gift set that included a bottle of B&B with two glasses.
The first one came right out and into my hands. The second one was crushed while still in the cardboard. The look on Rob's face was priceless. I couldn't tell if he was going to laugh or cry. We did laugh for quite a while. Only Rob can break a glass before it's even out of the cardboard box.|W|P|113416654837595854|W|P|Like I Was Saying...|W|P|
Gun bill passes Senate
Concealed-carry legislation moves to the Assembly
By Todd Richmond The Associated Press
MADISON - Wisconsin residents could secretly carry guns under a bill the state Senate approved Tuesday that would end the state's 133-year-old ban on concealed weapons.
The Senate's 23-10 vote means the Republican-authored measure is now two steps from becoming law. The state Assembly must pass the bill. It would then go to Gov. Jim Doyle, who can sign it into law or veto it.
Republicans control both the Senate and the Assembly. The Assembly body could take up the measure as early as Tuesday, said Bob Delaporte, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo.
But Doyle, a Democrat, vetoed an almost identical GOP bill in 2003 and has promised to kill this one as well.
Wisconsin is one of four states that don't allow concealed weapons. The National Rifle Association has been pushing the issue here for almost three years.
The bill would let Wisconsin residents who pass firearms training and obtain permits to carry concealed handguns, knives, billy clubs and electric shock weapons in public places such as schools, taverns, police stations, youth sporting events, day cares, college buildings and churches. Senate Republicans amended the bill late Tuesday to allow owners of day cares and domestic abuse shelters to permit concealed weapons.
Mr. Richmond,
I've never seen a more thinly veiled opinion in my life. Is this tongue-in-cheek or is this really reporting? I have never read your column or this paper so I may have happened upon a parody or a very left leaning publication without knowing it.
If you have an opinion just say it, don't try to play it off as reporting the news. The facts are very simple; a bill passed the senate 23-10 and will go to the Assembly which is likely to send it to the Gov., who has promised to veto said bill. The bill would allow WI residents to carry firearms concealed if they pass a background check and training course. A majority of WI lawmakers will have twice proposed this to the Gov. In the U.S. 46 states have provisions allowing concealed carry of firearms.
Your opening paragraph absolutely reeks of a person that's afraid of an inanimate object. An object that will be "secretly" carried about. A venomous snake lying in wait and that this snake will be killing a dear old friend at the age of 133.
Where will the snake lie in wait? Where else but schools and day care centers, colleges and churches. Waiting for youth athletes, babies and the abused.
That you are able to sell this tripe is yet another sign that the U.S. media has lost its mind.
I get it, you don't like guns, you probably think the Second Amendment is for soldiers and the police. If you think "the people" refers to the military and police perhaps you should leave the writing up to Stars and Stripes, because "the people" of the 2nd are the same "people" from the 1st. More about that at http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm.
Your kind smells blood like sharks do. So where are all the stories of murder and misuse from the 46 states that allow concealed carry? Take the blinders off sir, the right to carry has reduced crime across the board and the accident rate is lower than the average among the nation's police agencies.
Your probably thinking "prove it" right about now so, here ya go. Let's take Florida for example (if you want to use any other state just let me know).
In 1987, when Florida enacted such legislation, homicide rates dropped faster than the national average. Further, through 1997, only one permit holder out of the over 350,000 permits issued, was convicted of homicide. (Source: Kleck, Gary Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control, p 370. Walter de Gruyter, Inc., New York, 1997.)
If the rest of the country behaved as Florida's permit holders did, the U.S. would have the lowest homicide rate in the world.
I expect, in no way, to influence your opinion on this matter. Fear of inanimate objects is a serious malady that will take years of therapy. I suggest you start your therapy with "Raging against self defense: A Psychiatrist examines the anti-gun mentality" by Sara Thompson M.D. http://www.jpfo.org/ragingagainstselfdefense.htm
If by chance, I mistook your writing for something it isn't, I apologize. Maybe you just have a very dull verbal machete. If you truly believe what you're insinuating, I'm sorry.
Merry Christmas,
Rob Walker|W|P|113416582045126085|W|P|Rob's Rant...Return of the Glory Hound|W|P|
|W|P|In 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, 121 children and teenagers in Florida died from gunfire. |W|P|Anonymous...if that really is your name.Please site your sources when you rebut anyone who takes the time to site theirs.
You may want to take a closer look at my points, you'll see that I refer to static's dealing with people that hold a CCW (permit to carry a firearm), not the whole population of Florida. These people are responsible, trained firearms owners.
The death of a child is a tragic loss.
That said, I think your speaking of the CDC stats from November 2004. And I must say that I appreciate that you label the statistics as "children and teenagers". Too many people fail to make that distinction and bag the entire group together as children.
The CDC stats for 2004 have 121 total firearms deaths for individuals 0-19.
5 accidental
33 suicide
81 homicide
2 other
101 of which are for ages 15-19 so it would be fair to say that there were 20 firearms related deaths of children (0-14) in Florida, in 2002. The rest are teenagers and thus suspect for several reasons.
Now, from a state that has hosted more episodes of Cops than all other states combined, we have 68 homicides of persons 15-19. I will not speak definitively because I don't have the statistics, BUT. How many of these were gang or crime related? How many were perpetrated by individuals in the same age category? How many of these "kids" were criminals, shot by criminals with illegal guns?
I don't know but I'll tell you one thing, you wouldn't want to be in a dark alley with half of these teenagers, not without a gun of your own.
30 of the deaths of persons age 15-19 were suicide. How many would have still been committed if a firearm were not available? I don't know but if they hanged themselves I wouldn't blame the rope. Suicide is a symptom of a mental illness. It's a tragedy that has darkened my extended family, so do not misconstrue this as making light of a very serous matter.
The listed population of Florida is 15,982,378. With the 121 number you get...one in 132,000 firearm related deaths of persons 0-19. If you look at the children (20)it's more like...one in 800,000.
If you want to talk about child deaths in Florida, talk about accidential drowning. Check out what the CDC says about that.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drown.htm
Rob and I realized last night that all our Christmas parties are on the same night. Why does it always happen that way? I don't think I've ever been able to attend the Primedia holiday party. Rob's co-workers probably doubt my existance. On top of it all, the culmination of a huge promotion is the same night. Doesn't look like we'll be able to make any of the three parties. At least the F.Scott's X-Mas party is on Memorial Day.|W|P|113356631971767841|W|P|Down But But Not Out|W|P|