Shutdown Insanity: Day 32

Twenty-five years ago, I studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I was young, starry-eyed, politically active, and cartooning for The Daily Tar Heel. Then I graduated and moved on to other pursuits, like … working, commuting, raising a child, etc.

But the events of the past few years, and particularly the Federal shutdown of the past 32 days, have gotten me so upset, so frustrated, and feeling so powerless that I snatched up my pen again and started scribbling away.

It is ironic that our dear elected officials pay themselves to bicker while forcing others to work without compensation. Others like … the protective details who are armed and tasked with maintaining security for these same officials, the TSA screeners who prevent dangerous devices and individuals from infiltrating the planes that these officials travel on, and the air traffic controllers who then prevent these aforementioned planes from crashing into each other.

Can one cartoon make a difference? Perhaps it can.

I’m issuing the ‘Shutdown Cartoon Challenge’ to all the amateur cartoonists and artists out there, no matter how active or inactive they may currently be. Please jump back into the fray, even for a just a few sketches. The pen can be mightier than the sword, and a good picture is still worth 1000 words (and maybe more than 100,000 tweets)

Shutdown Day 32

And when you pick up your drawing pen, also pick up your writing pen. Contact your Representative. Contact your Senators. Contact your President. Tell them how you feel. Make your voice heard.

Personally, I’m  going to contact my elected representatives and request that a bill be introduced that requires that if any part of the government is furloughed or unfunded due to Congress and the Executive branch not being able to agree on a budget, that all elected officials will be required to work without pay and they will NOT receive back pay. The Democrats want Social Equality? The Republicans want to cut government Spending? Here’s a bill they should both agree on.

The American Presidential Campaigns are Wasting Money on a Colossal Scale

My dad has dementia, and he can no longer be at home. He needs to be in a facility that can handle his ups and downs. Dementia facilities are expensive. VERY expensive.  And far away. So I have been doing a lot of driving and thinking recently.


I was absently listening to the radio during a recent expedition, when the announcer started talking about the huge amounts of money being spent on the 2016 presidential campaign. Obscene amounts of money. For Ads. Advertisements that do and say nothing more than how much the 'other guy' stinks.


So while these donors and PACs and candidates toss money at consultants and agencies to come up with slick slogans, my family and others like us are burning through our life savings fighting a horrible mental disease that apparently is not sexy enough to have lots of money tossed at it.


And it made me sick. Sick to think of all the suffering and sickness and pain there is all around us and yet these self-proclaimed leaders spend millions on ads and jingles and buttons. Our political system is flawed and our campaign system is completely broken.


How can we stop this nonsense? If this money wasn't going toward campaign waste, how much good could it be doing ... https://twitter.com/NitpickyConsumr

The Digital Amusement Park Photo Download is finally here

I just got back from my vacation, which included a trip to Hershey Park.

And I experienced an idea whose time has finally come: the ability to purchase the digital copy of the photos that those roller coaster cameras take. The parks have been taking these photos digitally for a while; I am THRILLED to see that I can now buy it. The pricing was great. I could have paid $15 for a print (that I would have bent almost immediately) or $14 for a digital download and a keychain with the image on it. It's not a good option for people who are not technically savyy, but makes a world of sense for those of us who used computers a lot.  I've downloaded my copy, and I'll be sending it to Snapfish to make prints for my folks, soon.  W00t!

Why are you merchandising AFTER the register?

Why do stores pile up a bunch of stuff with big sale signs on them right AFTER the cash registers? I have actually thought once or twice, 'Oh, I could use that,' but if I've just stood in line for 30 minutes, there is just no way I am going to get back in line to buy one more item.

I think that maybe the stores are just out of space and don't have anywhere to put these things? It just seems silly.

I like to park far away

Opposite of those people of questionable character who borrow grandma's handicap permit so that they can park in the reserved spot closest to the grocery store, I like to park very far away.

More space around my car, and fewer vehicles zooming around me, makes it easier to get in and out of the parking lot, get my son in and out of the car seat, and get packages in and out of the back. It also reduces the chances of my car being damaged by someone else, and gives me a little more exercise. All in all, it's great. Why doesn't everyone try to park as far away as possible?

But I often get frustrated by returning the cart. Many stores only have cart returns right up near the store. COSTCO and Whole Foods fall into this category. I end up needing to backtrack a pretty significant distance to return the cart. Clearly, a lot of folks don't even bother as a lot of abandoned carts are handing out near back near the far end of the lot. When it's just me, I don't mind. But if I've got my toddler with me, he has a low attention span for this activity, which makes it much harder to accomplish.

See that Cart return WAY far away?

Here's where I need to give Giant some credit; they put cart returns very far back. I can park very far away, and still have a cart return in easy distance.

Thanks, Giant!

People with Way Too Much Time

I have ranted in the past about my distaste for Home Owners Associations (HOAs) and in particular the Architectural Review Committees (ARCs) that often come along with them. It infuriates me that someone has the gall to impose their own subjective beliefs on me under the guise of 'maintaining the community.'  Today, I found a kindred spirit in Tampa, Florida, who is fighting back to protect his rights to do rational, non-harmful things on the property that he rightly owns.

W00t! Fight the good fight, man. I'm gearing up for a battle, myself. I want to (gasp) repaint my house, and where I live that means I need to ask for permission.  Sigh. We'll just see how that goes.

The Royal Wedding: Should we care? Yes.

Yes, I got up and watched the Royal Wedding of William and Catherine this past Friday. I also TIVO'd it on two channels -- CBS for the American coverage and PBS for the British coverage -- so I could watch it more in-depth later.

It was breathtaking. I almost cried when the camera panned down from the ceiling of the Abbey during the procession. Some of my friends were just as excited as I was, such as my friend Christine who baked English scones the day before and sent one over to me.

But many other friends just didn't 'get it'

"Why would you get up so early just to see a wedding?" one asked.  Another, a bit disgusted at the coverage, wondered "With so many horrible things going on, why are people caring about this?" Still others were barely aware it was happening.

So I found myself wondering, why did I care so much? Why was this so special? I've come up with three key reasons:


A chance to see living history

The BBC coverage was better than a history lesson. It provided a crash-course in British political, religious, cultural, and art history for the past thousand years in the 'pre-show' hour. Some of the facts about Westminster Abbey were fascinating. And I loved the way one historian described the progress of royal weddings from the pre-arranged 'mergers and acquisitions' hundreds of years ago to the vibrant public spectacles they have become in the last century.

Want to see how a formal carriage is driven? Watch a Royal wedding. Want to hear about how traditional lace is woven? Watch a Royal wedding. Want to hear how medieval tile floors were constructed? Watch a Royal wedding. Want to see history WWII airplanes in flight? Watch a Royal Wedding.

I showed segments of the broadcast to my 3-year old son. He jumped with glee to see the Abbey's bells, from inside the tower. (We've watched that 10-second clip over and over more than his favorite episode of Dinosaur Train, and that is saying a lot.) He loved the royal trumpeters, who heralded the Queen's entry into the Abbey. He was mesmerized by the boy choir. He proclaimed "Look at that big church!" when Westminster Abbey was shown in his entirety. And he cheered when the "big plane and the little planes" flew over the Palace. These images got him really excited; he understood that something big and important was happening and he loved it.

A reminder of the importance of family heritage

My mother's side of the family is very in touch with our history. We still run the Rosebud Perfume Company; we still have pieces of my great-grandfather's drugstore from the late 1800s. As my cousin, who is in her late 80s, said last year "We are so blessed to know our roots and our family history. Some people today seem so lost; they don't know who they are or where they came from."

The Royal Family is a reminder of how precious and wonderful such a history can be. The ability to trace back, to see signatures of great-great-great grandparents, to walk where they walked.  They are the ultimate in family heritage preservation. It's not everyone who has the means to preserve a 110-year-old family carriage, but they do and they have. It's a treasure to be able to glimpse such heirlooms not in a museum, but actually cared for and in use by the same family, generations later.


Some good news, for a change

We're so used to the Media covering bad news, that we almost feel guilty when they cover something good. But quite frankly, news is by definition neither good nor bad. It's news. And it's good for us all to share in something positive.

David Starkey, a Royal Historian who did commentary for CBS, stated it very well:

"It [the wedding] really has caught the imagination. This is a bit of a grim time. We've had recession. We've got declining incomes. People want a bit of fun. Monarchy is brilliant at creating fun and entertainment. So many of the people I saw and listened to [on the street on the way here] were American, clearly coming back home in a funny kind of way and watching the royal family that -perhaps rather controversially - you got rid of."

 
I generally despise the media, but in this case, I found their coverage wonderful. Kudos to all the press teams who worked very hard to pull together commentary, history and coverage that would highlight all aspects of this fabulous event.

Besides the witty commentary by Royal Historian David Starkey, other highlights for me included BBC television's broadcast of the space station crew sending their best wishes
 and designer David Emanuel's breathless commentary upon catching the first glimpse of Kate's dress as she emerged from her hotel. (He designed Princess Diana's dress.) It's infectious to experience someone who really knows their craft and can share that knowledge and excitement.

Thank you for sharing it with us.

Hinged Easter Eggs? Where's the fun in that?

This week is all about Easter Eggs. Making Jell-o Eggs. Dying Hard-boiled eggs with Paas. And getting a fresh batch of plastic eggs to fill with all sorts of wonderful treasure.

hinges and toys? what about loose halves and candy?

Usually, I just walk into any store and buy them. But not this year. This year the new fad seems to be hinged eggs. What? Hinges? Yuck. They were everywhere. I went to Giant. Hinges. Family Dollar. Hinges. A different Giant. Hinges. Finally, I got what I wanted at a CVS drugstore. Plastic eggs with no hinges. Leaving me free to mix & match as I please.

Why all of the hinges? They are a totally inferior product.

Ah, the power of the split halves

• Once the hinge snaps, what can you do with it but recycle it? If one half of a non-hinged egg breaks, you save it and pair it up with another one that had a broken half.
• How can you create eggs with each half a different color when they are hinged? Why stifle creativity like that?
• You need unhinged eggs in order to create a Sorting Eggs game for your preschooler
• And in case you were wondering, apparently the hinged eggs are a different type of plastic, so they can't be repainted to improve their infrared opacity, either. Who knew?

But whether you're using hinged or split eggs, real or Jell-o eggs, have a very Happy Easter.

Hey, Congresspeople! This isn't kindergarten

It's like a big, festive carnival up there on the Hill. Whee!

I'm going to digress to politics for a week. (I'm in DC; I can't help it.)  But it's not as much of a digression as you might think. When it comes to our elected officials, we're all the customers. We elect them, and we pay for their salaries and their utterly fabulous benefits. So, I expect and demand a little service in return.

And what I'm getting now is a cross between a soap opera and a circus, with as much nuance as a kindergarten recess.  I just read the current status: Principal Obama has invited the kids to come have snacks and juice in his office so that they can all work it out. I only hope that all the snacks are locally grown so that I can have some kind of positive feeling about the whole thing, because otherwise it's just a giant mess.

Seriously, this is how Paul Kane and Jon Cohen of the Washington Post described it today:

As the deadline neared, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) exchanged insults, each side blaming the other for the stalemate.

Swell. Did they fire their Nerf guns at each other, too?

You've got a job to do folks. Stop the drama, and start behaving like the educated negotiators that you all claim to be.

Why do some people assume that 'Free' means 'Garbage'?

We have a very old sofa. It is not in the best of shape, but it isn't ready to be trashed, either. It is the style that the back is made up of a series of pillows, so while the couch frame itself has been in the garage the past few months, we've been using the pillows in various other parts of the house.

My housing association was sponsoring a community-garage-sale this past weekend, so I decided it was time to find a new home for the sofa. Maybe someone just out of college with no furniture and no money. (The way my husband was when he first bought it.)

So, I rounded up the pillows and we put the couch out in the driveway. I thought about asking $5 for it, but really all I wanted was to find it a new home and be rid of it. If this didn't work, I would try Craig's List or Freecycle. And if THOSE didn't work, we'd pay to have the frame disposed of and keep using the pillows in other parts of the house.

So, I plunked a nice big 'FREE' sign on it.



I then went back into the house to make breakfast. I glanced out the window every now and then to check on what was happening, and within about 15 minutes, a man was standing there inspecting the couch.

Great, I thought. He seemed very interested, so I started to walk out and see if I could answer any questions. I think he saw the movement through the window. Quick as a flash he snatched up the pillows, stuffed them into his car, jumped into the drivers seat, and sped off.

And there sat the remains of our sofa. With the 'Free' sign stuck to the back of it.



My jaw dropped. For the first minute I was so shocked I couldn't even think. Then I was furious. FURIOUS. Absolutely RAGING MAD. Over the next hour, I rotated from being angry at myself (for being an idiot), angry at this man (for being a jerk), and angry at People in General (for no particular reason). Just to rub salt in the wound, a young man stopped by about an hour later and sadly noted that he would have gladly taken the sofa ... had it still had cushions.

Now that I am able to think more rationally about this, I find it an interesting pattern that people like a bargain, but if the price becomes too low (or Free) they tend to either:

1) Be suspicious of it. (Why is it this cheap? What is wrong with it? What is the catch?)
or
2) Take advantage of it (Treat it with disrespect, become greedy, forget that they are getting something for nothing)

I saw this a lot when I was working retail. When the inventory sale prices became insane (e.g., a $150 sweater for $9.99), shoppers would treat the items with complete and utter disdain. I remember watching a woman recklessly plow through the sale pile, literally throwing unwanted items over her shoulder into a pile on the floor. Were those items on sale? Yes. But were they hers to treat in such a negligent fashion? No.

The more I think about this, the more examples I can think of. I'm sure you can, too. Hindsight is 20/20, eh? Wish I could go back in time and put a $5 sign on the sofa ... and duct-tape the pillows to it.


PS: Anyone want a sofa without cushions?

Can't NBC find ANYONE better?

Every Olympics, ever since Bob Costas became host, I have written to NBC. This year is no exception.

GET RID OF BOB COSTAS; HE IS AWFUL. He is utterly negative, always looks miserable, wants nothing more than to create DRAMA, and clearly could not care less about sports.

I hate the way he covers the Olympics.
My husband hates him.
My folks hate him, my husband's folks hate him, my friends hate him, my co-workers hate him.

He is just so awful. Thank goodness we have TIVO so we can fast forward through him. Please NBC, replace him with any of the field event correspondents; replace him with anyone who shows even a drop of enthusiasm for the Olympics. Surely there is SOMEONE somewhere in the US you can find to do a better job. Perhaps even for a lower cost. Win-win for everyone, eh?

On a more positive note, these Vancouver winter olympics seem to have had fewer of the drama-ridden athletic 'close-ups', so I'd like to cheer NBC for that. And to reiterate what I alluded to earlier, the correspondents covering the individual events are pretty darned good. I just wish that Jim McCay was still with us, to serve as host. I can only hope that someone someday will be able to fill his shoes. And it ain't ever going to be Costas.

Hurrah for Norad! Bah-Humbug to Crate&Barrel

As I sit here on Christmas Eve and reflect on the final countdown to the Big Day, I want to mention something fun that has warmed my heart and something that has not.

The Coal in the Stocking Award goes to ...

Crate & Barrel, who refused to host any charitable evening events this year, for reasons that are completely non-obvious.

For the last 3 years, I had attended the Doorways Holiday Gift-buying Event at Crate & Barrel in Arlington, Virginia. The event was always PACKED. The registers were running non-stop. The event was always held a weekday evening. It is inconceivable that C&B would have made anywhere close to this amount of money on a 'normal' evening, so it is very unclear why they discontinued this support.

But as several of us were discussing tonight, we made no purchases at Crate&Barrel this year. The only reason we purchased anything the past years was because of the charity event. We are all hopeful that they will restart the practice next year.


The Stocking full of Toys goes to ...

NORAD's Santa Tracker! What a great way to entertain and teach a little geography, too. Watching the site, and its incredibly cool tie-in to Google Earth absolutely entertained an entire household of kids and adults alike at my friend Joanna's house tonight.

Merry Christmas, and may God Bless Us, Everyone.

Attention Charities: Please remember to be charitable, yourselves

After a long hiatus due to work and family, the holidays have brought me back into the blogging chair. My first topic: Charities.

Due to the recession, these groups are working extra hard to bring in donations, but they seem to be forgetting the very issue that is causing them to work so hard. That is, for the people who are out of work, donations may simply not be an option. If someone says 'No,' they probably mean NO. So, you'd think that these groups would move on. But not all of them.

Let's take the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as my example.

My mother's high school friend died of Leukemia. A British friend of mine is currently struggling with it. Therefore, I decided to make a donation to them this past March. Not huge. I think maybe $50? My husband's job was looking quite iffy at that point, so I didn't want to stretch it.

The first thing that struck me was that I almost threw away my receipt. It looked just like another solicitation,and I almost trashed it given I had just donated. But on a hunch I opened it, and in very small print was my receipt. I'm not even sure it said 'Thank You." If so, it was dwarfed by the huge "WE NEED MORE MONEY" above it.

We've gotten non-stop calls from them since then. My husband usually picks up the phone, so he's simply been telling them that I wasn't home. But this past week, I happened to be the one who picked up the phone. I was also the one who hung up on them 5 minutes later.

Here's a summary of our conversation:

LLS Caller: Hi, LLS needs more money.

Me: Didn't I donate to you already this year?

LLS Caller: Yes, but we need more money.

Me: Sorry, I only donate to each charity once a year. Call me back in 2010.

LLS Caller: You don't understand. We need more money

Me: No, you don't understand. I already gave you money.

LLS Caller: No, you don't understand. We have a donor who agreed to match all donations, so we need more money now.

Me: That's great. Hopefully that offer will still be on the table in 2010.

LLS Caller: No, it won't be. We need your money now.

Me: Sorry, it's not going to happen. My husband was laid off in May. I am working from a budget.

LLS Caller: I understand, but we need money now.

Me: I've already told you I am not going to give you more money this year. I'd like to end this conversation, now.

LLS Caller: We need your money. We can't wait

Me: I'm going to hang up on you, now.

LLS Caller: Don't you understand? We need your mon--

[Blissful Silence]

Maybe I'm not being sensitive to the urgent need. Maybe I'll be the one labeled as the Scrooge. But honestly, how much good am I doing to anyone if my family and I end up needing charity, ourselves?

Please, all you non-profits out there, please remember that you're not the only ones struggling. I recommend treating each donation as a gift rather than an entitlement. You might even get more money that way, in the long run.

Video Games Live: Wow!!

If you are looking for something to do with the family, and anyone at all plays or likes video games, this is the show to go to: Video Games Live!

We just saw this show last night, at WolfTrap in Vienna, VA.
It was absolutely fabulous. Big Cheers to game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall for making this happen. Their site has more info and upcoming Dates.


The really neat thing is that it wasn't just great music. They included game clips, which really made the music come to life, as well as introductions by some of the game designers. They try to pull in anyone local in the industry, so Sid Meier, creator of the Civilization series, was at our concert to speak about CivIV.

They did a Skype link to do a live interview with the man -- Ralph Baer -- who invented the ping-pong video game in 1969. He's 89 now, and he seemed to get a kick out of being interviewed from the concert. Before 'calling' him they showed the video of him and his partner Bill playing the game. I had seen that video before, but following it up with a live interview with him really brought it home.

They also had some interactive segments. A costume contest, a Space Invaders game, and a Guitar Hero contest. Guitar Hero was amazing. For those of you who don't know it, Guitar Hero a console game where you play 'fake' instruments that attach to the console. On the harder settings, it is HARD. 'Zak' from the audience got up there on stage and won a laptop by getting 200,000 points on expert mode, in front of a screaming audience. It was really amazing. I can't even get by on 'easy' mode playing guitar, so I was impressed.

If you want to get an idea of what the whole thing was like, one guy video taped pretty much the whole thing, in NY. It's 7 pieces on YouTube, starting with them walking into the venue and entering the Guitar Hero contest.

All I can say is that when this show comes back someday, WE ARE THERE!

Get your own Lids!

They now make special containers to put Cheerios and Gold Fish and other little cracker-type munchies in for toddlers. The lids on these containers have slits in them so the little one can reach through and grab a few bits, but hopefully not spill the rest ... mostly.

It's a nice idea and there are several brands. I grabbed a couple of Snack Traps. They work reasonably well.

But here's the catch: they only come with the lids with the slits in them. If you want to store or carry them around for any length of time, and don't want the crackers to get stale, you need a 'real' air-tight lid. They don't come with these lids; you must buy them separately. For several dollars plus shipping/handling.

No way. Here's what you do instead.

You go to visit your vet, and you pick up a couple of the free pet food lids that they always have sitting around. Personally, I got a few "Hill's" lids.

And Presto!! Instant lid. Quick. Effective. Free.

Goodbye, weather.com! Hello, Underground!

I was wading through the jungle of crap on weather.com the other day, trying to dredge out a forecast for my friend Jim. He looks over my shoulder and says to me, "You need to go to weather underground. One visit and you'll never look back."

So, I linked over to Weather Underground (wunderground.com) and I was practically blown away with the utter magnificence of this weather website.

You aren't immediately attacked by multiple ad pop-ups. It is a clean, calm interface. As soon as you type in the zip code of the city you want, you are presented with a clear, concise, well-formatted page of all the info you want. I've always had trouble finding humidity on weather.com, but on wunderground.com it was right there in front of me. The 5-day forecast is clear, and they have a super-cool feature where they compare today with yesterday (e.g., Today will be colder than yesterday). And your last 5 city searches are remembered on the left, so you can quickly check the main places you want to know weather forecasts for.

In short, Jim was right. This site is fabulous. Double-thumbs up for weather underground!!!

Everyone needs a new TV by Feb 2009, huh?

Years ago, when I first heard about the government mandated shift to high definition, my first thought was "Yeah, right. This is going to be an exercise in permanent postponement" Shockingly, I have been correct in this assessment. Yet again, the mandatory transition from analog to digital television broadcasting has been postponed, from February 17 to June 12, 2009.

The part of this whole ordeal that is surprising is how little Media attention this has garnered over the past months.

• Why haven't there been complaints regarding the vast government sponsorship of the electronics industry? In particular the companies manufacturing these converter boxes?
• Where is the social commentary? The poor and the elderly are clearly impacted by this transition. Heck, I imagine that some people don't even know it is going to happen, honestly, and they'll just be very surprised one day when their TV stops working
• Have I somehow missed the environmental uproar? Given that most affluent consumers are simply going to trash their old TVs -- for no other reason than this mandated change -- and get new ones? And thousands of perfectly good TVs are going to end up in our dumps?
• Is there not one investigative journalist who thought it would be interesting to compare the lobbying effort that helped to pass this mandate with the combined forces that made marijuana illegal (thus boosting the tobacco, cotton, and wood pulp industries in the process) and the Great American Streetcar scandal (where established urban streetcar systems were dismantled by the american automotive industry, in order to sell more automobiles. )

Not one journalist thinks any of these topics are worth investigating? I guess not. I suppose this is because they've all been too busy covering the more important stories, like the ever-growing family size of Brad and Angelina.

But now that the Campaign is over, and Obamessiah is in office, and the Pitts aren't quite ready to have another baby, we are finally starting to see a few stories on this topic. Will the transition ever happen? Maybe. Personally, I've got my coupons in hand and I'll be going to get my boxes, soon. Do I need the coupons? No. Can I pay for the boxes myself? Of course I can, just like most folks who have requested these coupons. But I guess this topic isn't interesting to reporters, either. Oh look ... is that Britney over there? Quick! There's news to be told!

Cover the Event, Please

Unless you are hibernating in a cave somewhere, you probably watched, listened, or read about the Obama Inauguration today. This was one of my days home with my 1-year old (he'll be 1 year old in about 2 hours!), and so I was lucky enough to be able to watch a great deal of television coverage.

I rotated between the big 3 TV networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC.
As we live 15 minutes outside of Washington DC, we had non-stop coverage all day, even when the nationals went to 'local' coverage.

I want to applaud the local coverage. It was interesting. They talked about road closures, metro issues, parking problems, etc. It was just the sort of stuff that we locals can't really get enough of.

The national coverage went off the path a bit. What I wanted to see and hear about was what was happening right then and there. But for the most part, especially during the parade, what the announcers were talking about had nothing to do with what was being shown on the screen.

Example:
As the new first couple left the Capitol building, the cameras showed a very interesting colonial marching band. I wondered ... is this a military band? A band from Colonial Williamsburg? Unfortunately, the announcers were interviewing some talking head pundent (I think it was Jesse Jackson in this case, on ABC) about race relations in the USA, blah-blah. This is what people have been talking about for MONTHS. Could they have not covered the moment and talked about what was happening? As my husband wryly commented, "Of course not ... that would take research. It is much easier to just snap photos and editorialize so you don't need to really know what is going on."

Some of the stations did better at times. I believe it was NBC who had a former police chief with them, and he was talking about security. For example: He noted that the motorcycle police had the side carts on their motorcycles so that the motorcycles would be stable at such low speeds. That was interesting.

Even if the quality of commentary was not exactly what I was hoping for, it was still great to see such an array of live coverage. It really felt like being there, but about 60-degrees warmer.

E*Trade vs. Disney Investor Services: FIGHT

I used to work for The Mouse. Yes, I used to work for the Walt Disney Company. This is probably why I am so fixated on customer (ahem, 'Guest') service. They brainwash you into eating, breathing and sleeping customer service ... assuming it is making a tidy profit along the way.

While I was working for Mickey, I was participating in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). When I left, there was no way to keep the stock with Disney, so I transferred it to my E*Trade account.

This was years ago. Several things have happened since then.

• Disney now has its own brokerage arm -- Disney Investor Services (DIS) -- to handle purchasing, selling and reinvesting Disney Stock
  
• My parents bought me 100 shares of Disney stock as a gift, being held with DIS
• E*trade decided to impose HUGE quarterly fees on those of us who don't trade much
• My friend who works at E*trade told me that there are security holes in the 'secure' code big enough to fly an airplane through.

All of this combined together to make me decide it was time to close up my E*Trade account. But instead of selling my Disney stock, I wanted to transfer it to DIS. Seems straightforward, right?

NO. It was not straightforward. In fact, as of 5 minutes ago, I declared FAILURE, gave up, and sold my stock. (Gee, I can't wait to figure out the cost basis of stock that was bought fractions at a time, each week, for 7 years, ha-ha-ha.)

I went back and forth with each of them multiple times, and just sat in despair in the middle as they pointed to each other.

1. Emailed Disney and asked 'How do I transfer the stock from E*trade to you?' Answer: E*Trade must initiate as they currently hold the stock. Give them all your info and they will initiate.
2. Called E*Trade. Their response: No, Disney is wrong. The receiving end must initiate. Call them back. Here is the info you need.
3. Called Disney. Their response: No, E*trade is wrong. Call them back.
4. Called E*trade. Their response: Disney is totally wrong. How could they be more wrong? Call them back. Tell them how totally and utterly wrong they are and give them your account info.
   
5. Called Disney. Their response: E*trade is wrong. They are absolute total idiots. Get them on the phone with us and we'll tell them how stupid they are. Then, once we are done telling them how dumb they are, we'll do the transfer with them.
6. Called E*trade. Their response: Disney is crazy. The SEC has a LAW that says that the receiving end MUST initiate the transfer. Also, E*trade doesn't have the capability to do 3-way calling so sadly there is no way for us to listen to them tell us how dumb we are while we tell them how totally ignorant they are.

I told E*trade how FURIOUS I was, thought about calling Disney to do the same but decided it would waste too much time, then put in an order to sell all of my damned E*Trade stock.

Disney and E*trade: you both get a customer service rating of F from me this week. But I imagine you don't really care.

What the hell is wrong with Christmas Lights?

I'm going to file all modern Christmas Lights under the category of "they don't make 'em like they used to."

My parents used the same strands of lights year after year after year. The old ones with the big bulbs that heated up to a zillion degrees and melted the snow for mile in every direction. Ah, the good ol' days.

Those good ol' days are GONE. Here is the saga of our lights ...

When we put our lights away last year, neatly packed in a labeled box, all 4 strands worked. When we took them out of the box last week, they were ALL BROKEN. Not one strand would light. What the hell happened to them? Did the evil Christmas light gremlins get them?

So, I went to Giant (gad) to get more. I bought 4 strands of clear lights. Of these 4 strands, one was broken out of the box, two were actually colored (even though the box said they were clear) and ONE actually worked. So, I went BACK to Giant and exchanged three of them for three more. Of these 3 new ones, only 2 worked. But we had enough to do the front steps. More or less.

Then, we decided to try some of the new LED lights on our big, outside tree. They all worked out of the box. Groovy. So we spent the time to put them on our big pine tree. They all lit up, and it looked great. For 5 minutes. Then the middle strand died. We have no time or energy to pull them all off, so I confess that our tree looks quite odd.

As I'm sure that these will all be dead by next year, I am starting to think ahead. Our ARC (Architectural Review Creatures) have decreed that all decorations must be "colonial in tone and nature" so I am thinking that next year we'll just decorate with candles and be done with it ... at least until the house burns down.