What Could Go Wrong?

While driving on 1-35 I noticed Pyro City Fireworks in Eagleville, MO. It is a gas station that sells BBQ in the front and a fireworks store in the back. 

They do have a no-smoking sign on the building. I hope people pay attention to it!

Please Sir…May I Have Some More?

When you feel the sting of the whip on your back does it matter if the whip is held by management or labor?  I have worked for many styles of management and to name a few: benevolent, respectful, absent, incompetent and evil. Regardless of the type of management, the whip was in play.

I was a union member (Retail Clerks Local 876 AFL-CIO) while working for a grocery chain in Michigan from 1969 -1976. This merely transferred some control of the whip handle from management to the union but the sting was the same.

There was some else, that was at first subtle, but over time was undeniable. The union rules required that the individual submits to the will of the masses and that was always the lowest common denominator. Initiative and hard work was “busting rate” and overtly punished. This inherently impacts an individual’s self-esteem and eventually devalues them to the status of a mere cog to be controlled – and always with a whip.

Now that I am self-employed I see that the whip is now transferred to the government and inflicted by a maze of laws and regulations.

Oh well, who is John Galt

Stereotypical R Us

Debbie and I had lunch at a coffee shop by the FAIR Plan office. It was not a Starbucks so I was curious if the customers were just as stereotypical as at a Starbucks. There were–just with less Apple products. Also nobody with thick-rimmed square-framed glasses holding tiny lenses with their hair pasted into a carefully created tousled look.

There was the aging (65ish) male hippie with a very long braided ponytail of gray-silver hair. Every coffee shop in the world has one of these guys.  His companion appeared to be less hippie-like as she had dyed blond hair,  plenty of makeup and dressed “business casual”. They scarcely spoke as they sipped their coffee.

A couple sat by a fireplace in separate armchairs in lieu of the more intimate sofa. I speculated they were on a first date. He had a loud voice that allowed anyone to listen in if so inclined. After hearing a few sentences it was apparent he was an “all about me” blowhard. He dominated their conversation and she made a good choice to limit this date to lunch.

Two well-dressed women were enjoying the chicken salad. My best guess was school administrators as it was a school holiday. Their conversation was intense, often talking at the same time, but we couldn’t make out a single word. This was because they kept the volume down and the verbal interference from “Mr. All About Me”.

Two more women were at a table near the fireplace. We cannot recall much about them.  Being overweight with slumping posture and wearing frumpy clothes is a great formula to emulate Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility.

Just as we detected a disturbing lack of laptops a couple in their early 30’s arrived and set up shop with two laptops on a small table next to us. At first, I was annoyed that they sat so close since there were plenty of other tables scattered throughout the shop.  It quickly became clear they needed a power outlet for the laptops and that outlet was near us.  I noticed she was using her laptop to watch a movie. Debbie noticed she wore an engagement ring and neither had a wedding band. They did not talk other than to order coffee.

Then there was a 50ish couple. He wore tactical clothing and I think I made out the imprint of a Ruger LCP.  He fancied himself as some sort of NCIS undercover agent as he was analyzing the people in the shop to determine their character and intent.  He used his cell phone as a cover, pretending to be using it while looking past the cell phone to study the people. She was much younger looking than him and very smartly dressed in browns and tans with practical yet stylish boots.  She noticed the decor and commented on it as well as on the general cleanliness of the shop. They carefully studied the menu together, and after ordering some coffee and food went on to have an engaging conversation. Oh, wait that last couple was us!

Fence Row to Fence Row

Over the last few weeks, I have been across parts of Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. In all three states, there were many fires where large piles of trees and brush were burning. 

The last time I saw this much clearing was when I first moved to Iowa from Michigan in 1979.  Back then farmers were encouraged by federal agencies to grow fence row to fence row.  Easy credit and low interest rates drove up the cost of farmland and many farmers leveraged their operations to acquire more acreage. This was followed by a bust that lasted over a decade and many families lost their farms to foreclosure. Many of these farms had been in the same family for over 100 years. 

I served on the Warren County Board of Human Services in the 1980s. I saw firsthand the extent of the suffering that the boom and bust inflicted on so many people.  There is a story in the D M Register that some Iowa farmland sold at auction for over $26,000 an acre last week. 

Maybe the bonfires in the fields are a warning to the wise to be careful about going into debt during a boom.

Parenting by Cell

I was in a doctor’s waiting room semi-patiently listening for my name to be called. On the other side of the room, a young mother was doing the same. Her children, however, were literally bouncing off the walls. 

After a few warnings to sit quietly went unheeded she dropped what appeared to be the ultimate threat to them; “Settle down or I am going to text your dad!”. It worked!

Anything for a $

The University of Iowa, nationally known as a top “party school”, has signed a multi-million dollar contract with Anheuser-Busch to guarantee its infamous standing. The contract will allow Anheuser-Busch to use the TigerHawk logo on retail displays, flags, caps, cups, and T-shirts.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIAAA supports and conducts research on the impact of alcohol use on human health and well-being. (It is the largest funder of alcohol research in the world.)  Here is what the NIAAA reports about college students drinking:

Virtually all college students experience the effects of college drinking – whether they drink or not. The problem with college drinking is not necessarily the drinking itself, but the negative consequences that result from excessive drinking. College drinking problems:

•College drinking is extremely widespread: about four out of five college students drink alcohol.

•About half of college students who drink, also consume alcohol through binge drinking.

Each year, drinking affects college students, as well as college communities, and families. The consequences of drinking include:

•Death: 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries.

•Assault: More than 690,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.

•Sexual Abuse: More than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.

•Injury: 599,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 receive unintentional injuries while under the influence of alcohol.

•Academic Problems: About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.

•Health Problems/Suicide Attempts: More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug use.

•Drunk Driving: 2.8 million students between the ages of 18 and 24 reported driving under the influence of alcohol.”

Source:   http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/

So really University of Iowa?  Considering the impact of alcohol on college students this is on par with the Sandusky scandal now rolling through the University of Pennsylvania.  Sadly it’s all about the money and not about the students they are entrusted to protect and educate.

MOA RIP

Debbie and I had a long delayed getaway weekend starting the day after Thanksgiving.  We went to Minneapolis and stayed at a nice hotel across the street from the Mall of America (MOA).  A recent story in the news reminded me that I wanted to share our MOA experiences.  Here is the excerpt from the news item: “Authorities arrested at least nine people after a “series of fights” at the nation’s biggest shopping mall sent chairs flying and caused after-Christmas shoppers to flee, officials in Minnesota said Tuesday….Witnesses described a chaotic scene.”  Reports stated that up to 200 were involved in the fighting.

First of all, we did not go there to shop.   After all Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year and frankly there are no special shopping destinations anymore.  We live four blocks west of Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines.  Within a few miles of our house, we have about one of every store and restaurant chain t (albeit no IKEA). Additionally, the Internet has made it easy to have anything from anywhere delivered to your doorstep.  We did go to MOA to watch people and have a break from our routine back home.

We checked into our hotel and decided to walk to the mall rather than wait for the shuttle.  As we approached the main door on the south side of the mall, there were numerous empty bottles and cans that once contained alcohol.  Next, we found a pile of vomit that had been walked through with tracks leading to and from the mall.  About this time a wiff of stale tobacco smoke hit us like a dead skunk in a crawl space.  The sides of the building were coated in a brown gooey nicotine residue.  So while the mall itself is a non-smoking environment a ransom is required to enter.

The shoppers were out in full strength as evidenced by their full bags.  However, there also was a large contingent of young people not shopping and had no obvious destination in mind.  Typically when people walk through a crowded area there is a subconscious awareness of others and we move left or right, speed up or slow down as needed to allow an orderly flow.  I think it is called “manners”. Not these kids.   It was “in your face” attitude.  They seemed to want to control the benches in certain areas and it finally occurred to me they felt they had turf to defend.  I didn’t feel threatened but it just pissed me off that the lowest common dominator is given so much power.

Later we heard a noise from outside our hotel.  We were on the sixth floor and looked down at a bunch of “kids” – about 15 of them, hanging out on the edge of the parking lot and along the main road south of the mall.  Suddenly one of them bolted across eight lanes of traffic over the light rail train tracks and into one of the MOA parking structures.  Two more from the group followed, or more accurately, chased the first one.  The rest stayed by the road for another hour or so making a lot of noise for some unknown purpose.   Then they went to the light rail station and that was the last we saw of them.

Then it clicked – light rail was the problem and it will take MOA down.  Any jerk with a few coins can ride to the mall and cause trouble.  Without the light rail the “barrier to entry” would be getting and keeping a job that generates enough cash flow to maintain a car. This also explains the abundance of out-of-state license plates at Jordan Creek Town Center – people just want to feel safe and vote with their wallets. Maybe the IKEA will move here too!

We did have a great weekend.   We went to a tree lighting ceremony in St Paul’s Rice Park and saw a play at the Guthrie Theater.  We just did not go back to MOA.

Bakeesh

Photo by Bob Conroy

On one of my trips to Lincoln I caught a postal worker doing a shake down at Culvers in Council Bluffs.  It was after the lunch rush and the counter staff was getting a little break.  I ordered my Butter Burger with fries and a coffee to go and waited while the staff chatted.  

The postal worker, a 50ish man with thin graying hair and an oversized belly, entered the restaurant and announces they had no mail today.  There was no immediate response from the staff so he asked if they had any outgoing mail and they did not.  He just stood there and finally one of the staff asked if he wanted to “try” the flavor of the day.  Two minutes later he was devouring a scoop of free custard.  

No money was exchanged and it had the look of a regular event.