All aisles open Thanksgiving eve.

Whoopdy doo.

Ten days before Turkey Day - three self-check out lanes and one full service for about 16 customers.

Fail.

President addresses Boy Scouts at National Jamboree

Via video.  He couldn't break away from fund raising and other commitments to show up in person.



But that is OK.  Ronald Reagan didn't attend the Jamborees while he was President (he sent his wife).  And Bill Clinton and GW only attended one of the Jamborees of the two that took place during their terms.  Bush Sr. attended during his first term - good thing, yes?  Maybe Obama is counting on a second term?

Some people - mostly those with Scouting backgrounds or sons and daughters at the Jamboree - are upset that the President of the United States could not find time to attend in person.  After all, he is the Honorary President of the National Organization.  It is also Scouting in the USA's 100th Anniversary.  Google "President Disses Boy Scouts" and you'll get a sense of the thoughts of our country.  More people seem upset about people being upset than anything else.  How dare the Boy Scouts 'expect' the President to show up?  Frugal Cafe' Blog Zone has a good sampling of what people are saying.

Boy Scout Jamboree’s 100th Anniversary vs. ‘The View’: Boy Scouts Lose, Obama to Appear with Daytime TV Harpies

 Jane Chastain lays her thoughts out very plainly in her posting on WorldNetDaily -

Obama disses the Boy Scouts

Truth be told (I'd tell nothing else), the Presidency and the Boy Scouts are not that tight.  You might think, given the number of Astronauts, prominent business men and entrepreneurs, and other popular figures (like

Who is the Bully?

You may recall that this past January there was a troublesome suicide in which a 15-year-old ninth grader hanged herself because, as the media portrayed it at the time, she had been the subject of terrible bullying and abuse at the hands of a half-dozen of her peers - The Hadley Six.  The young girl, Phoebe Prince, had recently moved from Ireland to South Hadley Massachusetts.  Immediately after her suicide, several students were the focus of accusations claiming their bullying had directly led to Phoebe taking her life.  A(n over) zealous District Attorney, Elizabeth Scheibel, decided to charge six students with various charges relating to the tragic incident.

http://www.slate.com/id/2260952/entry/2260953/

I clearly remember discussing this with my co-workers at school.  The consensus was that this was a witch hunt. The DA was trying to win points with the community by sacrificing teenagers who may have bullied Phoebe.  The first indication to me that the whole story was not being told was that rarely enforced statutory rape laws were being used to charge the two young men involved.  In Massachusetts any sex under 16 is statutory rape.  A 17 year old and an 18 year old have been charged for allegedly having sex with the 15 year old Phoebe.  The law here was not the focus.  If it were, there would be a lot more students in trouble.  Instead, the DA is citing an infrequently used statute for leverage in her campaign.  The DA's attempt to prosecute the students for criminal homicide in Phoebe's death is also rarely used because it is rarely successful.

In her three part article "What Really Happened to Phoebe Prince?", Emily Bazelon masterfully accomplishes what rarely happens in journalism today.  She has spent the time and put forth the effort to dig into the facts of this under reported travesty.  Emily Bazelon presents a much truer explanation of what led up to Phoebe Prince's untimely death and examines how the over use of the legal system can freeze a community and prevent any effectual recovery from a tragedy like Phoebe's.  It is a longer piece then most people surfing the internet would take the time to read, but it is worth the extra time.  There are also a few links to other media or information that break up the reading.

Of interest beyond the article is the comments section.  Posts a-plenty and with extra hot sauce - flaming!  People have strong opinions about this article and the case it covers.  I must say though, I doubt more than half the people commenting actually read the whole article and did a little extra research on their own.

My favorite quote from the article is from Alan Dershowitz with regards to trying to charge the defendants with a civil rights violation with bodily injury - "That's a real stretch.  People want to think that there's always legal accountability where there should be moral accountability.  But in the criminal context, you should always err against overextending the law."

http://www.slate.com/id/2260952/entry/2260953/

Fooled Again

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

This kind of deceit seems to be the standard in journalism today. Sometimes deliberate, sometimes through ignorance, "facts" are misrepresented. Even in this article/post by Bob Cesca, information is distorted. In the second paragraph "The videos turned out to be misleading at best, and the fake pimp character went on to plead guilty to charges of entering federal property under false pretense." seems to imply the charges are a result of the ACORN videos. They are not. The charges involved a separate stunt played out by James O'Keefe and others and were not related to the Pimp and Prostitute videos investigating ACORN.

See how easy it is to mis-represent the facts. Certainly, I agree that both sides of the media are failing at being journalists. Where's Walter Cronkite when you need him? (please, no flames about Cronkite - tis a joke)

"Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society." - Attributed to John Adams.

the Y - after a day to think about the re-branding

After having some time to consider everything that was presented over the past several days to the media/public, I have decided that changing the YMCA logo and "identity" or "brand" is a minor part of a larger plan.  The shame is, the new logo is where the attention is going.  Of more importance is the study conducted by YMCA of the USA.  In the remarks given at the press conference and in the press release, the real change in the Y (more accurately a refocusing of what the Y has always been good at) is the focus of mission.

The Y Community Snapshot Study - which I have not seen in its entirety - is the report being held in clenched fists to prove the urgency and need for change.  Numbers abound.  66 percent of people think the current quality of life in their communities is worse than last year.  Respondents reported that they were concerned the most about chronic issues involving crime, violence, and public safety.  They also identified access to quality healthcare, poverty, negative youth behaviors, and declining values as concerns.  (They apparently don't care about or were not polled about global warming, terrorism, or American troops serving in foreign countries)

YMCA re-brands itself (kinda like Radio Shack is now "The Shack")

Described by Neil Nicoll, president and CEO of YMCA of the USA, as Bold, Vibrant, Welcoming, Inspirational, and capturing the personality of the Y, I present to you one of five color schemes being introduced by the YMCA of the USA.

My first impressions - rolling on floor laughing . . . oops. I mean ROFL.  Initial thought - why don't we start calling The Red Cross "red" and the Girls and Boys Clubs of America "the clubs".  Come on now . . . Radio Shack tried this.  Did it work? (More after the jump!)

Errors and Corrections

Friend Jason Kramer, who happens to be a pharmacist and e-friendly small business owner (two links in there), corrected my error of thinking Adderall was not a C-II drug.  It is.  Good news(?), Zyprexa is not and it costs more than Adderall - making it an even bigger waste of money!  Sweeter.

You may want to go back and re-read the revised post (or not).  Argument is still the same.

Thank you Jason.

You don't know JACK!

Had a decent Father's day today.  My son Dan, one of my foster sons, and Mia went up to my fathers for dinner.  Mia made chicken and shrimp kabobs for the grill, along with macaroni salad and deviled eggs (potentially a stinky situation with all the eggs involved).  At my request, dad made a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing - yummy!  Cathy came over for dinner.  All-in-all a very laid back and pleasant day.

But tonight, as I was finishing reading "Deadline" by Chris Crutcher ( a whole separate trauma) I was IMd by my friend Jack.  He is an Air Force Medic serving with the First Battalion, 110 Infantry Brigade at FOB Bullard.  I often catch him on Facebook in the evening, which is the morning for him.  Once, he hurriedly typed "things are starting off fast today" and "just found an IED have to wait for EOD".  He signed off shortly after that.  He has also described some of the gorier casualties he has had to deal with.  He's even mentioned a few fatalities.  Until June 11th, they had always been Afghan Nationals and, not that it should matter, I felt relief to know that these were not American Soldiers dieing in his unit.

June 11th that changed.  Army Staff Sgt. Bryan Hoover and Army Sgt. First Class Fike were killed by an IED.  Not that you can intuit much emotional context out of a text message, it is obvious that this loss has played heavy on my friend - as it should.  And it should effect us at home more as well.  There have been 35 American fatalities in June (as of the 20th) and I have not heard nearly as much about this disaster as I have heard of the oil spill in the gulf, the silly debate of defending the American Border in Arizona (silly in that there is already Federal precedence to check a suspects immigration status if it is suspect, so who cares if a State wants to in-act their own similar legislation.  Read all three answers.), or Armani Underwear airbrushing out Megan Fox's Abs (worth two seperate links btw).

If you want to see who has died in service to our country, check out --

• http://icasualties.org/OEF/Index.aspx
• http://militarytimes.com/valor/index.php
• http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf
• http://freedomremembered.com/index.php/category/states/pennsylvania/ (this link is just for Pennsylvanians - there are write-ups for both Hoover and Fike)

And there it is!  Not that I will dwell on these thoughts, but I will be more anxious as I wait to see Jack log on to his Facebook account.  Please, keep him, as well as all of the other great Americans who serve on our behalf, in your thoughts and prayers.  And, do not forget those who have fallen.

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. - General Douglas MacArthur

A bitter pill to swallow

The amount of money wasted on medicine for foster kids is amazing.  Sometimes it seems I destroy almost as many pills as I administer.

Here is an example.  Child goes to med clinic.  Dr. prescribes a certain med.  For this example, lets say 10 mg Adderall XR Zyprexa.  He writes out a 30 day prescription with two refills.  The Dr. also puts the child on a schedule II drug, which  can only be scheduled out for thirty days and cannot be refilled without another appointment.  (This also helps feed the coffers of the Doctors who do these med clinics)  I go and fill both prescriptions for the first thirty days.  Someone screws up and doesn't schedule the next med clinic within 30 days.  (This happens more often than it should as well)  I run out of the schedule II drug but do refill the Adderall XR Zyprexa, which has refills.  Three days into the 30 pills of the refill, we get into see the doctor for the schedule II drug.  While talking to the child, the child mentions to the doctor that he doesn't like the way the Adderall Zyprexa makes him "feel".  In turn, the doctor decides to take the child off of the Zyprexa and put him on something else.  I end up with 27 capsules of Zyprexa.

Thirty 10 mg capsules of Zyprexa costs around $475.  (http://tiny.cc/p2ti2) What am I to do with them?  I have to destroy them.  Who pays for the wasted meds?  You do!  All kids in foster care in PA receive their health care through Medical Assistance, which is funded with your tax dollars.  Sweet.

(Friend Jason Kramer, who happens to be a pharmacist and e-friendly small business owner (two links in there), corrected my error of thinking Adderall was not a C-II drug.  It is.  Good news(?), Zyprexa is not and it costs more than Adderall - making it an even bigger waste of money!  Sweeter.)

Take A Pill!

It is no secret that I am not a fan of behavioral meds; especially when it involves kids I have in my home or at school.  It's not that I am totally against their use.  My father, depending on which doctor you ask, is either schizophrenic or manic depressive.  You wouldn't know it.  When he is on his medication he is as "normal" as the next person.  But get him off his meds . . . 


I was classified as a hyperkinetic child when I was in elementary school.  My parents nor my teachers (I just used "nor") gave me pills.  And, as much as I would like to say they did, they didn't apply a 2x4 or a paddle.  I did miss quite a few recesses.  There were some early bedtimes.  I was allowed to pace back and forth as I read books in fifth grade.  And I survived school.  


Most of the students I get that are labeled ADD/ADHD do just fine if they are given a little extra structure and, at times, leeway.  Same with foster children.  I've had kids, Thomas for instance, who have shown up on my doorsteps so doped up that they are doing a damn good impersonation of a zombie, except they can't even work up enough energy to growl "Brains".

WWdN: In Exile

Another summer has come and I look at my poor blog and realize how neglected it has become.  Fear not!  I am revitalized.  I have found my muse.  And it is not a feminine sprightly muse.  It is the youngest officer of Starfleet, "The Gordo" from "Stand By Me", the kid from that movie "Toy Soldiers" -- what was his real name?

I didn't think about him as having grown up.  I didn't know that he had (re)created himself as one of the most popular bloggers of the past decade (Forbes.com awarded him "Best Celebrity Weblog" in 2003 and in 2009 ranked him as the 14th most influential celebrity blogger.  He's been nominated for lifetime achievement awards in blogging and has been compared to blog powerhouses like Fark and Slashdot.); and then turned his blogging into authorship.  I'm not even sure how I stumbled onto his web site - WWdN: In Exile.
I just know that I did stumble upon it around Easter and have been letting his musings and anecdotes fill the few empty places I have left in my brain.  I even bought one of his books --

I finished it the same day it arrived.  The "He" is Wil Wheaton.  And he is much more than the characters he played years ago.  He is the geeks geek.  He writes about all the cool things my friends and I did when we were his age - Star Wars, Star Trek, Car Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, Pac-man and Dig-Dug.  And it is readable.  And enjoyable.  And - very human.

The motivating part - I did write a 50,000 word novel in November as a participant in National Novel Writing Month.  I have learned to shed my inner editor and put my thoughts into type.  I just haven't had the spirit to write (nor the time, thanks to conditions at work).  My "muse" was gone.  Wil Wheaton has shown me that it is also ok to shed the cloak of self-doubt.  They are voices in his head that he (and his wife) have learned to ignore.  I'll write.  I'll post.  If people like what I have to say, great.  If not, I will be none the worse for the effort.

I will ignore the voices of self doubt.  It is time for round three (if your counting) for the Egg Bros primary web presence.  I hope some readers come along for the ride.

Safe Schools

I'm not sure how I've avoided venting on this issue for so long. I probably feared that I might offend someone or violate some protocol or requirement. Now that school is almost over for the year and after reading about another incident in another Alternative Ed. Program, I've decided to vent. I will avoid mentioning specifics myself and instead will let the news articles stand (mostly) on their own. Then I will gripe about the overall inefficiency of "The System" in regards to these events.

Most recently, students in my class mentioned that they heard a "teacher" at "Five Star" had been fired for beating a student. I immediately assessed this at about 5% chance of being accurate (or 95% BS). Googled it. Found --

Cops: Student choked teacher

By Amanda O’Rourke
The Daily Item

SUNBURY — A Winfield teenager faces assault charges after he allegedly choked a teacher at a city school Wednesday morning.

This is local news. Not something happening in the big city or on the west coast. Granted, Five Star is an alternative ed. program similar to the PATH AEP where I work. We get troubled kids with lots of anger issues. Still, it is not expected that they will just attack teachers. Why is this happening? And what is to be done?

Our program has had a similar incident.

Cops: Mom kicks man's face
Middleburg woman attacks son's teacher

By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item

MILTON -- A Middleburg woman kicked a fallen teacher in the head and face, and pulled his hair, after her student son had gotten into trouble over a cell phone, Milton police said.

Obviously, I was there. The story is not entirely accurate. I didn't get kicked. Mr. Matt did. We did restrain the youth. No one was hurt. From the PATH end, we acted very professionally.

The question, again, is "how have we gotten to the point were students and parents have no qualm with assaulting teachers"? I have heard that Five Star had an incident about two weeks after mine that involved a parent. And if you google "student attacks teacher" you'll get (drum roll please) thirty-four million hits. Why?

Our judicial system, which is suppose to provide an expeditious and timely trial, is bogged down. In my case, the assault happened in mid-February. The preliminary hearing is scheduled for the 10th of July. I suspect that the result of that hearing will push the trial back into October. By the time anything is resolved . . .

I'd like to blame national apathy. Perhaps this trend is due to a swing back towards moral relativism. My students often justify their behavior by claiming that they don't feel like they have to treat us (the teachers) with respect because we don't treat them with respect. Maybe the confusion is in understanding what "Respect" is?

(TBC)

Local shooting strikes close.

I don't often get specific with names and such when it comes to most of my students, but on this occasion I'll make an exception.

Back during the Nicole era (Nicole Bingaman and Nicole Snyder), we had a particularly difficult student. I remember a particular "run in" he had with Nicole Snyder.

Sadly, I have heard today, that he was killed last night in a shooting.

3 in custody following Snyder County murder


By Marcia Moore
The Daily Item

SHAMOKIN DAM — Three men allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man at an apartment off Routes 11-15 late Monday are in state police custody.

Steven Rodriguez was shot at an apartment at 2-78 Susquehanna Trail around 11:30 p.m. Monday and died about an hour later at Sunbury Community Hospital. An autopsy is scheduled for today at Lehigh Valley Medical Center in Allentown.

Law enforcement were on the alleged suspects' tails shortly after the shooting.

Sometime around 12:30 a.m., Fred Loreman, 43, was listening to his police scanner inside his house at the corner of Old Route 15 and New Columbia Road when he heard a vehicle was being pursued in his neighborhood.

"My ears perked up," Loreman said.

He stuck his head outside the kitchen door and saw a fast-moving vehicle traveling north on Old Route 15 with police cars in close pursuit.

"Thank God the cops were behind him with lights and sirens because that guy was really moving," he said.

Loreman said it appeared the suspect may have been trying to get onto Routes 15 or 80 and made a wrong turn and crashed into a tree behind a Short Stop convenient store next to his home.

"I was scared," he said. "I thought he was going to hit my house. I've got two young kids and they were asleep."

The occupants of the car fled the accident site, running across a creek and into a housing complex where they were nabbed.

"There were dozens of police in the area, swarming like bees," Loreman said, describing the action as like "watching an episode of 'Cops'" on television.

And from TalkRadio 1380 WMLP News --

Three charged in Snyder County homicide

SELINSGROVE – Three men have been charged with felony counts of homicide after the shooting and killing of 19-year-old Steven Rodriguez Monday night at an apartment near Runyon Road along Routes 11/15 in Monroe Township, Snyder County. 25-year-old Abdul Malik Saeed Walker of Williamsport, 25-year-old Ibrahim Musa Wells of Mill Hall and 27-year-old David Cannie of Philadelphia were arraigned Tuesday before District Judge Edward Mihalik. Rodriguez was shot around 11:30p.m., and died about an hour later at Sunbury Community Hospital. Walker, Wells and Cannie all fled the scene of the crime in a vehicle, which was later spotted in Union County. That vehicle then reportedly crashed near the Short Stop gas station in New Columbia and the three were taken into custody.
Snyder County District Attorney Mike Sholley says he believes the three knew Rodriguez. He says he does not believe the shooting was gang-related and would not confirm if it was drug-related. He says there were several witnesses to the crime. Weapons known to be involved include a shotgun and a 9mm pistol. Walker, Wells and Cannie are being held without bail in Snyder County Prison.

This is the second young person who was in our program to have died a tragic death since I started working for PATH. (the other was Ryan Francis - who I had living with me in Foster Care) It calls to question the role we - the teachers, foster parents, caseworkers, and all the others involved - have in the lives of the young people we interact with.

The pessimist might say that incidents like this one show that we have failed. But I wonder, how many youth have we had in our program that we have managed to detour onto a less destructive path?

messages

This is one of those serendipitous moments that lets me know that God does try to give us messages. I recently posted a poem by Darrell Scott.

Yesterday, my boss brought back information about our schools re-authorization process. Although we are a private alternative educational placement, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education still 'approves' our program.

Start with an insane list of data. Insane because we must go back three years into our old records and pull out information that we were never tracking because the decision to track this information was just made - oh, and by the way, we are going to so poorly phrase the directions for data collection that most of the information is going to be useless because the different programs collecting it are going to record it in different ways. For example --

"C. Average Daily Attendance for AEDY student population at every grade level."

What? How do you calculate this? From the FAQ --

Q: For data reporting purposes, how should AEDY programs determine “Average Daily Attendance?”

A: Average Daily Attendance should be calculated by taking the daily attendance of your student population by grade level (# of students you have in school that day by grade level) and dividing by the daily membership (# of students your AEDY program serves by grade level, even if they are absent that day).

That looks like the formula for a percentage. Not an average!!!

How about these two items.

M. Of the number of students in column B, how many at every grade level passed all 4 core content subjects (science, math, English, and social studies) while in your program?

N. Of number of students in column B, how many at every grade level passed at least 3 of 4 core content subjects (science, math, English, and social studies) while in your program?

Do I recount the students who passed 4 core content subjects for item N? They did pass at least 3 of 4 core content subjects. What if someone else doesn't? Then the data collected is useless. I do not have a problem collecting and submitting data if it is a useful exercise. This is going to be a very time consuming and useless exercise.

AND NOW THE KICKER -- Going back to my original thought. Darrell Scott wrote this poem which I read in the intro to Chuck Norris' autobiography. I post it on my blog. Next day I start reviewing this packet of information regarding the application for our school. The first page I randomly flip to when I get the packet - the first item my eyes fall upon is as follows --

(3) A private alternative education institution shall: . . .(III) Be nonsectarian in all operations and shall not provide any religious instruction, nor shall it display religious objects and symbols on the premises of the institution.

No God - in any form - allowed.

(FYI - 2008/09 AEDY Guidelines)

Darrell Scott Poem

I finished reading "Against All Odds - My Story" by Chuck Norris. Of course, it was about Chuck Norris. The first item in the book is dedication to Rachel Joy Scott. Rachel was one of the victims of the Columbine shooting. (Rachel Scott Dedication Site).

Her father, Darrell Scott, wrote a poem that Chuck Norris included in the opening of his book. With school starting in just a week, I though it would be appropriate to post it.

Your laws ignore our deepest needs
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage.
You've outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms.
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere.
And ask the question "WHY"?

You regulate restrictive laws.
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand.
That God is what we need!

I'm in a snotty mood and Liz Dietrich is not right

I won't go so far as to say Liz Dietrich is wrong. She asserts in an interview in the Daily Slightem that there is a myth about bad parents. She says --

Liz Dietrich, clinical supervisor, said the agency wants to dispel the “myth of the bad parent.”

“Parents think, ‘My kid is acting this way because of something I did,’ ” she said. “We want to show them it’s not their fault. Some kids have these issues because of a chemical imbalance. You could be the best parent in the world; kids are still going to make mistakes.” (from the Daily Slightem)

Sure, there are families out there who have done everything "right". The parents were good parents. Something is just wrong with the child's wiring. And yes, Concern does a great job with these families (especially with clients who fall into the category of autism spectrum disorders).

However, it is naive to think that all parents are good parents. Sometimes the parents are the fault. Dad is a heroin addict and mom is a welfare leech trading her food stamps for smokes while the kids are running the streets. The kid steals. Why can't we blame the parent?

I think parents should be asking themselves if their child's behavior is a reflection of their parenting. In cases other than those with a true biological abnormality which effects behavior (autism, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorders, etc.), the cause must be partly a reflection of parenting.

Where do we learn how to behave, what is acceptable, our moral character? If your children are 'acting out', maybe it is your fault.

I can't feel my hands

You know the rest of the jingle --

"I'm freezing at Pee Wee Hockey."

Then dad shows up with Dunkin' Donuts Milky Way Hot Chocolate.

The kids and I fell for the promotion and went to Dunkin' Donuts and bought the Hot Chocolate. They got the Milky Way and I got the traditional Hot Cocoa.

Sorry Double D - not as good as advertised. Mine tasted like burnt Styrofoam and I don't think the boys could discern any Milky Way Carmelness in their drinks. Kudos for a good advertising campaign though. We got pulled right in to the excitement and you got my money.

Return to posting

I have not been posting. The three or four of you who actually continue to check my blog already know what happened. For the few stragglers who stumble across my little project, I now offer an explanation for the gap between this and my past posting.

In the first week of November I was assaulted with a storm of personal crisis. In the span of five days I was informed by the IRS that my 2007 taxes may have been wrong, was accused of sexually molesting three of my past foster kids, found out that my mom’s cancer had returned, and was puked on by a kid in swimming lessons.

Getting puked on wasn’t all that bad.

Everything else stressed me out pretty bad. I just couldn’t find the mental calm to type anything worthwhile. It wasn’t that I require a lot of serenity to write; it was that my mind was that chaotic. I was reduced to reading Anime’. I couldn’t concentrate enough to read a novel or anything longer than an article in a newspaper.

It took almost forty days to resolve the allegations against me. As a result of the length of the investigation I lost a foster kid I really enjoyed having in my home and had thoughts of adopting. The whole experience has really soured my outlook on being a foster parent. It has also enlightened me (further) on how screwed our State’s Child Welfare system is.

Now that my life is more stable, I will be writing further on topics relating to my recent experiences. Be patient. I will try not to rant.

That’s all for now. More to come.

A&P vs College Student Parody on YouTube

First - Read the article in the Daily Item.

http://www.dailyitem.com/lifestyles/local_story_241084310.html

Then my response -

I have just read an article picked up in my local paper about your companies suit against the D’Avella brothers. I have not watched the video that they produced. But your heavy handed over-reaction has piqued my interest and I may have to see if I can find the parody on the web.

I do not shop at your grocery chain. There are no A&Ps near where I live.

The article in my paper (Sunbury Daily Item) stated that your company has “at least one” customer who was offended enough by the video to no longer shop at our store. “At least one”? How many really were offended? Two? Three? A dozen? “At least one” is deliberately vague.

How many customers must you lose to make it worth all of the legal fees that you will incur by pursuing charges against these young men?

Frankly, your reaction to this situation is more distressing than any video spoof could be. Your over-reaction will likely disenfranchise you from your customer base more than these young men’s video.

I hate Apple

I had this great idea to use CNN Student news (I know, it sounds like I've sold out to the enemy. But FOX doesn't provide a student news program) in the morning at Bethesda/PATH. So Sunday night I download the news and try to xfer it to my Zen.

Error. Try again. Error.

Four in the morning and I'm still trying to resolve why my video converter will not work. No luck.

Tonight I finally find a discussion group that addressed this problem. Seems like Apple set up the latest version of Quicktime so that it would crash my Creative Video Converter.

I deleted Quicktime and installed a shareware version. Now everything is working fine. Yippee!