If you want to know what really scares the shit out of teabaggers, mark your calendar.
A New America — And How to Get There – Dan La Botz, Socialist for Senate at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 2728 Lancashire Road, Thursday evening, 12 August, 6:30.
When your choices seem restricted to Tastes Great or Less Filling, it could be time to think about other alternatives.
I kicked off the Tim Russo for Cuyahoga County Council District Seven Coffee House Tour yesterday with my stop at MOKO. I’ll continue the tour on Monday – we’re doing the awesome bus tour tomorrow – and be visiting coffee houses and breakfast spots in Tim’s district throughout the month of August.
If you’re near any of the stops, introduce yourself, mention Have Coffee Will Write and I’ll buy you an espresso.
My schedule is:
06 August at 7:30 a.m., Moko Coffee at 1505 Euclid Avenue;
09 August at 7:30 a.m., Steve’s Family Restaurant at 4457 Broadview Road;
11 August at 7:30 a.m., Gabe’s Family Restaurant at 2044 Broadview Road;
13 August at 8 a.m., Phoenix Coffee at 1700 East 9th Street;
14 August at 9 a.m., Algebra Tea House at 2136 Murray Hill Road;
16 August at 8 a.m., Artefino at 1900 Superior Avenue East;
18 August at 8 a.m., Phoenix Coffee at 1300 West 9th Street;
20 August at 8 a.m., Civilization Coffee House at West 11th Street and Kenilworth Avenue;
23 August at 8 a.m., Loop Coffee House at 2180 West 11th Street;
25 August at 8 a.m., Lucky’s Café at 777 Starkweather; and finally
27 August at 8 a.m., The Coffee House At University Circle at 11300 Juniper Road.
I won’t be hard to find, I’ll be the blogger with the bright yellow Why Vote Russo For County Council sign on the back of his laptop screen.
[Updates —
0845: Time to pack up. You’d think this was a Mexico City coffee house the way people get started in downtown Cleveland.
0805: Clearly, people don’t come to work as early as I thought. I should shift my start times to 8 a.m.
0758: OK, traffic is getting better. There’s actually a line.
0752: Ooo. A rush, three customers.
0744: The walk up from Tower City took longer than I expected and downtown Cleveland is in far worse shape that I could have ever imagined. I could have run the whole way with my arms out, weaving back and forth across the sidewalk making airplane noises with no fear of bumping into another human. I swear I could have seen more people on the streets of Marietta, Ohio, than I have so far this morning. I’m the only customer here. This is not good.]
I’m headed downtown for the first stop on my Tim Russo for Cuyahoga County District 7 tour.
This morning I’ll be at Moko Coffee at 1505 Euclid Avenue at around 7:30 until whenever.
Introduce yourself, mention this post and I’ll buy you an espresso.
It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
WALMART’S GUSHER IN CHICAGO… Think of the British Petroleum gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, that’s what Chicagoans can expect now that Walmart and Chicago Walmart politicians have busted the cap. Like the oil in the gulf, we won’t know the full extent of damage for years. Keep reading…
GARMENT WORKERS RIOT IN BANGLADESH… Last week I blogged the happy-happy-joy-joy spin of Vikas Bajaja on how garment factories in Bangladesh were helping young women find independence. This morning I open my browser to this headline: Bangladesh garment workers riot over wages. Keep reading…
WALMART PULLING SEAFOOD IN FLORIDA… Citing low demand, Walmart is pulling seafood from a number of its superstores in Florida. Given Walmart’s track record with meat, perhaps customers are taking charge by avoiding what they percieve to be a less than trustworthy source. Keep reading…
A LIVING-WAGE COALITION SHOULDERS ON… There are two ways that workers in the United States can relate to their brothers and sisters in Bangladesh and the rest of the Third World: they can accept a third world income and lifestyle or they can work to raise all workers to a higher standard of living. Keep reading…
REALLY SLOW NEWS DAY AT WALMART… It does happen. Every once in a while, the news cycle comes to a nadir point when there is absolutely nothing going on at Walmart that hasn’t been talked about or totally lacks any interest whatsoever. Leaving me with this. Keep reading…
WALMART COMPETING WITH CRAIG’S LIST…? I’m truly scratching my head over why Walmart would want to team up with Oodle to compete with Craig’s list in a limited number of categories. You’ll find houses, cars and a cobalt blue casserole dish on the Oodle site, but you won’t find: Keep reading…
A SINGLE FINANCE COMMITTEE NO VOTE… Chicago Alderman Joe Moore vote yes for Chicago’s second Walmart and no for it’s third. A Walmart is a Walmart and there is little difference between the two neighborhoods. So why did Moore vote yes for one and no for the other? Keep reading…
HAS SEVENTH GENERATION MADE A MISTAKE…? I first learned of Seventh Generation in the early ’90s when I was executive editor of GIE Publishing’s Recycling Media Group and we covered the company’s green products. Jeffrey Hollender’s company is no stranger to us at The Writing On The Wal either. Keep reading…
I’ve been a fan of I Can Has Cheezburger from the beginning. I’ve looked at ever single one and laughed many, many times. That ends today because the ratio of Lolcats to advertising has finally pushed me over the edge.
Even a few months ago I could depend upon reading all the new posts on the front page. Then I began to notice that I was clicking on next almost ever day. Today I had to go to the third page before I found the last post I read yesterday.
This is not because the site is posting more, it’s not. It’s simply pushing more and more ads between the posts.
It is also posting more cute animal — not necessarily cat — videos on the page.
The appeal of I Can Has Cheezburger for me has always been the cleverness of the grammatically horrid captions. This morning I found a total of nine new captioned photographs on three pages. That is just unacceptable.
Goodbye kittehs…
This is a spectrum I have considered before on The Writing On The Wal because when we accept the label of Consumer we assume a passive role in our Economy. I much prefer the older and more assertive Trader. I trade what I have for what you have that I don’t. In our exchange we establish a mutually agreeable understanding of value.
Any other relationship is exploitation.
So the stimulists are saying that the fundamentals look OK, and there’s no obvious reason to disregard those fundamentals; the austerians are saying that we need to pursue economically irrational policies in order to satisfy demands that markets shouldn’t make and, in fact, aren’t making.
But they’re Very Serious People.
A lesson on private business vs. government run entities.
WAL MART VS. THE GOVERNMENT
A little extreme perhaps, but the sentiment is appealing! It is interesting to note that almost everything the government touches turns to, well you’ll see, read on!
1 . Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.
2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private Employer, and most speak English.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.
7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Continue Reading »
When I was a much older freshman (just out of the Navy and a mature 25 years old) at Ohio University in 1980 it was possible to have cases of beer delivered to your room along with your pizza.
I understand how it is easy to mistake bankers for friends. They smile at your and ask polite questions when you see them. They, occasionally, arrange to loan you money so that you make large purchases that you otherwise would be unable to make. They may even send you a birthday card. None of the above make them friends; the Olive Garden Rule applies also applies to bankers.
I’ve banked at Ohio Savings Bank since I moved to Cleveland in 1984 and I’ve very seldom had any reason for concern. I get the service I expect in return for loaning my paychecks to the bank for very little interest.
Last year Ohio Savings went under and was taken over by New York City Bank. From a customer point of view, the transition was smooth, so much so that I didn’t even know it had taken place until a week or so afterward.
But change there was, subtle change that I’m sure I can go back and find in the small print, but a change that cost me $72 this week.
Here’s what happened.
I use a combination Debit/Visa card that allows me to make purchases against my checking account up to whatever amount of money is in the account at the time of purchase. I periodically transfer money into the account as needed.
In the past, I’ve rested easy knowing that if I attempted to make a purchase and there was not enough money in the account, the transaction would be declined, I would apologize for the inconvenience, go online (or to an ATM) to transfer sufficient funds, and then go back and make my purchase. I was only bothered by my own lack of diligence, and that bother was little at all.
Last week that changed because the rules had changed. I discovered the hard way that under the new banking rules, Ohio Savings notes when I have insufficient funds and nicely pays the sum anyway and slaps a $36 fee on my account.
Last Friday I had $20.71 in my account when I filled up my gas tank with $40 worth of gasoline; and the bank hit me with the $36 fee for going $19.29 over my existing funds. The tank of gas cost me nearly double.
Later that day I stopped into The Stone Oven on Lee and again, paying with my card, pushed my account a further $11.20 into the red, and, of course, incurred another $36 fee.
The next day, Saturday, I went prepared to go grocery shopping and, because I expected to buy a week’s worth of food, I logged into my account check my balance and discovered how Ohio Savings had, with no effort on its own, added $72 to its bottom line.
Now, if I had not checked, I might have gone shopping, suffered the theft of another $36, and continued to shop until, each time losing $36 to the banking suck, until yesterday afternoon when a letter, yes a paper letter from Ohio Savings that I was $72 poorer.
Ohio Savings has my email address. I know it does because I regularly get promotional emails from it. Very little programming at all would have been necessary to send an automated email to me when I first exceeded my account, but Ohio Savings chose instead to rely on a letter mailed on 28 July that was not received until 2 August.
This is all to the advantage of Ohio Savings. If it had notified my via email, I would have kicked myself in the butt upon getting hit with the first $36 fee, transferred money into account, and gone on my way. By using snailmail, however, Ohio Savings made a bet that I might notice my error, and the $36 fees piling up, until I opened my mail Monday afternoon, four days after the problem began.
A friend wouldn’t treat you that way. A business will, with glee.
I’m certain that the change in how my card is processed was revealed to me in four-point type in one of those insertions we all get with our statement. The fault is mine for not reading carefully and, most importantly, for not remembering that bankers, indeed all businesses, are ultimately not our friends.
This morning I sent off this email to the editors of the Gay People’s Chronicle, Ohio’s Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Commuity under the subject line: Dale Smith is NOT the “only out county council candidate…”
Shalom Y’all,
Two words that easily cause us all to stumble are never and only. In the case of your 30 July, below-the-fold headline: Dale Smith seeks District 7 seat, is only out county council candidate; it is the latter that has tripped you up.
Tim Russo, a candidate for Cuyahoga County District Seven, is a resident of Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood and member of Cleveland Stonewall Democrats who has been out for a long time.
I certainly expect in the very near future that you will correct this error in a manner as prominent as it was made and that Erick Resnick, or another reporter of your choice, will invest the time to inform Chronicle readers about Tim Russo, an out county council candidate for district seven.
B’shalom,
Jeff Hess
When dealing with diversity, some minority communities are harder to identify than others. Take my own, for instance. There is little anyone might consider Jewish about my name, my once-red hair or my blue eyes; I don’t belong to a Cleveland synagogue, yet I am as Jewish as any other member of our community.
If the Cleveland Jewish News were to identify my friend Jill Miller Zimon as the only Jewish blogger in Cleveland, I would be just as upset as I know Tim is.
We should all be carefully when we qualify our statements with either never or only.
Twitter user sends world’s 20 billionth tweet
Recently I returned to Twitter to find one reason to spend even one precious minute reading.
I still haven’t.
Can anyone, ANYONE, point me to a Twitterer who isn’t essentially wanking?
If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn’t it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
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