..at least not from glasses in your hotel room. A secret camera operation revealed that none of the hotel chains investigated properly washed the room’s glasses. Yuck! The fancier hotels always have actual glasses, not plastic cups, in the bathroom and near the mini-bar. They simply rinsed the glasses out, perhaps used a dirty bath towel to clean and dry, and placed them on the little paper cup doily for the next guest. The glasses always look clean, and you just assume that they would be, but with all of the things that the house keepers have on their rolling carts, do you ever see the heavy and bulky racks used to carry glasses? In some of the less fancy hotels, you are left with plastic cups individually wrapped in a plastic bag. I used to look at those a bit suspiciously but now certainly appreciate them much more.
If you stop to think about how gross a hotel room can be - stained bedspreads, bedbugs, dirty carpeting, smoke-stenched rooms - you can now add another item of to be skeeved out by.
Make a mental note, and tell all of your friends who travel.
A cell phone caught fire in the pants pocket of a California man burning him and causing damage to the hotel room where he was staying. The brand of phone was not mentioned, but I don’t expect it to be any of the top brands as the man was wearing “nylon and polyester clothes” and staying in a residential hotel where the furniture consists of a “plastic chair.”
Oprah Winfrey was not invited to Tom and Katie’s wedding this weekend. Oprah says she understands there are a limited number of people invited. That limit could be 1,400 based upon the capacity of the Italian castle where the wedding is expected to take place.
I think Tom has some mixed feelings about Oprah ever since his couch-jumping, arm-wrestling appearance on her show. A stylized rendition of that appearance appears below:
The verdict is in, and a Massachusetts judge has ruled that a burrito is NOT a sandwich, thus allowing a Mexican restaurant to peacefully coexist in a mall with a traditional sandwich shop.
A Massachusetts elementary school has banned the game of “tag” during recess. That’s just crazy. Of course there is a concern for safety and probably the self-esteem for the child who is always “it”, but c’mon, playing tag is a classic recess game–no equipment or special field, and playable with any amount of participants. (willing or not).
Kids need to play games and run around. Sometimes when they run they fall. Sometimes they bump into each other. Sometime they even get hurt. This is how they learn and grow and become physically active. We lock up our kids inside enough protecting them from the terrible world. They are eating junk and getting fat and we are not telling them to sit still and don’t move too quick or you might get hurt.
All parents are cautious, but when I see my 3-year old chasing my 1-year old, they are both laughing and having a great time. They need to learn about what too fast is and playing too rough so they can behave appropriately.
When I was in elementary school we have a friendly, tag-like game called “kill the guy with the ball.” Someone was given the ball, and the rest of us chased him and dog-piled until someone else stole the ball and ran away. I never understood the motivation to actually want the ball. In junior high, we had a gym class activity that was officially called “war ball” by the gym teachers. This was what we consider official dodge ball today.
I’m sure my grandfathers played games like “beat the guy with the stick”, but my point is that we probably shouldn’t be progressing to games called “sit quietly in place and avoid any eye contact that might hurt another’s feelings.”
I’m all for saving the world one person at a time, but I don’t understand the celebrity adoption craze lately. Madonna has been visiting Malawi (which I had never before heard of) first denying then actually moving forward in adopting a young “orphan” boy.
At first account, the boy’s father and grandmother were delighted. I know cultures and language are different across this big blue marble, but in English, an orphan is a child without parents — typically a father and mother.
The one-year old boy, now revealed with the rock-star like name of David Banda, did lose his mother as she gave birth to him. The father placed him in this “orphanage” for his own well-being, but never expected him to actually be adopted. (It kind of reminds be of a pawn shop.)
It also appears that is a really good to be a high-profile celebrity with tons of money, as all of the red tape and usual procedures which are put in place to protect the child from crazies were waived for the “material girl”.
(note to self: become high-profile celebrity with tons of money.)
Does anyone even watch survivor anymore? I usually find myself watching the first season of most of the reality shows. If I like the show I may watch a second season, but after I go through the process, I feel as if I am investing more time than it is worth. It’s the same game with different players.
The current season of Survivor has raised some controversy to raise some ratings, by forming teams based upon race–African-American, Asian-American, Caucasian and Latino. This arrangement has created quite a debate suggesting that the creators of the show are racists.
Personally, I think it is an interesting experiment. People are different, and in life people do tend to work, play, and live with other people of similar groups. Our thoughts and actions regarding these differences are what determine our racial prejudices.
I also can’t help but think about the Olympics. Don’t the Olympic Games divide people by nations which typically are comprised of a similar racial group? Do we deem these games as racist?
If you want to accuse someone of being racist, I would question the CBS network itself. I commute daily to Grand Central Terminal in NYC and they plaster huge posters on the walls and floors for advertising. The current ad campaign is for CBS with posters for many of their new prime-time shows. Every season when they do this, I find it quite noticeable that all of the huge TV-head faces are all white. Perhaps having a bit of color on Survivor will be refreshing.
Breaking up over the phone is cowardly. Breaking up using instant messenger is cowardly and modern. Firing 400 people using email is cowardly, modern, and efficient.
“Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated,” is the email that 400 RadioShack employees received letting them know they were no longer welcome at the “shack.” This sounds like a totally cold way to break this news, but evidently there were many meetings letting people know this was coming. It sounds like it was a lottery where everyone gets a ticket and there are 400 losers–Congratulations.
Some people complained that this should have been done face-to-face, but why bother. I have been in these meetings, and there is not much to say. It’s not like you can ask for your job back. After the shock, there are just questions about severance and extending health insurance. What better way than to have an email that hits you in the head about all of these things? Plus, it takes a long time to notify 400 people. At 15 minutes per person, that would be 100 hours of effort. Once the process started, everyone would wait in agony wondering if they were to be called next. The email method is like ripping the band-aid off quickly–sure it hurts, but it’s over quick.
Just think of the poor sap that showed up to work because his firing email was filtered as spam!
P.S. It always makes me a little made that the last line of these stories is about how the company’s stock rose in value after such a move. Congratulations.
Global warming, melting ice caps, and holes in the ozone have not been a big concern to me. Avian bird flu doesn’t worry me, but I am very concerned if the latest problem becomes an inter-species issue–it seems that the genitals of polar bears are shrinking!
After we all agreed that the Earth does indeed revolve around the Sun, it seems we now need to agree on how many planets are in our solar system. Most of us were taught that there are nine planets in our system (listed by increasing distance from the Sun): Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus (always makes me giggle), Neptune, and Pluto.
Some time ago, pesky Pluto came under some scrutiny and was to be declassified–perhaps for being too small. Well like so many other exclusive clubs, it seems that if you let one in you have to let them all in. Under some new standards, the Moon may even be considered a planet along with hundreds of other object.
There is certainly much debate, but just like our resistance of the metric system, it is unlikely that the American public will change their thoughts of the nine planets–even if they probably wouldn’t be able to name them on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”
For now, Pluto will remain what astronomers are calling a “dwarf” planet–along with Sneezey and Dopey.
In related news, Klingons have been observed on Uranus! (I really couldn’t resist.)
