Wallmarkz

Whew; you would think with the slow economy it would be an employer's market and the pool of potential employees would be above average. Apparently Walmart manages to screen out those better qualified types, and really seeks out folks who will blend in with the status quo.

I'm in there today buying a bunch of stuff including a heavy-duty weed eater blade attachment and a pack of replacement blades. Well, the attachment rings up fine but the extra blades, a total no-go. The cashier tells me she can't do a thing, and she'll need to wait for someone to come help. Of course the massive queue behind me (in the fast lane) is lookin' pretty surly, so I say "Why don't I just take the item over to customer service and they can deal with it?" So off I go...

The customer service lady is not the dullest spoon in the drawer, (I'll meet that person next), but she is close to it. "I can't ring this up, it's not in our system" she tells me, "and I certainly can't sell it to you" (!) (me; stunned incredulity) "Really", I say, so what can be done?", "There's nothing I can do", states the 'customer-service' lady, who has to ask several times to be sure if I am purchasing or returning the item. Purchasing, I tell her, blah, blah, etc.

O.K., seriously, I have just bought this weed eater attachment, and I really need the replacement blades for it--otherwise it is not of much use to me. Then we go through the accusations: "Where did you get it? (back in Lawn & Garden). "Were there others like it"? and so on. "Could a manager be able to ring this up?", I ask.

Well the supervisor who comes over is an absolute hoot (unintentionally of course). "What store did this come from?" "Huh?" from me. "Where did this come from" she demands to know. More dumb-fish looks from me since I realize I must speak a different dialect than her or something. From in this store I tell her. It becomes obvious that she thinks I have brought this item in from somewhere else to purchase here, at her store, of all the nerve!!

"You mean, did I find it laying in the parking lot outside or something?", I ask. Well, now I have her really confused as she thinks maybe there is merchandise being sold in the parking lot. "Was it on a shelf?" Well yeah, I tell her. This goes on for a while and I ask her, "Do you have a lot of problems with people bringing items in from other stores and trying to buy them here?" More dialect issues ensue.

Several phone-pages later (to God knows who), still nothing is cooking. I walk out onto the floor and find someone who is doing nothing (but in a more egregious fashion than most), whom I thus assume is a management person. "Could you please come over to the Lawn & Garden" department to help me buy this item?" I ask her. Of course, a repeat of all the previous question and answers ensues, but I am finally able to prove that the the big honkin display of this brand of yard crap does exist, and right there is my item with a bar code and price on it and everything!

I am happy to say that after 30 minutes, I was the proud purchaser of replacement weed-cutter blades. Once I got home and opened the package with the main attachment unit, I see that extra blades are included! I wonder if it will be as fun returning the replacement blades as it was to buy them...

Big Jon

Here's the link to the Jon Stewart 'dancing machine' number(the last minute or so of the video) The first part is good background on the issue, and the fun they poke at all religions a hoot too! http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-april-22-2010/south-park-death-threats

valcover

Wow!! The "Go F**K Yourself" number on the Daily show tonight was off the hizizzle! ...and for those who didn't see it--it was a double header--Stewart was commenting on the South Park (!) episode where Mohammed was (not even) seen! and New York extemists have threatened to kill everyone!!(pretty much) so anyway, these exremeists received the soul-choir led dancing "go f**k yourself" salute!! It was hysterical--and well choreographed!

John Dillinger's old fellow

When I was on a Fairfax Public Schools field trip to Washington DC in the late 1960's, THE place to visit (for the boys at least) was the Army Pathological Museum which was on or near the National Mall. My personal recollections are of the giant elephantiasis leg in a jar of formaldehyde, deformed skeletons, and a half-cast (maybe plaster), of a penis with a syphilitic canker on it--which was the purpose of that display.
For whatever reason, I thought this penis belonged to John Dillinger, but my memory may have been shaped by other people saying that it was his. Whether this was actually the case, after more than 40 years, the issue will be hard to lay to rest, but it is certainly peculiar that so many people have a recollection of some version of the Dillinger display.