Hip Waders

I can't confirm that these are real...but they make Crocs^® look stylish!

Tags: [High Heel Flippers] [Scuba Gear] [Crocs ®]

What The Flak?

It's August. Bittersweet.
Summers' door is closing behind us. In just weeks, a new school year will begin.

Families begin the march to the malls; the tradition of back-to-school shopping must be maintained. Bags containing new shoes, stylish sportswear or pristine uniforms are proudly toted. The bags with the pencils, pens, protractors and paper are dragged. Something about this bag elicits whining and requires a slower pace.

Kids want the Five Star Sound binder, so they can connect their mp3 players in class. Parents consider the item's practicality, novelty, style and value in the purchase process.

Boston parents Mike Pelonzi and Joe Curran want their backpack, My Child's Pack, to be among your back-to-school necessities.

The backpacks, which will cost $175, have a super-lightweight bullet-proof plate sewn into the back which weighs no more than a bottle of water. Pelonzi said the material used is a secret.

That's right. A bullet-proof backpack. According to Pelonzi, "during a three-year testing phase, [the backpacks] stood up to bullets as well as machete, hatchet and Ka-bar knife attacks."

Kevlar for kindergartners. Flak jackets for freshmen.

Tags: [Bulletproof Backpacks] [Mike Pelonzi] [Joe Curran]
[Back-to-School Shopping] [Flak Jackets] [Bulletproof]

Squeezing Lower Prices

I don't shop at Wal-Mart. There are many reasons.

I don't like the way they do business. Here's how my relationship with Wal-Mart started:

When Wal-Mart came to Canada, it initiated a campaign to convince shoppers the merchandise in its stores was Canadian merchandise. It looked to me like Wal-Mart was disguising the truth. Sure, it buys merchandise from a warehouse located in Canada. That warehouse receives goods from an offshore supplier. The shipment was ordered and arranged by Wal-Mart. A Canadian truck delivers the cartons to the final destination. I know a little about Canadian content and I wasn't buying their claim. Wal-Mart hadn't demonstrated enough Canadian content for me.

Bryan Adams' album Waking Up the Neighbors was deemed ineligible for Juno award nomination in 1992. The CRTC concluded that the album did not meet Canadian Content (can-con) criteria. Amid tremendous controversy in 1991, Adams, his management and A&M Records convinced the CRTC to amend its criteria for Canadian content to include a Canadian artist who has collaborated with a non-Canadian and receives at least half of the credit for both music and lyrics. All about Bryan Adams Tags: [Bryan Adams] [Bruce Allen] [CanCon] [Juno Awards] [CRTC]

I'm all for great deals for shoppers; I absolutely support making money. I've seen corporate purchasing, and the bullying tactics of big retail on the suppliers...suppliers who are struggling to match increased volume at smaller margins and be profitable.

Sorry to put you through all this. I wanted to offer a little backgrounder before you went on to the next post. Will Work For Free?

Encyclopedia of Music in Canada

[Wal-Mart] [Everyday Low Price Strategy]
[The High Cost of Low Prices]

Will Work For Free?

The government in Mexico is concerned that Wal-Mart is exploiting local customs to increase the retail giant's profitability.

Wal-Mart is behaving a little badly? I'm shocked!

Thousands of adolescents work as unpaid baggers in Wal-Mart’s Mexican stores.
(Joseph Contreras, Newsweek, July 31, 2007)

Wal-Mart's Global Code of Ethics prohibits work without compensation.
(Click Picture to Read Excerpt)

When a company recruits teens to be volunteers, doesn't that make those teens employees?

"Wal-Mart de Mexico reported net earnings of $1.148 billion in 2006 and $280 million in profits in the second quarter of this year." Federal District Labor Secretary Benito Mirón Lince points out 'Wal-Mart has the capability to pay the minimum wage [of less than $5 a day], and this [unpaid baggers] represents an injustice.'

Wal-Mart explains that the company complies with the International Labor Organization's guidelines that prohibit employing youth under the age of 14. (At least since 2005, when "Wal-Mart agreed to pay the U.S. Labor Department $135,540 in civil money penalties to settle charges of 24 child-labor violations.")

A volunteer is "a person who performs a service willingly and without pay." Wal-Mart provides accident insurance to its volunteer baggers, and pays bonuses for academic achievement. Once you pay a volunteer, he is no longer a volunteer; he is an employee.

The government of Mexico doesn't like it, but is nervous to push Wal-Mart to change. Wal-Mart is the largest private company employer in the country. Mexico simply can't afford those 150,000 workers to be out of work.

I'm usually quiet about my preference to shop elsewhere; but I consider this too outrageous to ignore.

Wal-Mart squeezes the labor force in the name of low prices. Squeezing Lower Prices

Mexico Labor Report 2006

Tags: [Wal-Mart] [Walmart de Mexico]
[I.L.O.] [Newsweek] [Joseph Contreras]

Reading for the Restless

Hy-per-chon-dri-a (noun)
The frenetic combustion in one's brain that creates external and internal disease and makes one very unpleasant company to family, peers, the medical community and even oneself.

I feel badly that I enjoyed Brian Frazer's memoir Hyperchondriac: One Man's Quest to Hurry Up And Slow Down this much. Frazer describes and explores his dysfunctional family, and the role of those relationships as he grew from a wired youth into an angry man. Frazer hops from one alternative to the next in an effort to understand and manage his anger.

At his wife's suggestion, he enrolled in Yoga classes but found that first lesson did more harm than good. He registered for Kabbalah classes. Enlightenment escaped him, but the experience did underscore his intolerances. His decision to try Distance Reiki demonstrates how desperate he was to find 'the cure' for his anxiety. Reiki offers hands-on healing to one's energy in order to heal the spirit...Frazer engaged in this spiritual healing via email. You've got to read his account of that session.

I'm still not sure whether I tore through this book because a look at Frazer's problems made my own life seem "normal"; or because I've tried some 'out-there' alternative therapies to resolve my health issues. I might accept Reiki over the phone (at least there's some contact with the healer); but email?

The publisher describes Hyperchondriac as "uncomfortably true and always entertaining." That's exactly what it is.

Tags:
[Brian Frazer] [Hyperchondriac] [Anger Management]

[Yoga] [Kabbalah] [Tai Chi]

[Ayurveda] [Therapeutic Use of Pets]

Endangered Punctuation

Robert J. Samuelson's submission "The Sad Fate of the Comma" ,(Newsweek, July 23) caught my eye. Not just because of my interest in words, but because, about a month ago, I was involoved in a discussion about saving the comma from extinction.

What's wrong? You're looking at me like you've never discussed endangered punctuation around the dinner table before. Samuelson states "the comma is in retreat, though it is not yet extinct. In text messages and e-mails, commas appear infrequently, and then often by accident (someone hits the wrong key)."

I believe that the overuse of the ellipsis ( ... or dot-dot-dot) in e-mail and text messages is partly to blame for the decline of the comma. The ellipsis gets tossed around indiscriminately. At this rate, we may, one day, face an international shortage of full-stop periods - the key component in an ellipsis.

Samuelson argues that the downturn in the comma market is social commentary:

The comma is, after all, a small sign that flashes PAUSE. It tells the reader to slow down, think a bit, and then move on. We don't have time for that. No pauses allowed.

We should have seen it coming. When writing dates, one comma did the work that it takes 2 slashes to pull off. We require numbers to have 5 digits, instead of 4, before inserting a comma (13,067 : 3067). At some point, separating adjectival clauses with a comma became an elective process; but doesn't a non-restrictive clause beg for a general rule?
(When did I begin holding the semi-colon in higher regard than the comma? The comma has 4 times the number of legitimate uses as the semi-colon!)

I, for one, am vowing here, beginning with this post, to preserve commas by using them more. In e-mail, I commit to using ellipses less often. Picture a life without full-stops It would become nearly impossible to identify the end of a complete thought On the other hand, it would make interrupting much easier

Commas used: 26

Tags: [Comma] [Ellipsis] [Semi-Colon]

[Newsweek] [Robert Samuelson]

[National Punctuation Day] (September 24)

The Changing Climate of Parenting

Parenting Through the Decades

Decade	Theme	Expert	Reward	Conse- quence
1950s	Strong Values/ Firm Leadership	Dr. Benjamin Spock	Allowance	Extra chores like wash out the garbage cans
1980s	Put children first	Saul Scheidlinger	Psychotherapy	Psychotherapy
1990s	The child's sense of self	Dr. Barbara Colorosa	Spend quality time together recog- nizing the accomplishment	Reward the effort made attempting to meet expectations
2000s	Nurture Nature	Dr. David Suzuki	Select from list of ethical / green choices++	Deduct/Withhold Carbon Credits

⁺⁺ Green Choice Rewards may include:

Jewelry from natural beads	Organic cotton clothing
Clothing purchased second-hand	Eco Jeans (organic material)
Shoes with treads of recycled tires	Anything from Bono's fair-trade-focused fashion label
School bag made from recycled inner tubes

Some suggested music: Dave Matthews, Alicia Keys, Melissa Etheridge, Jack Johnson, The Beastie Boys (especially Mike D), John Legend, Ludacris, Sting, U2


Tags: [Parenting] [Dr. Spock] [Barbara Colorosa]
[David Suzuki] [Climate Change] [Carbon Credits]
[Brushfire Records] [Tibetan Freedom Concert] [Fair Trade]
[Bono] [An Inconvenient Truth]

Must Be an ACME Product

My Dad asked me if I knew how to control problem chipmunks. My parents have an acre of beautiful gardens and ponds that is being destroyed by the out-of-control chipmunk population. They have considered calling in an animal psychologist to discover why so many of these rodents are committing suicide each night.⁺⁺ You see, each morning, my parents fish several drowned chipmunks out of the pool.

I asked around and searched the web. Many message board tips suggest using large pails of water to drown the chipmunks. Another site informs of the product Sweeney's Poison Peanuts. Toxic products may affect secondary wildlife, i.e. the animal that eats the dead chipmunk that was poisoned. Besides, I have an allergy to peanuts.

A reputable garden center gave me the real deal: Mange killed off coyotes and foxes in Ontario a couple of years ago. The species have not been able to repopulate yet to a number that can control the populations of small wildlife. The solution to my parents' problem, I was told, is to spray coyote urine all over the property. The chipmunks will think that coyotes are nearby and leave.

"Do you sell coyote urine?" I asked.
"No," the agriculturalist answered.

I told my Dad what I had learned. He didn't want to ask around for coyote urine, so I suggested a remedy that I know works to rid gardens of other invasive wildlife.

Then I found it! Coyote Urine, 2 -16 oz bottles for sale.

If that isn't crazy enough, the description states "We are very proud of our urine. I am personal friends with our supplier and know of the great care that they put into producing quality urine. I know their animals..."

The seller has a great feedback rating and he does offer insured shipping...I'm not sure what the duty charges would be... Is coyote urine a hazardous material?


Tags: [Nuisance Chipmunks] [Wildlife Control] [Coyote Urine] [ACME Products] [ebay™]
[Wile E. Coyote] [Mange]


⁺⁺ This joke used without permission or credit. Unless acknowledging that it's not my joke counts as giving credit.