I have once again received an email with a video link to “The Story Behind ‘The Star Spangled Banner’- Our National Anthem.” This makes possibly the sixth or seventh time I’ve gotten that message, and while it makes a nice, patriotic tale as told by the narrator, it is so flawed as to be worse in the telling than if it had not been produced at all.
We have enough problems with history being revised and embellished, that we don’t need another fairy tale telling of what was truly a great battle. Therefore, I am going to enumerate and disprove the untrue “facts” given in the above video.
For obvious reasons, I will not share the link to that terrible piece of trash, so I’ll have to trust that you have watched it at least once, or that you will soon have the opportunity to do so. My advice to future would-be-viewers is, “Don’t bother.”
I found several separate instances where the unnamed and unaccredited narrator made partly or totally false statements regarding the Battle of Fort McHenry. I’ve enclosed the true facts in parentheses. Here they are, fiction and fact:
1. The title of the song is The National Anthem. (No, the title is Star Spangled Banner, and it wasn’t made our National Anthem until 1931 anyway)
2. The battle was fought at Fort Henry. (The correct name is Fort McHenry)
3. The battle was fought between the British and the American Colonies, implying that is was a Revolutionary War battle. (This battle, part of the War of 1812, was fought 38 years after the “colonies” became The United States of America)
4. There were hundreds of prisoners on the British ship. (There was only one prisoner, Dr. William Beanes, a prominent surgeon captured at Washington, D. C. in a prior battle)
5. Lawyer Key was the “one man” sent to negotiate a prisoner exchange. (There were two lawyers, Francis Scott Key and John Stuart Skinner, and there was no “exchange”, only the release of Dr. Beanes, procured by written statements from British soldiers attesting to his medical treatment given impartially and freely)
6. There was an ultimatum given about lowering the flag as a sign of surrender. (The lowering of a flag is always understood as a sign of surrender, but there is no record of any ultimatum being given)
7. There were hundreds of British ships in the battle. (There were only 16 ships, and some were not even warships, but smaller ketches)
8. There were women and children in the fort. (There were no women or children, only a fighting force of 1,000 men under command of Major George Armistead)
9. The flag was never lowered. (Actually, the smaller storm flag, which flew during the entire bombardment was lowered after the battle and replaced with a 30 X 42 foot flag, which became the storied “Star Spangled Banner”)
10. Mr. Key reported to the prisoners throughout the night on the status of the flag. (That is patently false, since there was only one prisoner, Dr Beanes)
11. Volunteers held the flag up, died supporting it and those bodies eventually kept the flagpole upright. (Wonderful story, but there is no record of any such actions)
12. When the narrator recited the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner, he used the wrong word, “...for the land of the free.” (The correct phrase is, “Oh, say, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?)
What the narrator missed out on entirely was the casualty count of the Battle of Fort McHenry. The Americans lost 4 killed and 24 wounded, while the British, in sea and ground action, lost 330 killed, wounded or captured. I guess that doesn’t make for as neat a story as the one he spun.
For reference, you can use your preferred search engine to point to The Battle of Baltimore, or The Battle of Fort McHenry, but I can point you to this link: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/warof1812/p/ftmchenry.htm
Now, please stop forwarding that horrendous video. It is a lie, and we already have enough of those circulating on the Internet and email circuit.
Ordering "Regular" Coffee
December 25, 2010
I am departing from my usual custom and publishing two columns this week. The reason is that I skipped a week back in August while Judy and I were on the road. I owe you a column, and I just happen to have a topic ready.
I’m sure you’ve all seen those messages that contain a quiz on your vocabulary usage to determine from what part of the country you hail. I know I’ve seen it about a hundred times. At the end you get to see what part of the country each expression represents.
I’ve taken the quiz a couple of times, just to see if I’ve “adapted” to my present southern surroundings, but I keep coming out mostly a Yankee. I never picked up the term “sack” to replace “bag”, for instance, among other quaint expressions. Also, I pronounce “aunt” like the tiny insect, leaving the ‘U’ silent.
Well, the other day I was in my favorite McDonalds for some senior coffee, and the guy in front of me in line placed his order for coffee, “regular”. Of course the woman behind the counter looked puzzled and repeated the word “regular” with the inflection of a question. Then she politely asked if he wanted cream and sugar in his coffee. His response was, “Yes”.
Now, I understood perfectly what he was asking for, but then, I come from a far north heritage where the norm for ordering coffee with cream and sugar is “regular”. It was only after I left Buffalo for Omaha, Nebraska that I learned that the word was not at all understood in other regions of America.
What made the whole episode memorable is that the guy who was ordering his coffee “regular” looked to be a Hispanic. I wanted to ask him where he learned it, but my wife says I’m too forward and I talk too much—she’s right, you know—so I let it pass.
Some of you who are also from the Northeast will dispute my claim that people use that term to refer to coffee with everything in it. However, in my teens I worked at Decco Restaurants in Buffalo, and that was always the way people ordered it there, “regular”.
I challenge anyone to go into any restaurant in Western New York and order coffee “regular” and see what happens. Of course, if you don’t drink your coffee with both cream and sugar, you better not order it that way.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Grounded and Immobilized
I celebrated my 72nd birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I really got a big surprise on that day that had nothing to do with presents.
I had a singing engagement with the chorus that evening, so I dressed in full tuxedo with red vest and green tie—very Christmassy—and was preparing to drive to the venue.
Sitting in my car with the key in the ignition, my vision suddenly went blurry and I got very lightheaded. Within a few seconds, and with no warning whatsoever, I felt a jolt in my left shoulder that literally knocked me back into my seat. Just as suddenly, I was again clearheaded and really alert.
I knew exactly what had happened, but not the reason why it had occurred. My ICD defibrillator had given me what is termed “a therapy.” It is supposed to give me a warning before it activates in the form of a series of beeps. On this occasion it took action so fast that the warning was overridden.
Needless to say, I didn’t go to my engagement that evening, and I was on the phone to my cardiologist that following morning. We did a remote data dump—one of the wonders of modern technology—to determine that my heart was performing normally again, and scheduled an office appointment.
I won’t bore you with details, but the end result is that I am forbidden to drive for six months. For at least that length of time I will be dependent on others to transport me to whatever functions and errands I have to attend.
For a person who loves to travel this is like a prison sentence. There are several activities that I will just have to give up, such as my weekly Spanish class. Other people will have to take me to necessary appointments.
My choral activities present a particular problem, since my wife is not a fan. I cannot expect her to attend rehearsals or performances with me, nor can I call on her to drive me to board and committee meetings. I can foresee some real issues with that part of my life.
Try as I may, I’m having a difficult time keeping my spirits up, and I really appreciate the burden I’m placing on other people to chauffeur me around. Now my hope is that I will get a reprieve after the mandatory six months.
I know that my ICD has proven its worth with this one therapy, but I certainly hope it doesn’t have occasion to repeat the performance, because that will probably ground me permanently—still a better solution than the alternative “grounding”.
I had a singing engagement with the chorus that evening, so I dressed in full tuxedo with red vest and green tie—very Christmassy—and was preparing to drive to the venue.
Sitting in my car with the key in the ignition, my vision suddenly went blurry and I got very lightheaded. Within a few seconds, and with no warning whatsoever, I felt a jolt in my left shoulder that literally knocked me back into my seat. Just as suddenly, I was again clearheaded and really alert.
I knew exactly what had happened, but not the reason why it had occurred. My ICD defibrillator had given me what is termed “a therapy.” It is supposed to give me a warning before it activates in the form of a series of beeps. On this occasion it took action so fast that the warning was overridden.
Needless to say, I didn’t go to my engagement that evening, and I was on the phone to my cardiologist that following morning. We did a remote data dump—one of the wonders of modern technology—to determine that my heart was performing normally again, and scheduled an office appointment.
I won’t bore you with details, but the end result is that I am forbidden to drive for six months. For at least that length of time I will be dependent on others to transport me to whatever functions and errands I have to attend.
For a person who loves to travel this is like a prison sentence. There are several activities that I will just have to give up, such as my weekly Spanish class. Other people will have to take me to necessary appointments.
My choral activities present a particular problem, since my wife is not a fan. I cannot expect her to attend rehearsals or performances with me, nor can I call on her to drive me to board and committee meetings. I can foresee some real issues with that part of my life.
Try as I may, I’m having a difficult time keeping my spirits up, and I really appreciate the burden I’m placing on other people to chauffeur me around. Now my hope is that I will get a reprieve after the mandatory six months.
I know that my ICD has proven its worth with this one therapy, but I certainly hope it doesn’t have occasion to repeat the performance, because that will probably ground me permanently—still a better solution than the alternative “grounding”.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
A Good Stimulus Package
Well, President Obama is in hot water with his party for caving to the Republicans on the extension of the Bush tax cuts. Now Congress is rewriting the bill to try to make it more appealing to both parties.
In the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation, I’m going to propose a totally different tax package that could provide long-lasting relief from our current economic woes. It would be a two-step program, and I offer it to either party in Congress, though I already know which one would endorse it and which would not.
There is an unknown element in this package; the amount is indeterminate. The reason for this is that nothing we do is static. Any program that effects changes in behavior has that unknown element in it. Change in behavior is what any stimulus is intended to promote, so the cost is solely dependent on how much behavioral change takes place.
Okay, here’s the plan…
Step one: Put a 6-month moratorium on collection of personal income tax from everyone.
You might think that those at the upper end of the income scale should be exempted, but it is impossible to determine what constitutes “the upper end.” A person living in rural mid-America with an income of $100,000 could be considered rich, while a counterpart living in New York City or Los Angeles would justifiably laugh at the notion that they are wealthy.
That is only one of a host of reasons why means testing is silly. Besides, The wealthy people in our society are bigger spenders, and spending is what the stimulus is supposed to stimulate.
There is another reason why we cannot and must not exempt anyone from the tax moratorium. I want everyone to get used to not having any income tax withheld from his or her paycheck. It will make step two easier to enact.
Step two: Repeal the 16th Amendment, and institute the Fairtax.
What politicians in opposition to the Fairtax always fail to tell their constituents is that the 23% add-on to the price of everything you purchase replaces all of the current federal taxes that are levied in over one hundred ways including the dreaded income tax. In Fact, it also replaces the other income taxes that masquerade under the title, “payroll tax.”
Can you even imagine what your paycheck would be if the income tax and payroll tax were not withheld? It could add 30% more to your take home pay, and that in itself would more than compensate you for the 23% increase in prices. But that isn’t the end of it.
The base price of most items would fall. The taxes collected up the line before the product comes to market are also gone, so it will make it less expensive to produce and some of that difference will be passed on to the consumer. Those who have studied the effects of implementation of the Fairtax state that the reduction would be about 22%. If so, the prices should remain about what they are now, even with the 23% Fairtax added on.
Now, there is one more factor in the Fairtax that would come into play. You are currently given a reduction in your income tax liability for personal exemptions and deductions. The Fairtax has a built in “prebate” that compensates everyone for those same exemptions and deductions.
You would receive a check or a direct deposit each month based on the number of people you support. The more dependents, the higher the prebate., so the 23% tax you pay on everything—up to a reasonable minimum amount—would actually be refunded to you even before you pay it. I’ve seen estimates that the minimum monthly payment would be about $500 for a single person with no dependents.
Imagine that! Not only would you have a paycheck with no withholding, but you would also get at least $500 per month from the government. If you have some dependents, it would be considerably more than $500.
What could you possibly use all that extra cash for? Maybe to pay off some of those credit card bills? Or possibly to purchase some of those items you’ve put off buying for lack of funds? You might use it to pay down your mortgage, or to buy that replacement car or bigger house you’ve always wanted.
The fact is this stimulus would do more to help get our economy back on track than all of that prior stimulus money combined.
I know that I’m not the first to suggest a tax cut as a stimulus, but I’ll wager that there aren’t many who have combined it with the opportunity to institute a whole new system of taxation that makes 66,000 pages of the Internal Revenue code obsolete while leveling the playing field so that everyone pays their fair share of tax.
In the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation, I’m going to propose a totally different tax package that could provide long-lasting relief from our current economic woes. It would be a two-step program, and I offer it to either party in Congress, though I already know which one would endorse it and which would not.
There is an unknown element in this package; the amount is indeterminate. The reason for this is that nothing we do is static. Any program that effects changes in behavior has that unknown element in it. Change in behavior is what any stimulus is intended to promote, so the cost is solely dependent on how much behavioral change takes place.
Okay, here’s the plan…
Step one: Put a 6-month moratorium on collection of personal income tax from everyone.
You might think that those at the upper end of the income scale should be exempted, but it is impossible to determine what constitutes “the upper end.” A person living in rural mid-America with an income of $100,000 could be considered rich, while a counterpart living in New York City or Los Angeles would justifiably laugh at the notion that they are wealthy.
That is only one of a host of reasons why means testing is silly. Besides, The wealthy people in our society are bigger spenders, and spending is what the stimulus is supposed to stimulate.
There is another reason why we cannot and must not exempt anyone from the tax moratorium. I want everyone to get used to not having any income tax withheld from his or her paycheck. It will make step two easier to enact.
Step two: Repeal the 16th Amendment, and institute the Fairtax.
What politicians in opposition to the Fairtax always fail to tell their constituents is that the 23% add-on to the price of everything you purchase replaces all of the current federal taxes that are levied in over one hundred ways including the dreaded income tax. In Fact, it also replaces the other income taxes that masquerade under the title, “payroll tax.”
Can you even imagine what your paycheck would be if the income tax and payroll tax were not withheld? It could add 30% more to your take home pay, and that in itself would more than compensate you for the 23% increase in prices. But that isn’t the end of it.
The base price of most items would fall. The taxes collected up the line before the product comes to market are also gone, so it will make it less expensive to produce and some of that difference will be passed on to the consumer. Those who have studied the effects of implementation of the Fairtax state that the reduction would be about 22%. If so, the prices should remain about what they are now, even with the 23% Fairtax added on.
Now, there is one more factor in the Fairtax that would come into play. You are currently given a reduction in your income tax liability for personal exemptions and deductions. The Fairtax has a built in “prebate” that compensates everyone for those same exemptions and deductions.
You would receive a check or a direct deposit each month based on the number of people you support. The more dependents, the higher the prebate., so the 23% tax you pay on everything—up to a reasonable minimum amount—would actually be refunded to you even before you pay it. I’ve seen estimates that the minimum monthly payment would be about $500 for a single person with no dependents.
Imagine that! Not only would you have a paycheck with no withholding, but you would also get at least $500 per month from the government. If you have some dependents, it would be considerably more than $500.
What could you possibly use all that extra cash for? Maybe to pay off some of those credit card bills? Or possibly to purchase some of those items you’ve put off buying for lack of funds? You might use it to pay down your mortgage, or to buy that replacement car or bigger house you’ve always wanted.
The fact is this stimulus would do more to help get our economy back on track than all of that prior stimulus money combined.
I know that I’m not the first to suggest a tax cut as a stimulus, but I’ll wager that there aren’t many who have combined it with the opportunity to institute a whole new system of taxation that makes 66,000 pages of the Internal Revenue code obsolete while leveling the playing field so that everyone pays their fair share of tax.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Divine Intervention?
A strange thing happened last weekend during the Pittsburgh Steelers/Buffalo Bills game,
The Bills managed to tie the game and send it into sudden-death overtime. Then, when it appeared that the hapless Bills would finally beat their jinx this season and win the game, a wide receiver named Steve Johnson caught and then dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the end zone.
The Steelers then went on offense and drove down the field, kicking a field goal to win the game.
After the game, Mr. Johnson sent a Twitter message, a tweet. Here is what it said: "I Praise you 24/7!!!!!! And this how you do me!!!!! You expect me to learn from this??? How???!!! I'll never forget this!! Ever!!! Thx tho..."
In case you live on a different planet than I do, or you are a modern day Rip Van Winkle, you’ll already know that the tweet was addressed to none other than GOD. I wasn’t even aware that God had a Twitter account, but apparently Steve Johnson believes he has a direct line to Him.
I didn’t get to watch the game on television, but I read that Steve also dropped 4 other passes in that game. This occurred in a season where he has been a fantasy player and probably the most renowned player on the Buffalo Bills squad. That he blames his dropped pass on God is, I guess, understandable if blasphemous.
Now, some would call me misguided, but I was born and raised in Western New York, and the Buffalo Bills have always been my favorite team. Heck, I even attended their first regular season home game against the Denver Broncos in old War Memorial Stadium, a.k.a. the Mud Bowl.
I moved away from Buffalo in 1976, so I’ve only followed the Buffalo Bills from afar since then. But in a lot of ways I have to agree with Steve Johnson that some of the fortunes of the Buffalo Bills have been guided by divine intervention.
Or maybe it’s the other way around; maybe old Lucifer is the culprit. How else can I explain a team that has accomplished the records the Bills have, and yet they’ve never won a Super Bowl?
The game-losing fumble last Sunday is definitely not the first time that misfortune has struck the Bills. There was the missed chip-shot field goal that cost them the win in Super bowl XXV. There was the sack and fumble by Jim Kelly in Super Bowl XXVII that led to the 52-17 Dallas rout. Then there was that 75-yard kickoff return in the playoff game with the Tennessee Titans that took away the Bills’ chance to go to Super bowl XXXIV.
Oh, I could probably list dozens of strange plays that have plagued the Bills over their entire 50-year history. However, it took a guy named Steve Johnson to actually blame God for the whole mess. I don’t think I’ll go that far, but I sure wish the team would someday prove themselves like they did in 1964-65 in the old AFL.
The Bills managed to tie the game and send it into sudden-death overtime. Then, when it appeared that the hapless Bills would finally beat their jinx this season and win the game, a wide receiver named Steve Johnson caught and then dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the end zone.
The Steelers then went on offense and drove down the field, kicking a field goal to win the game.
After the game, Mr. Johnson sent a Twitter message, a tweet. Here is what it said: "I Praise you 24/7!!!!!! And this how you do me!!!!! You expect me to learn from this??? How???!!! I'll never forget this!! Ever!!! Thx tho..."
In case you live on a different planet than I do, or you are a modern day Rip Van Winkle, you’ll already know that the tweet was addressed to none other than GOD. I wasn’t even aware that God had a Twitter account, but apparently Steve Johnson believes he has a direct line to Him.
I didn’t get to watch the game on television, but I read that Steve also dropped 4 other passes in that game. This occurred in a season where he has been a fantasy player and probably the most renowned player on the Buffalo Bills squad. That he blames his dropped pass on God is, I guess, understandable if blasphemous.
Now, some would call me misguided, but I was born and raised in Western New York, and the Buffalo Bills have always been my favorite team. Heck, I even attended their first regular season home game against the Denver Broncos in old War Memorial Stadium, a.k.a. the Mud Bowl.
I moved away from Buffalo in 1976, so I’ve only followed the Buffalo Bills from afar since then. But in a lot of ways I have to agree with Steve Johnson that some of the fortunes of the Buffalo Bills have been guided by divine intervention.
Or maybe it’s the other way around; maybe old Lucifer is the culprit. How else can I explain a team that has accomplished the records the Bills have, and yet they’ve never won a Super Bowl?
The game-losing fumble last Sunday is definitely not the first time that misfortune has struck the Bills. There was the missed chip-shot field goal that cost them the win in Super bowl XXV. There was the sack and fumble by Jim Kelly in Super Bowl XXVII that led to the 52-17 Dallas rout. Then there was that 75-yard kickoff return in the playoff game with the Tennessee Titans that took away the Bills’ chance to go to Super bowl XXXIV.
Oh, I could probably list dozens of strange plays that have plagued the Bills over their entire 50-year history. However, it took a guy named Steve Johnson to actually blame God for the whole mess. I don’t think I’ll go that far, but I sure wish the team would someday prove themselves like they did in 1964-65 in the old AFL.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Moons and Planets
(Note: I originally published an expanded version of this column back in February of 2006. Therefore, even though we are not currently under a full moon it still has its own relevance. At least, I think it is interesting even at this time.)
We are currently under a full moon. It got me thinking about all the troubles we have when the moon is full. Oh, you don’t believe all that astrology stuff? Well, I can positively state that there is a very good reason for all the superstition surrounding the full moon.
In my many years in the airline industry, there were always strange happenings when the moon was full. My airline, American, even had a reference page in the computer titled simply “Moons” where all the dates of full moons were listed.
It was common knowledge among ground service people and pilots and flight attendants that when the moon was full, there were bound to be some odd things happening. Customers were more apt to complain, delays were more prominent, baggage was more likely to get misrouted or lost and communications were less reliable, mainly in the form of computer outages.
When I worked at the ticket counter—we actually had a staff of people at the counter in those days instead of those machines you encounter nowadays—we always knew that a full moon was imminent, even if it wasn’t visible due to cloud cover. The behavior of some of our passengers was weird during those times, especially those who were “white knuckle flyers.” Customers were more demanding and argumentative. Voices were raised in situations where people normally would be rational and patient. And there were always problems with reservations being dropped or cancelled for no apparent reason.
In that same AA informational page labeled “Moons” there is also reference to another event that seems to screw up communication and travel. The reference is to times when the planet Mercury is retrograde. Three times a year Mercury appears to be moving backwards for periods of about two weeks. When the planet appears to go forward again, it is said to be Mercury Direct. It has to do with the fact that the Mercurial year—its trip around the Sun—is 88 days long, while ours is 365 days. All of the planets exhibit the retrograde effect, but only Mercury does it that often.
Think of two trains on parallel tracks going in the same direction at different speeds. As the faster train passes the slower one, the slower train appears to be going backwards with respect to the faster one. Well, that is what the planetary retrograde effect is. When Mercury is retrograde it has an effect on activity here on the Earth. And when it occurs in conjunction with a full moon, you can just imagine the increased effects.
I didn’t give you this astronomy/astrology lesson for nothing. While I was doing my research for the column I came across a Web site that gave me a whole new outlook on what went wrong in the Presidential Election of 2000. We all know there are dozens of theories out there, but this one could be the grand prizewinner. The real problem with the 2000 election was that we had Mercury Retrograde and it was exactly at the end of its cycle (the worst time) on November 7, 2000. In other words, the election outcome was in the stars—or in this case, the planets.
Other Mercury Retrograde Examples:
· Titanic sinking, April 15, 1912 – communication confusion delays rescue, causing more deaths
· John F. Kennedy-Richard Nixon election, November 8, 1960 – confusion about winner in close election
· John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane crash, July 16, 1999 – pilot inexperience causes confusion about plane’s instrument panels
· John McCain’s campaign event on October 8, 2008 – calling his supporters “My Fellow Prisoners”
· Barack Obama’s presidential oath on January 20, 2009 – Barack Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts misspeak the oath, causing them to re-do it the next day
There are likely many other instances where either a full moon or Mercury Retrograde came into play in historical event and outcomes. Isn’t it fascinating?
We are currently under a full moon. It got me thinking about all the troubles we have when the moon is full. Oh, you don’t believe all that astrology stuff? Well, I can positively state that there is a very good reason for all the superstition surrounding the full moon.
In my many years in the airline industry, there were always strange happenings when the moon was full. My airline, American, even had a reference page in the computer titled simply “Moons” where all the dates of full moons were listed.
It was common knowledge among ground service people and pilots and flight attendants that when the moon was full, there were bound to be some odd things happening. Customers were more apt to complain, delays were more prominent, baggage was more likely to get misrouted or lost and communications were less reliable, mainly in the form of computer outages.
When I worked at the ticket counter—we actually had a staff of people at the counter in those days instead of those machines you encounter nowadays—we always knew that a full moon was imminent, even if it wasn’t visible due to cloud cover. The behavior of some of our passengers was weird during those times, especially those who were “white knuckle flyers.” Customers were more demanding and argumentative. Voices were raised in situations where people normally would be rational and patient. And there were always problems with reservations being dropped or cancelled for no apparent reason.
In that same AA informational page labeled “Moons” there is also reference to another event that seems to screw up communication and travel. The reference is to times when the planet Mercury is retrograde. Three times a year Mercury appears to be moving backwards for periods of about two weeks. When the planet appears to go forward again, it is said to be Mercury Direct. It has to do with the fact that the Mercurial year—its trip around the Sun—is 88 days long, while ours is 365 days. All of the planets exhibit the retrograde effect, but only Mercury does it that often.
Think of two trains on parallel tracks going in the same direction at different speeds. As the faster train passes the slower one, the slower train appears to be going backwards with respect to the faster one. Well, that is what the planetary retrograde effect is. When Mercury is retrograde it has an effect on activity here on the Earth. And when it occurs in conjunction with a full moon, you can just imagine the increased effects.
I didn’t give you this astronomy/astrology lesson for nothing. While I was doing my research for the column I came across a Web site that gave me a whole new outlook on what went wrong in the Presidential Election of 2000. We all know there are dozens of theories out there, but this one could be the grand prizewinner. The real problem with the 2000 election was that we had Mercury Retrograde and it was exactly at the end of its cycle (the worst time) on November 7, 2000. In other words, the election outcome was in the stars—or in this case, the planets.
Other Mercury Retrograde Examples:
· Titanic sinking, April 15, 1912 – communication confusion delays rescue, causing more deaths
· John F. Kennedy-Richard Nixon election, November 8, 1960 – confusion about winner in close election
· John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane crash, July 16, 1999 – pilot inexperience causes confusion about plane’s instrument panels
· John McCain’s campaign event on October 8, 2008 – calling his supporters “My Fellow Prisoners”
· Barack Obama’s presidential oath on January 20, 2009 – Barack Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts misspeak the oath, causing them to re-do it the next day
There are likely many other instances where either a full moon or Mercury Retrograde came into play in historical event and outcomes. Isn’t it fascinating?
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Merchandise Return Policy
There is a special day next week, and I want to address that in this column. No, I’m not referring to Thanksgiving, and I won’t publish the gravy recipe for the fourth time (Hint: You can find it in the archives to the left side. The day I mean is called “Black Friday” and it signals the start of the holiday shopping season.
Personally, I wouldn’t shop on that day, but a lot of people apparently do so. Therefore, it makes this a good time for some advice on shopping.
This might be one of those columns you will want to forward to your family and friends. That is really quite easy to do, either by sending them the URL, or if they don’t like to open links or attachments, by simply copying the text and pasting it into your email. I don’t care whether or not you give me credit for the column, but I hope you will.
I received an email from a buddy this week that related an incident where a GPS unit was purchased at a big electronics store. It turned out to be less than satisfactory to the buyer, so he returned it with his receipt for a refund. Here is a shortened version of what then occurred:
· There was a 15% restocking fee assessed against the refund—in this case $45.
· Since the item cost over $200, no in-store refund was given.
· Even though the item was purchased for cash, the corporate headquarters would have to issue a check in 7-10 business days and mail it to him.
· If he wanted to purchase a replacement GPS immediately, he would have to start all over again with cash, check or credit/debit card.
When he complained to the clerk that he was never informed about the return policy when he bought the item, the response was what you would expect. The clerk advised him that “It is clearly printed on the back of your receipt.”
He asked to see the manager, and was given pretty much the same treatment, but was provided the phone number for the corporate office. He left the store in a very bad mood.
When he got home, he called the corporate office. The response from there was only a little better. He was promised a $45 gift card to use on a future visit to the store. He told the representative what he could do with the gift card, and promised that he would never shop at that store again.
Okay, there is a moral to the story.
Whenever you plan to purchase a big-ticket item, go online first and check out the refund policy of the store. The big chains all publish their refund policies on the Internet, but it is up to you to look at them before you buy.
In some cases, you might decide not to even go to that chain store due to the published policy. Restocking fees would be an excellent reason to boycott, since it is a silly and superfluous charge in the first place. Some stores seem to have a restocking fee that goes all the way up to 25% of the purchase price for certain items. If that becomes a reason not to shop a particular chain, and if you want to advertise the policy via your email contacts, maybe you can affect a store boycott that will cause them to change the policy.
If nothing else, you will at least alert your family and friends to what you consider an unfair business practice. They can then make their own decisions on whether or not to shop at that store.
Here’s another way of dealing with returns. If you are not sure of the specific item that will please your gift recipient, give them a gift certificate instead. Let them choose which brand and model to buy and avoid the return/refund dilemma altogether. There is nothing wrong with giving a gift certificate as long as you are certain that it will be used.
You’ll notice that I never named the chain or the store in this column. That is because I want you to take charge and do your own research on the subject. There are several stores that publish some pretty unfair refund policies, but it is up to you to find out before you patronize those stores.
Just remember that clichéd phrase, “Caveat emptor!” which translates to “Let the buyer beware!”
Personally, I wouldn’t shop on that day, but a lot of people apparently do so. Therefore, it makes this a good time for some advice on shopping.
This might be one of those columns you will want to forward to your family and friends. That is really quite easy to do, either by sending them the URL, or if they don’t like to open links or attachments, by simply copying the text and pasting it into your email. I don’t care whether or not you give me credit for the column, but I hope you will.
I received an email from a buddy this week that related an incident where a GPS unit was purchased at a big electronics store. It turned out to be less than satisfactory to the buyer, so he returned it with his receipt for a refund. Here is a shortened version of what then occurred:
· There was a 15% restocking fee assessed against the refund—in this case $45.
· Since the item cost over $200, no in-store refund was given.
· Even though the item was purchased for cash, the corporate headquarters would have to issue a check in 7-10 business days and mail it to him.
· If he wanted to purchase a replacement GPS immediately, he would have to start all over again with cash, check or credit/debit card.
When he complained to the clerk that he was never informed about the return policy when he bought the item, the response was what you would expect. The clerk advised him that “It is clearly printed on the back of your receipt.”
He asked to see the manager, and was given pretty much the same treatment, but was provided the phone number for the corporate office. He left the store in a very bad mood.
When he got home, he called the corporate office. The response from there was only a little better. He was promised a $45 gift card to use on a future visit to the store. He told the representative what he could do with the gift card, and promised that he would never shop at that store again.
Okay, there is a moral to the story.
Whenever you plan to purchase a big-ticket item, go online first and check out the refund policy of the store. The big chains all publish their refund policies on the Internet, but it is up to you to look at them before you buy.
In some cases, you might decide not to even go to that chain store due to the published policy. Restocking fees would be an excellent reason to boycott, since it is a silly and superfluous charge in the first place. Some stores seem to have a restocking fee that goes all the way up to 25% of the purchase price for certain items. If that becomes a reason not to shop a particular chain, and if you want to advertise the policy via your email contacts, maybe you can affect a store boycott that will cause them to change the policy.
If nothing else, you will at least alert your family and friends to what you consider an unfair business practice. They can then make their own decisions on whether or not to shop at that store.
Here’s another way of dealing with returns. If you are not sure of the specific item that will please your gift recipient, give them a gift certificate instead. Let them choose which brand and model to buy and avoid the return/refund dilemma altogether. There is nothing wrong with giving a gift certificate as long as you are certain that it will be used.
You’ll notice that I never named the chain or the store in this column. That is because I want you to take charge and do your own research on the subject. There are several stores that publish some pretty unfair refund policies, but it is up to you to find out before you patronize those stores.
Just remember that clichéd phrase, “Caveat emptor!” which translates to “Let the buyer beware!”
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Travels With Tom-Tom
My wife and I went up to Chattanooga last week. I didn’t need a GPS to get there, but I took it with me anyway, since I planned a little side trip on our way home.
I got my GPS about three years ago, and on my first trip using it we wound up on a farmer’s field instead of at our hotel, so I have never completely trusted the unit. However, I used the GPS last year on my Northwest trip, and it performed beautifully.
Then I used it again this year on my trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and on my trip to Hells Canyon in Oregon. Again it did a good job of getting me around.
So when I decided to route us across Tennessee and North Carolina and down into the mountains of Northern Georgia, I figured it would get us there okay.
Well, it proved me wrong, and it made an approximate 5-hour trip into a 9-hour odyssey.
When I programmed the trip from Chattanooga to Tallulah Falls in, the GPS unit wanted to route me down to Atlanta on I-75, then up I-85 and I-985 to get there. Now, that might have been the shortest route time wise, but what fun was that? I wanted to see the wild country.
I took a more direct route across the mountains. Well, that was a big mistake.
Do you recall the movie Deliverance with Burt Reynolds and John Voigt? Well, we weren’t by the Caloosahachie River, but the Ocoee River looks like the one they used in the movie. Thank God we didn’t have any breakdowns, but we sure did get lost a few times. I kept looking for the snaggle-toothed hillbilly and the banjo playin’ kid.
First, I had to go “off route” to get the GPS to recalculate. Fortunately, my GPS doesn’t have that annoying voice that says, “ree-calc-u-lating.” Second, Judy can’t stand the voice commands anyway, so she mutes the sound.
Even so, once we went off route, the GPS screen kept pointing arrows at me to reverse direction. When it finally did a reroute to conform to the direction we were headed, it still didn’t like my choices, and continued to give me updates.
At one crossroads I turned the way the GPS directed, and was immediately off the map. We wound up executing three loops around the same roads before we got back on the right track according to the GPS. Then we went off route again on an open stretch of road—try that one—and finally pulled over at a gas station and general store in a little crossroads called Brasstown.
There was what appeared to be a dead possum hanging by its tail over the door, so Judy refused to go in with me. Come to think of it, I don’t know what possessed me to go in myself. I think the gas pumps were the old-fashioned crank type. There was one of those large mouth jars on the counter with some pink hardboiled eggs in it, too—probably pickled years ago.
I took my maps in with me and asked the owner for directions to Tallulah Falls. Of course, he had no idea where that was, so I showed him on the Georgia map—we were in North Carolina, by the way. He then gave me some directions, which his wife wrote down for me, based on one of their “Sunday trips in the country”. (What the heck did he think Brasstown is?)
It won’t make any sense, but the fellow got into some homespun tale about his last trip to “that state below Georgia.” I started to volunteer the state’s name, Florida, but he said his wife does not allow him to use the “f-word” so he refers to it only as “the state below Georgia”—I swear I didn’t make that up. Needless to say, I didn’t ask why.
Well, we got back under way and after several more near misses, including seeing a sign at another crossroad pointing to “Brasstown” after we had made two turns already, we arrived at the town of Clayton. GA. That was where we finally picked up the correct route down to Tallulah Falls. It took four-and-a-half hours to go the 170 miles from Chattanooga, and we got to our destination at about 1:30 in the afternoon.>
Tallulah Falls was a nice place to visit and we even went on to another waterfall that is on the campus of Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa, Georgia. Even that was an adventure—I had to walk through the college bookstore and out a back door to get to the waterfall—but we made it home to Augusta late in the afternoon.
What could have been an easy 5-hour drive from Chattanooga to Augusta became a full day of driving and used just about a full tank of gas. But what a fun trip it was! I took lots of pictures, too.
I got my GPS about three years ago, and on my first trip using it we wound up on a farmer’s field instead of at our hotel, so I have never completely trusted the unit. However, I used the GPS last year on my Northwest trip, and it performed beautifully.
Then I used it again this year on my trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and on my trip to Hells Canyon in Oregon. Again it did a good job of getting me around.
So when I decided to route us across Tennessee and North Carolina and down into the mountains of Northern Georgia, I figured it would get us there okay.
Well, it proved me wrong, and it made an approximate 5-hour trip into a 9-hour odyssey.
When I programmed the trip from Chattanooga to Tallulah Falls in, the GPS unit wanted to route me down to Atlanta on I-75, then up I-85 and I-985 to get there. Now, that might have been the shortest route time wise, but what fun was that? I wanted to see the wild country.
I took a more direct route across the mountains. Well, that was a big mistake.
Do you recall the movie Deliverance with Burt Reynolds and John Voigt? Well, we weren’t by the Caloosahachie River, but the Ocoee River looks like the one they used in the movie. Thank God we didn’t have any breakdowns, but we sure did get lost a few times. I kept looking for the snaggle-toothed hillbilly and the banjo playin’ kid.
First, I had to go “off route” to get the GPS to recalculate. Fortunately, my GPS doesn’t have that annoying voice that says, “ree-calc-u-lating.” Second, Judy can’t stand the voice commands anyway, so she mutes the sound.
Even so, once we went off route, the GPS screen kept pointing arrows at me to reverse direction. When it finally did a reroute to conform to the direction we were headed, it still didn’t like my choices, and continued to give me updates.
At one crossroads I turned the way the GPS directed, and was immediately off the map. We wound up executing three loops around the same roads before we got back on the right track according to the GPS. Then we went off route again on an open stretch of road—try that one—and finally pulled over at a gas station and general store in a little crossroads called Brasstown.
There was what appeared to be a dead possum hanging by its tail over the door, so Judy refused to go in with me. Come to think of it, I don’t know what possessed me to go in myself. I think the gas pumps were the old-fashioned crank type. There was one of those large mouth jars on the counter with some pink hardboiled eggs in it, too—probably pickled years ago.
I took my maps in with me and asked the owner for directions to Tallulah Falls. Of course, he had no idea where that was, so I showed him on the Georgia map—we were in North Carolina, by the way. He then gave me some directions, which his wife wrote down for me, based on one of their “Sunday trips in the country”. (What the heck did he think Brasstown is?)
It won’t make any sense, but the fellow got into some homespun tale about his last trip to “that state below Georgia.” I started to volunteer the state’s name, Florida, but he said his wife does not allow him to use the “f-word” so he refers to it only as “the state below Georgia”—I swear I didn’t make that up. Needless to say, I didn’t ask why.
Well, we got back under way and after several more near misses, including seeing a sign at another crossroad pointing to “Brasstown” after we had made two turns already, we arrived at the town of Clayton. GA. That was where we finally picked up the correct route down to Tallulah Falls. It took four-and-a-half hours to go the 170 miles from Chattanooga, and we got to our destination at about 1:30 in the afternoon.>
Tallulah Falls was a nice place to visit and we even went on to another waterfall that is on the campus of Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa, Georgia. Even that was an adventure—I had to walk through the college bookstore and out a back door to get to the waterfall—but we made it home to Augusta late in the afternoon.
What could have been an easy 5-hour drive from Chattanooga to Augusta became a full day of driving and used just about a full tank of gas. But what a fun trip it was! I took lots of pictures, too.
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