If it wasn’t for a few news stories that surface on a daily basis, I
would run out of things to write about when the occasional “brain fart”
hits…

This story is one of those stories that leaves some people shaking
their heads and understandably, many more outraged…

Last Sunday, in a southern New Jersey Wal-Mart, shoppers heard an
announcement that shocked and appalled them. The message that came over
the public PA system was a message that asked, “all black people” to leave
the store…

Black customers, as well as non-black customers left their carts wherever
they were and left the store, not because of the “order”, but because they
were rightfully disgusted by the message…

Some customers claimed it was at least five minutes before store management
came on the PA system. In their defense, I’m sure they were as shocked as
everyone else and basically “freaked out” before addressing the customers…

Wal-Mart stated they were apppalled by the incident and the Gloucester
County Prosecutor’s Office and the Washington Township Police Department
are investigating the incident as a possible bias crime. The store’s

surveillance tapes have been looked at, staff members have been interviewed.
Without elaborating, the police claim to have a few leads…

Some of the public-address phones are password protected, but some are
avaliable for customers to use. These phones are restricted for now…

It will be interesting to see if they find the guy who did this and more
interesting what happens after that. Why? Well…If it is an employee
that did it, then Wal-Mart would be technically responsible, but if it
turns out that it was a prankster that did it, I don’t think Wal-Mart
should be held responsible, because let’s face it, someone is looking
to sue someone in this sue-crazy society…

If the person is caught, I guess he can be charged with a bias crime,
which is obviously less serious than a hate crime. It may seem silly,
it may seem like a stupid prank, but it’s still illegal to make jokes
in an airport about hijacking, terrorists, etc. It is also illegal to
scream “fire” in a public place filled with people. Will this dipstick
get jail time for what he did? Highly doubtful and since we don’t even
know how old the guy is, he could get a slap on the wrist once the
media frenzy over it dies down. They said it was a “man’s voice” over
the PA. SOme 13-year-olds have a man’s voice and heck, some women do
too!

I guess my point in all of this is that there are times when you aren’t
responsible for someone else’s bad behavior and a lawsuit for whatever
amount of money won’t take the disgusting incident away…

The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office is offering counseling through
their victim and witness unit. Please, someone answer this for me, Is this
really necessary?

Sometimes, although in very bad taste, a prank is just that, a prank…

Many years ago, while working and managing a salon in a department store,
a PA came over the loudspeaker announcing, “For the next 30 minutes, all
haircuts are 50% off with Jamie”…

Imagine my surprise when people started coming in left and right asking
for me even though I had never seen them before in my life. I was
clueless and when each one stated they had heard the PA for 50% off, I
really was baffled because any promotions for the salon were done by
me. I didn’t hear the PA because you tune out all of them after hearing
them for a long time. I honored the special pricing of course and actually
got quite a few regulars from that point, but I was still puzzled…

UNTIL…

I heard a sound in the distance that no matter how I tried, I could
not tune out, for years in fact…

MY KID!!! That little !@#$%^&, who was 16 at the time, picked up one
of the customer phones and did his little announcement!!!

Granted, it’s nothing like what happened at Wal-Mart, but it was a prank,
a stupid one that is pretty funny today. I got back at him, I gave him
a half price haircut…I cut half of it…poorly…

How would I punish him if he pulled the Wal-Mart stunt?

I’d put him in the middle of the store, do a PA over the loudspeaker
that could be heard outside and announce…

Would all black people come INTO the store…

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy St. patrick’s Day! This is the day where everyone is “a little
bit Irish”. The color green, indulging, or over-indulging in alcohol,
green beer specifically, shamrocks, etc are also associated with St.
Paddy’s day. The Chicago river is always tinted green and since
Flyboy had an overnight in Chicago, he got to see it from the air,
which he hasn’t had the chance to see in a while. Enjoy the day,
and be safe!

Every once in a while, a certain news story will give me cause to
not only write about it, but in this case, get mad at the person
in question. I have always been careful not to offend by attacking
or making fun of those with certain disabilities, afflictions or
body sizes…

All bets are off with this one…

The person in question’s story has been making the rounds the past
few days and every time I have seen it, I get not only mad, but sick
to my stomach…

This isn’t a column about those who are overweight, or suffer from
a disease that causes weight gain, this is a story about a FAT PIG
who is disgraceful and in my opinion, a lousy mother for reasons I
will give you…

Donna Simpson is a 42-year-old pile of blubber who tips the scales
at 600 pounds. You might think I’m already heartless and say, “poor
thing” after hearing how much she weighs. Better wait before saying
it…

She’s not sick, she’s not on a diet, she doesn’t have a glandular
problem, she WANTS to not only be fat, but get fatter! She wants
to become the fattest woman on record and has a goal of becoming
1,000 pounds!!! I kid you not…

She already has one record. The largest woman to give birth three
years ago when she was a “svelte” 520 pounds. Makes me wonder if
she knew she was pregnant, or if anyone else knew she was pregnant.
I could get really nasty and say what she thought was going to be
a bowel movement turned into a seven pound baby, probably less than
the bowel movement. I could be mean and say that, but I won’t. <grin>

She wants to get to 1,000 pounds, but claims it isn’t easy because
she has to chase her three year old and it keeps her weight down…

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

She wears an XXXXXXXL. I may have added or subtracted an X along
the way, but I don’t think I’ll get sued…

Shaking my head and smacking it at the same time…

It gets better. To keep her healthy appetite paid for, she runs a
website that people pay for to see her eat and “wash herself”. It
pays for her $750.00 weekly grocery bill. She shops while using a
mobility scooter. Not sure if it’s because she can’t walk too much
or if she doesn’t want to burn any excess calories. Yes, that was
sarcastic…

The father of her young daughter has been her partner for seven
years. They met on a dating site for plus-size people. He is a
self-confessed fat lover and weighs 150 pounds. He will not look
at a woman unless she weighs 300 pounds or more. Most women would love
a guy who doesn’t care about howmuch she weighs or gained a few pounds,
but good chance he has his own issues. I’ll assume he and the three year
old consume 50 bucks worth of food a week. She also has a 14-year-old
from a previous relationship…

Mzzzz, (ran out of X’s) Simpson insists she’s healthy and its not
an issue, I can’t imagine it won’t be an issue down the line. Her
favorite food is Sushi and I’m sure her idea of Sushi is gnawing
on a 1,000 pound Shark. (Not sarcastic, downright mean). She brags
she can eat 70 pieces of Sushi in one sitting. Her favorite thing
is doughnuts although she loves cakes and sweet things…

DUH!!!

As parents, we probably embarass our kids at a rate of a few times
a week, unintentionally most of the times, but can you imagine her
poor children? I wonder lots of things here. How well is she taking
care of her family? How clean is her home considering it doesn’t seem
like she wants to burn any calories?

Before you say she needs mental help, (which I wouldn’t ordinarilly
argue with), I would say in this case, it’s an excuse for not only
bad behavior, but dangerous behavior, disgusting behavior and poor
parental skills. Does she give her kids celery sticks while she’s
indulging in a Little Debbie bender? Can you even begin to imagine
how her 14-year-old feels and it’s his mental well being I would be
concerned about, not hers. Likewise for the three-year-old, who may
be “OK” right now, but will have a rough time when she enters school…

I’m truly sorry if I offended anyone during this tirade. The disgust
isn’t for overweight people, just this one. Makes me wish she’d fly
on Southwest Airlines, she’d have to buy a block of seats and Flyboy’s
profit sharing would increase…

And, because I’m still not done, allow me to apologize to Sea World
for my column a few weeks ago, I was wrong…

Whales obviously CAN be domesticated…

Did you all remember to change your clocks? If you didn’t, you’re
either early for something, or you remembered, but forgot the East
Coast is now three hours later than the West Coast, which means
someone, (not naming names), woke up VERY early this weekend…

Flyboy’s back is slowly, but surely mending. After taking the last
two weeks off, he had to get back in the cockpit over the weekend and
flew to Buffalo, New York, which is three hours later than Arizona
now that the time changed…Ahem

There’s nothing like a five hour plane ride to test out the ‘ole
back…

Friday night we had some “excitement” if you will, out here. Unfortunately,
it’s not the type of experience that is pleasant and this one had tragic
results…

Around 4 P.M. we heard the sound of helicopeters hovering and it seemed
like they were extremely close by. They were, they were above our house
in the back and flying pretty low. We stood on the patio and tried to
see if they were police or news helicopters. They were low enough to
see that they were news copters. We looked around to see if we could
see smoke in case it was a fire, and when I tell you they were “on top”
of our house, I’m saying we actually sniffed around to see if our own
place was going up in smoke! We couldn’t see anything, but knew something
big was going on…

Curiousity got the better of us and we got in the car to investigate,
because wherever the “story” was, we knew it had to be close by. We
drove out of our back gate and saw police 1/2 block away. As we drove
closer, the street we usually turn on to leave our area was blocked off
with police tape, not allowing any vehicles through. We U-turned it and
went back home, knowing whatever it was, would probably be on the 5:00
news…

Sadly, it was…

A man was doing some landscaping/excavating in his back yard. He was
using a Bobcat and didn’t notice his one-year-old and ran over him,
killing the child. I got sick to my stomach when I watched the news
and heard the details. I admit, at first,we wondered if it wasn’t a
domestic disturbance with a fatality and I will also admit, I wish it
had been that over the death of that baby. I know it was an accident
and I know it was a tragedy, but I will also admit that I found myself
feeling angry…

No one has really said why that baby was out there, whether he was
by himself, snuck out, being “watched” by his dad, his mom, etc.
But I ask you this…

Why wasn’t this baby being watched closer??? He was a BABY!!!

We live in a state where children drown in swimming pools at alarming
rates and it always seems that the person in charge of that child always
says, “I only turned away for a second”. I don’t buy it and I am NOT taking
anything away from the grieving parents because these things are tragic
accidents. But a “second”? A minute? Kids at any age need to be watched,
but I think you would agree that the younger the child, the more that
child needs to be watched. They are fast, they are sneaky, they are
inquisitive, and they are…our responsibility to keep them as safe as
humanly possible…

A Bobcat is loud, the father probably didn’t hear his child even though
the neighbor interviewed on TV said he heard the child scream out…

twice…

I feel for these parents immesely. I only hope that someone wasn’t on
the phone, computer, listening to an I-pod, etc. because no one can
convince me that a second is the time the person watching him turned
away, because it would have taken only a second to save him if that
was the amount of time needed…
And before I go, you may be wondering if I received any hate mail
regarding my column on men, divorce, and suicide. It’s one of those
good/bad deals. I didn’t receive any from that particular column. What
I DID get was a “nice” piece of mail that was a delayed response to a
column a few days before. I know some of you LOVE to see the banter when I

receive such mail and rather than waste too much space here, I’m including
the link to the blog that “features” not only the diatribe, but my response.
In case the link doesn’t work for some, the title of the blog thread is

“pushing the Envelope – Again”. If you’re bored, have a peek…

Da Link…

http://anythinggoes.gophercentral.com/2010/03/03/pushing-the-envelope-

again/comment-page-1/#comment-7483