My Hero

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When our kids were little they screamed all the time and when they screamed in restaurants or stores we'd get them to hush or take them outside to keep from annoying the other patrons.  We'd also use the opportunity to give them some in-depth instruction as to why screaming in a restaurant wasn't cool with us.  You can imagine that it annoys me to no end when other parents don't do the same, but sit there and let their kids rant and rave and run around like a bunch of banshees.  Having suffered through more of those little heathens' behavior than I care to remember I read this story and almost jumped out of my chair while screaming YESSSSSS!

The owner of a coastal restaurant is fed up with screaming children who bother other diners.

So Brenda Armes has posted signs at Olde Salty restaurant in Carolina Beach that read "Screaming children will not be tolerated." She told WECT-TV in Wilmington that the signs have worked by attracting more customers than they turn away…

If a child is screaming, Armes says, a restaurant employee will ask the parent to take the child outside. The child won't be asked to leave the restaurant for good.

His panhandling sign read: “Too ugly to prostitute. Spare some change.”

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What happens when you give panhandlers AmEx gift cards with $50 or $75 on them?

Over the past two weeks, I wandered Toronto’s downtown core with five prepaid Visa and MasterCard gift cards, in $50 and $75 denominations, waiting for people to ask for money.

 When they did, I asked them what they needed. A meal at a restaurant, groceries, a new pair of pants, they said. I handed out the cards and asked that they give them back when they’d finished shopping. I either waited at a coffee shop while they shopped or — in the case of those who could not buy what they needed nearby or were reticent about leaving their panhandling post — I said I’d return on another day to pick up the card. That’s when I would reveal that I was a journalist.

Some were unbelieving at first. All were grateful. Some declined the offer. Some who accepted didn’t come back, but those that did had stories to tell.

FYI, the headline of this post is a quote from the article.

Why are Residents of Charlotte Behaving Like Floridians?

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From the article:

The woman allegedly punched her husband in the face breaking his nose and causing injury to his eye.

Police said she then jumped out of the truck and walked away naked.  They say she later broke into the school which set off all kinds of alarms. 

The 58-year old woman is now in jail for assaulting her husband and claims she doesn't know how she ended up in the school naked. 

Only in Charlotte.

First Those Crazy Walking Catfish, and Now This

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Having spent roughly 30 years of my life living near the Potomac River I've spent many a day boating and swimming on the river.  (Side note: I've never owned a boat in my life and am a firm believer that boating is best enjoyed when someone else's boat is involved).  I'm having serious doubts about ever swimming in it again for two very good reasons: the presence of the Snakehead, a catfish that can literally walk across land and has rather large teeth, and the fact that an eight-foot bull shark has been caught in the river.   

If you need me you'll find me by the pool.

Smitty Gets AARPed

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I remember clearly the day my mother, who was in her 40s at the time, received her first mailing from AARP.  Let's just say she was none too pleased to be considered in the geriatric demographic.  I thought of that when I read this article about Smitty in Boom!  It's a very complimentary article, but being in your 40s and having your profile appear in a regular feature titled "Fifty & Fabulous" has to be a little disconcerting.

Moravian Potters

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From today's New York Times:

In North Carolina, 18th-century immigrant potters developed signature styles. Quakers from England preferred sunburst motifs on red backgrounds, while German Lutherans and Calvinists specialized in polka dots and stripes on black vessels. Moravians from Bohemia molded green flasks in turtle and owl forms and painted pomegranates and lilies to symbolize Jesus’ wounds and rebirth.

The products were all made near Greensboro. When they are shown together, “it’s going to be such a flood of pattern and color,” said Robert Hunter, a curator of “Art in Clay: Masterworks of North Carolina Earthenware,” now at the Milwaukee Art Museum…

About half of the 120 pieces are loans from Old Salem Museums and Gardens in Winston-Salem, N.C., near the sites of Moravian workshops.

Jersey Shore Explained

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If you ever wondered how one state could produce enough morons to cast a show like Jersey Shore you may have found your answer in a recent report from New Jersey's state Board of Education:

“The findings that result from the extensive data we collected and the portfolio information we reviewed is disturbing. While there were many struggling students whose teachers and counselors provided good evidence of work accomplished and a record of appropriate courses and local interventions, there were other students, unable ultimately to evidence even simple math skills, who were unimaginably recorded by their schools as succeeding in Algebra II or even Calculus. Equally dispiriting, there were students whose records showed failure after failure in Algebra I, or English I, who were never provided appropriate courses or interventions over the years. Finally, some students with the requisite skills had to call themselves because their school would not prepare an appeal, and we had parents in tears because they could not get anyone to review matters at the school. Clearly, for the sake of these children and their families, changes need to be made.”