Ain’t A Lot … or Is It???

You find them everywhere – at strip malls, in parking lots, grocery and video stores, the corner newsstand -  people who cheat other people on a daily basis without so much as a second thought.  Nice enough folks; people who smile at other people, maybe even open a car door for an old lady.  But cheats nonetheless.

There I was, standing in line with my A & W rootbeer in-hand.  I don’t usually buy pop but it was on sale for just $.99 at the corner convenience store where I usually get my cappachino every morning.  I smiled up at Earl, the clerk that was always so friendly, courteous and helpful, as I plunked down my dollar bill.  “One dollar” he said, smiling back at me.  Into the register went my dollar bill.

For a split second I did one of those infernal inner debates we gals tend to have with ourselves on occaisions such as this one.  No, I’ll not say it; I decided against correcting him and went out the door to my car.  As I buckled my seatbelt, it hit me; I’d allowed him to cheat me.  The  little devil on my left shoulder argued with a “It’s only $.99.”

The horned dude in red sitting smugly there was correct, but right and wrong were what you gott from eating the “other tree” in the Garden of Eden … the Tree of the Knowledge of Good AND Evil.  So while he insinuated the insidious fact into my left ear, the other invisible guy  – the one tsitting  on my right shoulder (we’ll dress him in white – how novel) whispered “That’s right;  but how many times a day on how many items a day, EVERY DAY of the year, does this happen?” 

It occurred to me that the possibility of monetary gain that little corner store made on just that small, one cent cheat could be a very big deal.  Think about it. That soft drink was only one of many items in that store priced at just 99 cents.

I’m conservative, so I quickly figured it up:  three, 99 cent items sold in an hour = $.03/hour stolen change (I know it’s got to be lots more than that in a busy store like this one) … the store opens at 6:30 am and closes at 10 pm (that’s 15.5 hours/day) = about $.47/day, and this place is open all 365 days/year, which comes to about $169.72/year STOLEN FROM THE COMMUNITY that patronizes this place!  If they’d done it all in one day, it would make the 6 o’clock news!

You can do the math from here on in; take all the convenience stores in just your neck of the woods PLUS the grocery stores (some of which are open 24/7/365).  It’s a lot, trust me.

Just by counting up the stores right around where I live, say in a 2-mile radius (just off the top of my head it was a dozen or more…but I used 12 as my figure for this example), if this were just all that was finaggled from the unsuspecting, albeit allowing public, the theft amount would surpass $2036.70 a year!

You could get a little fanatical about it I suppose and then think about all the $1.99 items that the very same little sneaky trick is done with, but that boggles the mind and scrambles the little brains most of have left at the end of a busy day.
A measly 99 cents isn’t so measly when it comes to something like this …
so don’t you let it happen, again (I’m just sayin’).

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Not Really New

The “same-old, same-old” on the menu & in the flavor. ..NOT GOOD!

I live in Mansfield, Ohio -  a very well-known city due to its infamousy for dirty politics, crime-infested legalities and lynch-mob police tactics as depicted in “Rotten to the Core” by Martin Yant – a book I’ve just finished reading – that was published several years ago on this city’s mark in history.    While the town itself has many beautiful landmarks (Kingwood Center, Malibar Farms, Raemelton Therapeutic Riding Facility plus others), good-hearted people and a meeting place on Park Avenue West that is wonderful for those who love the Lord and seek His face, what it offers in flora, fauna  and friendship it seriously lacks in culinary cuisines.  This is my opinion, to which I’m entitled and allowed by law to speak, print and/or publicize ,so far as the Constitution goes (just thought I’d get my ‘disclaimer’ out of the way).

This morning, preparing for a busy and long day in-office without a break in sight, I opted to try a new diner on Park Avenue West named the “Tribute Diner” – the replacement of the former “Lucy’s Diner” .  While I’d tried “Lucy’s” once – and never went back for obvious reasons (canned sausage gravy, watered down orange juice, bitter-tasting coffee – again, just my opinion) I decided that this “new diner” was worth a shot.  I was wrong.

Allbeit the waitress there was friendly and nice, there were a mere 3-4 cars in the parking lot – something that I’d noticed with “Lucy’s”, as well.  But since it was almost 10 am and the breakfast “rush” was probably over, I hopped in to get a to-go order – - – tastebuds set for some biscuits and gravy, of course!

My first question after I smiled a “good morning” was “Is your sausage gravy homemade?”  Her answer was “No, but you can sample it if you like”.  That was a definite improvement, because when I’d ordered biscuits and gravy at the previous diner, I was presented with a plate of flat, dried-out biscuits covered in what appeared to be regurgitated cat food that, as I closed my eyes and took a snicky like, tasted as such, too.

Brought a little sample cup of gravy (about 1 tablespoon full), I tried to forget the diner episode eighteen months earlier (shortly before said diner went out of business) and took a taste.  Yep.  Canned sausage gravey, UN-deluxe.  I smiled a “no thank-you” and chose French Toast with an order of bacon for my to-go for the day.  By the way…2 slices of bacon does NOT a side order make.   But that’s for another time.   When my order was ready, I asked the waitress if she’d like a little suggestion on getting more butts in the seats on a more continual basis, and she said  “Sure!”

My hint was: “Wow ‘em with homemade sausage gravy”, to which she replied “A lot of people just love this gravy the way it is and have asked us not to change a thing!”  Although she smiled at me, I could tell she wasn’t very happy.  While it’s true you can’t please all of the people all of the time (Captain Penny’s good, ‘ol saying for those of you baby boomers who can remember him from T.V.), I believe you could please MOST of the people MOST of the time with a menu that truly offered home cooking…like apple pie actually MADE on-site and served warm with some hand-churned vanilla ice cream … biscuits and/or homemade bread in little baskets that begged you to eat more … and yes, definitely homemade sausage gravy!

Some would say this little diner would be too small for such grandiose thinking; too many butts begging for seats wouldn’t be cool.  I say “think Waffle House, folks”!  Their interior space is quite small – all of them are about the same sq. footage in size – and on Saturday and Sunday mornings you’ll wait in line to be seated.  WHY?????  Because the food is hot, fresh, extremely tasty and prepared right in front of you when ordered (a real plus for those who fear testy cooks and/or grumpy waitresses spitting in their food).  Now I can’t prove it, but I’m willing to guess by the chewy, dried out taste that my French toast was waiting for me before I ever sauntered in the door.

Do I go to a Waffle House and get homemade sausage gravy?  No; their specialty is waffles – DUH.  But their other menu offerings are fabulous, as well: pork chops, steaks, Burt’s chili, and of course those hashbrowns scattered, double smothered, chunked, topped and on and on you go.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t dream.

Look alive, Mansfield, Ohio!  Try a little creative ingenuity, imagination and old-fashioned home-cooked goodness, why don’t ya?  I’m certain there are more tastebuds than mine in town that aren’t so dead that they’d prefer REAL sausage gravy to the canned, cat food style.

**By the way…the closest Waffle House to Mansfield, Ohio is one down I 71 south towards Columbus or off I 77 N. on Whipple Ave. in North Canton..**

And yes…I’m still waiting for sausage gravy that’s NOT Bob Evan’s .  Surely we can do better in Mansfield than this, can’t we???

The bird is in the oven; follow ME on Twitter!

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Where Does Mozilla Get These Kool Names??

This Blogger’s Review of “Zemanta” … the Super Virtual Writing Assistant!

I no sooner finished my review of Scribefire, Mozilla’s awesome FireFox add-on to aid bloggers as they write, then I scurried down internet street to Zemanta to download that add-on – all for FREE, I’m happy to say!

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