"Good morning all; it's another beautiful day. Your attention, please. Here are two announcements. Ice cream is now on sale for your enjoyment. The flavor of the day is strawberry. Here is a warning: there is a possibility of light, intermittent showers later in the day. Thank you for your attention."The rain this morning filled my head with dreams and thoughts of comfort... making for an on-and-off nap and relaxation morning, with just a lot of nice white noise, thoughts of my beloved and the bass of Newt-purrs.
Yesterday was Francesco's last day of ownership on this place... Apparently he's keeping Frankie on a tight leash at one of his other properties. Also, it looks like Sammy was sucking power from Frankie's old apartment. As it stands now, I hope that I get a better caliber of Neighbors while I'm here (and when I relocate.) It's my hope that the rent doesn't jump too much while I shop. I have good hopes about the new LL.
I'm going to start putting CS on call more often now. I think it's time to "share the wealth", and make use of him as a resource. I think that he can start next week...Then he and I will alternate a bit... though I will still take the holidays, this go 'round. After New Years, it's going to be according to a more balanced schedule, though. With luck, we'll have another few technicians to take the phone work off of my hands for the most part. (I imagine I'll have one week a month, though, just to keep in practice and on top of things... but my large focus will be on programming and management.)
Rik pointed this out to me... City of Heroes is about to go beta!
Mild Scotto peeve - The term "go on" meaning "please continue" is two words... it's not "goon" A goon is a big mook, gorilla or thug. People that reply with "goon" after I've said something to them are insulting, not asking for more. I also have a poor tolerance for "netspeak". I don't mind "k" for "ok", but "u" for "you" causes me to prejudge the person on the other end of the entry or conversation as poorly educated or borderline dimwit. (not always a fair call, I know, but that's how my mind works.) That said, I don't mind typo folks that much.
Great Plain-talk Resource Page on Yeast Infections. going to cross-post to
Fly Paper airplanes in 3D (use the arrow keys)
Random old west factoid - Wild Bill Hickok was shot while holding "black aces and eights." This hand has come to be known as the "dead man's hand." The big trivia? The fifth card was the deuce of spades.
Ahh, sweet retrolounge, a compilation of old things. Among them: photographs, music (Vintage African music on vinyl!), toys, past technology, and advertising, including a collection of wonderful posters from France's Terrot bicycle company.
A newly discovered 425 million-year-old fossil boasts a lurid claim to fame - it has the oldest penis on record.
The five millimeter long crustacean, discovered by UK and US researchers, has been named Colymbosathon ecplecticos - derived from the Greek for "astounding swimmer with a large penis"...
'Trampled' Wal-Mart Shopper Has History Of Injury Claims
Report: Woman Has Filed 16 Previous Claims, 9 At Wal-Mart Stores
ORANGE CITY, Fla. -- A woman reported "trampled" last Friday by Wal-Mart shoppers desperate for $29.87 DVD players has a long history of claiming injuries from Wal-Marts and other businesses where she worked or shopped.
Patricia Vanlester, 41, was knocked unconscious and, her sister said, "trampled by a herd of elephants" by a stampede of shoppers reaching for DVD players that went on sale at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, according to Orange City police and the sister, Linda Ellzey.
The story was picked up by the Associated Press and carried in newspapers and other media as far away as Australia and China, an example -- some commentators have opined -- of American excess during the holiday shopping season.
An investigation by WKMG-Local 6 reveals Vanlester has filed 16 previous claims of injuries at Wal-Mart stores and other places she has shopped or worked, according to Wal-Mart, court files and state records. Her sister, who accompanied her Friday on the visit to Wal-Mart, has also filed a prior injury claim against Wal-Mart, with Vanlester as her witness, a company spokeswoman said yesterday.
Asked whether Vanlester's frequent injury claims might cast doubt on the veracity of her latest allegation, her attorney, David L. Sweat, of Port Orange, said, "No comment." He did stress, though, that Vanlester "has not filed a claim nor have we decided to file one" related to last week's incident.
Wal-Mart is reviewing store videotapes "as we look into the claim," spokeswoman Karen Burk said from the massive retailer's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. "We will investigate this claim as thoroughly as we have the other 10 claims that this customer and her sister have brought against our stores in the past."
Vanlester, who worked at Wal-Marts in Mt. Dora and Orange City in 1996 and 1997, declined comment through her mother, Barbara Rastellini, with whom she owns a home here.
Vanlester spent at least two days in Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach last weekend and today was back in the hospital "having a procedure done," Sweat said. He did not know if the procedure was related to the Wal-Mart incident.
Vanlester has for years complained of head, back, neck, leg or arm pain caused by slipping and falling, objects falling on her and other accidents, according to medical records in a public court file examined by WKMG-Local 6. In fact, her sister says she was wearing a neck brace at the time of last Friday's incident because of injuries from a years-old car accident.
According to state worker's compensation records and court files at the Volusia County courthouse in DeLand, here's some of what Vanlester has claimed over the years under some of her various legal last names: Rastellini, Findley, Crabtree, Platt and Vanlester.
- In 1978 and 1982, more than $400 in worker's compensation was paid after she claimed injuries from being struck by a falling object and from slipping and falling while working as a machine operator at a now-defunct manufacturing plant in DeLand.
- In 1984, she claimed a back sprain from working at a restaurant in Winter Haven, producing $356 in worker's compensation.
- In 1987, she filed an injury claim against Deltona Lanes, a Volusia County bowling alley, after claiming she slipped and fell while bowling there. In a 1993 sworn deposition in another case, Vanlester testified she received a cash settlement from the bowling alley claim, but did not recall the amount.
- In 1989, after her car ran off Interstate 4 in Volusia and overturned, she filed a claim against Big T Tire and Wheel Service, of Orange City, claiming the crash was caused by a tire blowout. She testified she received a cash settlement in that case, as well.
- In 1991, she claimed to have slipped on a puddle of hand lotion while shopping for a curling iron at an Orange City Walgreen's, causing "permanent injury, disability, disfigurement (and) mental anguish." She filed suit in 1993, but it was thrown out in January 1994 after a 10-minute hearing. Walgreen's argued no one at the store had seen any liquid on the floor, so it could not be liable for failing to clean it up.
- In 1995, Vanlester reported slipping and falling on liquid or grease while working in the meat department of a Eustis Publix, resulting in more than $1,200 in worker's compensation.
- In 1996, she claimed to have slipped and fallen while working at the layaway desk of a Mt. Dora Wal-Mart, leading to more than $600 in worker's compensation payments.
- In 1997, she claimed a back strain while working at the snack bar of an Orange City Wal-Mart that was replaced by the Wal-Mart Superstore where she claims to have been trampled last Friday.
Nor could she provide details on the injury claim Wal-Mart received from her sister, Ellzey, 48, of Inglis, Fla., except to say Vanlester was listed as a witness to the injury.
Ellzey said in an earlier interview that Wal-Mart should have foreseen the danger of unleashing shoppers on a huge bargain at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. "For several years, every time they do this, people get trampled," she said last week, adding, "I'm panicked. I'm afraid to go into any stores, especially Wal-Mart."
This week, Ellzey has not returned repeated calls seeking comment. But her widely-reported characterization of the incident last Friday as a trampling by a "herd of elephants" has provoked much comment around the world.
Syndicated columnist George Will used it to bemoan the death of Puritanism at the hand of Christmas excess, calling department stores "cathedrals of consumption." A Portland, Ore., Web site carried the story under the headline, "Capitalism's Greatest Hits."
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