Jeff's Stuff

I saw this and my jaw dropped! A couple in Richland County, South Carolina were expelled from school for "sexual misconduct". The reason for this YEAR LONG EXPULSION from school... They were kissing on the school bus.

Someone save us all from this egregious display! How can we have our kids doing something as vulgar as kissing on a school bus! This must be stopped at once. They clearly should be drawn and quartered. While we are at it, we might consider boiling them in oil and then maybe putting them each in prison for 20 or 30 years just for good measure.

What is the school district thinking? Oh, wait... I know. THEY AREN'T THINKING. Of course, when asked for comments from the media, they do what schools always do when they are pressed to rationalize their blunders... They cite privacy laws and say that they cannot comment. Clearly the students are talking, so the schools should be free to explain their actions. I'm sure that would be very amusing indeed.

What's next? Suspension for holding hands? Perhaps a detention for steeling a glance. Passing love notes? Hmmm that probably warrants the death penalty in Richland County. What a progressive place South Carolina must be!

In another example of how government likes to waste time and money, New Jersey is in the process of passing a resolution to officially apologize for its role in slavery.

Let me start off by saying that I am not a racist. I do not believe that any person is better than any other person by virtue of their race. I do not think slavery should be accepted or condoned by any person or government. I think it is important to study this period of our history so that practices of this nature are not allowed to happen again.

But would somebody please tell me why I should apologize for something I had nothing to do with? Why should my state apologize? I've never owned a slave? I've never benefited from slave labor. I've never been a slave. So why should an apology be made?

The thing that angers me about this is the fact that our government is wasting its time and resources in discussing it. Why is it an issue? No former slaves are still alive. No children of former slaves are still alive. Likewise, no slave owners are still alive and neither are their children. So who is apologizing? To whom?

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How does this sound to you? I'll buy something that I can afford to pay for. When I can't make the payments... I'll get you to pay for it. Doesn't that sound like an excellent idea? Well, some people in government think so. Also, many Americans think so too.

We've all heard about the "credit crisis" and "sub prime mortgages". Well, lenders and the government want to ease the burden on people trapped in adjustable-rate mortgages. Confused? Let me explain.

You see, when real estate was booming, everyone wanted to buy a new home. The trouble is, many of them couldn't afford to. Many of them had poor credit. These people were forced to purchase "sub prime mortgages". To make the payments more affordable (a lower monthly payment) they were offered adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs).

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Last night my wife and I went to see Le Nozze di Figaro at the Met. Not being much of an opera fan, I was enticed (read: bribed) into going with the promise of dinner at Aquavit. I have to say that both the dinner and the Opera were very enjoyable. However, neither the food nor the singing are the reason for this blog entry. Rather, three unusual events occurred during the course of the evening, and they are what compels me to write this morning.

It is not often that my wife, often very reserved, has to put her hand over her mouth to avoid laughing hysterically in public. But, when the woman at the next table managed somehow to set her sleeve on fire, that is exactly what happened. The woman's sweater, which from where I was sitting appeared to be rabbit, not only burned quite brightly and dramatically but also gave off an acrid smell of burning hair (hare?) which could be smelled throughout the restaurant.

The part where I began to laugh was when the woman was heard to say, "oh, I'm always setting myself on fire!"it was about this time when the waitstaff began to congregate behind me and, they could be heard pondering what to do about the situation. While the woman had promptly extinguished her sleeve, many patrons who had not seen the event could smell the odor and were probably concerned.

After a wonderful meal at Aquavit, we made our way over to Lincoln Center. Everything was going fine until the second act. This is when one of the characters onstage, who was supposed to be upset, knocked several items off the table. One of these objects (I could not tell what it was) struck a cellist in the head!

While the woman continued playing for a minute or two, she appeared to be rubbing her head frequently. Several minutes later when I looked back, she was gone. Apparently she did return after the intermission but only for a moment and was not seen for the rest of the performance.

The thing that I found most interesting about this was the fact that a large number of people (presumably those people that actually saw what happened) laughed hysterically. Something tells me that the cellist didn't think it so funny.

Finally the last oddity of the evening I found more disgusting than humorous. When paying for parking, a man who collected my money and was making change was having trouble separating bills. Instead of using a sponge and water, or even licking his fingers, he chose to spit on the bills. Each time he did it, and yes, he did it more than once, a huge blob of spittle landed on the bills. Needless to say, the first thing I did upon getting in the car was to wash my hands with about a quart of hand sanitizer!

So, the opera was entertaining. The meal was very tasty. The service was excellent. And still, the things I will remember from evening have nothing to do with the food nor the singing.

The other day a local Chinese restaurant did something illegal. It's not the first time that it's been done. It happens over and over again in this country and most people don't even know that it's a crime.

Saturday morning I went to put the letter in my mailbox. When I did, I discovered two menus for take-out Chinese restaurants stuffed in my mailbox. Now we've all had take-out menus shoved under doors, left on doorsteps, etc. However, did you know that putting anything in a mailbox is a federal crime? It is illegal to go into somebody else's mailbox for any reason, unless of course you work for the post office and are in the process of delivering the mail.

Clearly, the proprietor of the restaurant in question was trying to save some money by passing out these leaflets rather than paying the postage to mail them properly. I can understand this. Postage is expensive. Mailing lists are expensive. Still, that does not change the fact that what they did was a crime.

What makes this all the more serious is the fact that persons engaging in identity theft often use junk mail like this as a way to obtain personal information on their victims. It usually works like this: a person drives up to your mailbox, opens it and puts in a menu for a local restaurant or other junk mail. The trouble is, sometimes they take things out as well. It might be a Social Security check, it might be a bank statement, it might be a credit card bill, or any number of other things containing personal information.

Once the thief has this information, they are well on their way to making your identity their own. You will then spend countless hours and significant money trying to regain your identity and good credit.

The moral to the story is, if you see someone put something in your mailbox, confront them. Get their license number. Take a photograph if you have the chance. But be sure to take whatever they put in your mailbox along with any information you collect and pass it along to the postmaster of your local post office or contact the postal inspector.

Oh, and the Chinese restaurant that started this discussion... I tried to call them on the phone and politely asked them not to put things in my mailbox. I try to explain that it was illegal to do so. The woman who answered the phone refused to let me talk to anyone else. When I explained what happened, she hung up on me.