Chartrand…

 What’s wrong with the good ‘ole names of yesteryear?

David Chartrand

Opal died the other day. So did Ethel and Maude. I didn’t know these three women and, for all I know, they didn’t know each other.

The three of them die every day — not the women, just their first names.

Women named Hazel, Gertrude, Edith and Ada Mae are are rapidly vanishing. They pass away along with Hortense, Edna and Wilma — women of the generation that gave us Herbert Hoover, aluminum outdoor furniture, the fox trot and air conditioning. It was the generation that gave its sons and daughters names that can only be described as extremely interesting.

Chartrand…

If the customer is always right then something’s wrong

David Chartrand

Last October, a server at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Kansas City found this note written on the back of a customer’s credit card receipt: “We cannot in good conscience tip you, for your homosexual lifestyle is an affront to GOD. Queers do not share in the wealth of GOD, and you will not share in ours.”

Last February, an Applebee’s customer in St Louis wrote this on a server receipt:  “I give God 10%, why do you get 18?”  And a table of St. Louis Red Lobster customers became irate at a waitress who filled their water glasses too often. One of them threw a water glass that struck the waitress in the head.

It may be time to beef up the security in our restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores. Better yet, it’s time for an overdue look at the theory that, “The customer is always right.”

1967 to 2014: Will you still need me?

Chuck Kurtz

Barring any unforeseen incidents, turning 64 is inevitable for everyone and although countless thousands of people have reached that milestone and countless more are destined to follow, somehow I never thought it would happen to me.

When The Beatles came out with the song of the same name in June of 1967 I was 17 at the time and looking forward to enjoying the summer prior to the start of my senior year at Olathe High School. Listening to that song and the mere thought of turning 64 years old, well, was nothing more than a nano-second flash through my brain and an assumption it would take a lifetime to reach.

Other views…

Kansas and public education funding

From the New York Times

By DAVID SCIARRA
and WADE HENDERSON

January 7, 2014

KANSAS, like every state, explicitly guarantees a free public education in its Constitution, affirming America’s founding belief that only an educated citizenry can preserve democracy and safeguard individual liberty and freedom.

And yet in recent years Kansas has become the epicenter of a new battle over the states’ obligation to adequately fund public education. Even though the state Constitution requires that it make “suitable provision” for financing public education, Gov. Sam Brownback and the Republican-led Legislature have made draconian cuts in school spending, leading to a lawsuit that now sits before the state Supreme Court.

An angry Dylan Ratigan

Worth watching and listening as news anchor Dylan Ratigan takes elected officials from both parties to task.

And, for the record, I completely agree with him.