Tag Archives: WTF?

Complete and utter lunacy, folks.

More “What Where They Thinking?” News

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This future MacArthur Fellows Grant winner comes to us courtesy of the TribLocal.

Man arrested after idling van full of kids crashes into cars

A 30-year old Chicago man was arrested and charged with endangering the life and health of a child after a carload of kids were left in an unattended minivan that crashed into two other cars while he was in a restaurant ordering food, Downers Grove police said Thursday.

According to police, the vehicle was running and in gear while five children ranging in age from 5 to 11 were inside the van, police said.

Richard Lopez Jr., of the 4200 block of Richmond Avenue, was arrested on the misdemeanor charge on Jan. 22 at 7:45 p.m., outside a restaurant in the 1300 block of Butterfield Road shortly after the incident occurred, police said.

According to police, a witness had tried to jump in the van to prevent it from striking the two cars, but to no avail.

Lopez has a court date scheduled for Feb. 23 at the DuPage County Court House. He was released by police after his arrest.

story originally posted Brian Slodysko, TribLocal reporter

MUM’s in the Trib!

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Since I know all of you follow Rachel, you should be aware that she interviewed with the Trib’s Problem Solver about the numerous instances of people not receiving their coupon inserts from both stores and home-delivery; there are also cases reported of people getting damaged inserts.  CW has a running post with emails from the Trib customer service people, basically clueless about customer service, showing no inclination to resolve this problem.  In fact, the final emails basically pat themselves on the back for their wonderful service!  My take?  Dollars to doughnuts the entire Chicago Trib customer service center is based in a low-budget country and Erik and Mary are not their real names.

Problem Solver’s solution?  Ask a Trib flunky.  who obviously takes her cues from Erik and Mary…

The following is the comment I posted on the site.  Please go to the Trib and leave your comments/experiences.  This is a serious issue to coupon users, since, let’s face it, who actually reads the Trib print copy?

I’ve followed this “saga” on the message boards and have read the string of emails sent by the Trib customer service people to Steve, every one of them using different reasons why he didn’t get his inserts.  In fact, the final emails seem to exist merely to pat themselves on the back!  Specific locations and zip codes miss the inserts in stores, while another location’s home-delivered papers have missing or damaged ones.  The Trib had been previously provided with all this information, yet they continue to just pass the buck along by saying it’s only a small number of papers involved and they all have different reasons for not having the inserts. And your acceptance of the Trib flunky’s explanation…pah.

So Jon, I’ve always enjoyed reading your column and how you’ve helped others, but in this case?  Your paycheck = your lack of follow-through…

Women, you have to at least move!

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I file this under:  Beware of on-line dating services.

An Ohio man faces three counts each of rape and criminal deviate conduct after he allegedly had sex with the corpse of a southern Indiana woman.

Fifty-five-year-old Richard Sanden of Geneva, Ohio, also was charged Thursday with abuse of a corpse and a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession.

Sanden has told authorities he didn’t realize 48-year-old Rebecca Whitehead of Washington was dead when he had sex with her corpse Jan. 8 in Washington, about 50 miles northeast of Evansville. The Washington Times-Herald reports investigators have reviewed a videotape of the alleged acts.

How Whitehead died hasn’t been determined yet. The newspaper says the Daviess County coroner was still awaiting toxicology results.

Sanden is being held on $500,000 bond in the Daviess County Jail in Washington.

want to eliminate marijuana use?  Market it as a gateway drug to necrophilia…

Just shoot me now, please

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In Las Vegas, they just crowned a 17 year old Nebraska girl as the 2011 Miss America beauty pageant – – – oh, wait, that’s not right.  “It’s the world’s largest provider of scholarships for young women.”  yeah, i’d say very young women.  short Trib article here.

(Teresa) Scanlan won after strutting in a black bikini and a white evening gown, playing “White Water Chopped Sticks” on piano and telling the audience that when it comes to Wikileaks, security should come before public access to government information.

“You know when it came to that situation it was actually based on espionage, and when it comes to the security of our nation, we have to focus on security first and then people’s right to know, because it’s so important that everybody who’s in our borders is safe and so we can’t let things like that happen and they must be handled properly,” she said.

try parsing that sentence, peeps

Sponsored, in large part by, I kid you not, DSW… only good thing is that no one under pervy age watches…

All the news that fits, we print

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And yet another cautionary tale of why we don’t have people take nude photos of us unless we’re holding a movie script…

Authorities: Calif. man used Facebook to hack women’s e-mails, distribute personal photos

Click here for the Tribune article.  And yes, this is very scary, considering he had had no prior relationship nor even any contact with these women before he hacked their accounts …

Husband Model 1 – Update

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So I left the house for under two hours to run some deals.  DH decides to grill the sausages I got from Jewel…come home to Italian charcoal.  And naturally, it’s the fault of all the fat in the sausage (and not the fat in his head).

Without lube, please

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I’m basically gonna steal Rachel’s eloquent (that’s thief-speak for nyah, nyah, nyah) post about what the Illinois legislature is passing in an attempt to squeeze a couple of more nickels from those least able to hire lobbyists, ’cause we all know that that’s what it’s really all about. And here I first insert my starting to be favorite jpg and then Rachel (and one does not generally impact the other…)

I’ve mentioned a number of times that this blog is made possible partially because I receive income from the affiliate links on the site. (For example: If I link to an item on Amazon, and you buy that item through my link, I receive a percentage of your purchase as a commission.)Note by me:  Rachel’s small commission in no way affects the price you pay.

Well, the Illinois Senate today passed Senate Amendment 3 to HB 3659, which basically says that: If a sale at an Internet retailer originates through an affiliate link on an Illinois-based blog or website, that sale will be charged 6.25% Illinois sales tax — regardless of whether the retailer has a physical presence in Illinois. (For example — if and when this bill goes into effect in July: If I link to an item on Amazon, and you buy an item through that link, you pay 6.25% sales tax. If you go directly to Amazon and don’t click through my link? No sales tax.) The bill is now headed to the governor’s office for his signature.

You can read two brief articles on this here and here. In the couple of states that have passed similar laws, large online retailers have simply dropped all of their affiliate programs in that state. I’ve been receiving dire email warnings from all of my major affiliate programs warning of the same thing if this bill becomes law here. For instance, here’s the email I received from Amazon today:

Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program:

We regret to inform you that the Illinois state legislature has passed an unconstitutional tax collection scheme that, if signed by Governor Quinn, would leave Amazon.com little choice but to end its relationships with Illinois-based Associates. You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of Illinois…

Please note that this not an immediate termination notice and you are still a valued participant in the Amazon Associates Program. But if the governor signs this bill, we will need to terminate the participation of all Illinois residents in the Associates Program. After that point, we will no longer pay any advertising fees for sales referred to amazon.com, endless.com and smallparts.com nor will we accept new applications for the Associates Program from Illinois residents.

The unfortunate consequences of this legislation on Illinois residents like you were explained to the legislature, including Senate and House leadership, as well as to the governor’s staff.

Over a dozen other states have considered essentially identical legislation but have rejected these proposals largely because of the adverse impact on their states’ residents.

Governor Quinn’s office may be reached here.

We thank you for being part of the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you continued success in the future.

Sincerely,

Amazon.com

Me here again.  As I said, I received the same email.  Will this help the state’s fiscal failures?  Nah, as Rachel says, you and Uncle Pete will just click directly to Amazon.  IL won’t see an additional dime of sales revenue, but will certainly lose the income tax revenue generated by those same sales.  Another way you, as online savers, will suffer?  Is it likely that any blogger will be able to devote significant time and energy to searching out the best deals on any site when there’s no payoff?  Well, there goes my .50 from coupons.com.  So unless you can shoot us all next week’s winning lottery numbers, this entire industry is gonna shut down in Illinois

since I own this site for a few more years, the only tried and true method for making money online is porn and I’ve already got the dog butts ….

Supervalu settles Chicago bias case for $3.2M

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So the 110 employees each get just under $29,000.

Craig Herkert, the former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive who took the top job last year at Eden Prairie-based Supervalu, received a pay package totaling nearly $10.8 million for the fiscal year ending in February.

you do the math….

Save money on groceries!

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For those of you beyond disappointed in my site, I offer this email I received (in my Hotmail inbox – surprise!) as a peace offering:

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The strategies in this ebook work whether you live in Lisle, IL, Boise, ID or Richmond, VA!
And you won’t cut corners on your food. It’s alot easier than you think to get the same great-tasting, food you already buy … for a lot less money.

For a short time over the Christmas Holidays I’m offering this system for just $19. I don’t know how long I can keep it this low, though.
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P.S. Don’t miss out on this. There are a few extra bonuses if you hurry.
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