Saturday, March 28, 2009

UPS does not support bullies!!!




Well done, UPS ... well done, indeed!!!

(from the 'Think Progress' website)

UPS Announces It Will Stop Advertising On Bill O’Reilly’s Show

In response to our Stop Supporting The O’Reilly Harassment Machine campaign, UPS told us yesterday that it was investigating whether to continue supporting O’Reilly’s show. “We are sensitive to the type of television programming where our messages and presence are associated and continually review choices to affect future decisions,” spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg told us.

Today UPS announced it will stop advertising on O’Reilly’s show. Here is the statement UPS emailed out just moments ago:

Thank you for sending an e-mail expressing concern about UPS advertising during the Bill O’Reilly show on FOX News. We do consider such comments as we review ad placement decisions which involve a variety of news, entertainment and sports programming. At this time, we have no plans to continue advertising during this show.

For the full story:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/27/ups-oreilly/

To join the protest:

http://thinkprogress.org/stop-oreilly-harassment/

Monday, March 16, 2009

Happy Birthday, Patty



I’m still wearing the cross that you gave me
I still remember how you tried to save me
I still remember your tender touch
Sometimes I miss you too much

Gone but not forgotten

I remember as I held your hand
God took you to his promised land
Sometimes I feel too far from home
Sometimes I feel like I’m all alone

Gone but not forgotten

I remember I could make you mad
And just as easily make you sad
But you saw something no one else could see
That kept your love and faith in me

Gone but not forgotten

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Monday, March 9, 2009

Time For A Roadtrip To Denver

OK ... it's stories like these that give me hope for mankind!!
Let's all raise a pint to Brad and Libby Birky !!





The first thing Brad Birky does is hand me an apron.

"Would you mind starting on soup duty?" he asks, guiding me toward two large industrial cookers near the front counter. "This is tomato corn bisque, and this is lentil."

The lunch rush is just starting at So All May Eat (SAME) Cafe, and soon I'm ladling steaming servings of soup into a mismatched collection of bowls and mugs. With me behind the counter are three more volunteers preparing pizza and dishing out salad and cookies to the growing line of customers, a cross-section of East Colfax Avenue foot traffic: latter-day flower children, sunburned day laborers, older women in librarian attire, laptop-toting students, professional bums, khaki-wearing businesspeople, vegan-core punker kids and the general miscellany of society that never appears in restaurant-industry demographics.

SAME has a menu that changes daily but always features food that's made from scratch and is largely organic. It has tables, chairs, bus bins, plants in the windows and overhead music (usually a mix of classic rock). But there's one thing SAME doesn't have: a cash register. There's no credit-card machine, no change drawer, no receipt book. That's because SAME doesn't have prices. Diners come in and order — some ask for just a cup of soup or a small slice of pizza, while others go for a whole meal, maybe even seconds if they're really hungry — and then pay what they want.

The concept is the exact opposite of Denver Restaurant Week, now under way, in which more than 200 restaurants in the metro area are offering a meal for the set price of $52.80 for two. DRW's goal is to entice diners to eat out more by removing the uncertainty of the final tab.

After only an hour behind the counter at SAME, I can pick out the new customers the minute they step in the door. Their eyes seek out numbers, first falling on the handwritten menu board, then drifting along the counter, searching for a printed menu with prices. Before puzzlement becomes full-blown confusion, Brad usually steps in.

"Is this your first time here?"

"Yes," says a young couple, him with a beard and her with an extra-long scarf. "We just moved into a place down the street."

"Okay," says Brad. "So we're a non-profit restaurant. We operate on a pay-what-you-want model. So we have no set prices. We let our customers pick what they want to eat and then pay afterward, however much they wish. If you can't pay anything, then we ask you to volunteer an hour helping in the cafe."

"Oh," both members of the couple reply. "Okay. Cool." They glance at each other to make sure it really is cool, then place their orders and make their drink selections from a choice of coffee, tea, iced tea or water. Brad hands each of them a small orange envelope with the number of their order.

After customers have eaten, they will put their payment in these envelopes, which then go through the slit of a small wooden box. That's the high technology upon which this business rests. The cafe will serve 55 people over a three-hour period today — a stat that multiplies out to roughly 15,000 customers a year. Some pay less than their share, some pay more, some pay nothing at all. And yet somehow it all works out.

Read more about it here:
http://www.westword.com/2009-02-26/news/same-cafe-the-restaurant-where-you-pay-what-you-can/

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Justin Townes Earle



It's no secret that the folks here at Brother's McC like their music with a little twang every now & then. And, I've had the pleasure of seeing Justin Townes Earle on a few occasions. And each time he delivered a fabulous show. With his latest quote in the Tennessean, I fully understand why. Not only are his songs great, his musicianship first rate - all tied together with an extremely entertaining delivery - his frame of mind is set perfectly when it comes to performing:

"There was a professional thing about the way that those guys performed on the Opry," he says. "No matter how drunk or depressed you were, you put your suit on, buttoned your shirt up, combed your hair and walked out onstage and you smiled. You put on the same show for everybody. That's something that's been lost. I think a lot of songwriters and musicians have allowed themselves in their head to have risen above everything. I make no mistake about the fact that the only reason I'm there is that the audience bought the ticket. I'm going to make sure that the people who pay my living are going to get their money's worth. And their money's worth is not in me staring at my shoes."

Read the entire article at:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090303/TUNEIN02/903030306/1005/ENTERTAINMENT

And check out his music at:
http://www.myspace.com/justintownesearle