A bit of a continuation…

…of my last post. I ranted a whole lot about how Dunkin’ Donuts would lose customers if they allowed gambling or any kind…now, how about Home Depot?

I personally loathe stores like Lowe’s and home Depot. I only visit them when it is absolutely necessary, and, once again, I don’t want to be stuck in line longer than needed because people are busy with scratch tickets. I mean, these home improvement stores are supposed to sell things like snow shovels, floor tiling, bathroom vanities, power tools, and the like. I just want to go in there, pick out what I want, pay, and get out. Why have lottery there at all, unless Home Depot wants to drive all of their customers away to Sears of Lowe’s or some other place.

I really hope that this lottery thing NEVER gets approved!

Oh, please….NO!

In all of its infinite wisdom, the Massachusetts State Lottery wants to start selling scratch tickets in places like Dunkin’ Donuts, CVS drugstores, and Home Depot.  Story here.

I am vehemently against this.  It’s bad enough being stuck in line at other stores, behind people who think that the place is a gambling parlor, and not a store where other people might want to actually buy stuff.  There are always these people who buy a ton of scratch tickets, taking forever to pick which ones, and then scratch them off there in the store.  Then, if they win, they are once again taking up the cashier’s (and other customers’) time to redeem the tickets, usually for more tickets.

I used to work at an independent drug store that sold the whole range of lottery tickets.  So I speak from experience.  We had several regulars who used the place as a gambling parlor…this one guy used to hang out in the store for hours, scratching away at at least $100 worth of tickets each day.  He was forever butting in front of the line of customers who were buying regular store merchandise, wanting to redeem any tickets that won.

If I had my way, no one would be allowed to stay in the store and scratch off the tickets.  But the owner of the store said no, I could not do that  The only thing I could do was to make him go off to the side, away from my register, and scratch.  And to make him get in the back of the line if he wanted more tickets.  I have always felt that customers who are in the store to buy regular store merchandise should take precedence over those who  are just there to play the lottery.  Some stores do have such a policy, but most don’t.

I would imagine that a place like Dunkin’ Donuts would lose a LOT of customers if they started selling lottery tickets.  Most of their customers are there to grab a QUICK donut and coffee on the way to work, school, wherever.  These people do not want to be made to wait longer because of being stuck behind people who are buying tons of scratch tickets.  It’s bad enough to be stuck behind someone who is taking forever to decide which donut they want! If Dunkin’ Donuts starts turning into a gambling parlor, their REAL customers will likely go and get their morning coffee elsewhere.  There is no shortage of other places to get coffee and a muffin…Honeydew Donuts, Starbucks, etc…that do NOT sell lottery tickets.

I don’t know how to say this without coming off as a snob, so I’ll just come out and say it…many people who spend a lot of time in a store buying and scratching these tickets are kind of skeevy.  I’m not talking about people who might buy one of two tickets along with their regular purchase, and then leave the store.  No, I’m talking about people like that guy at the drugstore where I used to work.  He WAS skeevy.  He obviously didn’t bathe or wash his clothes much, because he stunk to high heaven.  He drove an ancient-assed truck that was literally held together with duct tape.  And he seldom bought anything but lottery tickets in our store, except for the occasional pack of generic cigarettes.  And he wasn’t a very nice person…he would always bark orders at me to take care of him, while I was with other customers…you’d think he owned the place or something.

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All of this political talk…

…sure can give me a migraine. So I won’t talk about it anymore…for now. So there! :p
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So, I’ll talk about other headache-inducing stuff instead. Is anyone else as sick as I am of seeing news stories about floopin’ Christmas shopping crap? I’m sure anyone who works in retail, or who has ever worked in retail, as a peon, is sitting crying in their beers over how badly the poor widdle wetawers did this year. Yeah, like the CEOs of these places are gonna die of starvation! Give me a flippin’ break already!

Retail peons get paid crappy wages no matter how much the store makes, and endure the same abuse year after year. I did my time in retail…I feel for the worker bees. but not for the higher-ups who are whining about not making enough money.

I think I’d almost rather go back to taking about politics!

Christmas is over…

…and the 2008 Presidential race is back to business as usual. With the New Hamsphire primaries coming up in less than two weeks, we’re seeing six million ads a day for the candidates.

I enjoy the various commentaries on FOX-25 News, especially on the morning news, with guys like VB, the Heavy Hitters, Tolman & Gray and the Monday Morning Quarterbacks. FOX-25 also has a political reporters, Joe Battenfeld. I like how theses people all have different opinions, makes for some good discussion.

I’ve still not decided how I will vote when the Massachusetts primaries roll around. I’m not even sure when this takes place yet…sometime in February, I’m guessing? I’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure. Anyhoo, a lot of how I vote will depend on who’s still standing after Iowa and New Hampshire.

I’m in a position where I can vote in whichever primary I choose, since I’m registered as “unenrolled”. I don’t want to be affiliated with any political party. So, if I want to vote in the Democratic primary, say, I have to register as a Dem on the way into the polls, and I can go back to unenrolled on the way out.

I can tell you right now that any ultra-religious type will NOT get my vote. We had enough of that with Duhbya, thank you very much! Religious beliefs do NOT belong in government! I don’t care what religion someone is on their own time, but cramming their beliefs down everyone else’s throats is just wrong.

Apparently, Mike Huckabee is the worst of the bunch with it comes to religion. I don’t know if that was a cross behind him in his Christmas commercial, and I really don’t care. I know what he’s about and I won’t vote for him. And Mitt Romney, who was less annoying when he first became governor of Massachusetts, really started to bother me when he flip-flopped on issues such as a woman’s right to choose.

But with that commercial where he talked about how you need faith to have freedom, that was it for me. What an insult to non-believers, and to people like me who aren’t sure. We don’t deserve freedom? What a crock!

Mitt needs to shut up, take a colon cleanse, and go back to running businesses.

If I were to vote Republican, I’d go for Rudy, but maybe McCain isn’t too bad. But as of now, I’m leaning towards voting Democrat, for either Obama or Hillary. I will never vote for John Edwards now, because I saw on the news a few months ago that his universal health care plan would REQUIRE all Americans to go to the doctor once a year for a checkup. Anyone who’s read my main blog for any length of time knows how I feel about going to the doctor.  I don’t do it.

I am in favor of universal health care, but as long as it doesn’t force people to do what they don’t want to do.  Hillary’s plan would let people like us, who already have insurance through an mnployer, to keep it if we want to.  Her plan would benefit lower income people who don’t have insurance for whatever reason.  But I don’t think she is going to make them go to the doctor, either, not if they don’t want to.  She just wants affordable health care to be there for anyone who wants or needs it.

But I like what I’ve seen of Barack Obama, as well.  It’s going to be a tough decision to make!

What’s in a name?

It seems that today, many parents are looking for creative names for their offspring. There are tons of baby name sites out there. I came across one that has a list of Massachusetts-related names for boys and girls.

Some of the names are kind of out there…for instance, you may be asking for trouble if you name a kid “Cotton”. You just KNOW that there will be joking from the other kids at school about Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail. But some of the other names are okay, even though some of them might be better as middle names.

I guess I just like old-fashioned type names, that have some sort of tradition or meaning to them.

These names are much better than the crazy stuff that some parents come up with. I’ve known people who worked as maternity ward nurses and schoolteachers. They say they’ve seen some outlandish names on birth certificates and class lists, stuff like “pumpkin apple cornucopia” or “creatine ethyl ester“.

One of the worst ones I heard…and I am NOT making this one up…was a girl named “Amazing Love”. Those were her first and middle names. What was this kid’s mother smoking at the time? With a name like that, unless she changes it when she’s older, I foresee a career in the adult entertainment industry, if you know what I mean!

Parents need to realize that their kids are going to grow up, go to school, and get jobs. They should ask themselves how the name they are thinking of will look on a college application or resume.

Just my humble opinion!