Your feets too big

How great does it feel to have your feet hang of the edge of the bed? I wish I could bottle that feeling and sell it.

Monday with Hayley Mills: CANDY

Young and successful Hayley Mills is the subject of the May 1965 issue of the sensationalizing gossip magazine Whisper. Within the article the magazine asks the question if Hayley will be chosen to star in the film adaptation of the satirical psychedelic sex romp Candy, based on the 1958 novel  by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. I can't tell if this is Hayley Mills' representatives planting a story for the publicity, producers doing the same and pushing for her to be considered for the role or if this article is just using her name to create wagging tongues because of her fresh-faced innocent image. Personally, I'm glad Hayley never appeared in the film that resulted. Many films of the 1960s and 1970s suffered from the excesses and egos of the makers, resulting in movies which appeared to have been created in sputtering fits of drug-fueled mania.

The article itself has a few nice publicity shots that I have not seen elsewhere and even with the inexpensive black and white reproduction values of the era are still nice to look at.

I'm not familiar how straight the book told a story but the film was bonkers and all over the place. Candy is now one of those productions that is considered a "cult classic" though I am in the camp of those who think the term is applied too broadly for many bad efforts. Fresh off several dramas and comedies, Hayley Mills was undoubtedly searching for a more adult role at the time as a year later in 1966 she appeared as a newlywed experiencing marital problems in The Family Way.

 

Admittedly, at the time audiences had a hard time accepting the grown up actress in a dramatic role with a mature theme. People were too used to Hayley as a star of Disney and being cast in other roles as the adorable cute one, forgetting her earlier strong work in Tiger Bay and Whistle Down the Wind. Yet as an inoffensive comedy/drama about a troubled couple the choice of The Family Way was superior than if she appeared in a disjointed bizarre sex farce like Candy. Experiencing the trailer for Candy I cringe to think what that movie as it was made would have done to her career.

 Yes, it was definitely for the best someone else got the role.

Oh say can you see my eyes if you can then my hair's too short

A sign warning long-haired customers they will be sent to the back of the line. Reportedly from a Singapore post office, late 1960s.

From the anti-establishment humor magazine Apple Pie (1975).

Terry Austin draws for Algol (1977)

Most people are familiar with the work of illustrator Terry Austin from his tenure in the comic book industry, most notable in the classic X-Men titles. Not many people are aware of or familiar with his other illustration work for magazines and books such as the contributions to the 1978 printing of I, Alien by J. Michael Reeves.

Illustration for Richard Lupoff's Book Week column published in Algol #17 (Winter 1977).

Monday with Hayley Mills: Hayley and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Dress

I am in love with this photo and the dress worn by actress Hayley Mills. The setting, the pose, the entire scene is beautiful. I'm glad I can share it with any Hayley Mills fans who wander by.

About the Poster:

I am pretty sure that this over-sized fold out poster of actress Hayley Mills is from the Japanese celebrity magazine Eiga Joho (April 1966). The publication notes state this poster is included in the issue but my copy does not contain it. It was probably stripped out long ago for resale. Cutting out and removing unique ads, articles and photos is a common practice among those who resell ephemera, something I personally am conflicted about. One one hand items are being preserved that would otherwise vanish from age and neglect but on the other books and magazines are rendered almost useless for collection even as they are sold as complete. In some instances this may not be on purpose.

I have a number of vintage books where the best part was cut out and those sellers, I believe, were not aware that someone had removed pages before they received it. Once a magazine or book is stripped of a few interesting pages what is left is probably sold or donated. These will typically eventually end up at thrift stores or sold cheaply elsewhere. Much of the time luck and detective work is required to determine if old publications have been stripped. Sometimes it is obvious, like careless cuts and tears. Find an old copy of LIFE with no ads remaining in it and you know something is wrong. Sometimes it is harder to suss out as the vandal will only selectively remove pages that do not interfere with the flow of content and would otherwise be detected. A lot of times this is done to ensure multiple sales from one item.

On occasion the only way to know if some publications have been stripped of content is from comparison of copies of other vintage periodicals. Comparing copies to the other is a way to discover that pages might be missing or an issue is otherwise damaged. The best resource for this is badly aged or degraded copies. Many times the contents will remain intact because there is no resale value of a page because it is unattractive. Unfortunately some older magazines do not have page numbers, content pages or publication listings anywhere. It is up to the individual collector to create a record of the content and all too often information is repeatedly transcribed in error. This is common particularly when the references are from amateur crowd-sourced information posted to the internet. My personal copy of Eiga Joho has been through the hands of many sellers before I obtained it and each listing reported it was undamaged and complete.


I had seen the poster on the internet long ago but it existed only as a tiny thumbnail in the cache of a seller's defunct website. It was enough to know it existed so I made repeated efforts to locate it. I thought I found one at last several years ago in a magazine but when it arrived the poster was not included. Crushing, but I did not blame the seller. The magazine itself is a delight otherwise and contains a short but cute Hayley Mills article. After some searching and patience I found the Hayley Mills poster early last year, sold separate from any magazine. I scanned and filed it until now.

I don't read Japanese so this could be a poster originally sold on it's own, part of some other periodical or fan club collection. The pristine condition has me speculate it spent several decades safe in the pages of a magazine that was properly stored. Hayley is wearing the same dress as on the cover of Eiga Joho and both the magazine and poster are listed as from April 1966. So barring a translation of the Japanese on the poster that would prove otherwise, I believe this is the "bonus" fold out poster of Hayley Mills the issue of Eiga Joho references in the publication notes.

Hayley Mills on the cover of Eiga Joho (April 1966)

Further browsing:Everything Hayley Mills at LTMS
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The Terrible Planet

Text stories were often included in comic books in the era of distribution by news stands and mail to qualify for less expensive postal rates. While the prose entries were for the most part no better or worse than the sequential art in the same issues The Terrible Planet credited to Allen Anders stands out. A short two-pager this story has a theme that will appear in such works as The Ship Who Sang, Man-Plus, A Plague of Demons and many, many others. The climax and decision of the protagonist at the end is surprising for the era outside of denser science fiction works.

From Fantastic Worlds #6 (November 1952).

Happy Birthday to Hayley Mills!

Number One Biggest Hayley Mills fan here with some Hayley Facts™!

• Today in 1946 Hayley Mills was born! Acknowledge!

• Her birth was heralded by a triple rainbow in the sky and the emergence of two new stars!

•  Team Hayley Mills created and sent an awesome birthday card to Hayley and not to brag but my personal message is the bestest one! It's in the upper right corner!

"Lot's of people are thinking of you on your birthday; I just wanted to let you know I'm one of them. Thanks for all the wonderful moments and hope you gift us with many more. Happy Birthday Hayley! From Your Biggest Fan, Sleestak ."

• The Hayley Mills Celebratory Complex is open 25/8 for tours and visitations (the extra hour is in there because of Hayley awesomeness, she is that magical)! Take the Virtual Tour and see!

• Introducing Hayley Mills! Her first uncredited screen appearance! Click it now!

Awwwwwwww

•  A Hayley Mills paper doll set from Summer Magic! You know you want it!

•  And last but by no means least....Everything Hayley at LTMS!

Super Surprise! The next Monday with Hayley Mills will feature a rare, hardly ever seen photo of Hayley!  Stay tuned!

Death and Taxes (1948) by David Dodge

Death and Taxes (1948) by David Dodge, Cover art by Rudolph Belarski.

Guilty of Love in the First Degree

I could be a Love-Crime Detective. Lots of career opportunities there. Have to turn down some jobs though. "I'm sorry miss, I can't take your case. That's a clear instance of Thought-Crime. I don't do those. May I suggest installing parental-control software on your husband's computer?"

From Famous Fantastic Mysteries (August 1942).

Hello, Larry

Larry Niven, 1974. Check the patch and is that a 3-eyed smiley button?

How many years is it now?

 

C'mon, people! Check your calendars! You know what day it is, right? I don't want to hear about adults falling for pranks all day on the news. Don't be so gullible.

People's Popular Monthly (March 1922)

People's Popular Monthly (March 1922). Art by William Herman Schmedtgen.

The Last Easter Bunny

Original one sheet movie poster for the 1964 holiday thriller featuring Hayley Mills, The Last Easter Bunny.

"You'll SHUDDER when you discover 

where HAYLEY hid her EGGS!"

Have a great Space Easter!

Marvel Science Fiction Cover Caption Contest

Marvel Science Fiction is a science fiction magazine that existed for a very short publication run  near the end of the pulp era. For a time pulps were changing into the SF/Fantasy anthologies that would populate racks but they had a rough time of it. Published by Martin Goodman it was the descendent of Marvel Science Stories, Marvel Tales and Marvel Stories. 

Stating that sales and longevity of SF & Fantasy magazines in the 1950s was fair to middling is an understatement. Often the lurid covers, in an attempt to attract male readers, had the mixed result of catching a few sales but because of mature themes sales were probably lost because the books were considered for older readers and kept out of reach of younger buyers (at least as far as parental oversight was concerned).

One of the ways a limited promotional budget was stretched was to offer reader contests with prizes. Marvel Science Fiction held a Cover Caption Contest that encouraged readers to send in funny or pertinent one-liners to accompany the cover. The prizes from MSF consisted of original scripts and artwork, a mind-boggling thing today. It was an early form of the lolcat meme phenomenon, or to coin a phrase, the beginning of the lolpulp. Until relatively recently publishers considered art for such publications as pulps and comic books entirely disposable and outside of the initial cost to the creator ultimately worthless. This was an extension of the final product likewise being thought of as worthless after initial sale. Few artists ever felt this way but that was the nature of the work for hire business model. Unless the artist had a previous deal then art was often thrown out, given away to visitors or employees or re-purposed by the publisher with no thought to the cultural value. So giving away scripts or art made perfect financial sense. Outside of postage there would be little added expense to the publisher.

The results of the MSF caption contest had responses that were not the height of wit or insight. But attempts at seriousness or humor aside the great draw of winning the contest were the prizes. The first prize was a script from the issue and believe it or not, original art was the second prize. Don't get me wrong, an original script by Fritz Leiber would be nice but a spot illustration by Frank R. Paul or Hannes Bok would be killer. I already own a few Paul illustrated pulps and they are becoming increasingly difficult to find in both good condition and in my price range. FYI, one of the most expensive vintage comics that exists has a Frank R. Paul cover, that of Marvel Comics #1 (1939). Amazing how perception has changed over the years that a script would be preferred over artwork. I'd say this change was mostly due to the monetary worth and cache of an original Hannes Bok over a typed script.


The first caption contest shown here is for the August 1951 issue and the publisher is behind the idea enough to devote a full page to it. The winning entries are variations of "They Went Thataway" and "Guided Tour". Serviceable enough. Simple enough that if I read that I'd be mailing in a thousand variations myself confident that I could put the previous winners to shame and reap all the prizes. As it turned out wit, talent and hard work wasn't really necessary.

The next contest is to caption a classic Hannes Bok good girl art cover of a world where gravity fails. And that is where things go south in several figurative ways. The November issue of Marvel Science Fiction was the last one before the publisher would turn to other, presumably less expensive efforts with a higher rate of return, namely Atlas Comics, which would one day revive the Marvel name.

The winning entries of  "Another Law repealed?" and "Paging Mr. Newton" are okay but not great and belated kudos to the winners. But in particular the last four entries were particularly uninspired and generate untold amounts of jealousy in me decades later.

The winning 3rd-6th place submitted the despairingly the lame "HUH?",  "HEY!" and a tie for "OOPS!" which depresses me no end. Unbelievably these entries were awarded original art. The illustrations in this issue are credited to Harry Harrison (who did illustrations before becoming an author), the legendary Frank R. Paul, Hannes Bok and veteran pulp contributor Ames. If these pieces still exist somewhere think how important to art and pulp history they would be that if in a museum or library collection.

It is nearly impossible to say if the winners did or did not receive their prizes since MSF ceased publication with this issue. If they did then the people who won are some fortunate few and proof that the world is indeed topsy-turvey.

Monday With Hayley Mills: Waiting For the Future

It has been promised that someday, perhaps in my lifetime, we will be able to carry upon our person devices that contain all the movies Hayley Mills has been in so she can be available at a moment's notice for soothing viewing pleasure as required by law. The future can not come fast enough.

Fan-Designed Fashions For Patsy Walker Paper Doll

Paper Doll feature from Patsy and Hedy #51 (Mar 1957)

Patsy Walker is a Golden Age teen humor and romance comic book Marvel Comics character that first appeared in magazines in the mid-1940s. Patsy later made a Silver Age appearance long after she was retired as a character and was later revived as the super-heroine Hellcat in 1976.

Art by this gang I assume: Pencils: Al Hartley, Inks: Al Hartley, Colors: Stan Goldberg, Letters: Artie Simek. Might be some Colletta in there but I can't say for sure as there is no issue info on who created this.

BONUS! Mix-and-Match Bunty's Electronic Brain of Atomic Death for more paper doll fun!

Show your work.

Knot Problemo

I need to quit sitting at the same table when I eat here. That knot in the wood repeatedly catches my eye and I keep thinking I dropped some food. Moving to the other side of the booth won't work either. I won't see it but I'll know it is there.

Comic Book Page

Not everything in a comic book is fictional, not even in romance comics! From the October 1951 romance comic title Boy Meets Girl #16 the song a happy, in love Margo is singing to herself as she walks home is from the real world tune All My Love, popularized by singer Patti Page in 1950.

While her most famous hit was the 1950 cover of  Tennessee Waltz Patti had a long and successful career in entertainment. She recently passed away last January at the age of 85, leaving behind an impressive musical legacy.

That's pretty racist considering it's 2012

Time to re-brand.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!

Eye want you to drive safe, eat too much and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Dolsotbab and Nurunji

Dolsotbab is a traditional Korean way of cooking rice in a very hot stone pot. The heat of the stone rapidly cooks a single serving of  rice. Nurunji is a way to prepare and eat the sometimes burnt but definitely over-cooked rice that remains adhered to the sides of the pot.

Foodies might be all into this for the experience but for me it reveals a bit of social engineering.

Preparation of rice in non-stick pots or steam cookers is a fairly modern addition to the kitchen. Regular pots are still a bit messy, prone to overheat and so are only a slight advance over the old stone bowls heated on a fire. Making another dish to add to the meal out of the scorched remains of the rice is frugal and common sense solution to scarce resources.

Just because the rice may be browned or burnt is no reason to waste it. The preparation of Nurinji requires one to add water to the stone pot, which boils up, softening the burnt rice. The diner then has to put in some work to scrape the scorched rice off the sides and bottom, giving them not only a hot soup but a extra few ounces of rice. Basically the diner does a lot of the pre-soak and cleaning of the bowl which anyone who regularly cleans burnt food off of a pan knows is a bit of a chore. Diners probably get an added bit of minerals in the diet from scraped stone though in the modern era the downside is ingesting aluminum from the flatware flaked off while scraping.

While in the past Nurunji would be created and eaten out of necessity out of being mindful of not being wasteful in an environment where stored food spoiled quickly or attracted pests it has since become a luxury process as a side dish to the modern Korean dining experience.

2012 Limited Edition Undercover Wing-Nut Optimus Prime action figure set

Prod. #KRZE: 2012 Limited Edition Undercover Wing-Nut Optimus Prime action figure set

From the Manufacturer: For 5000 years, noble Optimus Prime has led the Autobots in defending their friends against the Decepticon empire. To Optimus Prime nothing is more important than preparing for the final battle between good and evil! To that end the Autobot leader has ensured he is ready for any situation, from open combat to stealthy covert operations! Optimus Prime has undergone his most dangerous and awesome transformation yet, to that of a semi-truck promoting Christian jingoism!

No one, including the evil forces of Megatron, will suspect that the savior of humanity hides in this ubiquitous, easily ignored semi-truck. Like the real world “Jesus Christ Is Not A Swear Word” trucks that are typically over-looked by millions of people daily, you can have hours of play fooling Megatron by hiding Optimus Prime in plain sight by parking on highway overpasses and in the lots of bankrupt shopping malls! But unlike most of the followers of useless Bronze age platitudes and oppressive belief systems Optimus Prime is always ready for action! Beware, evil! Optimus Prime and his Autobots don’t act on faith, THEY ACT!

Accessories included:

• (1) Crate of guns 
• (1) Bible (mint condition, never read)
•  (1) Box of limited edition Decepticon authentic tithing envelopes 
• (1) Pad of Accounts Receivable billing receipts to charge church-goers for the truck rental.

I SAID I was sorry

Here's one that has been in the back of my mind for years: In Legion of Super Heroes v4 #15 from December 1990, Kono is depicted wearing a jacket with the design  “I said I was sorry” design on the back. There is an added emphasis in the statement which seems to reveal some frustration that someone isn't accepting an offered apology.

I thought it might be Kono's smart-ass apology to one of the Legionnaires, Kent Shakespeare, that she photographed in the nude without his knowledge, but that happened in the books much later in issue #20.

Was it nothing but a fashion statement, the scene shown out of sequence with issue #20 or a message from the creative team to fans or some person?

A deer in the headlights

I guess we should be grateful for small mercies in that these backwards, obstructionist, mendacious and pathetic politicians never learn. It's a form of Darwinism that they keep taking themselves out of the running by speaking and speaking and even more speaking of subjects they are too stupid to realize they are not smart enough to address. 

Pity them a bit. Technology more advanced than a steam engine seams to baffle them.  Politicians, particularly the kind of repressive, oppressive types that embrace magical thinking (what little there is) fear of science and of all things being equal seem unable to grasp a certain basic fundamental of being on a campaign trail. One of which being: What you say can come back to you.

Almost every person evolves a bit during their lifetimes. Experiences and exposure to things change you, or should. So it is okay if a belief changes over time or is tempered by maturity and progression. People may over time come to have a different opinion on some things than they did in the past. The problem arises when those views change swiftly depending upon the environment or venue as in cases where a politician 'flip-flops'. Or when those views and beliefs in spite of all evidence to the contrary will not evolve or progress beyond what they perceive as the norm in their insular frightened little world.


What the ridiculous samples of humanity, the Akins, Mourdocks and even the Romneys don't seem to understand is that their statements, once uttered, do not fade away. They haven't for years upon years. The time of campaigning when aspirants to office stood on the caboose of a train and speechified to a gaggle of miners in Kentucky is long gone. Politicians are not able to say one thing then fire up the boiler, leave the miners in their coal dust and ten miles distant vomit an entirely different set of promises to farmers knowing the disparate groups will never meet and compare notes.

Say one thing, assert another, promise something, dissemble another and millions, not a gathering of a few dozen, will know about it within minutes. They become caught like a deer  in the headlights of a on-rushing truck. The speech to a group of the like-minded will without fail will be shown to the world at large to be regressive, disgusting and exclusionary. Hypocrisy will be revealed, stupidity exposed, guilt under a harsh spotlight. These distinguished public servants are gobsmacked when the waiters at their millionaire's luncheon spread their vile opinions via the internet. They are stunned when the waiters dare not to be deaf or blind robots but people with feelings and opinions. The politician who belittles more than half the nation in one generalizing sweep cannot comprehend that the message they spew in from of a camera will be seen by everyone who cares to look. In spite of what some media outlets attempt there is no technological or magical filter that ensures the public message reaches only the eyes and ears of the similarly minded.

Their fear of loss of money or power is almost comical. Almost inevitably the politician, shown to what a pathetic specimen they really are then back-pedals, performs an insincere 'flip-flop' or worse, reinforces through stupid false pride their previous statements. The system, however flawed, crashes against them hurting them, often fatally where it will cause the most damage. The campaign chest. Money dries up. Next comes influence and support as the other deer not yet foolish enough to make the dash from forest's edge shrink away from the exposing lights. They bide their time, waiting for the road to clear, not understanding that every time they make the mad run out from cover the car is almost there, racing down the road to meet them.

So it is somewhat good these politicians do not learn from their mistakes. The more they speak the more they are outed and marginalized by the rational population. Eventually even those that do not believe in allowing people to thrive, those that adhere to some disgusting cult of suffering, those who desire nothing more than money and influence and sell principles and people to get it will have to change or pretend to. Each time they spew some ridiculous bigoted or ignorant rant the world reacts by healing and improves by relegating them to irrelevancy. Slowly, steadily, eventually they will fade away to be replaced by better persons who actually believe in liberty and equality.

Footprints in the Sand

Footprints as adapted by me for the cover of Wonder Woman #13 (Dec 2012) published by DC Comics, with original art by Cliff Chiang. I really liked how the tweaking of that poem worked out for this. Wonder Woman appeals to one of her patron Gods then is enlightened when she realizes she doesn’t really need them. As a character and symbol Wonder Woman kicks ass.

And for those that don’t get the point and think Hera abandoned her, the lesson is: when Wonder Woman didn’t need any help she left Hera behind. Maybe they missed the ‘stood on your own’ part. There is also a reference to 'panels of her life' and not 'scenes' because comic book character. This isn't a jab at Christianity or religion either. This is, however.

Issue Credits: Story: Brian Azarello, Art: Tony Akins & Dan Green, Colors: Matthew Wilson, Letters: Jared K. Fletcher.

Fun in the Sun

In case you were unawares it is Jenna Russel who performs the sadly short yet nifty song 'Fun in the Sun' for the end credits of the UK Sci-Fi comedy series Red Dwarf.  Undoubtedly many have heard the tune but few have probably ever connected the person to who sings the song. 

Yes, this is on my mp3 player.

Monday with Hayley Mills: Summer Magic player piano LP

From Disney Hipster Blog, Summer Magic Player Piano Sing-A-Long.

As far as representing  Hayley Mills this LP cover makes only the barest attempt to represent the cast in caricature but the above link has a nice video of Hayley Mills singing Flitterin'.

Grocery Store Artifact: Probable Causes

This is a follow up to the post Before donating at the register.

Went in to work last week to see the signs threatening employees that don't ask for donations were all removed. They were removed by a directive from the corporate level. The store manager informed everyone that they are no longer allowed to post signs offering free items for not begging for donations or run raffles. Their are a few likely reasons I can speculate about for this but I doubt it is because the company is taking pity on the cashiers. In last month's big training session the district manager spent 30 minutes impressing upon everyone to get as much in donations as possible because it is a good thing to do and you can make a difference. The 'or else' was inferred but unspoken though we were told a charming story of how the least-donation earning employee in the district in danger of being terminated turned her prospects around and is now a shining example of a 'can do' attitude.

Here are some of the reasons I can think of why the signs were disposed of:

Compliance: One scenario is that the law prohibits it or the union has finally responded to what must be a huge flood of grievances from workers. People have been terminated, censured and demoted because they are not bringing in enough in customer donations. A manager would be pretty stupid to put that cause as a reason for termination so they dissemble or fabricate other reasons. An investigation would reveal a disturbing trend and restore the job but unfortunately even with a union at their side many young employees give up knowing they can get a job for same pay with less work somewhere else.

Cost: Since most stores that give away free items have no way to account for them being disbursed (this is a trail many managers would be uncomfortable being tracked and accounted for). The amount of shrink, or rather product loss, on whatever is being given to the customer (2 liter soda, reusable shopping bag, etc) must be prohibitive company-wide. For example, a large retail chain used to give away boxes and books of matches for free. That is, until a few years ago someone saw the annual losses in matches sales and how much the store was giving away and put a halt to it. Likewise someone may have noticed how much the company was losing in bags and soda and made the connections to the timing of donation drives.

Complaints: At least once per hour I receive a complaint from a customer about us asking for donations. Some display a good nature, some resigned. A few are hostile. At more than 4000 customers a day per store imagine the complaints nationwide not just at the store level but those getting phoned in and via internet messaging to the corporate level. This is least likely reason some of the pressure is off the cashiers. Unlike other complaints about service, cleanliness and diversity of products so important is the goal of fund-raising that a company will commiserate with a complaint but they would never, ever stop their attempts to collect for a cause.

Public Perception: Increasingly, particularly due to the fraud and public relations disasters of the last several years charities are under ever more scrutiny as to what they do with their collected funds. Calls for clarity and transparency particularly during rough economic times of charities are increasingly frequent. Charity drives that pledge 'up to' 2 million in donations, yet regularly collect 7-9 million during the drive are being asked to account for where the surplus is going. Some companies are forthcoming with where the money goes and unsurprisingly some are very resistant to the idea of letting the people who gave them money become aware of where it all went. Is most of it going to cure a disease or to buy a sitting board member a Porsche or paying for fact-finding junkets to vacation resorts? Some companies that support causes, the most popular of which is for breast cancer awareness, use a marketing tactic known as 'pinkwashing'.  This is when a company has minimal involvement or is not actually participating in the cause but for marketing purposes gives the impression through imagery and color scheme that it does. I am also wary of any charity that states they are promoting 'awareness' and 'education' and not directly making the promotion of medical science and a cure their primary mission. Depending on the charity  the terms 'awareness' and 'education' could mean nothing more than pink ribbons on things to buy and may not be in their purview or mission to promote such basic preventive services as mammograms or a healthy diet.

Conflict of interest: This is the most likely cause for removing the signage on the registers and relieving the pressure on the cashiers. Among other things how much a store collects in donations has a direct bearing on a store manager's evaluation. Lesser known is that most companies also attach a financial incentive to performance. Bonuses for top-performing managers can be very lucrative. No single aspect of managing a store can ensure a large bonus and they are evaluated on a whole but politics coupled with success in desired 'sexy' areas lead to positive evaluations and then a bigger bonus.

Some time ago in the company I worked for the financial incentive for the cashier that collected the most for a donation drive was removed. It was eliminated because of the discovery that company-wide many would add a donation to the customer's bill without their knowledge. It would have been a good idea to stop the manager incentive at the same time but the corporate mind-set is that unless threatened the workers will not ask and the managers won't put in the effort unless they make it worth their while.


Managers are notorious for gaming the system to their advantage. Nothing wrong with that. It is expected they do the job the best of your ability by being smarter, faster and more competent than your peers. But there is a line you don't cross. They often collect donations prior to the official start date and continue to collect after the drive is completed. Funds from one drive may be diverted to the cause more favored by their direct superiors. Found money or errors in the store's favor, which is supposed to be applied to the total sales for the day will be instead added to the donation total (such funds are recorded separately and returned if someone claims the money or requests a refund, we just don't let it sit loose in a drawer). They hold raffles and do other stunts designed to create an unfair advantage over other stores.

Since the signs were removed and word came down that raffles and other donation attempts are no longer allowed then it is highly probable that enough managers made noise about their disadvantages compared to other managers. They may have felt they were marginalized or punished for following the rules. With the added aspect of employees grievances the issue may have been brought to someone's attention. It is probably that in the interest of ethics, keeping the peace and fairness put a stop to the practice which made life a bit easier for the cashiers. For now.

Truth is, requesting donations over and over sometimes in the same order bears good and positive results. Undoubtedly there will be a marked drop in donations merely due to many of the cashiers no longer feeling they have to request one from each and every customer. If that happens I speculate that the pressure on the workers will return multiplied many times over but be presented in terms that are not so public and will have to do more with an employees' general attitude and overall job performance.

Update: According to memos the new Breast Cancer partner (one that is more focused on an actual cure, not 'awareness') allied with the store did not want employees forced to ask for donations under threat of penalties so the practice was halted. It was not reintroduced in the ensuing donation drives since. 

Spread the truth about voting rights

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! Spread the true word about voting & ID requirements: Get your info from your local Voting Registrar, not from billboards and television spots paid for by special interests and hate groups.

Monday with hayley Mills: Mary Marvel, Hayley Mills' 2nd Biggest Fan

From Formerly Knows As The Justice league #2 (Oct 2003),

Supergod: The Need for God Explained

right click to expand your mind

In these three pages from 2011's collected Supergod, Warren Ellis and team explains humanity's primitive, irrational, silly, self-destructive and self-limiting need to create deities and believe in superstition. Personally I am glad we are slowly yet surely outgrowing that horrific aspect of our continued existence.

Grocery Store Artifact: How haste makes waste that affects your food

Thinking of eating at your local deli? Work spaces looks nice and clean, staff looks appropriately groomed, caring and conscientious? Well, before you do take a glance at the phone and any register behind the counter. Regardless of the service and appearance of everything else if the secondary equipment is unclean then in spite of how everything else appears they may be indicative of a greater problem in the service area. In the delicatessen the grime on peripheral equipment consists at the least of a slurry of meat and vegetable oils, fats and other bits of food and chemicals transferred by touch and deposited via the air from venting ovens, fry vats and steam tables. In short the surfaces of any neglected food prep area equipment are a constant and unhealthy vector for germs.

Much of this is directly due to the economy and the way it shapes retail establishment operations. Certainly, any business can be prone too cutting corners on safety. Not all eating establishments fall prey to this mentality but even those who truly care about quality and their products can unintentionally create an environment where food safety is less than a primary concern. When sales are depressed then the number of employees available in store departments are reduced. More work is given to less and less staff without an increase in the time allowed for completing the extra tasks. Budgets for staffing is tight and few stores can afford to have any department work at a loss. This leads to a constant atmosphere of playing catch up with the wrong decisions to let certain things go by the wayside in an attempt to stay current with basic duties. Haste in this instance, makes waste that could end up in the food chain.

Speed and trying to keep up with the basic demands of the department are not the only cause of  sub-standard work areas but most of the problems in an otherwise fine environment stem from time pressures causing stress on the employees. Likewise depending on where you shop basic food prep areas and hygiene may be unfavorable because people are sometimes lazy, slovenly or careless. That is why most cities have entire departments dedicated to training, certification, sanitation, inspection and rating of eating establishments.

As a minimum all the equipment whether it is used in food prep or not should be as clean and presentable as possible. Dirty phones and cash registers in the service area, normally not directly related to food prep, may reveal that the staff could be under pressure to serve customers at the expense of department safety. Primarily this may be because of employees feeling they are unable to fully complete their tasks while ensuring they assist customers as close to possible to the end of the business day without occurring any overtime or going past their scheduled shift. Rightly or wrongly employees often feel that they do not have the time to clean anything but the basic equipment before they are forced to sign out from their shift and depart. When the department is closed for the day the equipment, main and peripheral areas should be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. If the peripheral areas are not being fully cleaned then the department is not being properly managed. This negatively affects the consumer.


This is not alarmist. I've worked in a deli and have often observed people absentmindedly touching a handle, cleaning rag, phone and etc. while properly wearing gloves but failing to change them before helping another customer. While California is stricter regarding food prep standards my deli employment experience was in Maryland. The region is which I worked did not require food workers to obtain training and certifications in handling food safely and instead relied on an employer's sometimes inadequate and poorly executed on-the-job training programs. In Maryland all my food safety was learned from co-workers and in total consisted of about an hour of common-sense tips of how to clean equipment, cut and handle food over a the span of a week or so while I worked.

The majority of what I learned about food safety wasn't volunteered and there were no set training tasks to be completed, goals to be met or a curriculum. If I didn't specifically ask about something I wasn't told how to do it or how to care for it. For instance, a probe is used to check temperatures on the products in the case to ensure they will not spoil. Employees regularly inserted the probe into the products one after the other. They did this because no one had ever told them that using the same probe was a bad practice and caused transference of one product between another. FYI: You place the probe between the bricks of cheese, not poke into the product.

Since some products were cooked, some raw, some older than others and some were still sealed this violated basic hygiene and caused cross-contamination within an entire stock on a nearly daily basis (The proper way to check the temperatures was to place the probe between each item in the case). In contrast, a class provided by a vendor of popular deli meats and cheeses to learn how to properly present and sell their product comprised of a classroom course of 8 hours a day for 5 days (employees that failed the course were demoted to bagging clerk or terminated, depending on their pay scale going in). While that was Maryland human nature is much the same everywhere and there are problems common wherever you are. Being a manager is guiding human nature into other better directions to achieve goals.


Staff working in rough economic times are often not scheduled past closing for the purposes of cleaning or other duties. For example, if the deli closes at 10 pm then odds are the employees are also scheduled so that their shift is over at about the same time. The closing workers are often forced to clean and prepare the deli for the next day near the end of  the shift and hope no customers arrive which would cause them to clean the equipment again and accrue overtime or work past their schedule. This would violate the budget for allotted hours and cause them to be punished.

The deli staff may also be under instructions by management that for a positive customer service experience and in the hopes of one extra sale before closing they must assist any customer that arrives regardless of the time or how near the end of shift a staff member may be. During periods of inadequate staffing employees from other departments may volunteer or be tasked to assist departments that prepare food. Some regions have laws that do not require employees to become a certified food handler unless they work in a food prep area for a set number of days. That means a company can use any employee they choose to assist a deli or meat and seafood department as long as they don't work there too many consecutive days in a row. Think about that. 

In the interests of speed and getting their tasks done it is not unheard of for family members or friends of the time-pressured employee to pitch in and help them finish their duties. Non-employees helping is unsafe in many ways. Not being employees they may be injured, are a liability and are not trained or certified in proper hygiene as required by law. I have witnessed this occurring in both Maryland and California (and as a manager have taken steps to halt the practice when I discovered it). A favored restaurant in Southern California I used to frequent recently lost their A-Rating Health Certification directly due to repeated violations concerning non-employed family members without food handler certifications working in the kitchen.


Haste to avoid getting censured or terminated for unauthorized overtime or working past the posted schedule can lead to poorly cleaned work areas and equipment. The night shift employees do what they can as time permits but sometimes leave a lot of work to be done by the opening crew. Common wisdom would be that the morning shift will have more employees available but this is not always the case. Even if staffed with a full complement the opening shift employees then however unintentionally perpetuates the cycle by being too busy with customers, morning food preparation and cooking to adequately clean up what was left undone from the day before. In between customers and the regular duties they then are forced to catch up with work from the previous day all while attempting to maintain standards during the busy day. Also, many establishments have a set time limit on how long a customer's order will take or the item is free. This adds even more pressure to the employee to cut corners in the interest of speed to avoid losing a sale or a customer.

Compounding the problem the prevailing Management theory at most places is if the current employees are unable to do a thorough job in a timely and efficient manner then the next new-hire will. The result of all these factors is employees letting what is considered 'unimportant' in the routine operation of a deli slide in the interests of speed and getting done for the day. Unrealistic performance goals and being under-staffed is a reason there is so much turn-over of employees in chain delicatessens.

High turn-over means that a good proportion of the staff is always new. A common complaint from customers is that no one in the deli seems to know what they are doing. This is due in large part to the rapid exit of knowledgeable employees who can receive the same wages for far less work and stress elsewhere and the steep learning curve of the new deli staff. In my experience it is not uncommon to see a new hire left alone on their first day in the deli because the scheduling budget will not provide for additional workers.

There is no excuse other than personal rationalization for a dirty food preparation area or equipment but the the reality is that this cycle will continue until such time as employees are under less pressure, assigned dedicated cleaning time that is uninterrupted by other tasks, regardless of if they exceed their scheduled shift with or without accruing overtime.

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