Wow. I thought it was really pathetic 18 months ago when Radio Shack decided to do a mass layoff via email. It turns out that Target is even more bereft of clues.
OK, I can sort of understand the policy that says only certain people (presumably with special training) are allowed to confront shoplifters, but this one makes no sense. All of the “trusted people” were off work and a security guard sees a 16-year-old girl stealing a bottle of tequila. So he stopped her. Quietly. And he called her parents, who were grateful.
So how does Target react? They fired him! Doesn’t exactly give me the warm fuzzies about the company, y’know?
So here’s my suggestion:
1) Print out the newspaper column
2) Stick it in an envelope and mail to:
Target Corp.
Attn: Mr. Robert J. Ulrich, CEO
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Perhaps include a cover letter. Perhaps something along the lines of:

Dear Mr. Ulrich,
As you can see from the enclosed newspaper column, it would appear that some of your stores are being run by people who are woefully short of common sense. You might want to do something about that. A very public apology might be a good starting point.
In the meantime, I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.

It’ll cost you nothing more than a stamp and who knows? Perhaps they’ll decide to do the right thing.

So it seems that Deutsche Telekom (the parent company of T-Mobile) has sent a “Cease & Desist” order to Engadget Mobile (a technology blog which reviews all sorts of mobile gadgets).
So what did Engadget do to incur the wrath of the phone company? Well, apparently T-Mobile feels they’re the only ones allowed to use the color Magenta.
Sheesh! What a bunch of Maroons!
The image below comes from Engadget Editor Ryan Block and if you feel so inclined, the hex color code is #ed008c.

And yes, it’s possible that despite all claims to the contrary this is all a hoax. If so, I’m not alone in being fooled. But I can’t help thinking that this goes perfectly with my own brightly colored antics.
(Evidently T-Mobile has claimed ownership of the color magenta in the past.)

It’s been a bit more than five months since my requests that folks stop forwarding chain letters.  John was quick to echo the request.  And now, a columnist with The Saint Petersburg Times is likewise requesting that people stop forwarding junk to him.
Hopefully the movement will catch on.

DDMD recently noted concerns about the so-called “REAL ID” card.
(Normally I’d reply on his blog rather than posting something here, but that would require setting up a LiveJournal account and I need one more web site requiring a userid/password and nosy personal information in exactly the same way I need a hole in my head.)
Dave’s main concern is that people living overseas wouldn’t be able to get these licenses before the May ’08 deadline. That really shouldn’t be a problem since a valid US passport is one of the alternative IDs the TSA will accept and if you’re living overseas, odds are that you already have a passport. 🙂
What I personally find alarming about the REAL ID act is this little snippet from the article:

But Chertoff, as he revealed final details of the REAL ID Act, said that where a particular state doesn’t seek a waiver, its residents will have to use a passport or a newly created federal passport card if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.

So you can either get a state-issued passport in the form of the unfunded REAL ID driver’s license, or you can get a federally-provided passport card.
I recall learning in my High School Social Studies class how people in Russia and China were required to have special passports in order to travel within their own countries. How glorious to live in a country like the US where nonsensical rules like that would never be put it into place. (Friends who have immigrated from China and Russia are amazed to hear stories like that. They’ve never experienced anything of the sort. Not until now anyhow.)
So under the guise of “National Security”, Emperor Bush and pals are forcing the citizenry of the US to adopt a system that 25 years ago we were being told only an evil dictatorship would use.
I feel so much more secure now.
(Grrr. Now I’m all agitated. This is my second posting under the Rants category in just three days. I usually avoid writing about politics because all it accomplishes is to make me grumpy.)

I like my Honda Civic, it’s been a great little car, every bit as reliable as my old pickup, and the gas mileage (46 MPG) is nothing short of amazing. But I don’t think I’ll buy another one. The problem isn’t the car, it’s the company.
Because I drive a hybrid, I’m stuck going to the dealership for my oil changes. I’m certain pretty much anyone (even me) could do the oil change, and for quite a bit less than the $50-60 Honda charges, but the dealership is the only place I’ve been able to find the specific synthetic oil I need. (10W-30 is easy to find, even as a synthetic, but good luck finding 0W-20!!)
The problem is, for the past four years, the local dealership’s version of an “express oil change” has been a pretty consistent 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (I’ve more than once fell asleep waiting for them. One time, after 90 minutes, I discovered I’d forgotten to give them the key – they never noticed!) Couple that with completely failing to follow-through when I’ve left complaints for the service manager and it becomes clear that this is not an organization that’s overly concerned about customer satisfaction. (I’ve never received an apology, but they do send letters periodically suggesting I buy another car from them.)
A week or so back, the check engine light came on. Between hybrids being slightly different from most cars and the fact that it was almost time for another oil change, I decided to take my car to the dealership. Not the one here in town, but one just a mile or two from my office.
They repaired the car just fine, I’ll give them that much. Then they claimed to have had problems starting it and suggested I should buy a new battery. The only time I’ve had trouble starting the car was when I left the headlights on. Taking it to the dealership that morning, it started up no problem, and again with no difficulty when I picked it up in the evening. Still, I’m one of the vanishingly few people who know how to drive a manual transmission, so I wrote off the problem with not starting as someone who just wasn’t familiar with manual transmissions. Now I’m not so sure. Maybe they really were trying to sell an unneeded repair.
Running errands this morning, I noticed a yellow sticker inside the frame for the driver’s door. Unless I want to know the correct tire pressure, I don’t pay a lot of attention to doorframe stickers, but this one caught my eye. Taking a closer look, it turned out to be from the dealership that did the repairs, with the phone numbers for the sales and service departments. In short, they put an ad on my car.
I don’t wear T-shirts with company names on them. If Nike, Adidas, or some other apparel company wants me to wear an ad for their product, I feel they should at the very least give me the shirt for free. No way am I going to pay for someone else’s ad. And that’s essentially what’s happened here, the Honda dealership has put me in the position of paying for the “privilege” of having them slap an ad on my car.
If I were to go to the Honda dealership and put stickers on the cars in the lot (even on the doorframe), it’s a pretty safe bet that the police would become involved. So why is it OK for a Honda dealership to slap an ad on my car?
Update: Monday January 14.
The service manager at the dealership that put the ad on my car returned my call this morning. After his crew removed the sticker, he apologized and promised to put a note in the shop’s records to not do that again. But because the ad wasn’t visible to the general public, he doesn’t think they did anything wrong.
But he didn’t argue that it would be wrong for me to treat their cars the same way.