Sale Fail

I've always had a sneaking suspicion that stores raise their prices before a sale.  That way, when something goes on "sale," it's close to or even slightly above the regular price.  Up until recently, it was just a suspicion.  However, a recent trip to the mall has confirmed it.

I stopped by a store the other day which I never go into, but they had big SALE signs everywhere.  I have nothing against this particular store or their clothes, they have some cute stuff, but nothing there looks good on me.  On this particular day, I decided to check out a table of t-shirts.  Here is where I lost all respect for this store (or what little respect I had).  The pre-printed tag on the shirts said the price was $19.95.  Every single shirt had a new price sticker that said $24.95.  And of course, there was a 25% off sign on the table.  In case you don't want to do the math, by raising the price before marking the shirt on sale, the store is giving you a $1.24 discount instead of a $4.99 discount.

The funny part about this was the price sticker was placed directly above the original price.  And by directly above, I mean that the two prices were stacked, so what you saw when you picked it up was:

$24.95  <-- sticker
$19.95  <-- original price

I can just hear the manager telling an employee to put new prices on the shirts.  I imagine it going something like this:

Manager: I need you to change the prices on those shirts over there.  The price should be $24.95.  Take this price gun and change it, and be sure that you put the new price directly above the old price.
Employee: Um, ok.  (thinking to himself)  Why does he want the new price directly above the old price?  Wouldn't it make more sense to put the new price on top of the old price, so that you can't see both?  But if I question him I might get written up.  Oh well, if that's what he wants, that's what I'm going to do.  I can't get in trouble for following directions even if they don't make sense, right?

Karma

There's a man in my complex who feeds stray cats.  This bothers me for various reasons:

• It's a violation of the lease.  The lease clearly spells out that your are not supposed to feed stray animals so as not to attract more.
• Management knows who is feeding the cats, but does nothing about it.  The man is an attorney who threatened to sue if management actually enforces the lease.  It's people like him, people who believe they're entitled to do whatever they want by threatening lawsuits, that are what's wrong with our legal system.
• Stray cats are not taken care of.  By this I mean that they do not have flea or tick prevention treatments, they are not spayed or neutered, nobody cleans up after them, etc.  This means my dog can pick up fleas, ticks, and diseases from relieving herself the same place they do, not to mention the kittens that show up occasionally.

Last week, karma kicked in.  I was talking to one of my neighbors yesterday who happens to live a few doors down from this man.  Apparently, he took a step up from feeding the cats to trying to domesticate them.  Somebody should have told him this was a very bad idea.  Let's just say he used to have a lot of really nice leather furniture.  I know it's evil, but I couldn't help but smile.

Confusing Street Signs

I spend Labor Day weekend with family and had a great time.  Unfortunately, every time I go visit family, it means I eventually have to drive back home.  Tonight I found myself driving with a ton of people who were obviously very confused about the meaning of two particular street signs: "Left Lane for Passing Only" and "Slower Traffic Keep Right."  I personally think they're pretty self-explanatory -- MOVE!!

I understand if you want to drive 50 mph in a 70 mph zone.  I understand if you like to drive slower once the sun goes down.  I even understand that sometimes you get on a freeway to avoid ONE traffic light.  I'm really ok with all of these, but why do you insist on driving in the left lane at the exact same speed as the car in the right lane?  Why is it that you insist on blocking all traffic behind you for miles? 

Anyways, in honor of those oh-so-confusing street signs, here are some truly confusing signs from around the web:

Photos by: www.majorlycool.com, www.thatsweird.net, jalopnik.com, strangepictures.net

Family Time Gone Wrong

I hadn't been out to play tennis in a while, so this evening I grabbed my stuff and headed out to the neighborhood courts.  There are two courts, and I decided to hit against the wall on one of the courts.  On the other court, there was a father playing tennis with his two sons, probably around 7 and 11 years old.  At first, I thought it was really great that they were out playing together.  None of them were very good, but they looked like they were having a good time. 

Initially it reminded me of playing with my dad when I was younger, and then it didn't.  After the younger boy got tired or bored or whatever, the father and older boy decided to play a set.  That's when I decided that the father was teaching his son some bad lessons, and I'm not talking about tennis -- I've never seen a father cheat on his own child as much as this father did.  Either this father did not know the rules of tennis (which is entirely possible), or he just really didn't want to lose to an 11-year-old (which is more likely). 

Here's a quick run-down of what I saw in the course of about 15 minutes:

• A ball double-bounced on the father's side.  The son saw it and called it, but the father said he was wrong and refused to give him the point.
• Two balls hit by the son that were clearly in and were called out by the father.  Both were in by more than a foot.
• A ball hit by the father that was clearly out (again by at least a foot) and was called out by the son.  The father yelled at him about it until the kid changed his mind and said it was in.
• The father change the score three different times, each time taking a point or two away from the son.  

And this is what I noticed while I was hitting on the next court only half paying attention to them.  I wonder what else I would have noticed if I had been paying more attention.  All I can say is thank God my dad was never like this!  I actually enjoyed doing stuff with my dad and have no memories of him acting this way.  I hope this was just a dad having a bad day and he's not always like this.  But either way, I think he just showed his son that yelling, cheating, and bullying people is how you get your way.

Red Light Cameras

For the record, I hate red light cameras.  In fact, I don't just hate them, I HATE them.  And no, I've never gotten a ticket from one. 

I remember when they started putting them up around Houston.  For a while, they were pretty limited, and I got pretty good at finding ways to avoid them.  Little by little, they started showing up at more and more places, but I was still pretty good at avoiding them.

Then I moved to Fort Worth.  Unfortunately, when you move to a new city, you really only know one way to get to most places.  I'm better now, but I still run into them every once in a while, especially when I go somewhere new.  I've been here for two years now, and I still haven't managed to find ways around all the cameras yet.  But give me another six months or so and I'll be set!

So why am I even talking about red light cameras?  Well, today I saw two firetrucks run red lights at intersections that have cameras and it just got me thinking -- do firetrucks get tickets from the cameras when they run red lights?

Grammar snob

I don't usually care when people make grammatical errors, but lately it's been getting on my nerves.  I'm not talking about little kids, people who speak English as a second language, or anything along those lines.  I'm talking about people who (supposedly) should know better, people who make a living speaking or writing or generally informing us about what's going on in the world.  In the last 2 days, I've heard or seen the following grammatical errors on the news or posted in an online news story:

• "...refreeze again..." -- This was spoken in the context of water possibly freezing overnight causing dangerous driving conditions the following morning.  Technically, this would not be a grammatical error if the water had actually frozen before (refreeze) or frozen multiple times (refreeze again).  However, since the water had not previous frozen, I find it hard to see how it would refreeze, much less refreeze again.
• 6,500.  There are multiple ways of saying this number which are correct.  Six thousand five hundred works.  So does sixty-five hundred.  I've even heard six and a half thousand (which I guess is technically correct, although weird).  However, this is not sixty-five thousand. 
• "Conversating" is not a word.  The word you're looking for is "conversing."  When you're talking to someone, you are "conversing" or having a "conversation;" you are not "conversating."  I think this is my new pet peeve, replacing the ever-so-common (and annoying) "irregardless."
• Last but not least, "...banks can charge fees of up to $35 or more."   Thank you for letting me know banks can charge these fees, but usually when you say "fees of up to..." we assume that the next number will be the maximum fee they can charge.  What's the point of putting "up to" if you're going to follow up with "or more"?

I've never considered myself a grammar snob, I just expect a little more from certain people.  Oh, and any grammatical errors you see in this post are actually just typos.  ;)