Bits & Pieces
Bits and pieces from this reporter's notebook.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Who says that chocolate is bad for dogs? The Federal Trade Commission has just approved the purchase of Ralston Purina by the Swiss food giant Nestle S.A., for a price tag just over $10 billion. A condition of the deal was that the new conglomerate had to sell Meow Mix, the best-selling cat food in the country, and Alley Cat. It's kinda funny to think of a whole slew of dark-suited lawyers and accountants sitting around a large mahogany conference table in some over priced headquarters, and no one — at least in their own mind — humming a commercial jingle. Meow, meow, meow, meow...
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Now for the feral, a Redding man is behind bars for shooting a gas station attendant. I'd say allegedly, but the 18-year-old's sister seems to acknowledge the crime when she described him as a good boy who just made some bad choices. Um, like holding up a convenience store with a BB gun, getting caught and doing several months in the pokey, before this latest, er-hem, incident. The shooting was gratuitous, the clerk was turning away from the good boy. He will recover from his wound.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Not likely to recover is Enron, which has been mowing down its employee ranks with a black-cloak'd scythe. Not everyone, however. The once substantial energy trader is going to pay $55 million to "persuade" 500 employees to stay for 90 days. That comes to $110,000 per hanger-on for the three months. Nice work if you can keep it, though the thousands of people who were pink-slipped don't have such generous feelings.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....One of the reasons large corporations stumble is because they've become too large, and the folks with the vision weren't able to hire or train enough people to share their view of things. Stuff starts to slip between the cracks, and the bigger the operation, the less a sense of the corporate mission is imbued. My sister Jennifer is convinced that the fallout is so extensive at some companies that they wind up hiring email-answerers who don't, because they're afraid of contracting anthrax.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....If you coated it with chocolate and put it by the couch, you'd likely get 22% of black and Hispanic children to eat it, along with 12% of the white children. That's a lump segue to a new report that says that's how many of each group are fat and getting fatter. The obesity was up 50% for white children from '86 to '98 and doubling for the blacks and browns, who live in more dangerous neighborhoods where they can't get out to exercise, they watch too much TV, and they eat too much salt-'n-grease fast food. The experts would like to put it all to poverty, but how much room does it take to do a sit-up?
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Or tell the truth? Dozens of Salt Lake City airport workers were arrested and charged with using false information to get jobs. Said the local U.S. Attorney, the indictments were important to national security. Um, yeah, right. Most were Central Americans who, of course, lied to get their jobs — in food service, fueling, and cargo hauling. Who else would do the work, but people who have to lie about their availability? Maybe parolees. The point is that we will never get real security in our society, even when we start paying $30,000 a year to scanners.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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