As of midnight tomorrow night, smoking will be banned in all bars in the state of Maryland.
Yippie!
Now why can’t Pennsylvania get on board?
I know it’s not a popular decision among the smoking crowd, and many bar owners probably fear they will lose business if lighting up a cancer stick was banned.
Susan Reimer at the Baltimore Sun wrote a column today about how the average middle-aged person is feeling the effects of the economic recession. She talked about how people aren’t spending as much money because they feel poor, even if they may not actually be poor.
But I think that feeling of being poor is more universal, not just confined to the middle-aged.
I hope you all caught the story in this morning’s business section about the class action lawsuit filed against Pure Weight Loss (formerly known as L.A. Weight Loss).
I feel terrible for the people who lost hundreds or thousands of dollars when the diet center closed abruptly in December.
Have you or any of your friends been members of Pure Weight Loss? Did you lose a lot of money?
Or do you belong to other weight-loss programs? What have your experiences been with them?
Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone, and the story they tell you just pulls on your heartstrings?
That was my situation yesterday as I talked to Cynthia Hudler, a young woman who struggled with alcohol, entered rehab and successfully turned her life back around.
She had some help from this great organization called Dress for Success. Its mission is to provide women with the clothes and the confidence they need to tackle a job interview or their first day on the job.
In order to help woman like Cynthia, the organization relies on donations from people in the community. They take all gently used suits and appropriate work attire.
It’s going to be time for spring cleaning soon enough. So when you are cleaning out your closet this year, maybe you’ll notice some work clothes you don’t really wear anymore. Consider donating them to Dress for Success. They will make a huge impact in the life of a woman working to take control of her life.
Donations can be dropped off at any DeVono’s dry cleaners. You can call them at 244-4571. You can also drop donations directly at the Dress for Success boutique at Pennsylvania Careerlink, 841 Vogelson Rd. For more info you can call 764-3330.
If you want to get more involved there are plenty of ways. Volunteers are always needed, and if you don’t have clothes to give, the organization accepts monetary donations. Their Web site details all the ways you can get involved, and I encourage you to take a minute to check it out.
I’m sure many of you may have noticed grocery stores offering sanitary wipes for customers to use to wipe down shopping carts. And starting in February, the Rutter’s stores will have Purell dispensers by the doors.
For my story that will run in tomorrow’s paper, I went out to grocery stores and gas stations and scoped out the number of people who used the various antibacterial products that each store offered.
Let me tell you, after watching people cough, sneeze and practically spit all over their hands before touching their shopping carts, I will never not use the wipes. I mean that’s just nasty. Think of all those germs getting passed from one person to the next. No wonder we all have colds that seem to last forever in the winter.
But no one does it better than the cruise ships. I can only speak to Royal Caribbean because that’s the line I’ve been on, but they knew what they were doing. Every time I walked into the buffet-style eatery on board an attendant was standing there to offer me a hand wipe.
It wasn’t a suggestion, like, “Hey, you’re about to eat, you should probably take a wipe.” It was mandatory. You weren’t allowed in unless you wiped down your hands.
I attempted to stroll by the attendant once because I wasn’t planning to eat. I was just looking to see if my friends had sat down for breakfast yet, but I couldn’t even enter the restaurant without taking a wipe.
Kudos to you Royal Caribbean for forcing everyone to use them.
When I stood at the grocery stores and gas stations, I watched tons and tons of people pass by without giving the antibacterial products a second glance. I don’t get it. If it’s there, why wouldn’t you use it?
Another year, another tax season.
Have the W2’s started cluttering your counter space yet? I know they’ve started to filter into my mail.
I panicked for a little because I’ve never done my own taxes before. My dad’s bailing me out this year and has offered to do them for me one last time.
But I can’t imagine I’m the only one who gets a little nervous at the prospect of having to do their taxes for the first time.
That leads me to our newest challenge to Daily Record readers. We are looking for someone who is planning on doing their own taxes for the first time this year. You can be someone who is sick of paying lots of money for an accountant or you can be a real first timer, who has never had to deal with your taxes at all before this year.
We want to be there from the get go, chronicling everything from purchasing and installing the software to the very last time you hit print to get your forms to mail. We want to learn how easy or hard it is for a first-timer to master the software and learn the answer to the eternal question, which is better, a person or a box?
If you are interested, e-mail me at jmilcetich@ydr.com. Include your name, age, municipality, why you are doing your taxes for the first time and why you think a software program is the better option.
Don’t I wish I lived in Jersey.
Ok well no, not really. But I do wish I lived close enough that I could drive across the state line to get my gas. Not only is gas currently about 20 cents cheaper per gallon, but it’s pumped for you, which is extra beneficial in the dead of winter.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today the national average fell two cents over the weekend to $3.01.
But really are people supposed to be out in the streets celebrating? Gas is still on average over $3 per gallon.
When I started driving five years ago, I could fill my mom’s mini-van for $20.
Five years later, I own my own car — a fuel-efficient sedan — and it costs close to $40 to fill the tank. I can’t imagine what people driving bigger cars are spending.
There is something seriously wrong with that picture.
Gas prices around here are ranging from $3.09 to $3.13 per gallon from what I’ve seen being out and about.
What are you doing to deal with the insane price of gas? Driving less? Car-pooling? Just sucking it up?
I’m interested in hearing.
As I mentioned in my first post on Monday, I’m a huge soccer fan. So it should come as no surprise that I’m pretty pumped about today’s MLS SuperDraft being held in Baltimore. (SuperDraft is just the fancy term they use for draft.)
Like any good fan would do, I spent part of my morning reading scouting reports on the top recruits and hoping that Stephen King and Spencer Allen, two players from my alma mater, the University of Maryland, will both get chosen. (King’s being projected as a mid-draft pick; Allen is expected to be a very late choice if selected.)
Now I’m the business blogger, not a sports blogger,so of course this story has a money angle to it.
I’ll be honest. I have an unhealthy relationship with Facebook. I spend way too much of my free time checking to see who’s put up new pictures or videos or which of my friends have updated their profiles most recently.
Just the other day Facebook told me my formerly blond friends dyed her hair brown.
But one thing I don’t have are Facebook applications, programs users can download to add extras to their profile. There are tons of applications that let you do things like rank your friends or play games back and forth each time you log on.
One of those games is called Scrabulous, a spin off of the popular board game Scrabble, that lets users play the game online for no cost.
Now Facebook and the two men from India who developed the Scrabulous application are being sued by Mattel and Hasbro for violating copyright laws, the Baltimore Sun reported today. The toymakers said they want users to play Scrabble on a “legal” (to be read: You probably have to pay for it) Web site.
Let’s be honest here for a minute toymakers. While Scrabulous is letting Facebook users play for free, do you really think you’re losing that much money? I will concede because there are ads on the site, you deserve a kick from that. But how many teens or young 20 year olds do you know who are clamoring to go out and buy the board game or pay to play online? If they had to pay, chances are the majority wouldn’t be playing at all.
But maybe it’s not about the money. Maybe it’s the principle of having your product re-marketed without your permission. I wouldn’t want that either. So maybe there’s some happy medium everyone can agree on so that Scrabulous doesn’t get destroyed forever.
To Hasbro’s credit, the company said it is reviewing several options with all parties involved to solve the problem “amicably.”
I was as bummed as the next person when I realized my precious TV shows were all destined to become reruns when networks ran out of new episodes to air as a result of the Writers Guild of America strike. But somewhere deep down I was holding on to a small bit of hope that the writers and the producers would come to an agreement soon enough to salvage what was left of this season.
Turns out that won’t be in the case. In fact, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that four of the major studios have nixed writers’ contracts. On the surface that news is probably sad for me and you, regular TV viewers, who will now be stuck watching hideous attempts at reality TV -- Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann, anyone?
But the real tragedy here is the hundreds of writers and production people who are now out of jobs.
I was browsing through Consumer Reports Money Adviser this morning and came across this interesting tidbit: Using the self-checkout lanes in stores can save impulse buyers money.
Consumer Reports cited an industry study stating only 12 percent of customers who use the self checkout bought anything in checkout displays (gum, candy, magazines, etc.)
I've been staring at the monitor for the past 15 minutes trying to decide how I wanted to start this entry. We all know first impressions are important, and I wanted to be sure I made a good one.
Because you don't get to meet me face to face (at least not yet), introductions are a little challenging. So I guess I should just start with the basics.
