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.
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.
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.
"This man" refers to Jeffrey Evans of Jackson, Ohio. See him here, take a good look. Keep looking. Now look again, especially at his eyes, his stare.
OK, how many of us have seen him before? I have, unfortunately. More times than I can count.
He's our father, or uncle, or family friend who works harder than anyone we know. His hands are always chapped and twice the size of ours. The whites of his fingernails are always caked with dirt - no matter how much soap he applies.
And most importantly, he's the reason for the work ethic many young people learned growing up. He believed a dream during our formative years, living the mantra of an honest day's pay deserved an honest day's work. He made us want to work that hard, too.
But after 30 years of living that life, Evans' situation is what these men - and women - get. A wobbly rocking chair in mom's living room. The company he worked so hard for threw him into the gutter.
So then why are companies so surprised when young people today don't have the work ethic that their parents' generation had? It's not that we didn't pay attention to how hard they worked. It's because we did pay attention to their labor - and how little they were rewarded for it.
We're not lazy, we have just learned from our loved ones' mistakes, and refuse to invest emotionally in a mode of living that considers us as disposable as tin cans or hamburger wrappers.
We can't build an economy to compete against the world when our young workers are too scared of becoming Jeffrey Evans to put their hearts and souls into their labor. It's up to business to make us not afraid. And the clock is ticking.
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've seen Care Bears: Big Wish Movie about 400 times.
For the most part I tune it out while my 2-year-old daughter lies in her crib, totally entranced by the squeaky voices and bright colors.
But one day I realized that the Care Bears were in a steering committee meeting. And they were following Robert's Rules of Order.
And there was old business and new business, and...wait, what?
