Monday, Nov. 25 -- The last two outbreaks of food poisoning here in Boulder were at a health food restaurant and a sushi bar respectively. Not the usual suspects, but an indication of the decreasing standards of safety in the food service sector. The Center of Science In The Public Interest is pointing out lax and /or no enforcement of minimum health standards nationwide. ("Yes, I'll have the steak tartar please. . .") Everything from insufficient cooking temperatures for meat and poultry to employees not washing their hands. ("Can I have anything on the menu that you don't have to touch?") Seems various states have far lower standards than the overall federal guidelines. I wasn't too surprised to see my old home town on the "worst" list, but right along side Louisville, Kentucky was San Francisco (!) where it's hard to find a bad-tasting meal. ("Is that an oyster or do you have a cold?") Ranked the healthiest places, yet still below federal guidelines, were the state of Rhode Island and Concord New Hampshire.


Tuesday, Nov. 26 -- At first I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea, since I usually think of museums as places where you go to see dead things from the past. Then I found out the proposed Ku Klux Klan Museum in Laurens South Carolina was more of a living monument to intolerance. That's not a good idea. City officials have refused to grant a business license to the museum's owner. He's fighting them in court, saying he's a victim of a civil rights violation. Maybe the city simply doesn't want his Redneck Gift Shop to open featuring Confederate Flags, Klansman miniatures and tee-shirts with slogans like: "It's a White Thing, You Wouldn't Understand" (Well, I think it's a hate thing and I believe I do understand.) As a staunch advocate of free speech, I think in the end its best to allow bigotry and prejudice to be exposed to the public eye. To shove hatred into dark corners allows it to breed an evil power all its own. How can anyone in their right mind take a person dressed in a bed sheet and hood seriously anyway?


Wednesday, Nov. 27 -- I've been interviewing for a new gig lately and man am I rusty. It's been a couple of years since I've had to do the dog and pony show for a potential employer and I making some really elementary mistakes. Mistake number one was telling the interviewer my life story for fifteen minutes before I found out the job would involve only a slim sliver of the experience I was yakking about. (If I would have asked him what he was looking for first I could have saved us both time.) Mistake number two: my nice gray cotton shirt may look really sharp, but if I sweat it shows. Interview situations sometimes generate a flop sweat and I had to wear my leather jacket during one because my shirt looked two-tone. At least the web makes it easier to do some background checking on whatever company you're dealing with or just to find prospects. I spent about an hour on a local company's web site before going in and talking with them which prepared me pretty well. But I made a list of the spelling errors and broken links on their site as what I thought was a service. But the woman I interviewed with, (the webmaster as it turned out), didn't appreciate it in the least. Meeting over. I may have to go back to working for myself, that is if I can pass the interview.


Thursday, Nov. 28 -- There are more millionaires now than ever. Of course there are more poor people now than ever, but millionaires are more fun to talk about. I was under the impression that most millionaires simply inherited it, but this isn't the case in America I'm happy to report. 80% of current millionaires earned it by working hard. This is kind of drag to discover because it means anyone can do it if they try hard enough. . . which makes me feel pretty lazy when I think about my bank statement. Author Thomas J. Stanley has written "The Millionaire Next Door," a book that takes an in-depth look at a thousand really really rich people. The stories are fascinating and dispel the myth of easy money. The old adage about rich people being tight turns out to be true, and in many cases that's exactly how they got there.


Weekend, Nov. 29 - Dec. 1-- I'm not man enough to be a woman in the military. There, I've sad it. The last time I did push-ups on demand was in high school gym class and that was as close to basic training as I ever wanted to get. The recent cases of sexual harassment and rape in our armed forces stand as sad commentary on the human condition. Just needing a military is depressing enough, but when serving your country means putting yourself at risk from high ranking sexual predators, the enemy is obviously within. Not to paint with too broad a brush my mental picture of someone who would aspire to be a drill sergeant, but putting young people in the blossom of their youth in high pressure situations with inhuman and inhumane procedures to follow, is asking for trouble. It is the darker side of our nature which necessitates armed defense forces in the first place. This same dark side comes into play with interpersonal relationships in uniform. Now that our fighting force has been turned into a social experiment by the inclusionists, let's watch as they try to defy Mother Nature's primal power with simple regulations. Personally I never felt women should be in combat. Not because they're too weak or fragile, far from it--they're way too mean!