Tuesday, December 03, 2002 :::
all the trimming- without the bird... time to stuff yourself with some more information...
how much for that turkey in the window? this past wknd- PETA - (people for the the ethical treatment of animals) launched a new campaign trying to reach out to the gobbler gobblers among us. they took a hidden camera into a turkey farm in minnesota, to show folks the life of the bird before it ends up on a plate... or in a sandwich... i haven't come up with an exact number of turkeys that are sold just through the holidays but the US Census bureau- has some interesting turkey factoids for example- the average American consumes 13.6 pounds of the bird throughout the year. I don't consume any, so that means someone is consuming a bit more than 13.6 pounds... (then again i'm still an Indian Citizen so...) another interesting -did you know- is that we actually import most of the turkeys from Canada- and the sweet potatoes from the Dominican Repulbic but we make it up in selling everyone some cranberries. bizarre.
black friday - the day after thanksgiving is the day when retailers are supposed to head into the black from all the red they've been bleeding all year. this year, walmart seemed to be the uber-champion... with a reported record one day total of 1.43 BILLION compared to their meager 1.25Billion from a year ago. seems like a stock to buy eh? well before you press buy buy buy on your ameritrade account... you might want to look around a bit at the controversies that swirl around the superstore chain named by Sam Walton (not to be confused with THE TV WALTON) this might come as a surprise to some of you- but walmart is the second larges employer in the United States (1.3 to 1.5 million employees) second only to the US- gov. its a little factoid that i first remember seeing on PBS- during an interesting documentary- Store Wars about Walmart's "predatory" practices when they move into a new town. according to one report, they have plans to add 800,000 employees in the next five years, which would make them larger than the US armed forces. Walmart is embroiled in at least one worker harassment suit taking place in Portland, OR and a sexual discrimination suit in California. along with protests in Chicago , and other parts of the country from unions- who are trying to establish a presence within Walmart.
fascinating piece on 60 minutes this past wknd- on a challenge from one of the world's leading painters (david hockney) who claims that the realism that we see in so much of European paintings after the 1430s might be the work of optics. he contends that painters essentially used a concave lens, and projected a reflection of their subjects onto the canvases, and began the art of tracing around the projection. it sorta rocks the art world some- but i don't think it'll devalue all the art one may peruse for free at the getty museum. unfortunately 60 minutes has no links posted to their site as of blogtime...but there is a quick interview that hockney did with the getty folks at some event.
digest.
::: posted by h at 6:25 PM
