Matt of All Trades blog, like the title suggests, is by a Vermont author and offers offbeat musings on pop culture, media, journalism, humor, weirdness, stupid people, smart people, my life as a journalist, landscaper, photographer, married gay man, dog lover and weather geek and more. It's run by me, Matt Sutkoski, a native Vermonter living in St. Albans, Vt.
We're an employee-owned company. Everybody who works there, including me, has a stake in it. So the annual meeting is a great chance to look over our financials, see where we've been, learn where we're headed.
Each annual meeting features a keynote speaker, almost always somebody from outside the company who gives us inspiration and information meant to propel us forward and keep doing what we're doing.
This year's keynoter was, of all people, a 13-year-old kid named Ian McKenna from Austin, Texas. He was easily - by far- the best keynote speaker we've ever had at Gardener's Supply.
Some background: Gardener's Supply is big on giving back to the community. That's one of the reasons why I work there.
I know the following is a shameless plug, but bear with me. It's good. This year, we're promoting something called Garden To Give. We're inviting our customers - anyone from newbies to hard-core gardeners - to agree to give away some of their summer produce to food shelves and people who just need food. Many of us Gardener's Supply employees are taking the pledge, too.
So, back to our 13-year-old kid. His altruism started in 2012when his younger sister, then in first grade, was in school talking about Christmas traditions around the world, but one girl in the class burst into tears.
The girl said, "Santa's never come to us, he hates us because we're poor."
Ugh.
When Ian heard that story, he and his family decided to show up on Christmas morning at the girl's house with a carload of toys and food.
That had such an effect that a few months later Ian found out a student at school only ate breakfast and lunch provided at school with no dinners because the family was too poor, he knew he had to act again.
So he started a garden at Oak Hill Elementary school, and that people who were hungry could come there and collect fresh produce. He also opened a garden at another school, and in the first year grew 750 pounds of vegetables. The next year, it was over 1,000 pounds of food.
I'm as guilty as anyone in my garden. Sometimes I surprise myself with more produce than I can handle. I give some away, or live on a diet of, say, string beans for a week to get through the harvest. Or, sadly, some food gets thrown away.
But surely I can give something - produce, time, volunteer work, money.
If Ian can do that much good, maybe I could at least do a fraction of it. If Ian as a teenager pulled off this much good stuff, we can all do a little, right?
Here's a video from Laura, from her YouTube channel, Garden Answer, with more on Garden to Give:
Philando Castile was shot and killed by a Minnesota
police office in 2016. Castile was school nutrition
supervisor. A fund in his name is now paying off
childrens' school lunch debt.
A guy named Philando Castile worked in a school cafeteria as a school nutrition supervisor. Sometimes, he'd dip into his own pockets to help kids who couldn't afford lunch.
Castile was killed by a police office during a 2016 traffic stop, which of course meant the world lost a generous, kind guy, the type of person we all need.
When a good person dies, people often try to turn the tragedy into something good. And Castile's death has led to exactly that.
According to CNN, a charity run in Castile's name has wiped out the lunch debt of every student in all 56 schools in the St. Paul Public Schools district in Minnesota.
"That means that no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt," according to a fundraising page for the charityPhilando Feeds the Children.
I'm going to stop right here for a second and get on my soap box. I get it that school districts everywhere are strapped for cash and can't afford to pay for school lunches. Somebody has to pay for them.
However, I have an immense problem with all those schools who punish the kids because their parents either can't pay for the school meals or won't.
In many schools, when there's lunch debt, the kids involved often just get a lame, cold sandwich while their friends get full meals.
That's an insidious practice that's become known as "lunch shaming." It's terrible to deny a kid a decent lunch. It's also terrible to shame a kid by giving him or her something substandard in front of all their friends. I thought schools discouraged bullying. All this does is encourage it.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, thePhilando Feeds The Childrenfund goes beyond rescuing kids from food bullying by the school district.
CNN says student parents or caregivers cannot submit paperwork to request free or reduced-price lunches (based on income and need) unless the kids' lunch debt is retired.
Which leads to a never-ending cycle. The kids' lunch fund keeps going deeper and deeper into debt, so it becomes more impossible for the kids' parents to pay off the debt. Some parents acrue as much as $1,000 in debt.
Which means the kids will never, ever get decent food. They can't pay the debt, so they can't apply for free or reduced cost lunches. That's the way it works in today's America. If you're poor, you need to be punished. Whether or not it's your fault.
It looks like when he was alive, Castile understood this. So do the people donating to this cause. There's a lot of bad things in this world, but at least some good can come of it, at least sometimes.
As of about a week ago, the Philando fund stood at over $107,000, which really, really surpassed its goal of $5,000, CNN says.
"Philando is STILL reaching into his pocket, and helping a kid out," the charity wrote in a social media post recently.
Portia De Rossi, left, recently gave Ellen DeGeneres a 60th
birthday gift we can all be happy about.
My husband's birthday is today.
Happy Birthday Jeff!!!!!!
I want to give him the world, but unfortunately, funds are tight. He's going to have to settle for something much smaller. Sorry, Jeff, I'm trying!
I do wish, however, I could give him a birthday gift like Portia De Rossi gave to her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, on Ellen's recent 60th birthday.
By the way, this is going to be a feel good story, because in this day and age, the more feel good stories, the better.
DeGeneres is a longtime fan of scientist Dian Fossey, who spent basically her whole life studying rare mountain gorillas in Rwanda. You might remember Fossey from the book "Gorillas In The Mist."
Fossey was murdered in 1985, but her work goes on, thanks to lots of awesome volunteers and donations from people who understand how important Fossey's work was.
DeGeneres is among those who totally understands why Fossey's work and legacy is so important. DeGeneres talk show made a big deal out of her birthday, and finally "special guest" De Rossi came on to disclose what she bought for her wife for the big birthday.
Dian Fossey spend her life protecting African gorillas unti
she was murdered in 1985. American celebritites Ellen
DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi just ensured Fossey's
work continues.
Because DeGeneres is such a fan of Fossey, De Rossi sprung for the construction of the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. It's next to Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, and this will be a part of a center for education, tourism and scientific research.
They also established theEllen DeGeneres Wildlife Fundto study, protect and advocate for the world's most vulnerable animals and wildlife.
My husband Jeff is a total animal lover, especially dogs. An excellent way to judge a person is how they think of animals. People like Jeff are keepers because they love animals. People who have a soft spot for animals tend to be morally, ethically, emotionally beautiful. That describes Jeff.
De Rossi probably knows she's very lucky to be married to DeGeneres for the same reason.
Here's the very nice announcement of De Rossi's gift on the Ellen Show back on February 1:
An itty bitty Batman rests in the NICU of
St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City. Photo by Sally Morrow
I'm not a dad, but I can imagine how crushingly scary it is to have a newborn baby in the intensive care unit.
These parents really just want their kids to have a nice, normal childhood free of hospital stays and worries about health and death.
You can't take ill babies out the NICU, but you can take them into Halloween, and the normal kid stuff they should enjoy today.
So, the NICU at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City and the March of Dimes teamed up to make sure these little babies had their own Halloween costumes,says Good Morning America.
The kids are too young to understand Halloween, of course. (Hell, I'm 54 and I still don't understand Halloween). But the parents get a little levity and "normalcy" for themselves and their kids.
Parents get to pick out the Halloween costumes, based on the personality of their kids. There's lots of superheroes and butterflies and princesses in the NICU, and a couple of the obligatory Kansas City Royals baseball players.
"......the volunteers and nurses provided the families with a 'trick or treat, smell my feet' card with the newborns' tiny footprints, a hand-crocheted pumpkin filled with treats and a Halloween book that the parents and babies can read together next year."
This is a great idea that I hope spreads to NICU's all over the nation.
Watch the stirring video of it at the bottom of this post. If their performance of this song doesn't move you at least a little, nothing will
Among the broadway luminaries taking part were Lin-Manuel Miranda (from "Hamilton); Kristen Bell, Gloria Estefa, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Idina Mezel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie Perez, Sara Bareilles, Wayne Brody, Rosie O'Donnell, Bernadette Peters, Carole King, Chita Rivera, Tommy Tune and Matthew Broderick.
Broadway for Orlando could not have chosen a better song for this effort, with the lyrics:
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love No, not just for some but for everyone."
As a gay man, I'm thrilled to live in a changed world in which most people accept us for who we are, that I was able to marry the love of my life, even though he's the same gender as me. Things are much better than they were even a decade ago, never mind 30, 40, 50 years ago.
My favorite aunt was Aunt Irene. She was smart and funny and cool, always tooling around in her Ford Mustangs.
Aunt Irene also drank herself to death. I know now she was a lesbian, and back in the day -1950s, 1960, 1970s - there was no way she could be who she was.
I have no proof of this, but I'm convinced the fact she couldn't openly live her life killed her. Hate, intolerance and ignorance is a terribly efficient killer.
Years later, people bravely started coming out as gay, and when most reasonable people discovered they knew gay people and those people were just fine, the anti-gay balloon began deflating
This paved the way for people like me. I don't have to be alone and hidden like Aunt Irene. I'm proud of my husband, and who I am. Jeff and I have built a sweet life together. You know, love, sweet love, as the song goes.
But the love, as Broadway for Orlando tells us, it is not just for some, but for everyone. Or should be anyway.
Broadway stars record "What The World Needs Now
Is Love" to benefit the Orlando LGBT community.
I know there's a lot of people like Aunt Irene. I mean still, to this day.
Anti-gay bigotry killed those 49 people in Orlando's Pulse nightclub. It also kills people quietly.
It's the so called Christian parents or churches or relatives who find out a kid is gay and rejects him or her.
Gay kids who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to attempt suicide as their gay peers who report no or low levels of family rejection, says the Trevor Project.
Then we have the small but odious band of people in the U.S. who call themselves Christian and regularly try to beat the gay community down.
There's also alleged Pastor Roger Jimenez, who wished the 53 people injured in the shooting at that gay nightclub would just die already because most of them were gay. (The owner of the building that leases space to Jimenez's "church" is so upset with the comments that they're kicking him and his church out.)
These are extreme examples, of course. But this kind of rhetoric is dangerous. Most people wouldn't act on these bigoted speeches, but a few wackos could.
I feel relatively safe being who I am, but not completely safe. I know there are hateful bigots that want me dead. Or to at least go away.
So yes, Broadway for Orlando is exactly right. What the world needs now is love, sweet love for everyone.
I'm also grateful Broadway for Orlando is continuing to publicize and push this so hard to raise money for The Center in Orlando. I noticed the Broadway luminaries got together again to perform "What the World Needs Now Is Love" on the Maya and Marty show on NBC last night.
Sirius XM Rado host Seth Rudetsky and his husband, producer James Wesley decided on Monday, June 13 to organize the benefit single,People magazine reports. By Wednesday, the recording was done.
"We started making calls, and suddenly we had tons of theater actors along with an orchestra and the services of a fully-staffed recording studio, all willing to donate their time and talent...... Our community of artists has banded together as we always to to show we can end this cycle of violence and intolerance. Love will prevail," Rudetsky said.
You can go to BroadwayRecords.com or iTunes to download Broadway for Orlando's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," for $1.99.
Even more importantly, when you see hate or hear hate speeech against the LGBT community or anyway, counteract it. Do something loving. Tell the haters why they're wrong. You might not change their minds, but you'll put them on notice.
Here's the spectacular video of Broadway for Orlando's "What the World Needs Now Is Love"
Many people years ago were unable to pay debts, mostly medical payments. The statutes of limitations have long since expired on these debts, so generally those people would no longer be responsible for paying the debt
Except for some sleazy, sleazy businesses, that are made legal by corrupt state legislatures, or not made illegal by corrupt state legislatures.
"The sums themselves are "zombie debts" --- debts that have been long written off and generally don't have to be paid, which are bought up by collection firms that terrorize their victims and embroil them in difficult-to-navigate litigation that must execute perfectly, or the debts are resurrected and collected through paycheck confiscation."
These sleazy companies buy these debts for fractions of a penny on the dollar, then go after their victim. So you can see they can make a lot of money terrorizing people of modest means who are definitely not financial lawyers.
It's an outrage, and should be illegal, but some discrete campaign contributions to lawmakers probably helps keep these things going.
John Oliver recently had a brilliant segment on this outrage, in which he revealed how some state legislatures actually made it easier for these zombie debt collection agencies to terrorize former debtors, and how they remove the assumption of innocense in the proceedings against the people they're going after.
He also went to a debt collector's conference and captured video of people in the industry joking about bullying victims and ruining their lives.
Yeah, that's such a barrel of laughs. Awful people.
Then Oliver did something brilliant. He formed his own debt collection agency just like the sleazes who terrorize people.
He calls his new company Central Asset Recovery Professionals, whose acronym is CARP named for the bottom feeder fish.
Oliver was able to form this corporation, based in Mississippi with just a $50 fee. The company consists of just a web site that has the CARP logo and that's it.
"'With little more to go on than that website,' says Oliver, 'we were soon offered a portfolio of nearly $15 million of out-of-statue medical debt from Texas' The asking price was less than $60,000 for $14,922,261.76 in this zombie debt - ir around $0.004 for every dollar of debt owed. Purchasing the debt would CARP the names, current addresses, Social Security numbers, and amount owed (or previously owed, as the statute of limitations had expired) for nearly 9,000 individuals."
Says Oliver:
"So we bought it, which is absolutely terrifying....because it means if I wanted to, I could legally have CARP take possession of that list and have employees start calling people, turning their lives upside down over medical debt they no longer had to pay. There would be absolutely nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that absolutely everything is wrong with that."
Rather than calling people and houding them, Oliver took the money an organization called RIP Medical Debt, an organization of accountants and legal eagles that forgive the debts without tax repecussions for the would-be debtors.
Once RIP Medical Debt gets their hands on the zombie debts, they go away, never to rear their ugly heads again.
Since Oliver was able to spend just $60,000 to ditch $15 million in debt, I see a charitable opportunity here. Maybe some fairly rich philanthropists can form debt companies like Oliver did to funnel debts away from the sleazy debt collection agencies so they can't profit in such an evil way.
Here's John Oliver's segment.
It's amazing this a segment on medical debt that lasts 20 minutes and you can't stop watching it:
A kid reads a story to a dog in a Missouri shelter.
The dog becomes less anxious as a result.
The Humane Society of Missourihas hit upon a great idea to make shelter dogs more adoptable, while at the same time helping kids:
They just sit children down in front of the shelter dogs and have the kids read books to the pups.
According to the animal advocacy site TheDodo, the Missouri idea is called the Shelter Buddies Reading Program. The kids' storytime readies the dogs for foreer homes, while the kids learn empathy for pets, and sharpen their reading skills.
The kids draw the interest of shy and nervous shelter dogs, helping them feel comfortable around people and make them more appealing for families who might want to adopt them.
Kids read to dogs in a Missouri animal shelter to help
calm them down and make them more adoptable.
The storytimes also calm down hyper dogs as they settle down to listen to the kids stories.
The children are also trained to give the dogs treats when the pups calm down or show interest in the story times, as a way to reinforce the good behavior.
The kids, ages six to 15 are also trained to read a dog's body language to tell whether they are anxious or stressed out. They can then calmly read to settle the dogs down.
A kid and a shelter dog enjoy reading time together.
"Its encouraging children to develop empathy with animals. It's a peaceful, quiet exercise. They're seeing fearfulness in these animals, and seeing the positive effect they an have....It encourages the to look at things from an animal's perspective. That helps them better connect with animals and people in their lives."
I have a feeling this idea will spread to a lot of Humane Societies and animal shelters across the nation.
And we will be a better place because of it.
Here's a video of kids reading to the dogs back around Christmastime. It's a very sweet video:
A finalist in the C'omedy Wildlife Photography Awards.
Image by Alison Buttigieg.
One piece of good news I learned as the year draws to a close is that somebody has come up with the annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.
The winners are photographers who capture images of animals that just make us laugh.
Apparently, there are a lot of them. You have to scroll through the list of 2015 winners to really get a chuckle at these wonderful animals. I might be anthropomorphizing, but the animals in the photos exude such joy.
The awards are the brainchild of Paul Joynson-Hicks, who is himself a wildlife photographer.
Says he on the wildlife comedy web site:
Finalist in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
Image by Charlie Davidson.
"I often enter wildlife photography competitions (NB so far with very little success!) but I love seeing the funny pictures. Strangely enough, they are harder to come by than you might think."
The Comedy Wildlife Awards are partnered with the Born Free Foundation, which works to provent animal suffering and protect animal species.
The photos are judged on how funny, creative, dynamic and interesting they are, and on the technical proficiency of the photographer. The funnier the captions the better.
Obviously, the 2015 competition is closed, since the winners have already been announced, but let's hope this becomes an annual tradition so we can look forward to the 2016 winners.
Finalist in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
Image by Julie Hunt
Today's installment is a video showing a dog sanctuary in Serbia that at last count had 450 rescued dogs.
That sounds cramped and awful, until you realize the rescue center is designed to give the dogs plenty of space to run around and play. They don't warehouse them in cages or kennels (though of course they're given a sheltered place to sleep if the dogs so choose.)
It does sound like this wonderfull place in Serbia could use some funds to keep going. An animal advocacy group called theHarmony Fundis funneling money towards them - that is the nonprofit receives enough donations.
These four brothers mowed the huge lawn behind them because the city threatened to jail the elderly property owner for not mowing it.
I guess city officials in Riesel, Texas have nothing better to do.
They've been threatening to jail a 75 year old woman for not mowing the lawns on property she owns.
She can't handle the job.
I suppose there's the possibility she's being obstinate, that she's just not bothering to hire someone to do the mowing. I don't know if she can afford it or not.
And the grass did get tall, up to 18 inches tall.
So yeah, maybe people in Riesel were annoyed by the tall grass. That, I get.
But threatening to put the woman in jail for not mowing the lawn? That just seems a bit harsh to me.
However, she's apparently still in trouble. She received another summons from the fine city officials of Riesel to mow the lawn or go to jail. It's unclear if the city is unhappy with the way the four boys mowed the lawn (looks fine to me, judging from the pictures) or whether another property is too overgrown for the city of Riesle to bear.
City officials aren't talking to reporters. They've got better things to do. Like maybe the old lady down the block who didn't deadhead all the faded flowers in her garden or something stupid like that.
I guess Riesel takes its landscaping way, wayyyyyy to seriously.
Clarence Blackmon, an elderly cancer patient, had to call 911 to get groceries because the rehab center he was at discharged him and left him to his own devices. Assholes. n
The following story has been presented in the media as a heartwarming story, but I'm outraged by it.
An elderly man, weak with prostate cancer, was discharged from a hospital and sent home. Great! He's recovering with the help of family and visiting nurses and plenty of follow up care from the hospital.
Just kidding!
He was dumped into the house and left to his own devices and was physically incapable of getting any food. The man got so desperate that he called 911 and asked someone there to buy him groceries.
"What i need is someone to get to the grocery store and bring me food, because I need to eat something. Whatever you can do to help. I can't do anything. I can't go anywhere. I can't get out of my damn chair," Clarence Blackmon told 911 dispatcher Marilyn Hinson, according to the Huffington Post.
Luckily, the 911 operators didn't tell him that they were only for emergencies and tell him to go away. Hinson recognized this was an emergency. Hinson's supervisor entered Blackmon's name into the computer and learned he was ill and had no family in the area. Blackmon's wife died in 2011.
They also discovered Blackmon had withered away to 115 pounds in large part because he was unable to get food for himself.
Hinson went to Blackmon's house with officers from the Fayetteville, North Carolina Police Department to deliver groceries. They also made sure that Blackmon would get follow up care and help.
That's the heartwarming part.
Here's why I'm outraged, though. It appears as if the hospital just discharged Blackmon without making sure he would get the help for follow up treatment. What, was the old guy unprofitable now? Maybe used up his insurance or something? Groceries don't make pharmaceutical companies profitable like pills do, was that the problem?
According to the Inquisitor and ABC News, the private treatment and rehabiliitation center that discharged Blackmon never bothered to contact the North Carolina Department of Social Services, as they should have.
The DSS is now involved, helping Blackmon, and an outpouring of donations because of news reports about this incident are going to Blackmon and others who need help. (He's donating the extra food he can't keep to the Salvation Army.)
Still, my blood is boiling. Does this rehabilitation hospital and others in the country just dump people out on the street when they're done with them, figuring they'll just die a quiet death and stop bothering everyone for shrieks?
I hope the people who did this to Blackmon at the hospital are punished BIG TIME. It's also time for investigation on how other hospitals and rehab centers discharge people who can't fend for themselves.
Now there's a good story idea for you journalists and muckrakers out there.
Happily, "Layaway Angels" have been striking coast to
coast this holiday season.
Today, as we scramble to get our last Christmas gifts purchased, I'm going to stand up and salute Layaway Angels.
Layaway Angels are people who have a pretty decent stash of money. They walk into places like Walmart or Kmart and hand over a check to the layaway department.
You put in a down payment, pay a layaway fee, then make weekly, biweekly or monthly payments until the balance is paid off. Once you've paid everything, you grab your merchandise and go.
Apparently layaways started in the 1930s, when everyone (well, almost everyone) was suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. People tried anything they could including the installment plans associated with layaways, to get their consumer goods.
Credit cards pretty much did away with layaways, since people could just charge their purchases. But the Great Recession, starting in 2008, brought back the layaway, just as the Great Depression gave birth to it.
People couldn't get credit cards, so they went the layaway route.
The problem with layaways is, if you can't pay off your purchase, you don't get the item. You do get refunded, but stores often keep a portion of the proceeds. Which means people who couldn't pay lose.
That's one of the beauties of layaway angels. A certain percentage of people won't pay off their layaways. And pretty much everybody else who can is strapped for cash. So the layaway angels really put people's minds at ease for Christmas,
Which is precisely what you want during this stressful time of year.
So it's great that there's been a flurry of "Layaway Angels" this year. According PennLive.comsomebody know only as "Santa B" plunked down $50,000 in a Pennsylvania Walmart to pay off a bunch of layaways.
Other layaway angels have struck in Tennessee, West Virginia, Boston and elsewhere, says Consumerist.
Various media outlets have reported layaway angels in almost every state.
You can participate, too. People who don't have thousands of dollars running around can also anonymously go into a store and just pay off one stranger's layaway debt, maybe $100 or $200 and remain anonymous if they choose.
In nearly every case, the person acting as a layaway angel has refused to be publicly identified, which makes it even better.
I salute these layaway angels and wish them a totally happy holiday season. Because they deserve it.
A stupid neo-Nazi guy marches past a motivational
banner in Wunsiedel, Germany as he realizes
the town has duped him into donating to
an anti-Nazi charity.
The cheering residents in the town of Wunsiedel, Germany warmly welcomed a bunch of neo-Nazis as they held an annual parade in the community on Saturday.
Don't worry, this isn't a case of shocking anti-Semitism and bigotry among residents of the town. They're actually very nice people.
They just decided to get a little creative with the annual march of the neo-Nazis. In the past, town residents totally dreaded this parade.
"Instead of protesting against the demonstration, shop owners and residents in Wunsiedel pledged to donate 10 euros for each meter the neo-Nazis marched. They managed to raise 10,00 euros. The money went towards EXIT-Deutschland, a charity that helps people leave neo-Nazi groups."
Ten thousand euros is about $12,500 in American currency, so you can see the town of Wunsiedel raised a pretty good chunk of change.
The dumb neo-Nazis had no idea what was going on of course, until after the demonstration, or at least well into it, when they realized the town had duped them.
Here's how The Independent described what must have been a hilarious scene:
"The pro-Hess marchers had no idea until they began their walk, noticing along the route that villagers had set up motivational signs and showered them with confetti when they finished. A sign explained to them they had just raised money against themselves as they crossed the finishing line. The villagers even provided food for the neo-Nazis along their journey. The edibles were on offer under a banner that read 'Mein Mampf' meaning 'My Food.'"
The trick on the neo-Nazis was organized by a group called Rechts gegen Rechts,or Right against Right, with the full cooperation of the town, of course.
Organizers of the trick admit the neo-Nazis will probably be back next year, since Hess is so important to this creepy bunch of so-called people.
But at least now, residents of Wunsiedel won't have to cringe every time the neo-Nazis show up. They can just put out the donation buckets and get the confetti ready for the next march.
Watch what happens after a guy rips up this homeless veteran's sign.
The stunt depicted in the video in this post could have gone wrong, and certainly appears to start off on a mean note.
A young guy named Rob Anderson comes up and takes the sign away from a homeless veteran, a guy by the name of Alan McKracken, on a street corner.
The young guy rips up the sign, which isn't exactly helpful to the veteran trying to collect a bit of coin.
This seems especially cruel because people in the area say McKracken is a nice guy and tries to make people smile, even the ones who don't give him any cash.
But things take a turn as the stunt progresses.
Also, Anderson started a GoFundMe campaign for McKracken. The video went viral, so a lot of people donated, and at last check, more than $35,000 had been raised for McKracken.
(If you don't want to become a puddle of emotion, don't click on the above link to the ad)
Like millions of other people, especially animal lovers, the second the commercial starts, I change the channel. I can't bear to subject myself to those sad, beautiful and deserving animals.
Then I get angry. That TV ad is so manipulative. How dare the ASPCA play on my emotions with such a blunt instrument to get my donations?
Then I feel guilty. Of course the ASPCA is trying to manipulate me. That's Advertising 101. We're supposed to be manipulated into doing what the advertiser wants. That's effective advertising.
Let's face it. No matter what we feel about the ad, we can't blame the dogs and cats that need our help. Of course, we can't give all our money to the ASPCA and we can't take in every pet that needs a good home.
Which leaves us frustrated.
All these jumbles of emotion are what make us change the channel when the ad comes on. Actually, I don't think the ASPCA is particularly worried that we change the channel, come to think of it. Just the act of having to do that gets us thinking about them, and the dogs and cats that need help.
The ad does its job without us even having to watch it.
He went to the Ascencia Shelter, a place for the homeless in Glendale, California. He and his team converted the institutional style lunch room into something close to a 5-star restaurant.
Benson gotchef Jesse Bruneand his staff to come in and make a very tasty, high end meal. Some musicians set up in a corner and played some nice classical music.
Benson dressed up in a tuxedo, and as homeless people arrived expecting the usual donated meal, he welcomed them as if he were a maitre d greeting valued customers who had reserved a table for the evening.
Brune whipped up a top shelf filet mignon and a dessert that was to die for.
What I like about this "prank" is that it was about respect. When we go out to a decent restaurant, the staff (hopefully!) treats us with respect. Why not be deferential to the homeless who come in for a meal?
I honestly don't think most homeless people choose to be in their situation, and maybe if you offer a little respect, it'll give them hope they can get out of circumstances they're in. And if they do, we're all better off, right?
Yeah, that's a little pollyanish, but what the hell, it's still plausible.
I was actually quite moved by the video of this "prank" and you this might warrant a Kleenex alert for you. Watch:
Congratulations go out to Janice Tully, 49, of Hyannis, Mass. who gets this year's award for worst Christmas Grinch.
Janice Tully, this year's Grinch Of The Year Award nominee.
According to WBZ-TV in Boston, Tully volunteered to take two families with five children in total to a Toys For Tots event in which the families, which couldn't afford all the Christmas trappings.
The families would collect the toys, get driven back home by Tully and have a wonderful Christmas.
"When Tully returned home, she told her neighbors the toys were gone.
Candida Pina was one of the victims. 'I said, 'why are you doing this to my children, not to me, why are you doing this to children at Christmastime,?'"
If Tully had an an answer, it wasn't forthcoming. course.
Police said they found some of the stolen toys in the trunk of Tully's car. Police said Tully wouldn't tell them what she did with the rest of the toys.
She's charged with felony larceny of property.
Of course the police are the least of Tully's problems. Boy, is the Internet and the world going to hate on her!! Oh well, she should have thought of this before.
Luckily, Toys for Tots came through and replaced the toys Tully allegedly stole, and, as one of the kids involved said, Santa came after all. Phew!
Again nice gesture. It gave the homeless some needed food, gave them an great experience to remember and showed them some respect.
Not if you read the troll comments at the bottom of various articles about this I read on line. Few people congratulated him.
The criticism ran this way: Some of the money to pay for this was donated by friends, plus it was his restaurant, so he didn't pay much.
I say, so? At least he contributed something.
Other critics said it only benefitted a few people. Why didn't he just do some simple foods, or MRE's and distribute them to more people who were needy?
Look, no act of charity is perfect. It doesn't reach all of the intended people, it isn't always distributed perfectly, people could have dug deeper into their pockets, etc.
But you have to start somewhere.
I have to ask, how many of the trolls who were bitching about this guy donated something themselves?
Probably nothing. They were too busy trolling on Christmas Day.
Just in time for Veteran's Day, which is Monday, we get a time lapse video of a makeover done on a guy named Jim Wolf in Michigan.
Jim Wolf before....
Here's why we should care: Wolf is a U.S. Army veteran who for years has struggled with homelessness and alcoholism.
You've seen people like him: Scraggly hair, scraggly beard. Maybe you feel a little pity, but you don't linger, You want to get away.
In Wolf's case a Grand Rapids, Michigan charity called Degage Ministries took him in to help him out. There, a filmmaker namedRob Blissdecided to do a time lapse video as a local stylist and production team transformed Wolf.
Bliss said he wanted to show that a physical transformation doesn't necessarily cover up who they are, but instead can reveal who they can be.
As you can see in the surprisingly moving video at the bottom of this post, Wolf goes from looking like a guy in a downward spiral to an On-Top-Of-His Game GQ model.
As almost everyone who has commented on this stunt has observed, a makeover won't solve deep, long seated problems like homelessness, joblessness and alcoholism. But it does remind all of us that almost everyone is not a hopeless case, as we often dismissively think when we see a homeless guy on the street.
Jim Wolf after. Watch the moving video
below to see how this happened.
In the video, Wolf could not see how the transformation was progressing because there was no mirror near him. But when it was done, they put a full length mirror in front of him. The reaction is priceless.
Latest reports are that Wolf is now attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Things are looking up for him. We wish Wolf, and every veteran the best, and we thank them deeply for their service. We are totally indebted.
Forty days before Willie and Carol Fowler's daughter was to have an elaborate wedding ceremony, the wedding was canceled.
Willie and Carol Fowler are awesome
The couple has already paid for the entertainment, food, reception, all that stuff. So they'd have to call the caterers and all those people and lose their deposits.
So on the day the couple's daugher was to have married, they helped the Atlanta-based charity Hosea Feed The Hungry bus 200 homeless people to the pretty swanky reception hall, where the adults dined on salmon and chicken while the 50 or so kids has chicken fingers, french fries, fruit and chocolate chip cookies.
"All the plates were empty and there wasn't any leftover food at all. It was an eye-opening experience," said Quisa Foster of Hosea, according to ABC. "You go to weddings sometimes and you see a lot of people really waste food. We take so many things for granted. These clients or guests, as we call the, they don't."
The Fowlers have declined to say why the wedding was cancelled in the first place.
So the Fowlers are classy on a number of levels. They're taking the high road on the purient questions about why the wedding didn't happen. It's none of our business, and they didn't make it our business. Perfect!
Then, instead of just dropping everything, they took action. Let's face it, it had to take a lot of work rearranging the catering and everything else, working with Hosea and doing everything else to pull the event off. And they couldn't have felt like putting much effort into things after learning the big wedding was off.
So kudos to the Fowlers, who know how to take a bout of bad news and turn it into terrific news.
How that works is, people go into a coffee shop and order maybe two coffees, "one for me, one suspended."
Nice idea, but some say the "suspended
coffee" movement is misguided
The customer pays for both coffees, and later, a person without money theoretically comes in to get their free coffee.
The customer feels good for being charitable, the coffee shop personnel feel good about helping others with free coffee and the needy person feels good for getting free coffee.
I can't criticize the idea behind Suspended Coffees. It's a really nice gesture.
It all goes to prove that being nice to strangers, to anybody, is more complicated than we want it to be, or even think about.
First of all, says Consumerist, "suspended coffee" is mostly a creature of Facebook. Many homeless or low income people aren't on Facebook. So the people who aren't on social media get left out of all the help, because many of these people don't even know to ask for their "suspended coffee"
Second, Consumerist asks, is this idea means tested? What's to stop somebody who can well afford a whole coffee plantation, much less one cup of coffee, from coming in and asking for a free "suspended coffee"?
Consumerists also points out coffee isn't particularly nutritious. Plus, they ask, isn't it nicer to just show up at a food pantry or something to volunteer and have actual contact with the people seeking help?
First of all, if somebody staggered into a coffee shop desperately poor, freezing cold and starving, the owner would give away a warm drink to that person whether or not somebody already paid for a suspended coffee.
Small, independent local coffee shops often already give back to the community without well meaning but flashy campaigns like suspended coffee.
And, says the blogger, there's a chance an unscrupulous coffee shop owner could take money from people buying "suspended coffee" then just pocket the money without giving anything away.
So, if you want to help a poor person out in the street, you're just going to have to deal with him or her directly.
