{"id":3120,"date":"2008-11-10T11:46:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-10T19:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3120"},"modified":"2008-11-10T11:46:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-10T19:46:00","slug":"monday-news-chum-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3120","title":{"rendered":"Monday News Chum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Monday, the election is over (but for the electoral college)&#8230; this must mean it is time for a mostly non-political news chum:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Gift that Keeps On Giving<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> A reminder for those giving gift cards this year: Be careful about the retailers you use, because if the retailer goes belly-up, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-giftcards10-2008nov10,0,2342051.story\" target=\"_blank\">the gift card may be worthless<\/a>. This happened to folks with <i>The Sharper Image<\/i> earlier this year, and <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2008\/11\/10\/news\/companies\/circuit_city\/index.htm?postversion=2008111013\" target=\"_blank\">given today\u2019s news<\/a>, I\u2019d spend that Circuit City card sooner than later.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Room 222<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> The economy is not only affecting gift cards. Schools are also feeling the pinch&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-schools10-2008nov10,0,4494369.story\" target=\"_blank\">private schools in particular<\/a>. Parent\u2019s can\u2019t afford the tuition, and the income from and value of the endowments are way down. Will the parents move to public schools? Unknown, but if they do, the budgets there will be tighter as well. Further, fundraising won\u2019t be as easy&#8230; as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/11\/10\/us\/10bake.html?partner=permalink&#038;exprod=permalink\" target=\"_blank\">bake sales are now subject to school nutritional rules<\/a>. That\u2019s right: no more selling those homemade or purchased cookies or brownies or cupcakes. Food served at school must be healthy and nutritious. So keep your eye out for more carwashes.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Pata Pata<\/b>\u201d Department: <\/i> Today\u2019s news also brings the report that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/obituaries\/la-me-makeba11-2008nov11,0,3388402.story\" target=\"_blank\">Miriam Makeba has died<\/a>. I learned of Ms. Makeba when Pata Pata became the new dance at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbtcamps.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">CHK\/GHC<\/a> in the early 1970s. What I never understood was why an African song became popular at a Jewish summer camp&#8230; and it is still popular these days!\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Sorry, Tiffany<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> There\u2019s a hot new name for babies: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/11\/10\/us\/politics\/10babies.html?partner=permalink&#038;exprod=permalink\" target=\"_blank\">Barack<\/a>. Evidently, this is something that happens most election years: there were lots of Dwights and Lyndons (although I\u2019ve never met a Lyndon) back in the 1950s and 1960s. We haven\u2019t had odd names for president\u2019s in a while; after all, John, James, Richard, William, Ronald, and George are always popular. Folks also use last names as first names, so there is also a rash of \u201cObamas\u201d. This explains why Clinton was also a popular first name. Still, some names just never caught on, such as Nixon or Bush.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Another Sign of the Economy<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> Lastly, want to get your child a classic toy, something just inducted into the toy hall of fame. Go outside and get him a stick. Yup, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/ap\/2008\/11\/06\/america\/NA-US-Toy-Hall-of-Fame.php\" target=\"_blank\">the humble stick, as well as the skateboard and the baby doll, have been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame<\/a>. Previous inductees range from the bicycle and Mr. Potato Head to Crayola crayons and the cardboard box. The stick is a special addition. Curators praised its all-purpose, all-natural, no-cost qualities and its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed by imaginations into something else.<\/ul>\n<p>And speaking of toys, a popular toy is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nttmuseum.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">toy train<\/a>&#8230; and a popular toy train is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thomasandfriends.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thomas the Tank Engine<\/a>. You could have seen a full-size Thomas last weekend at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oerm.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">OERM<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oerm.org\/pages\/dowt_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">Day Out with Thomas<\/a>. But don\u2019t fret. You can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oerm.org\/pages\/dowt_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">still see Thomas tomorrow<\/a>, Veteran\u2019s Day, as well as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oerm.org\/pages\/dowt_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">next weekend November 15-16<\/a>. As an added bonus &#8212; no extra charge &#8212; if you come tomorrow you can see me and <a href=\"http:\/\/nsshere.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"lj-user\">nsshere<\/a> as we work as Thomas Car Attendants (alas, you won\u2019t be able to see <a href=\"http:\/\/gf_guruilla.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"lj-user\">gf_guruilla<\/a>, as it looks like she has to stay home with pneumonia). So if you\u2019re in SoCal, and not working (or able to take a vacation day), come on out to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oerm.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">OERM<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?f=q&#038;hl=en&#038;geocode=&#038;q=2201+S+A+Street,+Perris+CA&#038;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&#038;sspn=48.555061,85.341797&#038;ie=UTF8&#038;ll=33.770051,-117.233734&#038;spn=0.025079,0.041671&#038;z=15&#038;iwloc=r0\" target=\"_blank\">Perris, CA<\/a> and say \u201cHi\u201d. Go for an early or late ride <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oerm.org\/pages\/dowt_main.html\" target=\"_blank\">and save $4 off the tickets<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Monday, the election is over (but for the electoral college)&#8230; this must mean it is time for a mostly non-political news chum: From the \u201cGift that Keeps On Giving\u201d Department: A reminder for those giving gift cards this year: Be careful about the retailers you use, because if the retailer goes belly-up, the gift <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3120\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,56,113,1],"tags":[267,315,100,135,314],"class_list":["post-3120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-camp","category-news-chum","category-obituaries","category-lj-xfer","tag-childhood","tag-economy","tag-orange-empire","tag-school-fundraising","tag-toys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}