We learn them from our parents (hopefully) even before pre-school: ‘a penny saved is a penny earned;’ and ‘penny wise but pound-foolish;’ and other such penny-pinching proverbs. ‘If we drive to six different grocery stores to get the best bargains on everything we buy, with gasoline so expensive, that’s penny-wise and pound-foolish.’
Lakewood
Letter: Continuing to spin their shopping cart wheels
Lakewood’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) – whose deliberations are found on the Lakewood Police Department’s website – may soon survey folks as to where – on the scale presumably of safety since that’s their middle name – shopping carts rank.
Letter: Has somebody seen my lost slot machine?
Description of missing item: Slant Top (attached stool) or maybe (with over 2,000 of ‘em it’s hard to remember) it was an Upright (no stool – player must stand while losing money). Credit meter (LED display) – the thing that keeps track of the payouts – only works intermittently. And the drop bucket – where excess coins are diverted from the hopper to the customer – had been disconnected (it was always a lark to see the payee scrambling about on the floor to retrieve his winnings before everybody else did).
Westside Story – 811 Call Before You Dig
Our Federally mandated 811 – Call Before You Dig program is an excellent idea with one major flaw. Call Before You Dig employees lack good judgement and common sense. While this may seem like a bold, opinionated and condemnatory statement, all you have to do is look around at their graffiti handiwork to see evidence confirming my point. It is like Call Before You Dig employees have to earn low scores on a common sense / intelligence test before being selected for the job.
Klingenberg named ‘Lion of the Year’
Jillian Klingenberg, Heritage Bank Lakewood’s assistant branch manager, was recently named Lakewood First Lion Club “Lion of the Year” for 2014, for her efforts on behalf of the club’s apple sales and crab feed.
Letter: Gambling with Lakewood’s future
Within sight of Lakewood City Hall there’s a bank with a sign on the door – both entering and exiting – that indicates you are “entering a no-surprise zone.” Given a number of factors, not the least of which is our struggling economy, imagine then the surprise to read that Lakewood’s number-crunchers are counting on residents gambling significantly more in the foreseeable future.
Westside Story – Young Author
Here I am pushing 72 years of age and I am playing with the idea of becoming a writer. I will admit that it is a late start, but I have always done things late. I was born late. I graduated from high school and college late. I joined the Sheriff’s Department late. I retired late. The way I see it, if I live to be age 100, I have a little over 28 years to become an accomplished writer. So I am reading books on writing and taking college courses to become a better writer.
Letter: Cheat sheet
Depending on what time you checked most popular articles, story number one was “NCAA investigating fraud at 20 schools.”
Story Number Two: “11 of 12 Patriots’ Footballs Deflated.”
Story number three: So?
Letter: Buried beneath the old juniper tree
He’d be back one day to retrieve it, and what was below it. Soon as he could rustle up the gear and find financial backing – in the outside chance he’d locate those he could trust – he’d return. It was a promise he’d made to himself.