No good deed goes unpunished

Yesterday, as promised, I went to the store to pay for the item they mistakenly did not charge me for the day before. I picked up a few items, including another jug of canola oil. As I approached the checkouts, I scanned the cashiers and was happy to see that the very attractive one was working the express lane.

After I paid for everything, I said to her in a hushed voice "You're going to think I'm crazy, but yesterday I bought one of these (grabbing the oil) and they didn't scan it at all, so take this one back." She said "I do think you're crazy...you could have given it to me." At that point, I noticed the lady bagging her stuff ahead of me had slowed her actions and dropped her mouth open in apparent agreement with the cashier's assessment of my mental condition.

Smiling, I said (to the cashier) "The next time someone forgets to charge me for jewellery, I'll give it to you."

In retrospect, I think the girl in her early 20's would prefer to get oil from this 54 year old. Also, in retrospect, I never should have evoked conversation with the girl. Better to maintain the fantasy of a perfect female specimen than to shatter it by finding she's prone to dishonesty. And finally, in retrospect, the beautiful girl I used to have a "pleasant" customer/employee relationship with, now thinks I'm an old weirdo. At least I can sleep well at night. Alone, but well. I don't think that Karma sh*t works.

Q & A's from around the web

Why DID BUSH PROMISE TO CATCH OSAMA BIN LADEN DEAD OR ALIVE THEN FAIL??

Unless Bin Laden is right next to the oil, they will never find him.

Ripped from the headlines

The Canadian Press

N.S. lobstermen told to stay clear of area near sunken, diesel-laden barge

November 24, 2008 6 p.m.

HALIFAX, N.S. — On the first day of the fall season for Atlantic Canada's biggest and most lucrative lobster fishery, federal officials warned Nova Scotia lobstermen to stay away from an area where a dredging barge carrying 70,000 litres of diesel sank in rough seas on the weekend.

An emergency response team confirmed Monday that surveillance flights spotted a long, narrow slick of some kind of oily substance about 15 metres wide and about 1,600 metres long.

Reporters aboard several news helicopters as well as small crafts that have made their way to the scene confirmed that the government's warning to lobstermen is being heeded as none of the creatures have been spotted near the wreck thus far.

File photo of lobsterman.

News item

US toll in Iraq hits all-time low as month ends

That was the AP news headline today. Does anyone else believe that this is the calm before the storm that will be unleashed in the months ahead? The "opposition" in Iraq doesn't have the resources the Americans do or for that matter that Iraq has. But I don't believe that insurgents there are ready to give up, especially while American troops are still there. I expect that they are regrouping, raising money and re-organizing before mounting a major wave of attacks. Let's hope I'm wrong. Let's also hope that no major attack is perpetrated against a western country. After all, nothing has changed for those who have been disgruntled with The West for more than half a century.