Tony Curtis Has Died

Tony Curtis (June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor. He played a variety of roles, from light comedy, such as the musician on the run from gangsters in Some Like It Hot, to serious dramatic roles, such as an escaped convict in The Defiant Ones, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. From 1949, he appeared in more than 100 films and made frequent television appearances.

Scratch & Win

Today I went for a walk while my husband slept. I decided to take three dollars with me to force myself to walk to the closest convenience store. It's a longer walk then we have been taking and I feel I need the exercise.

Now let me say right here that I do not normally buy lots of lottery tickets but when I get coupons for lottery tickets I will buy them or maybe once in a while when I get the urge but usually no more than one ticket once every month.

Recently I had a bright idea that if I saw three of the same scratch off tickets maybe I should buy one because your odds of winning are 1 in slightly more than three of winning at least a free ticket. I've used this method two previous times and won $4 once and two free tickets the second time.

When I arrived at the convenience store I bought one $2 lottery ticket and one $1 ticket. I scratched those two tickets and didn't win anything. Dumb me, I told myself. I shouldn't have bought any tickets because I really hadn't seen any used tickets.

Then just as I was leaving I decided to buy just one more scratch ticket. On this ticket each line was a winner. I wound up winning $6 which was $2 more than I had when I walked into the store.

I was also happy to see that a book I had won arrvied. It's called Matched by Ally Condie.

I'm looking forward to more wins soon

Who My Baby Daddy?

Today's story is about a man who could appear on the Maury show every day for a month without ever hearing the words "You are NOT the baby's father."


Howard Veal has fathered 23 children with 14 women, and is more than $533,000 in arrears in his child-support payments, according to the attorney general's office,

On Thursday, Judge Dennis Leiber sentenced Veal, 44, to two to four years in prison for failure to pay child support, a felony. With this sentence, the judge far exceeded the state guidelines, which called for Veal to get no more than six months in the county jail.

In a case of stating the obvious, the judge told Veal "You're an insult to every responsible father who sacrifices to provide for their children."

"I was stunned and amazed," said Leiber of the scope of Veal's fatherhood, and his failure to pay anything but a scant amount to most of the mothers.

"Animals procreate, human beings are supposed to nurture their children."

The case Veal was sentenced on stemmed from his guilty plea in July to owing more than $60,000 in child support to Grand Rapids resident Sherri Black, to whom he made one $87.75 payment over the course of seven years, according to the attorney general's office.

Wood said their investigation revealed that between 1989 and 1999, Veal impregnated at least one woman every year. "Incredibly, in three of those years, the defendant impregnated three women per year ...," the memo said.

Wood said Veal was unable to remember the names of several of his children and could not say specifically how many he fathered.

Black, the 38-year-old mother of two of Veal's children, ages 16 and 11, was delighted to see Veal going to prison, but she said getting the money would have been better.

"I'd rather have him pay the money," she said. "Now my taxes will go to support him in prison."

"My daughter doesn't even know him," she said.

Perhaps, instead of jail time they might offer him a vasectomy. That might be the best option for everyone all the way around.

Price Chopper - Fail

File this story under Customer Outreach - FAIL

It seems a Syracuse area critic posted negative comments about an unnamed area Price Chopper.

What might have wound up being a begnign post to a limited number of twitter followers went viral.

The tweet read in part, “Every time I go into a @PriceChopperNY I realize why they are not @Wegmans. Tonight — bare produce areas” and a picture of a sign that the customer thought showed poor store organization

Now the Twitter chatter is going viral.

The dispute erupted after the customer posted a tweet on Price Chopper’s Twitter page that criticized the supermarket chain. A Price Chopper employee reacted by contacting the customer’s employer and requesting he be disciplined.

This dispute reached blogospheric heights in part because the customer is a friend of Anthony J. Rotolo, assistant professor of practice and social media strategist at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies.

Rotolo said he was approached by his friend last week after a representative of Price Chopper contacted that person’s employer about the tweet.

Rotolo put the whole affair in a blog, with a photo of a Price Chopper supermarket with “fail” stamped on it.

What happened next is almost unbelieveable. Someone from Price Chopper’s public relations team contacted the customer’s employer (which was mentioned in the individual’s Twitter bio) and requested disciplinary action be taken against the individual for their negative post.

Uh who died and left you boss? This guy needs to lose his job. Contacting the guy's employer and asking he be disciplined crosses the line

Heidi Reale, director of consumer insights at Price Chopper, posted on Rotolo’s blog, “This associate (the Price Chopper employee) had no responsibility for, or permission from, Price Chopper to address customer complaints or the customer’s employer. This is why we knew nothing about it when it was tweeted at us today. We are sorry for this unfortunate incident, and we are working to take the appropriate actions to repair the trust that has been compromised by this associate.”

Price Chopper did man up to its mishandling of the whole cyber mis-step. It's troubling that these stories are becoming more common (e.g. the guy that was sued for libel because he gave negative feedback on ebay)

Eddie Fisher Dies At Age 82

Eddie Fisher passed away Wednesday night at his home in Berkeley of complications from hip surgery.

In the early 50s, Fisher sold millions of records with 32 hit songs including "Thinking of You," "Any Time," "Oh, My Pa-pa," "I'm Yours," "Wish You Were Here," "Lady of Spain" and "Count Your Blessings."

He will forever be remembered for the scandal of his marriage to Liz Taylor. Fisher divorced Reynolds and married Taylor in 1959.

TravelingMamas.com Tripapalooza Contest

This summer we went up to Virginia to visit my sons. We had a great time. We took the family on a rafting trip down the Shenandoah and we also visited Gettysburg.

It's always a great time when we get to spend time with the kids. I miss them so very much and I feel awful watching my grandchildren grow up without me.

This post is part of the TravelingMamas.com Tripapalooza Contest.

Teresa Lewis Is Scheduled To Die Tonight

Teresa Lewis is scheduled for execution at 9 p.m. and has requested fried chicken, sweet peas and Dr Pepper, and either German cake or apple pie for dessert.

Teresa Lewis has admitted to her role in slaying her husband and stepson for money. The governor of Virginia and the US Supreme Court have both sided with the Virginia appeals courts, which upheld the conviction and the sentence.

All signs seem to point to the fact that tonight Teresa Lewis will be the first woman in Virginia to die by the state's death penalty since 1912.