*snickers*

Retail? Well, yeah - it might ruin you for life....

The ranks of obsessive folders have swelled in recent years as a generation of Americans has done stints as clothing-store clerks. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual nonsupervisory employment in clothing and clothing-accessory stores grew to nearly 1.3 million workers in 2007, up nearly 20% from 1990. Gap Inc. says it has trained "hundreds of thousands" of Gap store employees in the art of folding since the late 1980s.
[Joanne Ross-MacLeod]

Along the way, legions of retail grads have spent countless hours neatly folding T-shirts and jeans and stacking them on tables and shelves. Now, their peculiar idea of perfection is straining marriages and leading to bizarre behavior ranging from buying clothes based on an item's foldability to straightening up sloppy displays while shopping.

Boy, they've never watched morning television in Japan. I'm just saying.

*snickers*

Retail? Well, yeah - it might ruin you for life....

The ranks of obsessive folders have swelled in recent years as a generation of Americans has done stints as clothing-store clerks. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual nonsupervisory employment in clothing and clothing-accessory stores grew to nearly 1.3 million workers in 2007, up nearly 20% from 1990. Gap Inc. says it has trained "hundreds of thousands" of Gap store employees in the art of folding since the late 1980s.
[Joanne Ross-MacLeod]

Along the way, legions of retail grads have spent countless hours neatly folding T-shirts and jeans and stacking them on tables and shelves. Now, their peculiar idea of perfection is straining marriages and leading to bizarre behavior ranging from buying clothes based on an item's foldability to straightening up sloppy displays while shopping.

Boy, they've never watched morning television in Japan. I'm just saying.

*snickers*

Retail? Well, yeah - it might ruin you for life....

The ranks of obsessive folders have swelled in recent years as a generation of Americans has done stints as clothing-store clerks. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual nonsupervisory employment in clothing and clothing-accessory stores grew to nearly 1.3 million workers in 2007, up nearly 20% from 1990. Gap Inc. says it has trained "hundreds of thousands" of Gap store employees in the art of folding since the late 1980s.
[Joanne Ross-MacLeod]

Along the way, legions of retail grads have spent countless hours neatly folding T-shirts and jeans and stacking them on tables and shelves. Now, their peculiar idea of perfection is straining marriages and leading to bizarre behavior ranging from buying clothes based on an item's foldability to straightening up sloppy displays while shopping.

Boy, they've never watched morning television in Japan. I'm just saying.

For anyone who wants to whine about the wait for China....

It can take as long as it has to. If this is part of the reason....

"Legal abortions are commonplace for Chinese families in the one-child era. Moreover, with ultrasound machines allowing parents to determine gender at 4-5 months, many first-time pregnancies are aborted if the fetus is female. This selective (and illegal) practice is the result of China's traditional preference for sons; here and in other Asian cultures, brides migrate to husbands' families, leaving their own parents to fend for themselves in old age. Because of this, parents covet male babies. In the one-child era, as many as 40 million baby girls have been selectively aborted - creating a gender gap that has left millions of men with little hope of finding wives. And while the black market for male children remains robust, there is a growing demand for girls as well."

Adoption from China began as a way to assist the abandoned. Period. Lose sight of that, and you lose sight of how the whole issue begins...and is now morphing into something even more awful.

Something that is now hitting children of both genders.

For anyone who wants to whine about the wait for China....

It can take as long as it has to. If this is part of the reason....

"Legal abortions are commonplace for Chinese families in the one-child era. Moreover, with ultrasound machines allowing parents to determine gender at 4-5 months, many first-time pregnancies are aborted if the fetus is female. This selective (and illegal) practice is the result of China's traditional preference for sons; here and in other Asian cultures, brides migrate to husbands' families, leaving their own parents to fend for themselves in old age. Because of this, parents covet male babies. In the one-child era, as many as 40 million baby girls have been selectively aborted - creating a gender gap that has left millions of men with little hope of finding wives. And while the black market for male children remains robust, there is a growing demand for girls as well."

Adoption from China began as a way to assist the abandoned. Period. Lose sight of that, and you lose sight of how the whole issue begins...and is now morphing into something even more awful.

Something that is now hitting children of both genders.

For anyone who wants to whine about the wait for China....

It can take as long as it has to. If this is part of the reason....

"Legal abortions are commonplace for Chinese families in the one-child era. Moreover, with ultrasound machines allowing parents to determine gender at 4-5 months, many first-time pregnancies are aborted if the fetus is female. This selective (and illegal) practice is the result of China's traditional preference for sons; here and in other Asian cultures, brides migrate to husbands' families, leaving their own parents to fend for themselves in old age. Because of this, parents covet male babies. In the one-child era, as many as 40 million baby girls have been selectively aborted - creating a gender gap that has left millions of men with little hope of finding wives. And while the black market for male children remains robust, there is a growing demand for girls as well."

Adoption from China began as a way to assist the abandoned. Period. Lose sight of that, and you lose sight of how the whole issue begins...and is now morphing into something even more awful.

Something that is now hitting children of both genders.

Let's hear it for a Good Guy

Who says coal and environmentalists -- even the most hardcore take-no-prisoners kind of activists -- can't get along? Or at least listen to each other. And who says that just because coal companies can rally under deceptively-titled front groups like Americans For Balanced Energy Choices, green groups do the same?

...

That the organizer of the conference -- Gerard McCloskey of McCloskey Group -- was willing to let Greenpeace air a litany of the environmental costs of coal to its biggest promoters came as a bit of a shock.

(I'm not fond of the tone of the article. OMG THEY LET US TALK BBQ!!11)

But let's Google said worthy, shall we?

Nope, not just a PR Firm - THE PR firm if you're selling coal.

"I thought what we should do was engage them," McCloskey told Reuters. "All of us have children, grandchildren. It was good to see Greenpeace here willing to put their argument out."

Someone who would at least listen. I may not have a whole lot of hope for the business he's in - but damn, he'd be someone I'd trust in another one when that one's tapped out.

Let's hear it for a guy in a coal-smudged white hat. Dude, buy stock in fuel cell or something. You need to stick around!

Let's hear it for a Good Guy

Who says coal and environmentalists -- even the most hardcore take-no-prisoners kind of activists -- can't get along? Or at least listen to each other. And who says that just because coal companies can rally under deceptively-titled front groups like Americans For Balanced Energy Choices, green groups do the same?

...

That the organizer of the conference -- Gerard McCloskey of McCloskey Group -- was willing to let Greenpeace air a litany of the environmental costs of coal to its biggest promoters came as a bit of a shock.

(I'm not fond of the tone of the article. OMG THEY LET US TALK BBQ!!11)

But let's Google said worthy, shall we?

Nope, not just a PR Firm - THE PR firm if you're selling coal.

"I thought what we should do was engage them," McCloskey told Reuters. "All of us have children, grandchildren. It was good to see Greenpeace here willing to put their argument out."

Someone who would at least listen. I may not have a whole lot of hope for the business he's in - but damn, he'd be someone I'd trust in another one when that one's tapped out.

Let's hear it for a guy in a coal-smudged white hat. Dude, buy stock in fuel cell or something. You need to stick around!

Let's hear it for a Good Guy

Who says coal and environmentalists -- even the most hardcore take-no-prisoners kind of activists -- can't get along? Or at least listen to each other. And who says that just because coal companies can rally under deceptively-titled front groups like Americans For Balanced Energy Choices, green groups do the same?

...

That the organizer of the conference -- Gerard McCloskey of McCloskey Group -- was willing to let Greenpeace air a litany of the environmental costs of coal to its biggest promoters came as a bit of a shock.

(I'm not fond of the tone of the article. OMG THEY LET US TALK BBQ!!11)

But let's Google said worthy, shall we?

Nope, not just a PR Firm - THE PR firm if you're selling coal.

"I thought what we should do was engage them," McCloskey told Reuters. "All of us have children, grandchildren. It was good to see Greenpeace here willing to put their argument out."

Someone who would at least listen. I may not have a whole lot of hope for the business he's in - but damn, he'd be someone I'd trust in another one when that one's tapped out.

Let's hear it for a guy in a coal-smudged white hat. Dude, buy stock in fuel cell or something. You need to stick around!