Pennsylvania Isn't Stereo

[Doctor Rock]

Somehow Dan managed to walk right into a joke and murder it.

Bravo.

Hey, I'm a hard working man. 

[Doctor Rock]

Wal-Mart Worker Dies in Stampede at New York Store

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A worker at a Wal-Mart in New York City’s Long Island suburbs was killed when a throng of shoppers broke down the doors to the store early this morning and knocked him to the ground.

In California, two people died after a shooting at a Toys “R” Us Inc. store.

The event at the Long Island Wal-Mart Stores Inc. location involved a temporary employee and was “a tragic situation,” the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company, the world’s biggest retailer, said in a statement. “The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if any shoppers or workers have been killed during similar incidents during sales on the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally known as Black Friday.

“We do not know of an incident such as what happened today,” Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based National Retail Federation, said in an e-mail. “It is a horribly tragic situation. Retailers are reminded of the importance of employee safety.”

At least four shoppers were hurt in the melee at the store in the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, about 13 miles (20 kilometers) east of New York City, Nassau County Police said in a statement. A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for observation, and three people suffered minor injuries, police said.

The 34-year-old worker, who wasn’t identified by police, was knocked down by the crowd shortly after 5 a.m. local time and taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m., the police said. The county medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

Temporary Employee

The man was working for a temporary agency on the company’s behalf, Wal-Mart said in the statement.

About 2,000 people had gathered outside the store as it prepared to open, police Detective Michael Bitsko said in a telephone interview. Employees had opened the interior doors and were preparing to open the main entrance when the crowd surged forward, knocking the front door off its hinges, he said.

Authorities are reviewing surveillance video and are considering criminal charges, Bitsko said. Some people continued to shop despite the efforts of upset store workers, who attempted to get them to leave, Newsday said, citing Kimberly Cribbs, a shopper from Far Rockaway.

Store Closed

The store reopened later in the day, and police stood outside to keep customers orderly as some shoppers tried to enter without knowing what had happened, Bitsko said. Wal-Mart told police it had security at the store to handle crowds this morning, he said.

“Black Friday’s becoming more popular,” Bitsko said. “I don’t know if these stores anticipate the number of people that are coming.”

U.S. retailers including Wal-Mart opened their doors as early as midnight and discounted merchandise as much as 70 percent on the day after Thanksgiving to counter what may be the weakest holiday shopping season in six years.

Retailers promoted “doorbuster” deals to attract customers on Black Friday, so named because the day after Thanksgiving was said to be when retailers started to make their annual profit, having paid off their costs from sales earlier in the year.

The Valley Stream store was offering discounted merchandise including a $128 Magnavox DVD player, a $97 Garmin GPS navigation system and a $69 Samsung digital camera, according to a promotional flyer posted on Wal-Mart’s Web site.

Union Involvement

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union’s Local 1500 Chapter, which represents about 23,000 grocery workers in the New York City region, called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the New York State Labor Department and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office to investigate the incident. Wal-Mart workers are not unionized.

“It’s tragic no matter what, but when you bring in temporary workers, there’s a responsibility whether they’re temporary or not to train and protect those people, and that obviously did not happen here,” Local 1500 spokesman Pat Purcell said in a telephone interview.

OSHA sent an inspector to the store this morning to investigate the incident, said Ted Fitzgerald, a Boston-based spokesman for the agency. The New York Labor Department and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

California Shooting

At the California Toys “R” Us, police received a call at about 11:30 a.m. California time reporting shots fired at the Palm Desert store, Sergeant Dennis Gutierrez said in a telephone interview. Two people were confirmed dead, Gutierrez said, without elaborating.

The shooting may have involved rival gangs, the Associated Press reported. Palm Desert is about 120 miles southeast of Los Angeles and about 10 miles from Palm Springs, California.

Toys “R” Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugha didn’t immediately respond to a telephone call or e-mail.

Wal-Mart fell 81 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $55.88 at 1:15 p.m. in a shortened session of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Toys “R” Us was taken private in July 2005 by Bain Capital LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust for $6.6 billion.

Pathetic. 

“The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority.”

No it isn't. 

[Just Some Girl]

Duh. Of course they're top priority.

[/pretending to  be astute]



Ok, drunk(ish)...gotta get myself to bed... have a nice night, Dan.

[matthew]

Figured I might repost it here:

PBS:

Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Live: Pulse

Upcoming Airtimes
Thu, Dec 4
   9:30 pm
   The progressive rock heroes perform ...
Sat, Dec 6
   10 pm
   
Tue, Dec 9
   9:30 pm
   
Thu, Dec 18
   9 pm
   

     The progressive rock heroes perform their seminal 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon from start to finish, in the original running order. Hits include "Money," "Breathe," "Speak to Me" and "Time." Filmed October 20, 1994 during the Division Bell tour at London's Earls Court Exhibition Centre, the captivating concert features David Gilmour (vocals/guitars), Nick Mason (drums) and Richard Wright (keyboards/vocals) at their best with flawless sound and amazing visual effects. No other band has impacted the live rock music performance quite like Pink Floyd. This concert is a testament to why.

Closed Captioned, In Stereo
Thursday, December 4 at 9:30 pm

RETURN TO TOP

     ...
     Closed Captioned, In Stereo
Saturday, December 6 at 10 pm
Tuesday, December 9 at 9:30 pm
Thursday, December 18 at 9 pm

RETURN TO TOP

[Doctor Rock]

Pff, not a big Dark Side of the Moon fan.  Besides, no Roger Waters.

[Doctor Rock]

That Walmart trampling incident could have been lifted from the Onion. 

[matthew]

[ebaumsworld]http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80425799/[/ebaumsworld].

[Just Some Girl]

Had a nice little Canadian moment this afternoon...wish I'd taken a photo. It was a lovely day (though cool-ish), so my friend Isabel and I walked to Kensington. After buying our groceries and such, went for our traditional after-shopping beer at Ronnie's Local (my fave watering hole in the Market) and...people were sitting outside on the patio (in parkas and hats in 37F/3C weather) drinkin'. Warms the heart. (We sat inside.)

I'm a little tipsy now and need a lie-down. Wheeeeeee...

[Moetown]

Figured I might repost it here:

PBS:

Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Live: Pulse

Upcoming Airtimes
Thu, Dec 4
   9:30 pm
   The progressive rock heroes perform ...
Sat, Dec 6
   10 pm
   
Tue, Dec 9
   9:30 pm
   
Thu, Dec 18
   9 pm
   

They can't do Dark Side of the Moon w/o Robert Plant!

[Just Some Girl]

knnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnch!!

[matthew]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/v4ijDlbvAxw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/v4ijDlbvAxw</a>

(I am glad there are people working to ameliorate these things)

[matthew]

Damnation, I bought those tickets for NEIL YOUNG/WILCO months ago and I managed to TOTALLY FORGET about it until a week ago...and then still managed to forget that I FUCKING CLOSE on Mondays. The concert begins at 7:00, I close the store at 7:30.

However, whenever people ask me to fill their shifts - I DO. I am sure that this is one reason people at work get the impression that I am "soft", but I do it largely out of anticipation of incidents like these. Those days that they have asked me to fill in for them I have had to cancel nothing except a day off.

It just occurred to me, while washing lettuce, that i am supposed to close tomorrow night...and that there is no way (short of missing Wilco play, and perhaps even the beginning of Neil) that I could make it. It is a quarter to 2PM on Sunday afternoon and finding a replacement might not have been as easy had I not filled in for G____ so many times.

Anyway...whew! 

[bebopbalogna]

so is g____ gonna work yr shift?  not sure yet? that's a shift i would just not work.  i hope it works out for you.  i'm pretty upset that neil ain't coming south this time around. also, i was never really a wilco fan until i saw em live. very engaging live band.  the first time i felt like i was watching The Band.  i'm jealous.

[matthew]

so is g____ gonna work yr shift?  not sure yet? that's a shift i would just not work.  i hope it works out for you.  i'm pretty upset that neil ain't coming south this time around. also, i was never really a wilco fan until i saw em live. very engaging live band.  the first time i felt like i was watching The Band.  i'm jealous.

That is either "weird" or not at all a coincidence that I all I could think throughout the Wilco set was

THE BAND

THE BAND

THE BAND

Great performances and all, but I wasn't all that hot for their set..it felt right in small doses, but for most of it I felt I was watching a bunch of musicians-musicians being clever dicks. I am not surprised, because I was not really all that in love with the material on "Sky Blue Sky", despite the nods to Harvest-era Neil. Something really insular about it all...as if the audience were secondary consideration. But perhaps that is how Harvest and After the Gold Rush sounded at first.

Live the outro to "Walken" is really cool, though.