the keyword in this business is service for every customer, regardless of their plant material needs, large or small. I've known that since before graduating from Drake University; David Siegel confirms it in his newest bestseller and website: Futurize Your Business!. Those garden centers and nurserys who do, flourish; the ones who don't give a flying rat's rear end about their customers, perish quickly. After 10 short years in the business, I've seen many come and even more go. A reputation for quality service is something to cherish and protect; once it's lost publicly, it's impossible to regain that ground. We always go "the extra step" for our customers and have earned a reputation over the past 10 years for being head-and-shoulders above all the competition. No brag, just fact.
Around The Garden Center.
May's To-Do List.
Huh? Say What?
The 4th Amendment.
The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals.
bending over backwards
Friday, May 5, 2000
After three weeks of weather more akin to cold, rainy and blustery November, it appears that Spring might have finally arrived. Last weekend and most of this past week, 70°F & 80°:F temps have settled in. Sure, April is somewhat unpredictable, but for awhile I thought we were going right into a stifflingly hot Summer, without the benefit of Spring, since Winter seemed to be hanging on for so long.
Last weekend was a "zoo" at the Garden Center; hundreds of people coming through and purchasing everything in sight. I was short-handed again — only 3 salespeople — but somehow we made it through Saturday and Sunday.
Gas prices continue to plummet, locally: $1.34.9 for unleaded plus at many stations in the York area. I filled up the Jeep Tuesday, 21gals for $28. Not as bad as it was 4-5 weeks ago.
The May issue of Entrepreneur Magazine is out and we made the print edition; alas, but not the online edition. I copied the print article which deals with www.gdnctr.com's success and have posted it here. Bummed me out that it didn't make the online edition, as I like linking to "live stories". Can't you tell from "The Journal"? Ummm, that is, if you're a regular visitor.
The so-called World Economy ground to a slowing, not screeching, halt this week. The
ILOVEYOU virus was rampant worldwide. But somehow, it missed me and my global traverses.
Finally, it's May and I'm pretty sure we're past any danger of frost here in USDA Zone 6. So here's the "list of things to do" in your gardens this month:
»Set out seedlings of warm-season annuals,
»Set out summer-flowering bulbs,
»Plant fall-blooming bulbs,
»Divide and replant crowded winter- and spring-blooming bulbs after leaves yellow,
»Plant balled-and-burlapped, container, and bare-root fruit trees,
»Spray apples, peaches, and pears that have been affected with canker problems,
»Plant permanent ground covers,
»Plant and aerate lawns and loosen thatch,
»Plant bare-root perennial vegetables,
»Plant seedlings of cool-weather vegetables ,
»Sow seeds for tender perennials ,
»Divide and replant spring-blooming perennials after bloom,
»Plant container roses,
»Plant balled-and-burlapped, container, and bare-root trees, shrubs, and vines,
»Apply dormant spray to trees, shrubs, and vines,
»Plant tender shrubs and vines,
»Plant summer-blooming shrubs and vines,
»Plant frost-tolerant trees,
»Plant needle-leafed evergreens.
Our tax dollars at work: "Cheap beer is a leading contributor to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases", according to a government report that says, "raising the tax on a six-pack by 20 cents could reduce gonorrhea by up to 9 percent". How f*cking stupid is that conclusion? Is 20 cents gonna keep someone from getting laid? Doubt it. I think most people can "raise that kind of cash", don't you? Read the story.
From "the most ethical administration in US history"
— so ethical the First Felon's impending disbarment isn't even phasing the Clintonoid. He answers with 85 pages of lies and rationalizations, and hundreds of pages of footnotes. Sad. He still thinks the impeachment was all about sex, rather than his perjury and obstruction of justice. What an moron; he's morally incapable of understanding the truth and what is the right thing to do.
Nostalgia for Clinton? The abject stupidity of the American Public constantly amazes me. The son-of-a-bitch is a liar and a criminal; worst the Nation's ever had, far worse than Nixon. Yet he continues to make fun of it and blame others for his own crimes. Ditto with the lying, rat-bastard criminal GoreBore.
Why is it that when a white person whacks minorities, it's called a "hate crime" and gets headlines all around the world? But when a minority whacks a white person, it's simple assault or plain murder. Doesn't make any sense to me.
How is it possible that a mere two months after being found innocent of a murder by the idiotic defense, "reason of insanity", the murderer is declared sane and about to be released? Murder is murder; he should be tried, convicted and executed promptly. What kind of a f*cked up legal system do we have here?
Talk about shit-for-brains people: the morons at the Dept of InJustice want to split up Microsoft, to "spur new technology competition". The chief anti-trust idiot, Joey-Klein-Slime-Dog-Boy, said the proposed remedy would "make sure in the future that new products [and] new technologies are able to get to market and give consumers a choice." Hey, shithead Klein: we already have 3-4 choices in O/S land. But we choose Windows over shitty systems like MacIntosh, Linux, Unix and other assorted shitbox O/S's. Another case of the US Gummint getting involved in something they know nothing about, shouldn't be involved in and f*cking it up for consumers.
What's the big deal? National Security threat? I don't think so. HIV/AIDS is Nature's way of cleansing the subhuman filth and scum from the Earth. Africa, right now the most affected continent, is load with human garbage, as is Asia and India. As a "pandemic", AIDS serves a useful function by ridding the world of surplus population. Let it continue and cleanse the globe. For the US to declare it a national security threat, is ludicrous. It's an opportunity that we should allow to run its course worldwide.
Give me an M70 Grenade-Launcher strapped to an M16, and a Mini-Vulcan machine gun (6,000 rounds per minute) and I'll gladly cleanse this perverted, lowlife, degenerate filth from Mother Earth. With glee and joy and abandon!
This, I like.
The murderous, scumbag idiot is at it again: giving commencement addresses to more idiot colleges. This time, shithole Antioch College in Ohio, invited Mumia Ab-Jamal (aka Tyrone Leroy Johnson) to wax philosophical at the graduation exercises. This convicted and sentenced to death murderer should simply be executed, as prescribed by law. When the hell is Pennsylvania going to do what the courts have mandated?
Fry this ugly, murderous sweathog: she murdered her two children, aged 2 and 5. No mercy.
Not being a Southerner myself, I none-the-less empathize with the folks in South Carolina about their "Stars and Bars" flying atop the state capitol building. Screw the racist bigot scum at the NAACP, fly it proudly!
So much for the impartiality and ethics of the so-called Mainstream Press; they're corrupt and crooked and easily prone to being bought. Hell, look how the Clintonista filth has controlled and maipulated them from day one. They couldn't be objective if their very lives depended upon it.
Speaking of slime: the racist bigot, fat stupid idiot Al Sharpton rears his Pommade-greased head and bellows like a wallowing manatee in heat. He too, along with the criminal Clintons, should be in prison for his many crimes over the years. Why is the US Justice System afraid to prosecute the stupid scumbag? Hey, go ask them; I don't have a clue. If I was running the show, that idiot'd be in the deepest, darkest prison hole I could find for him. He has no visible means of support, except suing journalists for stories they're written about him; he's a societal parasite and should be eradicated.
That the Clintonista-Reno slime acted illegally in snatching the 6 year old Cuban boy from his house in a heavily-armed, pre-dawn SS-Gestapo raid is a given. They had a search warrant for illegal contraband, but no valid court order to take the boy. The demented Reno bitch screwed up. Now, the gutless Republicans are now afraid to hold congressional hearings on the matter; they're afraid the American Public will react badly and not re-elect them in November. Somewhere here, the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment — freedom from unreasonable and illegal search and seizure — is being lost in the melee of cowardly GOP'ers more worried about being re-elected than in preserving our guaranteed freedoms.
But the Easter weekend raid ushered in a sobering reality to the symbolism. The government's actions before the
raid represented the government's efforts to deny one child the precious gift of liberty. The raid transformed that isolated assault into a threat to freedom for all Americans. This was not just another example of a renegade law-enforcement squad abusing its power. This abuse was orchestrated by the chief executive of the United States, with the full power of his office.
When the entire executive branch is unleashed by presidential edict to commit this kind of mischief, our freedoms are gravely compromised. These freedoms depend on our adherence to the rule of law, a maxim holding that we are a government of laws, not men. This means that no man is above the law, and that government itself is restrained by law. Clinton's raid violated both of these precepts.
This piece sums it up nicely.
The Getty Research Institute Gallery
presents images of pageants, banquets, street fairs, and other mouth-watering occasions of mythic proportions. Consider an 18th century etching of the Bolognese Feast of the Roast Pig, a free-for-all in which citizens chased down pork on the hoof; or marvel at 17th century Viennese theatrical sets depicting an Olympian feast. Did you know that sugar used to be sold at the drugstore? Have you ever seen the Garden of Paradise sculpted in sugar? Food as performance art and architecture -- what a delicious concept!
Figures.