Nothing but tomatoes.

X-Men: First Class has 17 positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

Mostly nerd sites. Nothing stays 100%.

Or is that true?

Just looked up American Film Institutes Top Ten Films of all time (2207 list) and compared them to Rotten Tomatoes...

10. Wizard of Oz. 100%

9. Vertigo. 98%.

8. Schindler's List. 97%.

7. Lawrence of Arabia. 98%

6. Gone with the Wind. 95%.

5. Singin' in the Rain. 100%

4. Raging Bull. 98%.

3. Casablanca. 97%.

2. Godfather. 100%

1. Citizen Kane. 100%.


So, obviously, some movies do get 100%.

First of all, what doofus gives a negative review to ANY of these movies? Then again, how do any of the 100% escape the doofuses?

(I really don't think Schindler's List belongs in the top ten. I thought it was great, but flawed by the final speech. If it was me, I'd do Star Wars or Maltese Falcon.)

A monkey walks into Walmart.

I mean, it drives me crazy that the customers are so illogical.

I know, it's no surprise. We're just monkeys.

But it still drives me crazy.

I've mentioned before the rather constant irrational pursuit of saving a buck -- at the expense of time, energy and space. People taking hours and driving miles to save 1.00 or 2.00 or 5.00 or even $10.00

But buying from corporate entities is also illogical.

How do you profit by making everyone else earn less? Do people think they are disconnected from the process?

If you own a service business in Bend -- say, an electrician or plumber -- EVERY DIME you earn will come from locals.

And yet the same electrician and plumber will send the vast bulk of his earnings out of town, to corporate entities who can never return the dollar by hiring them back.

The thinking is so short sighted, it's maddening.

I've always had a fantasy that I could take the 6 biggest card manufacturers in a room in 1990 (only one who is still in business) and say, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you understand that the card shops are the golden goose? Don't you see how your sales started skyrocketing after the establishment of card shops? That the mass market is only interested because the market has already taken off?"

Or, I'd ask my card shop competitors -- "Why are you buying from Walmart? Don't you see how every dollar you spend there is going on Walmart's books and Topps is looking at who is buying?"

"Oh, I can't afford not to save money," was (and is) the response.

Which to me is like saying, "Look, I'll hand you a 100,000.00 today. But in five years from now, I'll be back to put a bullet through your brain."

"Gee, mister. That sounds great!"

You can get any book in print, just about, from a local independent bookstore IN ONE DAY! Ingram's happens to be in Roseburg and is a one day ship. ONE DAY! It isn't possible for Amazon to be any faster than that.

We ship jobs overseas so we can get cheaper goods so that we can have stagnant wages and lost jobs so that we need cheaper goods.

But getting great swathes of cheap crap doesn't improve your life folks, any more than buying smaller amounts of higher priced goods ruins your life.

I suspect that I wouldn't feel any richer if I was buying from mass markets instead of locally. Or that I feel any poorer because I buy locally. In other words, in the daily scheme of things it really doesn't seem to matter. I don't sit around thinking about the price of a book I'm enjoying.

Why is that?

Big Box stores are so last year.

The Street has an article with examples of how big box stores are shrinking.

Which raises the same question I always have to this supposed solution: isn't a smaller big box store just another store?

If the advantages of a big box store aren't advantages, why go there in the first place?

I know people think I'm exaggerating by calling the big box model a Ponzi scheme, but think about it.

How can you turn a profit? By selling more and keeping your overhead low.

Building a big box store only accomplishes the first of those goals, at the cost of the second of those goals.

If you truly wanted a big profit in the face of an expanding economy, you would squeeze more sales out of a smaller space.

But if your goal is to have constantly expanding sales, the building big box stores makes sense.

Why would you build constantly expanding stores instead of making more profit out of existing stores?

I can think of one legitimate reason and one reason that is illegitimate. And I suspect the illegitimate reason is the real reason: Stock prices.

Constantly increasing sales helps sell stock, creating bonuses for executives. The idea that sometime in the future you might have decreasing sales -- and way too much capacity, never enters into such short term thinking. But I would submit that planning for such a future is prudent and wise.

Oh, no! Sales are decreasing? Close the stores! Make them smaller!!!

The second reason I can see for pursuing ever expanding sales level is to increase or protect market share.

Everyone else is doing it, so we have to do it too.

Of course, this is assuming that nothing else will come along to eat into your market share. Oh, something strange -- something called the internet.

In this case, it was the internet. But not planning for an unexpected competitor is as stupid as thinking that sales would increase forever as long as you keep building stores.

After 30 years, I've come to the conclusion that corporate America is fad driven; big box stores were the last fad.

Mostly $#^#$% Cloudy. ^#%#% Chance of ^^%#% Rain Showers.

Commenter (Buster?) chides me for having a store that is over packed and lost from view amongst the boutiques downtown:

I'm not sure if the problem is that people don't know about Pegasus Books, or that they don't care, or that they don't care that they don't know....

As far as the store being packed -- well, that's just it. It seems to work. I'm pretty sure that I sometimes hit my minimum sales BECAUSE I'm over packed.

**********

So the Bend City Budget (today's Bulletin story) is basically --- close your eyes, cross your fingers, and hope nothing goes wrong.

Not a peep about the myriad ways that the city councilors have blown 10's of millions on over- reaching projects.

I get the overall feeling that everyone in the local government is just trying to hold on until things turn around again. But things will never be the same. And even a modest upturn isn't for certain in the next few years...

**********

A real comment (got this from Comics Reporter): 'I would like to get it all for free, otherwise you will not get my business.'

**********

Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain showers.

Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain showers.

Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain showers.

Mostly cloudy. Chance of rain showers.

Mostly clou-----WHACK!!! SKIPPPP.....

.....Mostly cloudy. Chance o rain showers.

ARRGGGHHHH!!!!

How about being a bookstore?

There is another description on Shelf Awareness of a store asking for "help." And once again, it is the kind of store that apparently does everything:

"...he asked customers to help buy "as many of your books, CDs and DVDs from Outwrite as possible"; buy e-books from the store online; visit the coffeehouse; use the coffeehouse lounge for free for meetings of companies, businesses or organizations; volunteer to help the store in web design, bookkeeping, finance, banking, retail management, retail sales, collections and legal services; and tell others about the store."

Holy Cow. How about running a, you know, bookstore? That's something a single human CAN DO!

In my opinion, it's these NEW kinds of stores that are failing because they are trying to mimic the online and big box aspects without having the same cost structures.

For instance, when a national chain buys or leases a plot of land on the outskirts of town and creates 100's of thousands of sq. ft., the cost of planning for a few thousand sq. ft. for tables and chairs is relatively cheap.

However, if you are an independent bookstore, chances are you are renting or buying an existing space -- and that that space is much smaller. The cost of the per sq. ft. space you are using for tables and chairs is much much higher under that scenario.

If you have a big box, you can have a full-time web designer, legal help, bookkeeping, etc. etc.

If you are small independent, you best figure you are going to do more of that yourself.

The percentage of the total sales that go into these extra services is huge for a small store compared to a big store. For instance, and accountant is going to cost a minimum whether you have a store that is doing 500.00 a day or a store that is doing 10,000.00 a day.

And yet, it is these very types of stores that are constantly used as examples that we should be following.

My guess is that most viable stores are focused on selling books; with some extra's in service and labor, whatever can be afforded. I would submit that a decent book-bookstore has a chance of surviving, as long as they don't get too far ahead of themselves.

What always amazes me about these bookstore "call for help"s is how little it usually is about the books.

Everything but books, it seems like.

It's the end of the world.

No, I'm not talking about the crackpot minister.

I'm talking CNN and CNBC and MSNBC.

I caught a bit of the day coverage of the tornadoes in the midwest.

What a bunch of henny pennys. What a bunch of drama queens (and I'm not just talking about Anderson Cooper.)

Hey, it's a rain drop, head for the shelters! Don't worry folks, we're in a safe place! Did you hear a I siren? I thought I heard a siren!!!

Hey, is the head dead yet?

What a monster 24 cable news is.

Thank god we have Fox covering the real news: The Casey Anthony trial.

Non-sexy reasons for business longevity.

Three little words.

Trial and error.

You try things out and they work and you do more of it.

You try things out and they don't work, and you do less of it.

Last long enough, and you gather a whole bunch of more winning strategies, and shed a whole bunch of losing strategies.

Simple, yes?

Except it doesn't take very many losing strategies to negate your winners.

What really works against newcomers is that so many of the so-called experts recommend what -- to me -- are losing strategies.

Right off the bat, most new businesses spend too much on overhead -- to many new shiny fixtures and gadgets, too many employees.

Right off the bat, most new businesses spend too much on advertising and promotion, and not enough on inventory. It's appearance versus substance -- and in the long run, substance will wins every time.

In a way, this blog has related a whole series of discoveries about what works and what doesn't. It's possible these discoveries are unique to my store but I don't really think so.


Often these trial and errors are by accident. Something happens by coincidence that unexpectedly works, and you try it again.

As you know, I've been ordering "sale" product heavily for a number of years now. By "sale" product, I mean stuff that is just a little too early or a little too late, or just a little less popular character toys in a popular series --- stuff that is just a little off of the beaten track. Much of it is what I call "mid-list" product; stuff you order when it first comes out and then fades.

If I can save half as much by carrying them, I can take twice as long or sell half as much as usual.

In the meantime, though, I always make sure I carry the "evergreens"; the constantly in demand product. (Which I know because of trial and error...)

Twice this year, I had a circumstance where I happened to ordered a large amount of sale product before I ordered the evergreens.

Then had a precipitous drop in sales for a few weeks which made it hard to do the evergreen order.

I didn't do this on purpose. It so happened that the sale product was offered in such a way that I had to order it then. The evergreen I can order at any time.

What was unexpected is, after the initial drop (which had nothing to do with inventory) sales pretty much stabilized -- even without the evergreens for a few weeks. Then I made enough money to go ahead and get the evergreens.

The eye-opener here was that I'm pretty sure the opposite wouldn't have happened. If I had just ordered the evergreen and waited for the sale product, I think it's more than possible sales would've declined, or that I wouldn't have had the money to make the sale orders.

I think it's because of the volume. I can get two, three, or even four times as much product in the door with the sale product as I can with the evergreen product. And meanwhile, I still have plenty of evergreen product in stock.

This is counter-intuitive, and I only stumbled across it, and since I discovered it, I've been very careful to order on every sale that comes along. And I've been able to order the evergreens as well.

Trial and error.

Housing-retail link. Duh.

This may seem obvious, but I think it needs to be repeated. Especially in Bend, where housing is our biggest problem and will probably continue to be our biggest problem well into the future.

Sometimes, I think this link is obscured by the tourism element of retail. But, insofar as it affects the local economy, I think tourism only keeps us afloat. We are going to need for the housing market to recover before the Bend economy will.

And that seems to be a long ways away.

This article (The Housing - Retail Link) is about the Australian economy, but it applies to all of us (and I've substituted WE and OUR for Australian):

"Wealth effect - the process of rising (falling) asset prices leading to rising (falling) consumer confidence, borrowing, household expenditure and employment."

".... consumer spending and employment growth appears to have stalled now that house prices have flat-lined. (We) ".... have, instead, begun reducing consumption and repaying debt…

The golden era for retailing that was 2000 to 2008 is now over and the age of frugality has begun."

I especially like the following statement, because it points out a problem with the premise I see in most news stories about a possible recovery-- that increased spending will increase employment. To me, it's obvious the opposite is happening and will continue to happen:

"It’s easy to dismiss the common misconception that unemployment would need to rise before home values would fall. Rather, ... (falling) home prices tends to lead ...(increases) in unemployment simply because of the wealth effects described above. Put simply, as long as..." (our) "... housing values remain stagnant or falling, consumption expenditure, credit growth and job creation will remain subdued..."

I'll repeat that: "falling home prices tends to lead to increases in unemployment."

In other words, we can't "spend" our way out of trouble. We need housing to stabilize first. And even then, I think we'll have along, long lag before it affects our bottomline.

We'll probably see a recovery about the same time as we've given up looking for a recovery.

Hello, blank page my old friend.

I wrote the following over the course of yesterday.


I have gone to my study, closed the door, and am waiting for inspiration.

Hoping for inspiration. I know it doesn't always, or even usually, work that way, but sometimes it does and when it does, the imaginative quality is usually better.

But most times, I have to slog it out. Make a start.

So...I want to have a 2nd chapter ready by Tuesday, and I have a few pages yet to go, so I'm still waiting....

So far today, I drank coffee and read the Bulletin.

Went to the store and wrote out some checks and dropped off some books.

Came home and mowed the lawns.

Ate lunch.

Finished off the monthly comic orders.

Napped.

Read off some sections of the New York Today.


So far today, I have NOT written any fiction...


Finally, around 5:00, I had a kernel of an idea. Which turned into a page of fiction. Just before bed, I added one more paragraph.

So I'm 2 pages into the second chapter, and I want at least 4 pages ready for writer's group, which is on Tuesday.

This is too slow a pace, really. But I want it to "feel" right, so I'll accept this pace. Otherwise, I'll force the issue by writing Something, Anything.

Mean old men.

I've been catching the occasional business biography on CNBC.

You have to take them with a grain of salt. A recent one, about Marriott, was interesting in what it didn't say; the sons were interviewed, and the first time on film they talk about what a "taskmaster" their father was; the second time, they repeat that, and then a third time, and then a fourth, and you get the message; the old man was a monster.

That seems to be a common refrain in the biographies. The old founders were monsters; a string of broken promises, lawsuits, shed partners, broken families.

Marriott started his hotel chain at the age of 58. That kind of ambition is just inexplicable to me. My guess is that these guys have such a huge reservoir of anger and resentment that it fuels them all the way to their deathbeds, whereupon they mutter the words "Rosebud" leaving their demoralized families to wonder what that was all about....

(Rich demoralized families...)

Wait. I thought our economy was a information economy.

O.K. We shipped our manufacturing overseas. But no worries, we have information to sell.

Wait? You want that information for free?

Why do I have a sinking feeling...?


Trying to argue with techies is like trying to argue religion.

"MRI Shows Apple Stimulates Fan's Brains Like Religion." (The Consumerist.)

"When he was looking at Apple stuff, the areas of his brain lit up in the same way as religious people's do when shown faith-based imagery.

"This suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion," says one of the scientists."

I wonder sometimes if these techies realize that MOST of the world is just not as into it as they think. Most of the world is still reading books, for instance; e-books are still a very thin slice.


Look -- you can't can't get much more dominant in an industry than the video game industry is -- and yet, I can continue to sell RPG's and Boardgames.

I think the same thing will happen with books. Sports cards are probably selling 1/100th as well as at the peak, but I still sell a chunk each month. And so on.


I will also say -- straight out -- that every industry that I have been involved in selling has collapsed when it moves to the online world.

That is -- it hasn't just been bad for the small retailers -- it's been bad for everyone, including ultimately, the consumer whose choices dwindle and inconvenience increases. Manga, anime, sports cards....

Who cares if the stores don't make money? Who cares if the publishers don't make money? Who cares as long as I can get mine?

One question. Who gets paid? And how do you find them? And how do you know they're any good? And ....

I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this.

Sons of Gondor!

• A day may come when this blog fails, when we forsake our daily writing and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields when the age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we write! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you write! Men of the West.

For Frodo!


(Um....does a meta reference to not having anything to write count?)

Little bits.

Seemed like I had a whole bunch of little bit reactions to the Bulletin this morning. I've already talked about the Typhoon picture. Others:

A little sidebar in the business section that "Home sales decline, confidence dips." This is like the real story, but never mind. There has been a full court press of positive news about the economy lately, but I ain't buying it.

Not much worse, not much better. At least from what I can see in my store.

**********

"Airport Plans Stuck On Taxiway."

Big plans -- like all of Central Oregon organizations. We like our plans big.

Not just a big hotel, but it must be a "three or four stars" hotel.

Um, I not sure that designation is up to you.

**********

"LinkedIn Shares soar...."

Whatever. Tech bubble anyone?

**********

"Treasury Support for Small-Business Lending Yet to Begin."

They should get going around the same time the recession is ending. Heh.

On the same page is a "SBA" Financing ad. I applied for one these once, and got back a stack 3 inches thick of red tape.

********

"Amazon Selling More E-Books Than Print Books."

Get back to me when Amazon is making more MONEY in E-Books than Print....

**********

"County OK's Additional Prosecutor."

Frankly, it sounds like the new district attorney is less than organized. Can't we at least ask him to be organized?

**********

"Redmond Looks to Spur Affordable Housing...."

At the same time, the Bulletin editorial expresses doubt about the fees in Bend for these projects. I think they left out the most ridiculous one; the condo's above the parking garage, that were more expensive than the average home around here.

I wish they would use these funds to help out current homeowners and or prospective buyers, rather than building new housing.

**********

"Police Say They Couldn't Stop Hit-Run Suspect..."

I'm not buying it.

Couldn't they have arrested him for....(ah, hem ignore that sound of breaking glass, ah, hem)...a broken tail light? Something? Anything?

I'm pretty sure they could have. I think they just thought they had discouraged the guy....

**********

"Support for Bend Zip Line Slackens."

Thank god, we still have the water park.

Ummmm....we still do have the water park, don't we?

**********

The picture of Bend's city population sign in 1977. 17, 300 peeps. Less than Redmond, currently. It was such a nice town....

**********

Bwana says get your ass out here for a picture.

"Typhoon Manager Denies Exploitation Accusations."

The picture in the local section of the Bulletin of the Typhoon staff is -- well, less than convincing. It doesn't prove one thing or the other, it just looks rather odd.

At the center of the group is the Typhoon Manager, hands on hips, big smile, looking confident and in charge. Arrayed behind him, literally in the shadows, are the crew, with a few tentative smiles and a couple of doubtful looks.

As a publicity picture, this doesn't work.

**********

So, I watched my stock in Barnes & Noble go up about 15%, then drop in half, and yesterday it had inched back up to within 10% below my original purchase price.

Today, it's shot up to 10% higher, because there is an offer to buy the company on the table, one that wants Riggio to stay so probably has a chance to succeed.

I told myself if the stock went up 20%, I'd sell.

What to do. What to do.

**********

"In a hole in the sidewalk, behind a parking meter, there lived a Kobbit."

"In a hole in the sidewalk, behind a parking meter, there lived a Kobbit.

This was not a dry, comfortable hole like those of his country cousins --no, this was a wet, slimy, smelly hole."


I have started a new story, and this one I'm going to finish. I don't know how much I'll talk about it here, but I'm pretty committed to actually seeing it through to the end. I've got a work schedule worked out; a plan of attack. I'm conscious after so many false starts of the pitfalls. I'm trying not to underestimate the difficulties.

On the other hand, after the last few months of dabbling, I think it can be done. I'm more or less financially secure, the store is stable, I have the time, energy and health. The creative juices seem to be there, under the surface.

All I really need is the Commitment. My life has to be given over to the project entirely. Like a marriage or a good job, I can't enter into it lightly, thinking "I'll see what happens." It is going to turn parts of my life upside down, so I need to be absolutely certain I'll see it through.

What's changed is, that I now have an outlet that I can be certain will be used -- online.

So if you run into me, and I seem sort of absentminded or distracted, it's because my head is in the story. If I go on about it here on the blog, forgive me. If I jump into a project fully, I can get pretty intense.

I'm not really sure, though, that I will in fact talk about it here.

For one thing, I've come to realize that I need be nearer to the end of the novel, than the beginning, before I start posting it, because things that happen later in the story can completely change things earlier.

It's not like a blog entry, complete in itself.

It's more like a big, messy jigsaw, always incomplete and changeable.

Actually, I probably will talk about it here, but I probably won't post much of the story until I'm certain I've got a firm outline.

Wish me luck.

Downtown Comings and Goings

I noticed River Bend Art Gallery was gone a couple weeks ago, but was waiting for more news. Remarkably stable, downtown is. Cascade Cottons moved to a bigger space on the same street as their old space, Wall St., which continues a trend of existing businesses moving into bigger spaces.

Which is good, because smaller spaces tend to rent out quicker to newer businesses.

Haven't heard if anyone is moving into their old premises.

NEW BUSINESSES DOWNTOWN

Bend Yogurt Factory, Franklin/Bond, 4/26/11.
High Desert Lotus, Bond St. , 4/4/11.
Tryst, Franklin Ave., 3/11/11. (Formerly Maryjanes, **Moved**).
D'Vine, Wall St. , 2/9/11.
Let it Ride!, Bond St., 1/29/11.
Gatsby's Brasserie Bar, Minnesota Ave., 1/8/11
Tres Jolie, Wall St., 12/20/10.
Caldera Grill, Bond St., 12/7/10
Bond Street Grill, 12/7/10.
Perspective(s), Minnesota Ave., 11/20/10
Toth Art Collective, Bond St. 11/20/10
Boken, Breezeway, 11/20/10
Dalia and Emilia, Wall St., 10/3/10.
Antiquarian Books, Bond St., 10/3/10.
Giddyup, Minnesota Ave., 10/3/10.
The Closet, Minnesota Ave., 8/11/10.
Showcase Hats, Oregon Ave., 8/11/10,
Red Chair Art Gallery, Oregon Ave. 7/13/10.
Earth Sense Herbs, Penny's Galleria, 7/12/10.
Mad Happy Lounge, Brooks St., 6/2910
Common Table, Oregon Ave. , 6/29/10.
Looney Bean Coffee, Brooks St. , 6/29/10.
Bourbon Street, Minnesota Ave., 6/22/10
Feather's Edge, Minnesota Ave., 6/22/10
The BLVD., Wall St. , 6/13/10.
Volt, Minnesota Ave. 6/1/10.
Tart, Minnesota Ave. , 5/13/10
Olivia Hunter, Wall St. 4/5/10.
Tres Chic, Bond St. 4/5/10
Blue Star Salon, Wall St. 4/1/10.
Lululemon, Bond St. 3/31/10.
Diana's Jewel Box, Minnesota Ave., 3/25/10.
Amalia's, Wall St. (Ciao Mambo space), 3/12/10
River Bend Fine Art, Bond St. (Kebanu space) 2/23/10
Federal Express, Oregon Ave. 2/1/10
***10 Below, Minnesota Ave. 1/10/10
Tew Boots Gallery, Bond St. 1/8/10.
Top Leaf Mate, 12/10/09
Laughing Girls Studio, Minnesota Ave. 12/7/09
Lemon Drop, 5 Minnesota Ave., 11/12/09
The Curiosity Shoppe, 25 N.W. Minnesota Ave, Suite #7. 11/5/09
Wabi Sabi 11/4/09 (**Moved, Wall St.**)
Frugal Boutique 11/4/09
5 Spice 10/22/09
Cowgirls Cash 10/17/09
***Haven Home 10/17/09
Dog Patch 10/17/09
The Good Drop 10/12/09
Lola's 9/23/09
**Volcano Wines 9/15/09
Singing Sparrow Flowers 8/16/09
Northwest Home Interiors 8/5/09
High Desert Frameworks 7/23/09 (*Moved to Oregon Ave. 4/5/10.)
Wall Street Gifts 7/--/09
Ina Louise 7/14/09
Bend Home Hardware (Homestyle Hardware?) 7/1/09
Altera Real Estate 6/9/09
Honey 6/7/09
Azura Studio 6/7/09
Mary Jane's 6/1/09
c.c.McKenzie 6/1/09
Velvet 5/28/09
Bella Moda 3/25/09
High Desert Gallery (Bend) 3/25/09
Joolz
Zydeco
900 Wall
Great Outdoor Store
Luxe Home Interiors
Powell's Candy
Dudley's Used Books and Coffee
Goldsmith
Game Domain
Subway Sandwiches
Bend Burger Company
Showcase Hats
Pita Pit
Happy Nails
(Fall, 2008 or so).

BUSINESSES LEAVING

River Bend Art Gallery, Bond St., 5/5/11.
Donner's Flowers, Wall St. 3/11/11. (**Moved out of downtown**)
Maryjanes, Wall St. , 3/11/11. (new name, Tryst, moved to Franklin.).
Di Lusso, Franklin/Bond, 2/9/11.
Earth Sense Herbs, Penny's Galleria, 1/2/11
Marz Bistro, Minnesota Av., 12/20/10.
The Decoy, Bond St., 12/7/10.
Giuseppe's, Bond St., 12/1/10.
Ina Louise, Minnesota Ave., 11/3/10.
Laughing Girl Studios, 10/21/10
Dolce Vita, Bond St, 10/21/10
Diana's Jewell Box, Minnesota Ave., 10/15/10.
Lola's, Breezeway, 10/8/10.
Oxygen Tattoo, Bond St., 10/3/10.
Great Outdoor Clothing, Wall St., 10/3/10.
Volcano Vineyards, Minnesota Ave., 10/3/10.
Subway Sandwiches, Bond St. 9/2/10.
Old Bend Distillery, Brooks St., 6/19/10.
Staccato, Minnesota Ave. 6/18/10.
Showcase Hats, Minnesota Ave., 6/1/10 (Moved to Oregon Ave., 8/10/11.)
Cork, Oregon Ave., 5/27/10.
Wall Street Gifts, 5/26/10
Microsphere, Wall St. , 5/17/10.
Singing Sparrow, Franklin and Bond, 5/15/10
28, Minnesota Ave. and Bond, 5/13/10.
Glass Symphony, Wall St., 3/25/10
Bend Home Hardware, Minnesota Ave, 2/25/10
Ciao Mambo, Wall St. 2/4/10
***Angel Kisses 1/25/10 (Have moved to 'Honey.')
Ivy Rose Manor 8/20/09
***Downtowner 8/18/09 (moving into the Summit location)
Chocolate e Gateaux 8/16/09
Finders Keepers 8/15/09
Colourstone 7/25/09
Periwinkle 6/--/09
***Tangerine 7/21/09 (Got word, they are moving across the street.)
Micheal Cassidy Gallery 6/15/09
St. Claire Coffee 6/15/09
Luxe Home Interiors 6/4/09
Treefort 5/8/09
Blue 5/2/09
***Volcano Tasting Room 4/28/09** Moved to Minnesota Ave.
Habit 4/16/09
Mountain Comfort 4/14/09
Tetherow Property 4/11/09
Blue Moon Marketplace 3/25/09
Plenty 3/25/09
Downtown Doggie 3/25/09
***King of Sole (became Mary Janes)**
Santee Alley
Bistro Corlise
Made in Hawaii
EnVogue
Stewart Weinmann (leather)
Kebanu Gallery
Pella Doors and Windows
Olive company
Pink Frog
Little Italy
Deep
Merenda's
Volo
***Pomegranate (downtown branch)**
Norwalk
Pronghorn Real Estate office.
Speedshop Deli
Paper Place
Bluefish Bistro
(Fall, 2008 or so.)

Grogggy.

Groggy this morning. No coffee. Having to fast for a yearly checkup with the doctor.

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I have to get to work tomorrow 3 hours early to let the cable guys in the door to change my internet and phone service.

Bendbroadband was in the door almost immediately after I posted my dissatisfaction with Qwest.
I'm thinking that it's probably going to end up costing me about the same -- except I'll have a dedicated phone line, and I'll pay for long distance by the minute.

Got one of those great but rare moments of Up Yours.

"Hi. Are you the person I talked to about the Qwest rate change?"

"You mean the rate increase? Yes. But it's too late. I've already decided to make a change."

"May I ask why?"

Bellylaugh. "Because you raised the rate."

"It's a good thing I caught you before...."

"Too late, I've already made the change." Click.

I suspect he was about to make an offer. Thing is, he could have made that offer when he called me the first time, but obviously didn't believe I would change.

This landline phone companies don't appear to fully understand they are in no position to make demands.

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The Good Wife finale was fantastic. Best show on T.V., bar none.

The Killing is great, but seems to keep shifting ground every week. Not sure it's really settled into a theme, and the shows almost over.

The Game of Thrones. I had almost forgotten the sense of doom that settles over this story as the Starks are ensnared by politics and their own sense of rectitude.

Tripply doomed!

"Three rare white bison born in Bend." KTVZ.

I believe one white bison is a sign of the apocalypse, so we are Tripply Doomed!

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Borders can't get new terms. It can't find a buyer. It is losing money.

But other than that, it's doing great!

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Ursala Le Guin's favorite S.F. author is .... Virginia Woolf. (!?)

That's it....she's lost me.

I used to like Le Guin's early novels, (you know, when she was 'merely' a S.F. author). Now I think she's a ginormous snooty twit.

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Castle announced last night on the show that there was a new graphic novel based on his characters. Woke up this morning to find that -- there really is a graphic novel coming out from Marvel.

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Schwarzenegger fathers a child out of wedlock.

What bothers me most about these situations, including Clinton and this IMF guy, is that
these 'victims' are underlings. It's seems to be a power thing.

Jon Stewart had a guy last night who has written a book about psychopath's --who says the power elite are riddled with psycho's.

Which explains a lot.

Walmart is a Ponzi.

It occurred to me a few years back, that big box stores were Ponzi schemes.

If you were a hedge fund, and you were only making money from new clients; that is, you were losing money with old clients, but paying off the bills with new clients -- what would you call that?

And yet, that is exactly the position that Walmart is in. It has lost money in existing stores for 8 straight quarters -- but, is still turning a profit from 'new' stores overseas.

Same is true of Home Depot and Lowes and, I suspect in the long run, every other chain whose model it is to open new stores. Bigger stores.

They are trying to get around this by building smaller stores -- but, a smaller big box store is just a "Store" and loses the supposed big box advantages. In other words, they have to compete on the same terms.

But that isn't the point, I think. The point is that a new store will always earn more at first. (As long as you don't have to account for the cost of paying for the infrastructure.) Meanwhile, you stress the old stores by raising 'productivity' -- that is, getting more work out of fewer workers. Which is a great short term strategy, but a lousy long-term strategy if you are trying to satisfy the customers.

But it can continually be short term, as long as you keep opening stores. More stores. Don't look at that ten year old store.

It seems all phony to me. As if you put together two money losing operations and claim, "Look, our sales just doubled!"

I was just watching a documentary on Sears; and it showed how 70 years or so ago, they bought corner lots on the outskirts of towns and created huge growth for themselves as the towns grew up around them. 50 years later, these stores were old and tired and supplanted by a new chain of stores who got the bright idea of buying corner lots on the outskirts of towns....

East, West, whatever....

I've mentioned before that I dislike the East/West dichotomy that seems to have developed in Bend over the last 20 years or so. I've doubted whether it's all that true; or based more on false pretenses (such as the often claimed advantage of being able to "walk or bike" to all the wonderful westside amenities, when it appears to me that westsiders jump in their cars to do errands just like everyone else...)

Pretense seems to be the right word. There is s snobbish quality to the "West is Best" claims that puts me off. (I live in the Williamson Park neighborhood of Bend -- nice big lots, nice homes, nicely maintained.)

So I was all ready to argue with the map of "two cities" that the Bulletin published this morning.

But those red colors saturating the east side would seem to be hard to argue with.

But...is it really a meaningful measure? Land values compared to property tax values?

It seems to me the real measure of pain is whether the house buyer can afford the house he or she lives in. In other words, the foreclosure rate would seem a more accurate gauge. And the last time I saw a foreclosure map, it was spread pretty evenly.

As someone said in the article, values are "neighborhood" specific. For instance, I noticed that the most expensive part of all Bend -- the northwest hills, was saturated with almost as much pink and red as the east side.

Is it painful to the average homeowner that "vacant" lots on the east side have dropped significantly?

Like I said, I'm just not sure how it matters to the average homeowner whether the assessed value of his home has dropped.

It matters whether he can pay for it.