I questioned whether or not I should post this because apparently until we get this world hunger thing solved, we’re not allowed to complain about our own lives. But since we’ve supported a poor child, Katarina, through World Vision for over a decade now, I feel that I have built up some curmudgeon offsets, so here goes.

A few years ago, when my in-laws were visiting, we went to the mall where my mother-in-law purchased a new purse. When the clerk rang up the purchase, it was then discovered that the handbag was on sale. Well, what a pleasant surprise! Sometimes good things do happen. But my father-in-law, having spent an entire career in retail management, took a dimmer view of the surprise discount.

How many people, he wondered, admired that purse, but didn’t purchase it? And would they have purchased it if they knew it was 20 percent off? In short, the reason you put things on sale is to positively affect the buying decision, but the discount incentive doesn’t work if customers aren’t made aware of it.

I mention this now because I had a similar experience yesterday.

I’d been shopping for a  pre-owned TV to use with the kids’ new Wii. But then I thought, good ol’ George Bush didn’t hand out those incentive checks so we could sock it away in a savings account. No, he wanted us to have something nice for ourselves. So I decided to put our current set in the toy room and purchase a brand new one for DVD watching and all-around television viewing.

On Saturday, I did some reconnaissance at Best Buy. I narrowed my search to quaint 32-inch screen models and was told by an employee that all TVs over $1,000 were eligible for 24-months free financing, while those over $500 were good for 12 months.

Armed with this knowledge and a little bit of online research, I returned yesterday to make my buy. It was a modest one, by today’s standards, but I was still counting on the 12-month grace period to pay it off gradually and painlessly. But when I went to apply for financing, I was told that six months of no interest was the best they could offer. When told of my conflicting information, the finance associate confirmed the six-month figure with someone of authority in the television department. Put off by the news, I decided against the purchase.

The rest of the afternoon I stewed over my decision. I really wanted to have the TV in place and operating when the family returned from vacation. If, by chance, they weren’t happy to see me, at least they’d be excited over a brand new TV. I figured out a way to justify the financial outlay and returned to the store after work.

When applying for the financing, I was again told the conditions of repayment, consistent with what was said earlier in the day.  After passing the credit check with flying colors, I went to the cashier to check out. And guess what? After everything was rung up and I sealed the deal by signing my name on the terminal, the pleasant young lady behind the counter told me that I would enjoy an entire year sans interest.

Was I happy? Sure, but the miscommunication did cost me an extra trip to the store and some of my oh-so-valuable time. From Best Buy’s perspective, it darn near cost them a sale. Just how difficult is it to know and communicate the incentives available to customers.

Wii Game Advice?

Okay, I have the Wii and a dedicated set, now for the games. It came with some sports games, apparently, and I’m definitely getting Endless Ocean for Mark, our  youngest. Any other suggestions? I have two girls (eight and six) and two boys (six and four.) None of them are big on blood and gore so we won’t be getting any shoot-em-ups. Are any of the dance games worthwhile?

I hadn’t kept up with the band in recent years and was thus a bit shocked when they took the stage. Pat DiNizio is standing a lot further from his guitar these days, if you get my meaning. I heard after the show that he’s had some serious health issues that may have contributed to his added poundage. It didn’t affect the energy with which he delivered his vocals, however, and the band was in great form. Three of the original four piece were there, with a stand-in standing in for their new bassist. They’d be a great get for a future American Music Show, a little power pop for those of us who came of age in the 80s.

*We talked to Pat briefly after the show and he explained that they played that song during their set earlier in the evening.

Spinning All of Your Favorite Songs of Yesterday and Today
Speaking of music, if you haven’t been to Pandora yet, go there now. Wait, wait! Not yet. Let me explain first.

Pandora is free Internet radio that builds its playlists around your tastes. Tell it a favorite song or band, and it will select songs that fit that mold. It’s based on the Music Genome Project that aims to classify songs at their fundamental level and:

"capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony."

Once you create a channel, you can refine it by giving "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to the songs it plays for you. Pandora remembers your endorsements and pans when selecting songs in the future. It lets you exert influence on playlists just like record companies have for years, but without the cocaine or payola.

I have an exquisite Rilo Kiley channel going thats aged beautifully over the last couple of weeks. If I had a new iPhone so I could play it away from my laptop, I’d be golden.

Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
Speaking again of music, Zooey Deschanel is the rare actress who has crossed over into singing without embarrassing herself. In fact, she has a terrific voice. She’s hooked up with M. Ward and made this, a most captivating video. It mines in Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins territory, both in the traditional country sound and the depravity-beneath-the-purity theme of the video. Enjoy, won’t you.

What a great place
The Pageant is a wonderful place to see a show. Great sight lines, readily accessible beer, clean facilities – what more could you ask for in a venue. Aimee Mann will be opening for Squeeze there in September. Dude, I can seriously see myself at that performance.

What a difference a radio hit makes
Upon entering the Pageant, I was a bit surprised at the large crowd that had gathered and initially assumed that the Georgia-born Whigs had garnered more national recognition than I realized. Later, it became clear that most of the kids were Toadies partisans.

I was familiar with two of the radio hits the Toadies charted in the mid-90s, Possum Kingdom and I Come From the Water. At the time, the songs didn’t register with me as being much, although I didn’t dislike them. Yet it turns out that they made enough of a mark that over a decade later a strong contingent of young concert-goers forked over $15 to see them perform. Some of them even moshed, no less.

What a difference a drummer makes
In my opinion, the Whigs were the highlight of the evening. They’re much stronger musically and a good deal of the credit goes to their drummer who out-classed the rather pedestrian performance of the Toadies’ drummer.

I use to thing that a band’s worth lie mostly with the singer’s voice, the guitarist’s riffs, and the songwriter’s proficiency with melody. Although I once dabbled in drumming my own self, I didn’t pay much attention to that man behind the skins during live shows.

Because I generally considered drummers to be likable, yet simple time keepers, I couldn’t understand why Paul Westerberg felt the need to push long-time Mat Christopher Mars to the side or why Jeff Tweedy showed the door to original  Wilco drummer, Ken Coomer. But as I became more sophisticated in my appreciation of drumming, the reasons became clear.

Both Westerberg and Tweedy wanted to advance their songwriting beyond the constraints of a straight-forward 4/4 beat and they needed drummers who were able to open up the songs with polyrhythms and what not. If you’ve ever seen Glen Kotche, Wilco’s current drummer, perform, you can better appreciate how the beats he creates are essential to the overall sound of the band’s songs.

I’m now of the opinion that a good drummer carries a rock concert and a bad one can drag down the rest of the band, no matter how talented they all may be.

What a geezer I am
Surveying the crowd, it struck me that twenty years ago I very well might have been at a concert in St. Louis with the parents of some of the people who had gathered last night. I wonder how they’re all getting along these days.

Lithuania, our homeland,
Land of heroes!
Let your sons draw their strength
From our past experience

Let your children always follow
Only roads of virtue,
May your own, mankind’s well-being
Be the goals they work for

May the sun above our land
Banish darkening clouds around
Light and truth all along
Guide our steps forever

May the love of Lithuania
Brightly burn in our hearts.
For the sake this land
Let unity blossom

Once again, in the mother tongue:

Lietuva, Tėvyne mūsų,
Tu didvyrių žeme,
Iš praeities Tavo sūnūs
Te stiprybę semia.

Tegul Tavo vaikai eina
Vien takais dorybės,
Tegul dirba Tavo naudai
Ir žmonių gėrybei.

Tegul saulė Lietuvoj
Tamsumas prašalina,
Ir šviesa, ir tiesa
Mūs žingsnius telydi.

Tegul meilė Lietuvos
Dega mūsų širdyse,
Vardan tos Lietuvos
Vienybė težydi!

You may recall reading a long-winded, heavily emoted and, quite frankly, embarrassing post about my beloved beer that I wrote on Sunday evening. Maybe you skipped it, who knows. But three people who did read it are employees of the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, two of whom emailed me this morning and one who left a comment. All took time to allay my fears and respond to my concerns.

Here’s one of the messages I received:

Hi Dan, I am the Business Development Manager for Sierra Nevada Brewng Co in Illinios. I wanted to say thanks for being a loyal Pale Ale drinker! And fear not, ample supplies of all of our brews shipped out last week and should be on store shelves and in tavern keepers coolers as we speak. I am sure that you will be contacted by someone from the brewery as well but I wanted to reach out. Sorry about the interruption, please contact me directly if you have any difficulty finding our brews.

Thanks, Bob Ryan

What fine representatives of their company. Raises all around, I say!

What? You don’t worship at the bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale? Well then, I guess you’re ignorant of the calamity that almost befell our fair city.

First, let me say that I enjoy many beers. I’m not exclusive. Just this week some good friends gave me a twelve pack of assorted brews and I’ve been sampling them with great delight. But every beer lover has his/her favorite varietal, the go-to brew that always hits the spot. For me, that beer is SNPA. And (choking with emotion) I almost lost it forever.

It started a few weeks ago when Shop ‘n Save had SNPA on sale (good), but there was a "discontinued" notice on the sales sticker (not good). I noticed that they had started stocking New Belgium product and figured that they were swapping brands. Okay, I thought, a corporate decision, not a good one, but as long as Qik-n-EZ and County Market remain a nectar outlet, I’ll be fine.

Over the next couple of weeks, in the back of my mind I harbored sporadic dreadful thoughts that the local SNPA distributor was going to discontinue the line. But then I’d realize I was just being silly. Everything would be fine. Wouldn’t it?

And then, yesterday, all of my worst fears manifested themselves. I stopped by the Qik-n-EZ, no SNPA. I ran by County Market; the freezer was bare of the best beer known to man. What the hell is going on here?

My mind raced. I began penning the hate letter that I would have to send to someone, anyone. What would I have to bomb, who would I have to kidnap to ransom my beer back into the market!

Today, I turned to the only place I thought might be able to help - Friar Tuck.

I walked back to the cooler, and almost fainted with fright. Their in the Sierra Nevada section was a couple of sixes of Porter and some ESB, but no Pale Ale. Clearly they were clearing out the last remaining stock. My beer was being banished. God help us all.

Lost is a haze, I grabbed something from the cooler, I don’t remember what, and stumbled towards the checkout. I was sure that Armageddon was upon me, but I decided to make one last ditch attempt at survival. "Please, kind sir," I stammered to the store associate, "why has our Pale Ale been taken from us."

He smiled the smile of Jesus - kind, gentle and ethereally paternal.

"My son," he said, "your beer has not foresaken you. A corporate distributor buyout has left the Sierra Nevada brand in disinterested hands. The new distributor deals in liquor only, and is washing their hands of beer. But fear not, a new distributor will lift SNPA from the ashes and soon it will return and again bless us with its goodness."

I fell to the floor weeping. My tears confused the checkout guy, as did the kisses I placed upon his shoes. But I didn’t care. My beer, it would return. There’s call for all to rejoice.

And another thing….

My SJ-R column this week pokes fun at the game of golf. I thought it might raise some rancor, being that golf has been center stage in town all week, but I’ve heard nary a word of protest. It just goes to show that nobody reads my column. Except, Johann. Thanks Johann.

Rereading what I wrote below, I don’t think I was clear on how my quote made it in to the IT.

On Monday I received an email, from an IT staffer, expressing curiosity as to how the blogger night at the ballgame went. This staffer was at the game, but didn’t notice a gathering of bloggers. I responded to the email in the nature in which I felt it was intended.

To: All local bloggers

From: BFS

Re: The current uproar over the blogger item in this week’s Illinois Times’ Cap View feature

This quote, it’s from me:

“Apparently getting bloggers to dress and leave their parents’ basement is more difficult than we thought. Turnout was dismal.”

First, when I wrote that I was being self-deprecating on behalf of my fellow bloggers. I know what the IT’s view of bloggers is so I made a comment that went along with what they were already thinking. And, based on an equally self-deprecating comment that I received in return, I think they knew I was joking. I haven’t met every local blogger personally, but none that I have are of the pantless-in-mom’s-basement variety. That’s why I felt safe in perpetuating the stereotype in a facetious manner.

Second, I didn’t realize that my email exchange with the IT was “on the record.” I thought it was a just a curious inquiry to which I casually replied. No matter though. I don’t feel violated and I hold no grudge against the IT.

Third, turnout to the Slider’s game was dismal. It’s nobody’s fault that they couldn’t make it, but the evening failed to live up to whatever hype was generated in its planning.

Fourth, I thought JeromeProphet was the IT’s favorite blogger. I’m flattered.

Fifth, bloggers object to being called “a gaggle of geeks” (not mine) here, here, and here.

And finally, the Blogger/Illinois Times unity breakfast and date auction scheduled for next Sunday has been cancelled. I think we’re going to invite the Red Hat Society again and then try again next month.

When we first picked up the menus, we noticed some notices printed at the top.

First, we were informed that all parties of six or more would be charged an automatic 20 percent gratuity. This is not unheard of, although somewhat presumptuous. I regularly tip in the 20 percent range, but the amount should be of my choosing and based on performance. Yet I understand the need to safeguard against misers, especially those dining in packs.

Second, and more disturbing, was the restaurant’s policy of not providing separate checks for large parties. In these post-sawbuck days, most people of legitimate means don’t carry large amounts of cash, relying instead on debit or credit cards. Not providing separate checks creates an awkward situation for the modern diner.

Even if the restaurant allows for multiple payment methods for a single check, there’s still the problem of breaking out the costs and applying them to the appropriate party. This isn’t a task normally associated with a pleasant dining experience.

Before I go further, let me say that this never became an issue at Jimmy Oh’s. Before we had a chance to raise our concerns, the waitress asked if we wanted separate checks, saying it was no problem because she wasn’t very busy. We appreciated her accommodation.

But what if she had been a stickler for regulation; what  would our choices have been?

Well, we could have marched out and over to the Corner Pub for horseshoes and Paninis. That would have been a tad drastic, however, and we were hoping for more refined fare that evening.

We also could have forked over four credit cards and asked the waitress to deduct a one-fourth of the total from each card. We’re good enough friends that I doubt there would have been any quibbling over who ordered the most expensive entrée and who did or didn’t have dessert. However, our Puritan friends from Spaulding were refraining from alcohol and it wouldn’t have been right to have them partially subsidize our vices.

My wife suggested that we put it all on our credit card – we’re receiving triple points on our  Amazon card for a limited time only – and make arrangements for everyone to reimburse us for their given portions  at a later date, but that’s asking me to put a little too much faith in our friendships.

None of these options were pleasing, nor did they cater to our wishes, which is a big part of what the hospitality industry supposes to do.

A few years ago we were in a similar situation at a downtown establishment. At this restaurant, there was no stated policy against separate checks, but the waitress informed us that she was authorized to prohibit multiple billings if she saw fit. And on this night, she decided to hand us a calculator and let us figure out our own tabs.

There we were, a mixed group of couples and singles (and not one accountant among us), trying to decipher the bill and figure out who owed what.  Did you have one beer or two? Who ordered the appetizer? What’s tax on a $15.45 entrée? We aren’t tipping this b****, are we?

By prohibiting separate checks, restaurants are effectively taking a burden off their wait staff and placing it on their customers. That strikes me as quite inhospitable.

I understand that it’s easier for a waitperson to deal with one check than four, but it’s no more burdensome than if we had sat at four separate tables and conversed across space. Should we be put upon for dining communally. I say no!

Let’s put an end to this no separate checks business. We deserve a nice meal and a relaxing night out, without having to do the math.

*Taken from a song thats video features the worst air keyboard playing in the history of the genre.

They’re flying out of Midway Airport on a flight that’s scheduled to depart at 7:15 AM. Rather than leave Springfield at 2:00 in the morning, we thought it best to go up the night before and stay in a nearby hotel. Here’s the problem and where you might be able to offer some advice.

All of the hotels listed on the airport’s Web site are in the $180 to $200 range. We’d like to find something less expensive, but I’m not familiar enough with the area to know where to look.

I don’t mind staying 15-20 miles away, as long as it’s a straight trip to the airport in morning. I don’t want to get in a situation where we might get lost and then have them miss their flight. A low-crime area would be nice as well.

Can anyone offer any advice as to where we might stay?

I got to sit and talk with Nick, Johann (thanks for the beer) and Shoo for a couple of innings before my children - suffering from fatigue after a day at the water park, coupled with intense boredom - risked getting us all removed from the premises. Still it was fun while it lasted.

Uber-commentors Nancy and Rock were there with their family, but they choose to separate themselves from the common blogger and sit in the elite seats behind home plate.

I don’t know why the turnout of bloggers was so low; the weather was beautiful. I’m sure if Springfield had a professional soccer team, we would have gotten a much better response.