This time, they didn't wash their hands

Where not to eat (ver. 3.0)

A casual look over WFMY's most recent Restaurant Report Card for the greater Winston-Salem community brought these transgressions to light:

• "employees were not washing their hands, and maybe it's because there was no hand soap or towels"
• "cook wipe his hands on his apron, do other work, then come back and prepare food"
• "employee scooping out ice with a glass without washing his hands"

I will most likely never eat at any of these locations. I rarely travel to N.C., and when I do have the misfortune of finding myself in that foul state I try to avoid spending any money there.

One reason I post these items (in addition to them being a little on the nasty side) is to draw attention to how much time and effort our friends at WFMY sink into these reports.

I mean, look at the goofy banner for the page. "Restaurant Report Card" is linked under "Special Reports." Previous entries carry video reports. The station even calls the locations to talk about the inspection findings.

Maybe this attention to restaurant inspections is indicative of how little news there is in the area. Here's a scan of the other important happenings of the day:

• "Jellyfish are becoming a plague for North Carolina beachgoers"
• "Greensboro appears on Jeopardy game show as an entire category"
• "Local Pantry Forced To Buy Food"

(and my personal favorite)
"Bats Infest Reidsville Home" I love the subhead -- "Since mid-June, Wanda Mitchell and her family have been living with bats."

Little did I know ....

My own blog taught me something. Earlier, I posted a link about a fun game. I had no idea that I'd stumbled across a cultural icon completely unknown to me.

I later learned that the Japanese have for years enjoyed the antics of one "Doraemon," the crazy character popping up in the game I mentioned earlier. The little guy's had his own TV show, series of feature-length films and books in production since 1979.

Here's a summary of the plot as I understand it: Doraemon is a kind of a robotic cat from the future that lives with a nerdy kid named Nobita. Doraemon and Nobita hang around with the kid's friends, dodging bullies and having all kinds of crazy adventures.

Apparently, Doraemon has a time machine stored in Nobita's desk at home, which means there is no end to the trouble they can discover. When they're in a reach pinch, Doraemon springs out some kind of fantastic futuristic device from a small pouch.

You really have to see the Robo-Cat in action. Go here to see the next big adventure; head here to see the blasts from the past. Follow these steps to see trailers for all 25 Doraemon films:

• pick a number from 1 to 25
• select "go" when it pops up in the center of the screen
• click on the fourth set of characters from the top as they appear in a left-side column

Enjoy the show!

Steeler fans go out in style

Do you know this woman?

Do you know who this is? She is an ordinary person with an extraordinary tale to tell ...

To learn more about why her story is so important, begin by looking here.

Counter-intuition exercise

When it's time to cross a busy intersection, where would you expect to find the all-clear sign? Maybe across the street on a poll a little above the level of your head. You're likely looking for a little green walking man or some other "walk now" indication.

But in England, a brilliant idea helped "upgrade" crosswalks with a most counter-intuitive "improvement."

Engineers did away with the farside indicators (the little man on the other side of the road). Instead, you get a hard-to-notice "nearside indicator" (an electronic sign only visible to you on the side of the road you want to leave).

How does this even begin to make sense? This change is so illogical that it necessitated a strange sign that reads:

"Your red/green man signal is on the pole next to you"

Sure, humans are for the most part adaptive. We have a unique ability to get used to some of the dumbest stuff, but this is just crazy. Seems to me it needlessly invites trouble with someone not knowing when to cross.

This site also includes some curious documentation detailing how the same English town unknowingly became a test location for chemical warfare years ago.

Hate your job? Maybe you're just tired . . .

We all go through some period of job dissatisfaction . . . the difference is the duration or what it motivates you to do. Now a new study says you might be able to blame some of your poor job outlook on your sleep habits.

University of Florida researchers report that a lack of sleep can cause people to "dislike and even hate their jobs the next morning."

Apparently women are more likely than men to want to call it all quits after a bad night as they "reported suffering more fatigue and hostility and being less attentive and happy."

So, who gets the biggest blame for making unhappy workers? Why, the boss of course . . .

• "With employers trying to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of employees and having them work extended hours, a 40-hour week is basically nonexistent anymore in some occupations"

In the end, companies are encouraged to do more to accommodate schedules and provide a few perks to help ease people along. And everyone is reminded that more exercise and less caffeine and alcohol can help improve the picture.

Ultimately, I offer this advice from an old friend:
"If all you ever do is (complain) about your job, it's time to get another job."

By the numbers . . . bear-killing style

Canoeist stabs bear to death in Ontario

This headline says it all, but take a closer look.

• The knife: 15 centimeters = 5.905511805 inches
• The bear: 90 kilogram = 198.416 035 966 pounds
• The Staffordshire breed: Height= 17 - 19 inches Weight= 40 - 50 lbs.

Another account of the Ontario incident cites the horrible death of Jacqueline Perry as the inspiration for the knife defense.

And, something like this has happened in the not-too-distance past. Consider this story:

Man armed with knife kills starving bear (2003) "John Hirsch . . . had only a 3 1/2-inch knife blade when he came across the bear in his backyard . . . 190 miles northeast of Vancouver."

"Happy Days" are here again

Apparently, the organizers of Atlanta's famed Dragon-Con are looking to produce a "Happy Days" mini-reunion this fall.

Among the many celebs currently logged as guests for the Sept. 1-4 program are Don Most, Erin Moran and Anson Williams. That's right -- Ralph Malph, Joanie and Potsie together again!

However, I didn't see Cathy Silvers or Ted McGinley on that list, and nothing is "Happy Days"-official in my book without Jenny Piccalo and Roger Phillips.