May 18, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
May 18 is … International Museum Day and Visit Your Relatives Day
Walt Disney Company is doing this for purely patriotic reasons, I am sure. Walt Disney Co. (DIS) has applied for a trademark on the name "Seal Team 6," the name of the unit of specially trained Navy SEALs that killed Osama bin Laden in a raid in Pakistan earlier this month.
Three applications filed May 3 — the day after the raid — with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office by Disney Enterprises state an intention to use the mark for a range of products, including entertainment and education services, clothing, toys, games and Christmas stockings. I see a Navy SEALS Six video game with a movie tie-in.
May 18, 1860, Abraham Lincoln of Springfield, IL was nominated for the U.S. Presidency by Republican Party leaders at a meeting in Chicago.
This gives greed a bad name. I have to side with the servers in this case. The owners can charge what they want to charge just tell the customer what the price is. In the more desirable seats at Yankee Stadium, an already pricey $10.50 draft beer will run you an eye-popping $12.60 thanks to an involuntary 20 percent "service fee" tacked on to the original price. If the sticker shock doesn’t make that brew bitter enough, consider this: Despite what you might expect, that extra $2 and change isn't going to the hustling server who sold it to you, according to a new lawsuit.
Legends Hospitality, the concessionaire co-owned by the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, and Goldman Sachs, allegedly pockets the 20 percent service fee attached to food and drink in violation of New York law, according to a class-action lawsuit filed against the company by three Yankee Stadium servers the week of May 9, 2011. If certified as class action, the suit could involve more than a hundred servers and hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims.
At the center of the dispute is how hot dogs, sodas and other ballpark fare are served in the stadium's field-level seats, which typically cost between $100 and $350 a game. At field level, fans don't have to fetch their food and drink; they instead can place orders with servers carrying credit-card machines and get the orders ferried to their seats by food-and-drink runners. Under this arrangement, the servers act a lot like salespeople. "They schmooze the customers, and they're trained to upsell, just like any other waitress," says the plaintiffs' lawyer, Brian Schaffer. "If somebody says, 'I want a hot dog,' they say, 'But wouldn’t you like a cold beer with that?'"
According to the suit, the menus field-level spectators find in their cupholders include this disclaimer: "A 20% service charge will be added to the listed prices. Additional gratuity is at your discretion." That phrase "additional gratuity" would seem to imply that the 20 percent is, in fact, a gratuity, but Schaffer says his clients don’t get that money. Instead, they receive a far more modest commission, between four and six percent, of their total sales for the game. Schaffer believes the system cheats both vendors and fans -- the vendors by withholding their tips, the fans by artificially inflating prices. "It's pretty unbelievable if you think about what's going on," Schaffer said. "Honestly, I couldn't fathom the profits."
What's worse, Schaffer alleges, is the fact that the servers aren't allowed to explain to fans how the actual arrangement works. "If my clients are specifically asked, 'Where does this 20 percent go?' they can't tell them the truth. They can only tell the customer, 'Additional gratuity is at your discretion.' They can't say, 'It's not going to me.' They can be fired for saying that." Calls to the Yankees press office and to the union that represents stadium workers by reporters were not returned. Schaffer says his clients are paid a $35 flat fee per shift, plus their commissions, and work every Yankee home game. It adds up to between $14,000 and $20,000 apiece on the year, but the commitment makes it tough to have another job during the baseball season. One of the servers named in the suit, Evelyn Ryan, has been selling food and drink to Yankees fans since 1999, working in both the old Yankee Stadium and the new one.
Legends Management has exclusive rights to selling food at both Yankees and Cowboys stadiums. The Yankees are the most valuable team in baseball, with an estimated value of $1.5 billion, and the Cowboys are the most valuable team in football, with an estimated value of $1.65 billion, according to Forbes. Upon the formation of Legends in 2008, the company's CEO said their goal was to "create a new paradigm in sports concessions that will deliver unparalleled and affordable stadium experiences for fans." In their suit, the servers may have labor and case law on their side. A New York law says that no employer can "retain any part of a gratuity or of any charge purported to be a gratuity for an employee," and a 2008 appeals court ruling involving World Yacht found that the dining cruise company had illegally withheld tips from servers under a similar "service fee" arrangement.
A notable birth on May 18th, 1912 Perry [Pierino] Como Canonsburg PA, singer/TV host (Perry Como Show).
A notable death on May 18th, 0323 Alexander III the Great king of Macedonia/conqueror, dies at 32.
On May 18th, 1980 Mount St Helens blows its top in Washington State, 60 die.
Houston Police who found a man's dismembered body outside a vacant house, with the head and an arm stuffed into a trash bag and the rest of his remains in a backyard next door, arrested his best friend Monday for murder. Neighbors and family members say the two men had been best friends for years and a possible argument over money might have led to the slaying. The amount of money is unknown but neither one of these people could have ore than $50.00 to argue over. The body of Marlon Thomas, 35, was found about 7 p.m. Sunday in the backyard of a fenced, burned home in Houston's Fifth Ward, a historically black neighborhood east of downtown.
Police said Thomas' friend, Noe Morin, 32, who lived in an apartment in the home next door, killed him. They took Morin into custody Sunday night and charged him Monday afternoon. Online court records did not indicate he had an attorney. Thomas' head and an arm were found in a black trash bag behind the home where Morin was staying with a family friend. A chainsaw was next to the bag, which was behind cinderblocks that supported the home. Perhaps the murderer should have taken the chainsaw with them to sell or use later. The rest of Thomas' body, with a partially severed arm, was found in a backyard next door that was full of overgrown weeds and trash.
"That's his best friend for over 20 years," said Thomas' sister, Tonya Dangerfield, after she tied a bouquet of purple and silver birthday balloons to the chain link fence that surrounded the backyard where her brother's body was found. She said her brother would have turned 36 on June 9. "Why did (Morin) do that? Why would you do something like this?
An autopsy has been ordered and a cause of death is still pending for Thomas. Why do an autopsy? It is murder whether you shot him to death or cut him to death or both.
Just a couple of thoughts I had.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
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Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"If you can't change your fate, change your attitude." - Amy Tan
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