Daily Archives: August 3, 2005

Kellar Branch

More deception from Journal Star on Kellar Branch dispute

If you’re a casual reader of the Journal Star and skimmed their story on the Kellar Branch today (“Parked locomotive may derail trail“), you would have to get the impression that Pioneer is holding things up. Check out the first three paragraphs:

The deadline for Pioneer Railcorp to remove train cars from a section of Kellar Branch track has passed, again delaying the embattled Rock Island Trail extension.

The city, however, appears poised to take legal action early next week if the project does not progress by Friday.

A Pioneer Industrial locomotive sat on the track Tuesday near where a new industrial rail spur is to tie into the existing track, preventing city contractor Metroplex Corp. from completing the job.

Antagonist: Pioneer. Who is the antecedent for “delaying” and “preventing”? Against whom are you led to believe the city will take legal action? Answer to all three questions: Pioneer.

Ah, but not so fast. Buried in the middle of the article is this important piece of info:

Last month, the city appeared to have reached an agreement with Pioneer Railcorp chairman Guy Brenkman in which the train cars and engines that had blocked construction since December would be moved by Monday.

But part of the deal required Metroplex to sign a liability waiver with Pioneer Railcorp before the short-line operator would budge and allow construction to proceed. That term of the agreement has not yet been resolved.

So, Pioneer had agreed to move the locomotive if a liability waiver were signed. Metroplex didn’t sign the waiver, so Pioneer didn’t move the locomotive. I think any rational person would conclude that Metroplex is holding up the job, but the Journal Star doesn’t let the facts get in the way. They’ll just keep putting all the blame on Pioneer, hence the headline.

And the city does the same:

City Manager Randy Oliver said Tuesday the city would file legal action against one or both companies next week if the problem is not resolved by 5 p.m. Friday.

Asked which company would most likely face a lawsuit, Oliver said, “History tells me one thing, but I don’t know yet.”

What is that supposed to mean, Mr. Oliver? What case do you have against Pioneer in this matter? Why grounds do you have for filing suit against Pioneer when it was Metroplex which didn’t fulfill its obligation?

All this vilification of Pioneer makes me believe that, at heart, this is a personal vendetta against Guy Brenkman on the part of the city and the newspaper. It’s understandable that people may not like him. I’ve never met the man, but he sounds like a guy that isn’t very likeable. But that shouldn’t get in the way of the merits of the dispute. The Journal Star has an obligation to the citizens to report accurately and fairly what’s going on and they’re not doing it.

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I’m here, but do it yourself

You know how Kroger and other stores have those “U-Scan” lanes?  The ones where the stores sucker you into doing the cashiers’ work but don’t give you any discount for the overhead (wages, benefits) they’re saving?  I hate those.
 
But there’s something I hate worse:  places that have cashiers standing right in front of you, but still expect you to perform the transaction yourself.
 
I ran into this today at Best Buy.  I’m buying a DVD and walk up to the cashier.  She scans the item and tells me the total.  I try to hand her my credit card.  She points to a small card reader off to the left and deadpans, “just swipe it there.”  Uh, okay.  So I swipe it, and it says to enter my PIN.  I say, “I don’t want to enter my PIN — I want it to be a credit transaction.”  She answers, exasperated with my one and only question of the transaction, “Just hit ‘cancel.'”  Oh, well, that’s intuitive.  Why didn’t I think of that?  Fine.  I hit cancel, sign my name in the little box, and put my card away.  At which point she says, “Can I see your card?” 
 
There’s a short, befuddled pause as my mind screams, “What??!!”
 
“That’s what I tried to do in the first place and you didn’t want it,” I actually told her with a smile to thinly veil my contempt.  As she takes my card and enters the last four digits into the computer for some undisclosed reason, she mutters something about not knowing it was going to be a credit transaction.  She was clearly aware that debit cards can be used as credit cards since she knew the “cancel” routine, yet she apparently still assumed that I was going to use the debit function.  I thought to myself, “You know what happens when you assume,” as she printed out a foot-and-a-half-long receipt for my solitary item.
 
So, what exactly is this chick getting paid for?  Putting my DVD in a bag?  Training customers to do her job?  Developing an attitude?  Too bad I wasn’t paying cash.  Perhaps a cash drawer would have shot open toward me from under the counter and I would have been instructed to make my own change.  That would have been entertaining.

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Worst Segue of the Month

The award for worst segue of the month goes to Amy Paul of WMBD from tonight’s newscast:
You can say “Bye Bye Bye” to the 90s as our weather gets back “N’Sync” this weekend.
I realize Amy’s probably not writing these, but in general WMBD has some of the worst segues I’ve ever heard.  But I mean that in a good way.  They’re bad in a “Plan 9 from Outer Space” vein.  So bad, they’re funny.