Aggravations: I have a few

Coupons have become big news again.  It seems every 20 years coupons are discovered again as if they had never existed.  Coupons have their own television show.  The big coupon story is how there is a national surge in stealing newspapers to get the paper gold.

Ken Stone

This isn’t new to us and I have written about it before.  We lose about $1,000 every six months to the theft of newspapers from newsstands. 

We monitored this trend over the past several years that coupons were in our newspaper.

During the first six months of this year there were no Smart Source coupons in the Grant County News.  Newsstand theft fell to $750 for the six-month period.

Smart Source coupons returned to the Grant County News on July 17.  They run nearly every week, missing an occasional week, but doubling up in other issues.

 A couple years ago I placed a sign on a news box that had a high theft rate.  

The sign said something similar to, “If you take a newspaper without paying for it you may have to explain it in Heaven.”  
We had a complaint from a woman who objected to the sign claiming it made her feel guilty even though she paid for all of her newspapers. 

I removed the sign wondering why someone would feel guilty about something that did not pertain to their actions.  My experience is that such a sign would not stop someone from stealing a newspaper, but, rather something that would make me feel better during a time of aggravation.

Speaking of aggravation, why can’t American drivers learn how to merge in traffic without coming to a standstill?  The principle is quite simple.  Leave space for a merging vehicle in front of you.  The driver behind you does the same.  It’s like taking two halves of a deck of cards, bending them back and letting them go together one card after another.

And, don’t be the jerk that ignores all the signs.  You know the kind of person.

And, while we are talking driving, if you are in the fast lane and someone is behind you, get out of the fast lane.  You are not the fast lane czar.

It does not matter if you are going the speed limit and think that no one else should go faster than you.  Get out of the lane!

And, if you are in the fast lane driving a self-contained RV while pulling a 32-foot trailer with a Smart Car behind it, buy an airline ticket and stay in a hotel!  Maybe the four miles of vehicles behind you will chip in a few bucks for a better hotel.

Here’s a few other aggravations:  waste in local taxes; the trillions of dollars spent on Iraq when a few billion dollars of missiles would have given the people the opportunity to do the job themselves; Republicans and Democrats and not bringing up the trillions of dollars spent on Iraq as a source of economic decline; instant chocolate pudding; and instant chocolate pudding again because that’s how much it aggravates me when someone serves it; televisions in dining rooms; cell phone conversations in public and instant chocolate pudding.

Now I feel better.

(Ken Stone is the publisher of the Grant County News. He may be reached at 859-824-3343 or e-mail kstone@grantky.com.)