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Louis Winthorpe III:
Listen, do you have any better ideas?

Billy Ray Valentine:
Yeah. You know, it occurs to me that the best way to hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.

Coleman:
You have to admit, sir, you didn’t like it yourself a bit.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/24/entertainment/r-kelly-bond-sunday/index.html

 

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February 24th, 2019 at 3:48 pm

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I trust Walmart for online purchases and the service is always great.

I actually said that!

Boy was I wrong!  The next time FedEx lied and delivered my package to the street and Walmart wouldn’t do anything about it.  Send another one, USPS and it’ll be here in a week.  The great chat system via which I had actually complimented them was bogus.  Boy am I mad!

I’m kidding.  (EDIT:  I’m also relatively fortunate.  They’re dopey, but delivery seems worse other places.)

I filed a report with FedEx after seeing the driver said he or she delivered it to the front door and I could see in the snow there were no tracks at all.  I am usually/always mad at FedEx but that does little good so I am only a little mad.

Actually, I am not mad at Walmart either and I continue to shop at the local store and online.  It was one of those things:  These are their policies.  They sent another one, it arrived in about a week, and now I have two.  I found the other one in the street the next day.

Anyway, I did compliment them.  It felt good and I would not have done that if I didn’t mean it.  I have done it a few times before for companies when that was based on real experiences.  FWIW, I don’t wrote comments and such online.

Even though it was a dummy, quickie chat, I suspect if felt good for the person on the other end too.  It probably helps to understand Walmart and their policies, but if you perform legit tasks the online help is really fast, easy, to the point.  I’m talking about damaged packages (I had quite a few when I bought some cleaning liquids and even powders online) and price matches.

This adds up to a nice place to work.  It is not by coincidence, the higher-ups, procedures, technology and everything else work toward that purpose.  Happy employees, not to mention happy customers, are great to have.  No one wants to get through their day arguing, complaining, and the like.

That is a good company and a profitable one.

As an example in reverse, I offer Safeco/Liberty Mutual as an example.  I could write more about them (and I have) but for now I don’t want to complain here; basically, they have an outdated system of live, crummy agents and it hurts everything.  If customers are complaining all the time it is just a bad experience all-around.

As for Walmart, I think their online selection, pricing, and fulfillment is outstanding   It is modern in terms of technology and customer service.  They stand by their own sales and those from their marketplace.  Of course anything from Walmart itself is easily returned through shipping or a store.  Especially for items you have never seen or tried, it is a great way to shop.

 

If I ever get around to writing more about myself in the bio here, it will mention more about my career and my love of customer satisfaction. 

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February 24th, 2019 at 10:11 am

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Bonus clip.

Something most people don’t know about me: I lived in Detroit, Mich., from ages 10-18 when I married,returning to Tennessee.

http://www.ajlambert.com/history/stry_scb.pdf

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February 21st, 2019 at 3:36 pm

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It is hard to describe how TV has changed.  This is really good TV.

Everyone will have their opinions.  These are mine.

The prosecutors did an average or below average job.  Quinton Tellis is a very bad guy, based on Louisiana and other things.  The defense did an average to good job; they saved him.

I believe it is clear he had some role.  Whatever happened to the “Jessica kept saying, ‘Mama, these bitches think I’m snitching, and I’m not,’ angle?  I think Ben Chambers, he of the meth arrest and police mechanic job, is a really good guy and father.

“Hell, that ‘aint justice.”  I don’t like the DA John Champion.  I’m not real fond of the sheriff either.  Let me put it this way, it does not look like a very safe place to be.

You could even say they twisted the facts.  Or that they don’t even understand them.  They spent a lot of money and lost.  For reasons.  Luckily Tellis is in jail in Louisiana.

The journey the car keys went through is awful.  I mean, they should be embarrassed.  Just like the killer they should all come clean.

Tellis is, there is no other way around it, must be removed from society, somehow.

Excellent, excellent characters and dialogue.  Cultural anthropology TV.

I didn’t know where Panola County, Mississippi is or Monroe, Louisiana.  It is north, near Memphis.  Apparently there is not much there in terms of jobs, schools, and such.  Wow.  How would you like to have your comings and goings recorded on the M&M gas station video camera?  Oh well, there is always Taco Bell.

They are really good parents.  They sent her to bible camp to reform.

Christine Apel, good writer.

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February 21st, 2019 at 7:22 am

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crazy love

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crazy-love-who-murdered-miami-beach-hotel-heir-benji-novack/

Wow.  What a couple of days.  It started with Onassis, but there wasn’t much there.  American Greed Monday was cancelled so I had to do it myself.  There was the guy, Colin Something, who killed his father and stepmother in Slippery Rock.  Minkow and Petters.  There was the rehash of Pamela Phillips and the discovery of Dying to Belong.   The Highlands Ranch, CO guy with the perpetual grin who killed both his wives; how long do you have to be married to collect spousal social security?  And finally, but not the winner, was Fayed Fatso and Goldfinger, aka e-bullion in Moorpark, CA.  That is a good one.  The woman there, Pam Fayed, appeared to be every bit the equal or better of her husband yet she was stalked and finally killed.  It was brutal and right out in the open.  They had $24 million in the safe in gold and a 200-acre ranch.  He was a slob electrician; she was divorced with a daughter.

The winner is Narcy Novack.  Of course it isn’t funny at all.  I cannot think of a better title:  Crazy Love.  Maybe Demented, Violent, and Sick, but not love.

“He was one of those drivers who drove the route from Philly, to New York City, to Washington, D.C.”  the description from the detective sergeant goes.  You can watch the apartment in the show.

His colleague on the case (Alison Carpentier), you can see it in the screenshot above, retired after the arrests.  It took almost a year after the murder.  The Westchester County detective is one of the heroes in this story.  It took that much out of her, but she was right because it was over.  There was a mountain of evidence and there is no way the trial would be lost.  But the prosecution kicked her off the case.  She had given the third intended murder victim (Benji’s 85-year old mother was the first) $5000 of her own money for safety.

This was a poor, immigrant family from Ecuador.  Narcy is the youngest of six; Cristobal, the bus driver, is an older brother; a sister wrote the letter early-on to the PD in Spanish detailing the plot and the criminals.

That is where the high finance was orchestrated, right there on the kitchen table with Western Union money transfers.

Did they make mistakes, was it the perfect murder?  It was not even close.  Even the motive–money–was not obscure.  It was so completely obvious it only took one year for arrests and two years to go to trial.

There were money trails, corroborating confessions, photographs and video, credit card receipts. motel records, cellphone data, and more.  It was a clear-cut conspiracy.  Narcy had done it before in terms of a violent attack for money and these murders were planned and attempted multiple times.

The Miami police department, despite Novack’s very friendly ties, was virtually complicit in the first murder, that of the elder Mrs. Novack.  What about Ft. Lauderdale, don’t they have a police department?

Anyway, Narcy reminds me ever so slightly, just a tiny, tiny bit of my own mother.

Or should I say, I have known people like that.  I have known people who you cannot even have a conversation with; everything they say is jibberish.  Clearly they are trying to cover-up some flaw of their own but you cannot really tell what it is.  They are extremely outwardly- and money-conscious.  They are uneducated but smart, or should I say more like perceiving and even relentless.  They know nothing about money or finance, they are just afraid of being poor.  In terms of personal relationships, if they cannot have something or someone, no one can.  Their life really boils down to that one simple point:  if I cannot have it, I don’t want any part of it.  At some point it will come down to a reckoning, all or nothing but I, as the matriarch, have earned it.  I deserve it.  I’m your mother.

Say what you want about Ben Novack, Jr.  He was demanding and spoiled as a child is not that bad.  As a 10-year old he could and did fire employees at the Fountainbleu Hotel.  He also led a lonely life for a child.  He learned and related to prostitutes.  You could say the same about Gauguin.

I think Benji was a very hard worker who built Convention Concepts virtually by himself and he was the impetus behind the whole family’s employment and lifestyle.  By every account excluding Narcy’s, he was an outstanding stepfather and role model for May Abad:

Under Novack’s last will, with Narcy out of the picture, her daughter, May Abad, 38, is designated to receive $150,000, with the balance — and bulk — of his estate left to Abad’s two sons, Marcello, 21, and Patrick, 20, in the form of trusts. Abad also has a third son, Ben, born after her stepfather’s death.

… I don’t know.  I’ve never heard anything about where these children came from–I mean who the father is–or what her deal is.  She sounds honest and articulate.  Last I read she was seeking some money from the court–it is worth mentioning that she put the kabash legally on quick payouts to Narcy after the murder–for surgery for one of her sons because she is working two jobs and cannot afford it.  They are all pretty helpless and they are after money.  I don’t know.

Did I mention, they were poor immigrants and Narcy was a stripper?  That is how she met and clung to Ben, Jr.  One of the quotes in one of the shows is “She was promoted to stripper.”  As I mentioned earlier, for her none of it was the first time.

 

https://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2009_3rd/Jul09_BNovack.html

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February 19th, 2019 at 10:46 am

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