And now, a calendar that will remember your birthday long after you do: For just $79.99, Hammacher Schlemmer’s winter supplement offers a battery-operated electronic calendar that “can be programmed to remember special dates . . . and uses flashing red LED lights to remind you of them up to three days in advance. Its patented 60-year memory can be programmed with up to 2000 important dates.” Let’s see, put in the 1992 Iowa caucuses right away . . .
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The campaign for the tax increase. “Child abuse reports unexpectedly increased 30 percent last year,” says state Children and Family Services director Gordon Johnson in a recent press release. “Yet, because of state government fiscal difficulties, we were not able to hire new staff to investigate those reports. This year’s increase means an even heavier burden for staff. Even on Christmas Day, on-call staff had to interrupt their family celebrations and initiate investigations into reports involving 43 abused children.”
But who will guard the rest rooms during the ceremony? “Tobacco-free schools [those where nobody, not even visitors, may smoke] can receive a certificate of recognition, a decal to put on the front door . . . a congratulatory letter from the president and executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards, and a fact sheet about tobacco-free schools,” says the IASB’s Newsbulletin (December 18). “The packet of materials also includes promotional ideas . . . such as a public ceremony to award the certificate of recognition.”
Dept. of astonishing research results, from University of Illinois business administration professor Greg R. Oldham: “Clerical workers in spacious, well-lit offices are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and less likely to leave than are workers in offices that are crowded and poorly lit.”
