How Do They Stay in Business?

I don't have a lot of money for clothes shopping, but I do like to keep my duds somewhat fresh. I recently tossed a polo shirt I'd been wearing for 8 years. It was time. Usually I turn to Kohl's for help with my clothing needs. I recently bought three new polo shirts. They were on sale for $10 each and then I had a 20% off coupon. So $8 each.

Whenever I'm in Kohl's, I always head for the clearance rack where they have stuff marked down 70-80%. That's my price point.

The clearance rack is tough because you have to not only find something that you would wear but also something that fits. It's not always easy as I'm a pretty traditional male size so there aren't a lot of 36x30 pants available at clearance prices. The discounted merch includes a lot of stuff from the Big n' Tall section like 48x32 pants and XXL shirts. I've been looking for some dress pants in clearance for awhile and have been struggling. If I do find some, they are almost always pleated, which I kind of hate. . .

However, I scored big this past Saturday. I was just going to get a clearance item or two so that I could use my $10 Kohl's cash, even if it was just a pair of shorts or a t-shirt. But on this beautiful morning, they had all the clearance items marked down an additional 20%. And they had a pair of washable wool gray dress pants on the clearance rack for $21. I also found a patriotic T, which I kind of need for 4th of July festivities, on clearance for $4, and a pair of shorts for $8. With the additional 20% off and my $10 Kohl's cash, I was planning to pay $16-$18 for my items - a little more than I had planned, sure, but I finally got my pants!

Imagine my surprise when the cashier rang my up and gave me my total - $5.88. Apparently there was a $10 additional bonus cash reward and then a 15% off promotion. Not bad at all. I guess Kohl's has plenty of people who pay the full price for stuff (I never do), otherwise how do they afford it?

Mickey D's of the Future

So I promised this wasn't a food blog. And it's not. But writing about things that you've had to eat is quick and easy. Recently, a brand-new McDonald's opened up about a mile from our house. I thought it was going to be just another run-of-the-mill McDonald's. Turns out, it's not. It's a new concept called "Create Your Taste" which allows you to build your own burger or chicken sandwich according to your own preference. We got some promotional coupons in the mail for free sandwiches and decided to try it out for our date night.

You order your food using a touch-screen kiosk, which guides you through the process of your own creation. You get to select the type of bun, the type of cheese, and any additional toppings or sauces. Some items add to your price - for example, bacon - and others are included in the price. We actually went kind of wild because it was completely free regardless of how much we added. So I wound up with a double-bacon cheeseburger, with lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, guacamole, and barbecue sauce.



They had a lot of different toppings, everything from mushrooms to tortilla strips, and sauces from Big Mac sauce to chipotle mayo. It takes a little longer - you go and have a seat and they bring it out to you about 10 minutes later. And it's served in a wire basket just as pictured above, not smashed together and wrapped up.

The interior of the restaurant is fancier than your typical McDonalds. Although it looked really nice, I kind of wondered how long it would be before it ends up trashed. They had these pristine white pull-down shades over the windows and I can just imagine little kids smearing ketchup and grease all over them. But maybe kids won't come so much as it's more of an adult place.

They do have these tablet computers attached to some of the tables, for kids to play, and I can guarantee those will be destroyed and then pitched into the trash within two years.

So we'll see how this goes for McDonald's. It's kind of like McDonald's meets Smashburger meets Subway, but with some technology added in.

We're not really McDonald's people, so I'm not sure if we'll go back as full-paying customers. It's kind of a pricier meal, in the $8-$10 range, if you were going in without any coupons. We'll have to see.

Book Review: David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism

David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory A. Prince

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Different than the traditional biography of an LDS Church President, which have been typically published shortly after their ascendance to the office but before their death, this telling of the David O. McKay story focuses on the time period of 1951-1970 when he served as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For this reason I enjoyed the book as it detailed the accomplishments and difficulties of his actual term of service. Looking back at those years through a 21st century lens added a unique perspective. I would love to see similar volumes emerge in the coming years, for instance a record of the years 1995-2008, when Gordon B. Hinckley led the church, perhaps the most dynamic church leader since McKay.

I am of a younger generation, born a few years after McKay's death, so I did not know a lot about him going in, but I did gain an appreciation for his marvelous service. Holding such a high calling is not easy, as McKay in many cases had to separate his own personal convictions from his responsibility to members of a worldwide church. He also had to manage competing opinions and agendas of other church leaders, often at his own expense. But there are a few people in the world whom everyone seems to respect, regardless of differences, and David O. McKay was one of those, as indicated by the tribute given by the Cathedral of the Madeleine Catholic Church in Salt Lake City during his funeral procession.

As indicated in other reviews, the book does tend to get a bit gossipy in sections and the authors seem to draw a lot of unsupported conclusions about what a particular individual's motivations may have been in various situations. But it was interesting to read that the Quorum of the Twelve do not necessarily agree with one another on the various issues that come before them. Although we're insulated from it in our day, there are certainly still heated debates that go on in their meetings. With fiery personalities such as Dallin H. Oaks, Jeffrey R. Holland, and David A. Bednar populating church hierarchy, do you honestly think they just sit around and say, "Hey, I'm chill with that if you are, brother"?

I do kind of wonder what bias the authors may have had given the voluminous resources they had at their disposal. To a point, they could have told just about any story they wanted to. They seemed to go out of their way to make heroes of "church intellectuals" then and now but disparaged Harold B. Lee and Ezra Taft Benson to the point that left you wondering how either of these men eventually became successors to President McKay.

Probably my favorite story in the book was the relationship between McKay and Lyndon B. Johnson, and how McKay inquired of Johnson regarding an Army policy which made it difficult for LDS chaplains to serve. Essentially Johnson demanded the Army accommodate the church, based primarily on his friendship with McKay and his respect for the Mormon way of life.

I would recommend this book despite its flaws. It left me with a testimony of David O. McKay's calling as a prophet.



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Media of Yesteryear

Part of my childhood went out with the trash today. This stack of old VHS tapes. Of course, it was my plan all along to dispose of these. About three years ago, I started a project to convert all of my old treasured recordings to DVD to save storage space and protect against the day when VCRs are no more. I filled a box full of converted tapes, ready to throw away, but instead I just put it on a shelf. Because I might still need them for something, I told myself. But the truth was that I wasn't ready to toss them just yet.



You see, me and these tapes have been through a lot. Some of them I've had since 1986. A lot of them have been recorded on again and again and again. Sports mostly, but also TV shows and movies. When you were a kid, recordable VHS tapes were scarce. I maybe had two or three that I scored from my dad. But once those were full, what did you do? Figure out what was expendable, and tape over it. If you were a kid with only a few dollars of spending money, you weren't necessarily inclined to use it to acquire new blank tapes. You just recycled and scavenged. And over time I did build up an impressive collection. (I have more that are not pictured here).

One tape features Pee Wee's Big Adventure and the made-for-TV classic Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss. Another tape has the 1991 and 1992 Grammy Awards. I have a lot of old Broncos games. I have the 1990 World Series (in its entirety) spread out over three tapes. Now it is all preserved on DVD (Pee Wee excepted).

So I figured if I took a picture, it would make the parting a little less sorrowful. I suppose with modern technology, I really don't still need any of this on VHS or DVD. Because it's all probably on YouTube.