OSH '05

I believe you are the guy who said he enjoys arguing on usenet. If I am
mistaken I apologize for continuing what I hope will be perceived as a
friendly difference of opinion.......

Jay Honeck wrote:
I guess I missed that one. I was within spitting distance of the gate and
I never saw one cart being pushed back to Pick N Save. How do you feel
about the 'tradition' of stealing hotel towels and leaving your room
looking like a pig pen? I believe that tradition pre dates the air show
but I personally don't approve of it or practice it.


You seem to be confusing convenience -- for the store AND the consumer --
with petty theft and vandalism.

Fair enough. You seem to be confusing personal convenience with
entitlement.


Or are you saying that the shopping carts were loaded into planes, and
stolen?


I remember once having an auditor at a corporate client tell me that
nearly 100% of the corporate embezzlement in this country is done by
people who intend for the money to be returned. But I never heard a
lawyer say that such an intention would make a very good legal defense.


Seriously, I'm not here to start fights with the 'regulars', and you seem
like a decent type of guy. I was reporting what I saw at the gate and I
did go on to to inject my personal opinion with the 'dumbass' remark. I
doubt that Pick N Save feels that the 1 percent or so they net entitles
everyone to take their carts on an off road cross country trek, but it's
not my call. That gate was about to get locked and it would have caused
inconvenience to thousands of people and cost the local merchants a lot of
money.


I understand your point, Tom, and frown on the practice everywhere EXCEPT
Oshkosh, where there is simply no alternative (since EAA closed the on-site
food store) to shopping at Pick N Save. As long as we pilots -- generally
an honorable group -- continue to work together to keep the cart
merry-go-round going (I.E.: Taking the carts BACK to the store as frequently
as we take them to the North 40), everything will be in balance, and no one
is harmed.

However, the moment it becomes a problem of too many carts stacked up in the
North 40, with no one willing to push them back, well, then the system will
have failed, and we all lose.

Including Pick N Save, by the way. If we can't carry what I buy on foot, we
will simply eat and drink more on the grounds.

Two final data points for amusement.....

In 2004 my two sons (then 6 and 10) and I were hauling way-too-big of a
load back from the Pic N Save on a really hot day. Ice, drinks, food,
and those plastic bags were feeling like they were going to cut through
my palms. A gorgeous young woman, who probably wouldn't give me the
time of day under normal circumstances, saw us and gave us a ride to the
gate in air conditioned comfort. She wasn't a pilot but she had kids
too and felt sorry for us! You could have knocked me over with a feather.

This year I went into Target and purchased one of those two wheeled,
folding luggage carriers. I brought back two big bags of ice, a case of
water, and several bags of food. It wasn't the easiest thing in the
world to drag through the grass but it could be done. And that's what
I'll be doing in the future. Again, just a data point. I'm not in
charge of telling the rest of the world what to do.

Tom