The Inter-Webs

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Some new used books

I’m allowed to use an oxymoron as my post title. I’m completely and utterly excited to do so. If you just received a stack of new used books that are in as good of condition as these are, you’d be slap-happy too!

Cranky Yellow is by no means a book store. But we surely sell tons of interesting books. We hand select each book we carry (and most of them are previously used). We personally love each book in the store, which means we’re happy to have them around until they sell. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll love them too! So get over here and pick up something to read in between watching online segments of Beakman’s World!

Here’s what’s in the photo above:

1. Art prostitue # 1
2.  Drawn and Quarterly Showcase
3. Big Quesitons # 7
4. Adventures of Lucky Ello
5. How to make Foreign Dolls and their Costumes
6. Skid
7. Astrology and The Man
8. An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine
9. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Cream of the Crop

Insurance companies are well-known for their avarice and cold-hearted approach to human health and well-being. It doesn’t matter whether or not you would die from lack of coverage, they would rather you expire than cover someone who wouldn’t make them any money.

That’s the nature of a private, capitalist healthcare system. They don’t care if your children’s faces will fall off without coverage, they’ll do everything in their power to keep you from costing them money.

Of course, the government (which they spare no expense in lobbying) does everything it can to make sure this doesn’t change.

Case in point; meet artist, Cranky Yellow contributer, and new mother Elizabeth Frick (A.K.A. Ahimsa Creations).

That’s right everyone, the insurance company (ironically named “Golden Rule”) has colluded with the Missouri State government to push the costs of insuring undesirable babies to us, the tax-payers. That way insurance companies can be sure to only get healthy children who won’t cost them a penny, meaning they will get as much money as possible for providing as few services as possible. In the meantime, we must all pay the price for maintaining their bottom-line! It’s win-win!

This whole phenomena is very common; so common it has a name in the social sciences field: “Creaming”. Creaming is the process by which insurance companies do everything they can to insure people with little chance of becoming sick while leaving sickly people out in the cold. The elderly, the terminally ill, people with pre-existing conditions, high-risk individuals who are not yet sick, diabetics, and HIV+ individuals (or just gay men, they actually want to know your sexuality in order to provide you with health and/or life insurance). In other words, they take the “cream” off the top, the best most delicious part, and leave the rest for society or individuals to deal with.

To say that creaming is common is kind of an understatement; insurance companies couldn’t exist without the policy. There is simply no money in insuring people who actually need insurance, what would be the benefit? They have to make sure that costs do not exceed revenue, or that people in need of coverage do not come close to exceeding those that don’t.

Now, I have absolutely no problem with providing healthcare coverage to anyone in need; well, to be totally honest I think healthcare is a human right and should be provided to anyone and everyone. The real problem here is that this is social healthcare gone backwards; it is an issue of private enterprise externalizing their costs to the rest of society so they can enrich themselves.

It’s disgusting; it’s inhuman to write a copy-paste emotionless letter to a new family saying that their child was unlucky enough to be able to fit in a loophole and they are happy to cram her through it. They regretted to inform them that they couldn’t wait to toss their adoptive child to the curb because of flaws in Missouri state insurance policy.

Golden Rule is probably telling the truth when they say “We treat all children the same”. If they could find loopholes for any unhealthy children, adopted or otherwise, they would drop them faster than you can say “denied”.

Here is the Frick’s blog if you’d like to know more about them.

Oh Joy.

We have another amazing piece of folk art that David decided was too wonderful to leave rotting in some junk shop. It’s hideous, it’s poorly made, it makes little sense, and I have to look at it day after day.

You can see how much I appreciate the artwork someone’s grandma made for their housewarming party in ‘83. Note the meticulously steak-knife cut driftwood plaque, the one coat of white (probably lead) paint, the beautiful marker lettering, and the down-syndrome plagued, overweight cherub with the shrubbery-cut afro. What’s not to love about this certainly priceless find?

I am willing to actually bribe someone to take this off our hands (don’t tell David though). Despite David’s certainty that this, unlike leisurely beach-going, skateboard frog, will easily be snatched up by an appreciative relic-hunter.

Please, someone, prove him right and get this crap outta my sight.

Musical Treats

Our music section is starting to swell up. We’ve got a few new additions, most notably that of Vermillion Lies, Curtis Eller, and a slew of releases from APOP Records. If you’re standing in the store, and need to listen to one of the albums, just let the person working know… They’ll hunt down the appropriate myspace page, and then play some appropriate tunes for you. At least that’s what we did today.

I figured it would be worth your while to take a look at this close-up of the chicken-rooster-bird thing that is standing on some compact-discs (CD’s for you neo-jargon hipsters). He is beautifully carved and hand-painted. I’m not sure who is responsible for his exisitance since I only rescued him from a dusty shop in southern missouri. Yeah.

We Can See Right Through You!

Cranky Yellow has finally made that right of passage that every storefront must go through. Any business, big or small, mighty or miniscule must deal with the general public; even the less ethical populations within it. We are proud to announce that we, as an official store of officialness, have finally had our first shoplifters!

A group of about four children, two girls and two boys, aged about 10-15 decided that they were gonna walk the length of Cherokee Street and shoplift from Apop to our humble establishment.

Now don’t get me wrong, I hate children. Not in any specific way, they just kinda creep me out. Usually, though, I can remain cordial with the tiny demons provided they don’t attempt to:

A) Eat food near me

B) Talk near me

C) Steal from me

The first two are forgivable offenses; however, petty larceny doesn’t come with the same flexibility. I mean, if the child(ren) proved creative or resourceful in their attempts to pilfer the riches of Cranky Yellow I might be lenient due to my appreciation for those traits. However, this group of children turned out to be great only in numbers, not in smarts.

Here’s their plan in a nut-shell:

Come in a large group and act as innocent as you possibly can, inquire about the sale of items, say that your mother has money and you are waiting for her to return, then spread out through the store and try to distract the shop-keeper(s) by asking them questions that force them to look in the opposite direction of your thievery.

Of course, it’d work out better if the first thing you talked about wasn’t the 2 dollar bill that someone put in the donation jar. Then, to make yourselves seem less conspicuous, ask to touch and hold the bill and inquire about it thoroughly, all the while some of you are asking me to look in different directions for nonsensical reasons.

After this plan failed to draw my attention away from the 2 dollar bill their focus shifted to “Get that shirt in the most suspicious manner possible”! After failing to get me to drop my guard and upon getting David down into the store to help back me up they decided they wanted to go for the shirt. They asked about the price, pretending to want to buy it, and then asked to try it on, in a group of three.

Now, one of the little girls of the bunch goes in (under alot of pressure from the oldest boy) and puts the bright pink shirt with dark black stencil on and tries to walk out with it. Now, this might of worked had I not known they were going to try to do this and if she wasn’t wearing a white shirt over it. When she came out of the bathroom I stared her down, she got scared and went back into the bathroom and came back out again  with her shirt tucked in. At that point I just looked at her and said “I can see the shirt”, David chimed in and asked her to stop stealing, very politely.

Afterwards they rummaged through everything we had, taking as much free stickers as possible, and managed to steal a plastic action figure and a pierced breast (Don’t ask).

Even though I thought about it, I decided not to call the police. These kids were obviously poor inner-city tykes who probably were raised by rather crappy parents. It’s what they know, it’s what they do, and until we get proper programs in place to deal with youth crime I know it won’t help the situation to sick the cops on them.

Of course, if they ever return and try the same schtick I will be forced to call the flatfoots. Even though they are children they don’t get to run around and do whatever they wish.

What struck me most was how nonchalantly the kids behaved, how devoid of humility and conscience. Even though we caught them stealing, remained cordial with them, and didn’t call the cops on them they continued to try to steal, disrespect our store, and act as though they were doing nothing wrong. I saw no guilt whatsoever; except for the girl who tried to steal the shirt. It scares me, it worries me, and it disappoints me to no end. Their only thought was “They have stuff we want, how can we get it from them?” Not a bright future for them if their attitude doesn’t change.
I welcome all of you Crankies for comments as to the situation and what should be done about it, what you would have done, and what should be done about youth crime in general.