I was snoozing on the couch when the telephone rang.
I woke up to Carol shouting, “Hey that’s great! That’s wonderful! I am so happy. That is the best news I’ve heard in a long time. Thank you very much for letting me know.”
“What’s wonderful? What’s making you so happy?” I asked.
“Guess!” She shouted.
“The Jets won.”
“No. Better than that.”
“You won a free trip in the airline contest.”
“Even better than that.”
“Obama resigned.”
“No! No! No!”
“Gee. I don’t know. What could be better than Obama resigning?”
“OK. Here goes! The Fortunoff Jewelry store is re-opening.”
I responded with, “Joy to the world. Thank you for telling me.” Then I mumbled, “Oy vey,” as I turned over and went back to sleep.
In a recent discussion about Fortunoff, one of Carol’s friends noted that the store was always filled with customers. She asked, “If it was so busy, why did it close.”
My late friend Murray, the Court Street lawyer, always said, “Being busy and making money are not necessarily the same.”
While The Source was busy every time we were there, it did struggle with the cost of goods and overhead. If you are interested in knowing why it closed, do a Wikipedia search on it. You will see that Murray was correct.
•••
A recent article in “USA Today” informs us that almost a quarter of Americans stopped shopping on the Internet. They are concerned over security and data breaches. Are you one of them? We will know a lot more about this matter after the December holidays.
•••
The displays in the store are reminding us that Halloween is around the corner. Last year Americans spent almost $2.6 billion on costumes. Even with a lousy economy the stores expect that record to be broken this year. What do you think will be the biggest seller? Duck Dynasty? Miley Cyrus? Your thoughts?
•••
To Ed Stein, who wrote: “As for the less-fortunate working poor accepting your used underwear, perhaps if you were to pay them a living wage, they would be able to buy their own.”
Ed, read again what I wrote and show me where I said anything about my used underwear. That came from your imagination. It was Bill Clinton who donated his used underwear and deducted $2 each on his income tax. Then show me where you know how much I paid any of my employees. The only people that received low wages in any of my businesses were my high school delivery boys who were paid minimum wage plus tips. Those youngsters did so well that I had a waiting list of high school students asking for jobs.
Ed, I enjoy sparring with you, but not when you make things up about me.
•••
And finally, I am StanGershbein@Bellsouth.net thanking God that we did not have the kind of administration in WWII that we have today. If we did, I might be writing my columns in German.
