Beer

NY’s loss is Downers Grove’s yummy-alcohol-gain

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For Sam’s Wine and Spirits, it’s Downers Grove over N.Y.

One answer about why Sam’s Wine and Spirits is making its first expansion to the western suburbs can be found in the store’s Lincoln Park shipping room.

Boxes of wine are stacked to the ceiling awaiting shipment to customers in Hinsdale, Geneva, Naperville, Western Springs and Forest Park, along with numerous other communities across the United States.

Widespread telephone and Internet orders have helped make Sam’s the largest volume wine and spirits store in the United States. This year, it expects to book $60 million in sales and employs 150 people.

Absent, however, are large numbers of boxes bound for New York City, where Fred Rosen and his sons had planned to make their first foray away from what has been their only location, tucked behind the new retail district along Clybourn Avenue, north of North Avenue.

“We put New York on hold because we’re like farm boys. It’s much harder to deal with the people there. It’s not like Chicago,” said Rosen, 67, who has handed day-to-day operations of the store over to his sons.

Sam’s Wines, if you’ve never been there, is an awesome store. Its only problem to date is that its a fair trip into the city for me to shop there. However, every time I’ve gone, I’ve not been disappointed. Also, its nice that its located right next to the Goose Island Brew Pub.

On those times I haven’t made the drive, Binny’s has fit the bill. The guys from Sam’s claims they aren’t doing it to compete with Binny’s, and I’ll accept that at face value. However, it’ll be interesting to see Sam’s give Binny’s a run for their money out in the burbs.

Downers Grove is getting all sorts of interesting places. First Fry’s, now Sam’s. I wonder what’s next.

General

How not to impress a potential customer

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When you’re a sale person, and you’re making a sales call, never insult the potential customer by saying “Well, we didn’t test with foo because you’re the only person in the world who uses it!”

In this case foo was Firefox after a vendor’s webapp’s magic javascript didn’t work with it. Yes, IE has the marketshare and is the most important to get working. However, have a better response then “you’re a freaking weirdo,” which is about what he said.

Fatherhood, General

Brodie (from Mallrats) was right!

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From the Kevin Smith movie Mallrats:

Brodie: Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don’t hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent – I don’t care which one – but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator.

The guy who died at miller park after falling off the escalator was a man, not a child. However, Brodie’s advice still stands. This man did not fear and respect the escalator.

When my daughter is the correct age, she will be taught to fear and respect the escalator.

Geek

lnk.to ideas

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Dannyman has run a service called lnk.to , which is similar to things like Make A Shorter Link. lnk.to obviously wins by having a shorter name to begin with.

He’s been doing some brainstorming for featues.

Here’s my quick idea: Make it easy to mirror.

One of the reason’s Danny is going for his reimplementation is that lnk.to’s current home is going away. Also, its current home has not always been the paragon of stability. Adding mirroring capability early on would help avoid that problem in the future.

Anyway, just an idea. (Also, my first use of TrackBack!)

Fatherhood

Sorry again, Dinah

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For as long as I can remember, when I’ve walked outside and its sunny out, I’ve sneezed. I can usually count on a good two or three sneezes. In the past few years, I finally was curious enough to do some research and found out that I have the condition called photic sneeze reflex.

Photic sneeze reflex (also whimsically called ACHOO, a backronym for Autosomal dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst) is a medical condition by which people exposed to bright light involuntarily sneeze. It has been suggested that the photic sneeze reflex occurs only after someone has been adapted to the dark for at least five minutes, although this is not certain, and is not uniform amongst people with the photic sneeze reflex. The condition occurs in one-sixth to one-quarter of humans, with more common occurrence in Caucasians than other human races. The trait is passed along genetically, with a 50 percent chance of inheritance.

The probable cause is a congenital malfunction in nerve signals in the trigeminal nerve nucleus. The fifth cranial nerve, called the trigeminal nerve, is apparently responsible for sneezes. Research suggests that some people have an association between this nerve and the nerve that transmits visual impulses to the brain. Overstimulation of the optic nerve triggers the trigeminal nerve, and this causes the photic sneeze reflex.

Lately, I’ve noticed that Dinah has been sneezing when exposed to bright light. Looks like she inherited it from me.

Sorry, kiddo.

General

Cellular company suprised by drinking and swearing during poker. Also shocked to find sky is blue.

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As with many people in the US, Sarah and I are getting into poker. We’re not into it as much as some of our friends, but we’re working on being better. Two of the things that feed our addiction are the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel and Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo. We end up watching the celebrities more, if only because I have a heterosexual man-crush on Phil Gordon.

Anyway, in my morning reading of the paper, I came across the article `Poker’ a good bet for Bravo. It talks about how Celebrity Poker Showdown was renewed for a third seasons (hooray!) but mentioned a change in sponsorship.

Until last week, wireless phone company Cingular was the sponsor of the $250,000 charity pot, but it pulled its sponsorship after expressing dismay at the fact that the players drink on camera and occasionally curse.

They did know they were sponsoring a poker tournament, right? I have no idea why they’d be shocked by drinking and swearing. Also, no one EVER drinks while on a cell phone nor do they ever swear while on one. Maybe the 1950s started again and no one told me. In any case, a new sponsor wasn’t mentioned in the article, but I’m sure they’ll find a new sponsor quickly.

Geek News

Nigerian spam mutates again

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This was on Slashdot earlier for the 5 minutes Slashdot was actually up today. (503s and 500s abounded. But that’s a different storry.) This is too awesome not to comment on.

The Register is carrying a story titled 419ers morph into Murder Incorporated.

we have received a fax message from our headquaters,new york,this morning to inform you to produce a mandatory sum of US$40,000.00 {FOURTHY THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS} only,into our account given below in nigeria within ninety six hours{96},alternatively you will be SNIPPED and GUNNED down during the period of our oncoming anniversary of fifty years.

I’ve really enjoyed watching this scam mutate the past few years. From various deposed ministers to desposed oil magnates to various countries other than Nigeria. What is not funny with this is how many people and how much money people are taken for in this scam.

According to Billions lost each year due to spam.

The US Secret Service has designated the so-called ‘Nigerian scam,’ in which the sender offers to pass on windfall sums of money if a percentage payment is made in advance, as an ‘epidemic,’ defrauding people of hundreds of millions of dollars per year,” said The Age.

I never would have predicted the mutation into including death threats. Not that it wasn’t illegal before, but I think the average person knows that a death threat is clearly illegal. The older versions I could see people not fully getting as illegal.

I can see many inexperianced computer users being scammed and/or getting scared off of the internet forever, which is the real problem.

General

Exurb

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Reading the paper this morning, I also learned a new word (for me): exurb.

Exurbs are rural communities that, due to proximity, are becoming suburbs of a major urban area. Exurbs tend to be populated by people that work in the city and bring their capital home to spend on local services. Exurbs are commonly viewed as the only rural communities which are benefiting from the rural exodus. These communities tend to be highly competitive.

I wonder if Huntly, IL falls in this definition.

Keith's attempts to fix the cable of life