http://www.onlinetvproduct.com/as-seen-on-tv-table-trays/
Something I Said-Guerilla Guide To Coping With This Hard Economic Times
Something I Said
Guerilla Guide To Coping With This Hard Economic Times
Dwight Hobbes
SouthSide Pride archives Find yourself a bit more impressed by the depression (not President Barack Obama and all the king’s men can dress this up enough to look like a recession) than you ever expected? Hanging on to your job by gnat’s hair? Altogether lost your job? Lot of that going around, these days. Is it pretty new territory for you to worry – I mean seriously worry – about money? Two words for you. Join the club: it’s folk out here been dealing with hard times long before you. Here’s some help, broken down into categories. Clip it and put the bad boy on your refrigerator: tested methods to keep from starving (if “starving” sounds melodramatic, save this article and read it later, when you’re truly in this mess like everybody else). Foodshelves and Soup Kitchens. There’s two foodshelves in my neighborhood and I hit ‘em both. Every month. The premise at these places is to tide you over a few days with some staples. If you know what you’re doing, you can stretch it considerably farther than a few days. Here’s how. One, make a list of what you need before you walk in the door. There’s nothing dumber than getting back home and realizing you forgot something important. Be sure and put rice on your list. And beans. You can make several reasonably tasty meals out of rice and something else. Beans, of course, are a natural companion to rice, especially with good seasoning. Which, by the by, you might be able to pick up at the foodshelf. Rule of thumb, don’t be scared or embarrassed to ask if they have this or that. The worst they can tell you is No. At best, you’ll get what you need. Also, if your foodshelf gives out milk, call ahead and find out on what day so you don’t wind up coming down the day before or after it’s all been handed out. You want to be there bright eyed and bushy tailed on delivery day. Most of them also have tables of tables of bread for the taking and, frequently, pastries. By the way, at most pantries, you can get used clothes. In not half bad shape Just gotta look good. You might actually find something pretty fly that some well to do person just doesn’t need anymore. Soup kitchens can be dicey because basically they’re tramp camps where all kinds of people you don’t need to be around show up for a free meal. The men and women tend to be rowdy as hell and there’s no way of telling just plain jerks from the clinically insane. Go, hit the food line, take your tray to a table, reach in your little paper or plastic bag and pull out a storage bowl. But your food in the bowl. Put the lid over the bowl. Then make a beeline for the door. Maybe come back ten minutes to closing and see if they’re serving seconds. Take the stuff home, put it in the fridge. Maybe add some rice to it. Note: You’re going to see signs at soup kitchens that say you can’t take the food out. Do it anyway. Nobody watches and they really don’t care. It’s just the law that they have to have that sign up. Using these two resources, foodshelves and soup kitchens, will help you stretcj your food budget like a rubber band. Speaking of which, you need to stop shopping exclusively at the big name supermarkets. There’s one national franchise in particular which a surprising number of folk don’t know about. It’s cheap and while you may not want to shop there exclusively, you’re stupid if you buy things like milk, cheese, bread, tuna, rice or eggs anywhere else. Resources. The idea here is to put some change in your pocket and, importantly, cut down on how much money you waste on things you just don’t need. Recycling works. You’ve seen guys who rummage in garbage cans at apartment buildings, collecting cans in great big giant bags. I don’t know how much they get for them at the collection center, but it’s enough that they keep coming back, rummaging through folk’s garbage. No, I’m not saying, “You, too, can be a champion dumpster-diver.” But it only makes sense to toss your empty cans in bag in the corner until you fill up a bag. Then go cash ‘em in. Whatever you come back with with is more than you had before. What do you need cable TV for? Most of the programming there is just as bad as broadcast for which you don’t pay a dime. You want entertainment on the tube? That’s reasonable. Fine, go to a thrift store, by a DVD player and get movies out of the library. For free – as long you return them on time. Like plays? Dance companies? Plenty venues will let you usher at a show in exchange for being able, once the curtain goes up, to sit down and have a nice time at the theatre. Cell phones are not umbilical chords. You can live without one. Yeah, I know, that’s sacrilege, but, think. Is your cell a necessity or is it a luxury? There ain’t a job in this world where the same business can’t be conducted over a landline instead of pumping money into it every month. Swipe somebody’s morning newspaper, preferrably not too close to your own doorstep. It’ll inconvenience them at first, but, once they complain, after awhile all the carrier will do is just start dropping off an extra paper. It’s worth it to them to keep that customer’s business. This way everybody’s happy. Except the fat cats who own the paper. Later for them. This essay has been a public service announcement.
About the Author
Twin Cities Daily Planet articles archived at www.tcdailyplanet.net/profiles/dwight-hobbes. Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary column Something I Said). He’s spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, Blog Talk Radio’s UNOBSTRUCTED and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column “Hobbes In The House” in MN Spokesman Recorder speaks to domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter – produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues – produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can’t Always Sometimes Never Tell – produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst – produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel “Farewell To August Wilson” at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ). Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single “Atlanta Children” (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny’s Castaways and My Fathers Place. He fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony’s Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille’s Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. www.myspace.com/dwighthobbesmusic
Alyson Stoner Reveals Camp Rock 2 Secrets