Four for Friday Edition No. 2

Q1 – Lying: Are there any circumstances under which you can see yourself lying to law enforcement officials at either the local or national levels?

A1 – Americans are a forgiving, forgetting bunch. But every time I see Bill Clinton smiling, waving and chatting up Oprah, Dave and the rest, I see a man who was disbarred for perjury.

So my short answer is: No.

Q2 – Terrorism: Terrorist monitoring groups here in the U.S. say the al-Qaida terrorist network intends to release a new video recording of Osama bin Muhammad bin ‘Awad bin Laden on or before next week’s sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks the Pentagon and World Trade Center. If in fact a recording of bin Laden were made available, would you take the time to watch it?

A2 -No. I wouldn’t dignify it by giving it my time or attention. I will leave the analysis to the professionals.

Q3 – Carded: A few years ago, the state Maine’s Legislature passed a law that requires store clerks to verify the identification of anyone who appears to be under the age of 27 when attempting to purchase tobacco or alcohol. Earlier this week, a 65-year-old woman who went into a Farmington, Maine supermarket to buy wine was turned away because she did not have any ID with her. When the woman asked if her elderly friend could buy the wine for her, she was told no because that would be considered “third-party” purchasing, which is illegal in Maine. If you were working the checkout line when the 65-year-old woman attempted to purchase a bottle of wine, would you have turned her away?

A3 – If the strict letter of the law required identification to be presented in all instances in order to make a purchase, yes.

But the question says that identification is required of “anyone who appears to be under the age of 27,” providing some discretion to the clerk. In that instance, I would not have turned her away, relying upon my own judgment.

However, we do not know what instruction the store gave its employees. On July 4, we went to a local restaurant and order a couple of drinks before dinner. The waiter asked for identification and the husband and I both laughed. She was completely serious and apologized profusely, but said the management had given the wait staff strict instructions to request identification from all patrons who order alcohol. Here in California, the penalties for serving liquor to an individual under the age of 21 can be extremely draconian so that restaurant’s management decided not to risk having its employees exercise judgment. We understood, showed her our driver’s licenses and left her a very generous tip. 😀

Q4 –Cars: If you could modify one thing about your current car (and no, junking it and starting over would not be an option), how would you make it be different?

I would remove the small dent right over the driver’s side door that was caused by the ladder — yes, that would be the ladder that I have repeatedly told my husband  not to leave in the garage right by the door from the laundry room into the garage — falling over and landing on my car.

There is a trap door in the acoustic ceiling that provides access to the storage area above the garage that BigBob affectionately calls “Kenny Land” (because my father’s name was Kenny and he made all the improvements to the garage). It is only accessible via ladder. Because he is too lazy to carry the ladder in from the back yard, he leaves it next to the refrigerator. If you come out of the house in a hurry and open the door with a little too much force, it can swing out and hit the ladder. Sure enough . . . he was in the hospital recovering after his appendix burst and I came out of the house with my arms full of items I was taking to him (books, robe, etc.) and wham! The door got away from me and hit the ladder, knocking it into my car.