I feel better

(Originally published April 11, 2011)




NO HOME-MADE SACK LUNCHES ALLOWED

This goes out to anyone and everyone who wonders why I still have a "beef" with Jan Tanner and her shady million dollar pizza contract with School District 11.  

Chi-town is Jan-Land...and I just hate to think that this sort of nonsense might soon be coming Colorado's way.


Think about it though, folks:  Jan's contract is a clear, in-your-face, Hey-I'm-Making-Money-Off-Of-You-Constituents conflict of interest, no matter how you slice it.  


But she's so ruthless and rich that she just waves a wad of money at the situation, and magically manages to shake off the stigma that usually goes along with such monkeyshines.


She's had nearly two years to wave some of her money at me; oh well, I guess she doesn't think I deserve it (although I do)...even though it would allow her to walk the Restorative Justice walk, and not simply pay lip-service to the Restorative Justice talk...


Where's my peace rose -- maybe there's still a chance we can circle-talk this sh!t and get things worked out....

*sigh*


When, exactly, did the Native American way to dispute-solving come into vogue anyway?  What ever happened to smoking the peace pipe together?


This is how I always thought they handled business in the World Class Windy City...but I guess it's all good, just as long as Transgendered people are treated with the respect they're due:

Anyway...I'm digressing.


All I know is that, if I was rich, I would have paid just about ANY AMOUNT to make an annoying field negro like me stop going on about the pizza already; but what do I know -- I'M NOT RICH.


Every now and then, I think about former City Councilman Charles Wingate, and how he got run right out of town over $25 worth of pizza and a baseless allegation that he looked at porn on his city-owned computer.


But -- as a middle-class conservative black man -- Wingate got just what he deserved, didn't he?  


*shrug*


Eh...at least they let Wingate leave town alive.


And yet the Vice President of District 11's School Board -- the insanely-rich leftist capitalist Jan "Hooray for Gay" Tanner -- is still sitting up there, pretending to care and claiming to be "all about the kids" and "all for teachers"...


...making determinations with tax-payer money, and at the same time, aiding and abetting the teacher's union year after year to ensure teacher salaries remain frozen AS IS, while those in Administration keep getting raises...


...with tax-payer monies rolling effortlessly and unchecked into her purse.


No doubt she laughs about it -- and us -- all the way to the Dominos Socialist Savings and Loan.  And what's not to laugh about?  It's actually HELLA funny when you look at things from Jan's perspective.


Folks, it's unmitigated CRAP that Tanner's shysty pizza contract earns her about the same amount annually as D11's superintendent -- $160,000 (of course, that's Gledich's pre-bonus take home pay).  


That's just SOME of the wasted big money that could be better spent towards giving teachers a raise for a change -- what a novel concept.


But no one wants to talk about it; not even the teachers whose pay have been frozen for how long now??  WON'T EVEN SPEAK UP FOR THEMSELVES...WHY?  Why are you letting other people do all your talking for you, in the dark!!!????  WHY DON'T THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE WORKING AS YOUR MOUTHPIECE NEGOTIATE Y'ALL A RAISE FOR A CHANGE...HUH?  


Nor the students, nor the parents, nor the citizens of Colorado Springs, and certainly not District 11 Administration -- 


EVERYONE'S TOO BLASTED PASSIVE AND COMPLACENT...TOO WORRIED ABOUT THEMSELVES TO BOTHER OPENING THEIR MOUTHS TO MAKE THEIR VOICES HEARD...UNABLE TO EVEN RECOGNIZE WHO ARE THE HEROES AND WHO ARE THE VILLAINS!!!


I mean, your lips aren't busy doing anything else; what better to occupy all those idle, gaping mouths than to inhale some of Jan's all-you-can-eat pizza?   


Who knows...perhaps one day we'll be able to dine on Jan's nutritious lunchroom pizza Chicago Foie Gras style.  

Yummmm.  That's the ticket.


*whew* thanks, all -- I feel better.

Play by Play Conclusion

(Originally published August 25, 2010)

A sad announcement to make: Al Loma is gravely ill; I wish him a speedy recovery, and hope that District 11 weasels -- and they know who they are -- don't use this situation as an additional advantageous opportunity to push through whatever they want.

I find it so interesting that after my first post on this subject, both the August 11 and 18 podcasts were taken down...and the August 18 Saturday and Sunday rebroadcasts were the apparent victims of total technical difficulty...odd...must be something discomfitting there.  Of course, I sensed this early on, hence my dogged determination in posting them for you all, despite my clunker computer and scarcity of time.  I'll go through the August 11 meeting and post the video that corresponds to my Board Meeting Cliff's Notes as time permits.

Video that would already be up in its unedited form, with the generous help of someone willing to sponsor Spydra's increased bandwidth.  Just a thought.

Talk about Trailblazer having a sixth-grade community. Well, imagine that --sixth grade in elementary school...just like in the good old days. That's a question that came to my mind upteen gazillion times: Exactly why were the elementary schools suffering from lower enrollment? BECAUSE THEY TOOK SIXTH GRADE OUT AND PUT IT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL, DUH.

And that was a decision that again affected our family personally; our 14 yr. old girl entered middle school and high school a year earlier than her father and I did. Good thing she's a good girl...but let's face it -- go to high school a year earlier, grow up a year earlier. I have never appreciated that forced and accelerated one-year growth spurt on my daughter, courtesy of District 11.  In the same vein, I feel half-day kindergarten is another thing that's sorely missing.

Then comes the Big One, the Challenging One, Glenn sighs with difficulty, the high school boundaries.  Nobody wants to see their high school suffer in any way, and Glenn would know best; the school least at risk of suffering from drastic change is Doherty -- Glenn's alma mater.

Glenn goes on to talk about how Doherty is absolutely full...but how can it be? According to the numbers that were read to me, there's still plenty of room at Doherty; if not, what was the purpose of the 5 million dollar addition there?  I haven't checked the numbers myself -- and let's face it, I've already proven many times over my numerical ineptitude...but check the numbers for yourselves; is there room for more at Doherty?

I feel like they just want to make sure none of the kids at Doherty ever feel crowded.  Ya know, maybe it's just some inherently German thing; Lebensraum is what they're always hankering for...and in case you don't know what that means, it's "Room to Live" or "elbow room." Hitler was real big on it.

Ugh. I wish Jan would already give me the 10 percent cut she owes me from her 2008-2009 pizza earnings from the District...I KNOW I wouldn't dislike her so intensely...well, there's that and the THREE MOORS' HEADS ON THE JORGENSEN AND TANNER FAMILY CRESTS.

Call me Kizzy, and hire up one of'em Full Time Eee Bonics translators in case you cain't unnerstand me here, but I'se sho nuffs thinks Missy Jan's a hypocrite and a skin flint, and every word come spit-flying out of her mouth at top speed is bona fide HOGWARSH and HORSE PUCKEY.  I'm able to perceive Jan the Actress in her every nuance, always overacting, even when she's trying to play it cool. Jan is the very embodiment of the word "disengenuous"...caring nothing about our city and our kids, and even less about our state in which she hopes to represent for us. Jan is better left as some other state's small potato -- remember this, friends: A VOTE FOR JAN IS A VOTE FOR OBAMA SOCIALISM.

Glenn discusses having a spare tire in the trunk, but as he knows: sometimes, there's just too much junk in the trunk to fit a spare tire; and in those cases, the only choice is to carry it somewhere higher.

Look at Charlie laugh, and volunteer to be the "Questioner." He raises the issue of disparity in committee membership.   Gotta love the way Glenn makes it sound easy breezy for the capacity committee to also serve as the boundaries committe -- rotsa ruck, r'all. 

Charlie discusses the enrollment numbers and boundaries at Mitchell and Wasson, and how it seems as though the District, in tweaking these boundaries almost seems to be actively ghetto-izing Mitchell and Wasson in particular; he asks if perhaps the District isn't acting prematurely by about a year.

LuAnn, nauseting as usual with her know-it-all-ness. Jan, speaking like an auctioneer. Gledich, talking about October 15. Charlie...brave as always...asking, "What are we trying to accomplish?" Every one of his concerns is ignored and dismissed, almost as though no one heard him speaking, period. Referenced are all of the Board absentees, and how they'll be apprised of the determinations that were made during the meeting. Notice Bob's quip at the end of the clip, about how decisions might be made in a person's absence.

Here come the "Community Engagement" discussions, which I found to be especially painful. Charlie talks about how he sees these meetings, and how so many of the community expressed their dismay that their questions were not answered during the 2008-2009 utilization meetings. Jan expresses her confidence that the meetings will be "civil", doubting the need for any type of moderator or "proctor."

LuAnn reliably pooh-poohs Charlie, and concurs with Director Tanner. Don't you hate LuAnn's stupid vest, which appears to have been attacked by a Bead-azzler?

The food discussion; hopefully, the "nibbles" won't be the pizza-flavored Scooby snacks that have LuAnn so mesmerized and always looking so zaftig.

Charlie mentions the Board Director Open House Contest, which from the sound of things are not much more than glad-hand opportunities being dominated by Jan and Bob.

Bob delivers a Ha-Ha Stab in the Back and Al seconds it.

The meeting ends with Charlie as the party of one...when it's actually all of us for whom he gives voice. It hurts me so badly inside when he begins to stammer, and I can only imagine how hard it is to formulate a polite response to all of the crap issuing forth from all of these people's mouths. Jan better not think for a moment she's in any way superior to Charlie; check out how many times that mile-a-minute-mouth uses the word "UM."

Notice the last scene, where Charlie leaves in disgust, and they all watch him go.



At first, after watching this Board meeting from beginning to end in one sitting, I blamed my angst on Post-Traumatic Numeric Violence; Glenn has previously and mercilessly perpetrated such upon me...binding me, blinding me, silencing me...beating me, and at times, rendering me comatose. 

But after having watched the entire thing 5,000 times, I realize now that Glenn actually mentioned very few numbers; no, my severe math inferiority complex wasn't to blame for my acute sense of anxiety.

No, it was something else entirely. 

It was the tether-ball to the head on the playground and the closed ranks of the long lunchroom table...it was the passed note and the inside joke and the peals of a sly, secret laughter...it was the lowered eyes' sadistic gleam and the hurt of being picked last for the team, and the sad cloudy sky of a fair-weather friendship; IT WAS the 32nd reunion of the sixth-grade Mean Girls and asshole Eddie Haskells of Audubon Elementary School circa 1978, a group so vicious and an era so painful...

I absolutely resent the resemblance to D11's administration and Board.

I'm tacking this onto the end, but it was really right at the beginning of the meeting when the discussion of the Compass Learning K-8 curriculum was discussed. Had it not been for the delay caused by Gledich's "Welcome Back to School" comments, the Board would have voted for the curriculum lock stock and barrel prior to Charlie's arrival...all, based only upon Mike Poore's gabby presentation a week earlier.

I'm not a big fan of online learning whatsoever; I also can't seem to figure out why the District decided to make such big changes to its online learning program, which was pretty popular and successful where it was in the Citadel Mall -- the Board is always ready to explain why what isn't broken needs fixing. 

Lastly, there's something oily about the two presenters...I dunno, but the principal, whatever his name is, doesn't seem very scholarly to me...and that Junk man...well, I went to Mann Middle School with one of his kin -- his sister or cousin or some such other relative, judging from their remarkably strong facial resemblance.   A.J. was a mean and flippantly cruel popular jock back then...I can't believe she changed much since, and the very memory of her, I guess, just doesn't reflect well on this man Junk for me personally.

Apples never fall far from their tree.

So...sorry to ramble, but thanks for reading this far.

Cheezy is as Cheezy does

Well, it's been a minute since I had an opportunity to opine on my girlfriend Jan Tanner, Vice President of the Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Educators.

Those who have followed my blog for a while already know that I tend to be less than complimentary whenever the topic is Mrs. Tanner...and the video below is simply yet another piece of damning evidence as to why.

Wow, Jan...the $16,000 you owe me is loooong past due -- said amount a mere 10% pittance of the $160,000 you earned off of Colorado Springs taxpayers during the 2008-2009 school year alone, thanks to the lucrative no-bid deal that you failed to disclose and have had in place since 1999 to provide lunchroom pizza for School District 11.

Wassa matter Jan....did you already blaze through that cool $MILLION$?  Have hard times hit the Tanner Clan?

It figures -- school's out for the summer...and since you voted to eliminate summer school, there's no pupil penny pocket lining going on; I can only imagine that it is your terrible *want* during the hot, dry summer months that's led you to shake down a regular peon for his pennies.

Um, Jan...haven't you ever heard of CheckRite?  They're really adept at bounced-check collections...or is it just that you're a lawyer-happy, sue-happy shrew?

Not nearly as good looking as the Blackzilla villainess Naomi Campbell, but just as bitchy, and thrice as cheesy:  Ol' UnderHand Jan hasn't changed an iota...still Inflating Dough the old fashioned way:  USURY.

I understand, Jan:

1) with SDS comin' down the pike whether we like it or not, you're doomed with the rest of us to see our electricity bills sharply increase;

2) that ugly-ass Prius in which you gad about town whilst wearing your ugly pizza-stained frocks probably ain't as easy or cheap to charge as the more commonplace Barbie Jeep owned by the common man; and

3) you probably need to come up with some quick, easy, cold, hard cash to finance the gold-lame clown costume you'll be sporting during this year's Pride Parade -- that's what you get for banking on "Poor Richard" Skorman to give you the Leftist's Discount; business is business, after all, and those used duds cost good money.

Cheezy is as Cheezy Does.

Add a Mand

The following two items are reprinted from the Gazette in their entirety, and with links to the original stories. I'll save my commentary for the following post.

------------------

Coronado grad chases that pie in the sky
BILL RADFORD
2009-08-25 21:31:13

Two years ago, Tony Mand was struggling to keep what he had as rising cheese prices and a falling economy threatened to wipe out his Mand Made Pizza Inc., which operates four Domino’s stores in Colorado Springs.

Now, as he prepares to celebrate 30 years as a Domino’s franchise owner, he’s dreaming big again.

Mand began in the business as a delivery boy. In 1979, at age 21, he opened his first Domino’s on Peterson Road in Colorado Springs. The Coronado graduate doesn’t have a college degree but relies, he says, on “common sense and business intuitiveness.”

In spring 2007, he seemed on solid footing. He had just opened a Domino’s in Breckenridge and planned on expanding to all the ski towns. Then, cheese prices started to soar, nearly doubling from their low point in 2007 to their peak in 2008 — a difference of $20,000 a month, Mand said.

Other commodity prices, including the price of flour, also rose. Then the economy began to sour and sales sagged, Mand said.

The tough times forced him to close the Breckenridge store, and he had to get a loan to keep the other stores in operation, he said.
Several factors put his business on the road to recovery.

“Domino’s started giving us new products — the sandwiches, gourmet pizzas and the pastas,” Mand said. “They all had a punch.”

Then the price of ingredients fell to what Mand calls reasonable levels, allowing him to offer a $3.99 carryout medium pizza this summer.

“I’m going to the moon now.” Mand said. “I have stores up 100 percent over this time last year.”

“Now I can see the 100 happening again,” he said.

ANNIVERSARY PARTY_Tony Mand, in celebration of his 30 years as a Domino’s Pizza franchisee, is having a prize drawing, 4 p.m. Saturday,, at his store at 6870 Galley Road, Galley and Peterson roads. $15,000 in prizes; top prize includes $2,000 in cash, a Kymco scooter from Fremont Motorsports, season passes to Monarch ski resort and other items. Contributions of food to Care & Share are suggested.

-------------------------------------------------

April 22, 2007 2:19 AM
By BILL RADFORD THE GAZETTE
Tony Mand wants to be the king of pizza.

His goal is to own 100 Domino’s franchises within seven years. He currently owns 12 Domino’s stores — five in Colorado Springs, four in Pueblo, one each in Cañon City and Florence and one that just opened in Breckenridge.

“I plan on trying to expand to all the ski towns,” he said. He also owns 49 percent interest in nine Domino’s stores in Oklahoma.

Mand, a graduate of Coronado High School, was 21 when he opened his first Domino’s on Peterson Road. Now 49, he has seen plenty of peaks and valleys in his career. In an ambitious expansion effort in the mid-1980s, he opened 11 Domino’s stores in one year in the Chicago area. Nine lost money and he sold them in 1990.

“Now I want to expand again,” he said, “but I’m going to pick the cities and the situations and the people and the potential partners so much better.”

QUESTION: How did you get into the pizza business?
ANSWER: I started delivering pizzas. I didn’t really even know what the word “franchise” meant. They explained it to me at age 19 and told me I could have my own someday. I just put my nose to the grindstone, and by age 20 I was already building the store.

Q: How did you make that leap that quickly? It had to take more than just hard work.
A: It really doesn’t, not if you put your nose to the grindstone well enough. You have to be very driven, very tenacious. I don’t know how smart I am, but I’m very tenacious.

Q: If you reach that magic number of 100, will that make you the top Domino’s franchisee, or are there others with that many stores?
A: There might be people that are going to have more stores than that. But I plan on maybe making more money than the people with more stores. I want to get my volume to a mark that is very high. I want to take most of the records from Domino’s. I know that sounds like a lot of talk, but I think I’m actually going to back it up.

Q: What’s the key to expanding and keeping tabs on all those stores? Good managers?
A: The biggest thing is going to be people. It’s not going to be anything but that. We now have lots of ways that we’re going to be training people, making people better and picking better people.

Q: People looking to start their own business often consider a franchise. What advice do you have?
A: It’s kind of tough. There are probably some franchises you can get involved in and it’s the best thing in the world, based on timing. What does timing mean? When they’re hot, when they’re new.

Q: What’s your greatest strength as a businessman?
A: That tenacity. And risktaking, which is also the reason I’ve almost gone bankrupt three times. My greatest strength is my greatest weakness. And now that I understand that better, I hope to limit my weakness and increase my strength based on some experience at what the risk-taking should be, where I should stretch out, the buffers that I should have.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0272 or bill.radford@gazette.com. Answers are edited for space and clarity. Send suggestions for a Q&A subject to joanna.bean@gazette.com.