Attention Kmart Shoppers
The last full-size Kmart store in the continental U.S. is about to vanish (there’s still a small store in Miami).
The Bridgehampton, New York store is closing this Sunday.
And yes, I’m going to be one of those people who mourns the loss of an old department store chain. Sears, Bradlees, Ames, Zayre, Woolworth. I miss them all. Yes, you can buy things online very quickly – it’s very convenient! – but it’s not the same. Remember the “blue light specials?”
I got separated from my mother in a Kmart once. I cried and cried and went to the office and they announced on the intercom that I was okay and my mother came to get me. I think we went to McDonald’s after that.
Is It Okay to Use AI to Do Your Homework?
A student in the Massachusetts town of Hudson is in trouble for using artificial intelligence to help him with research while writing a history paper. And now the school is being sued by the parents (of course). Ars Technica has more on the story.
I take a hard line when it comes to using AI to help with writing. Sure, in this case you can say it was just “research,” but that’s a slippery slope. Writing and research and notes can all mingle together while crafting an essay (and how does suing a school over a grade that a student got work, exactly?). How do you explain that to younger people who have never known a world where they didn’t have all of the information that ever existed accessible in seconds on a computer they carry around in their pocket?
By the way, a little trivia about the reporter in the video at that first link, Shaun Chaiyabhat. He was the kid who falls out of the tree and is caught by Bill Murray in Groundhog Day! (Here’s behind the scenes footage.)
Do You Like Email?
Ann Patchett doesn’t! Well, she has a love/hate relationship with it like many people do, but she’s not sure she did the right thing by opening an email account way back in 1995.
A lot about technology and the internet bothers the heck out of me, but email isn’t one of them. I like being in touch with people so quickly, and unlike texting or social media at least you can write something longform. Also, I’d have to snail mail these columns to my editor. Do you know what links look like on a printed page?
Technical Difficulties
Fun post at The Retroist that looks at the “technical difficulties” screens that used to appear on our TVs when a station had a problem.
Headline of the Week
“Mud, Beer, and Cash: Annual Wife-Carrying Championship Attracts Competitive Couples to Maine”
RIP Liam Payne, Mitzi Gaynor, John Lasell, Warren Wilson, Mark Edward, and Toni Vaz
Liam Payne was a former singer for the popular boy band One Direction, known for such songs as “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Kiss You,” and “Story of My Life.” He died Wednesday at the age of 31.
Mitzi Gaynor was a singer, dancer, and actress who appeared in the film version of South Pacific as well as There’s No Business Like Show Business, My Blue Heaven, Les Girls, and Anything Goes. She also had her own Las Vegas show and several popular TV specials. She died yesterday at the age of 93.
John Lasell played Dr. Peter Guthrie on Dark Shadows. He also appeared on such shows as Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, Lassie, and The F.B.I. He died earlier this month at the age of 95.
Warren Wilson was a veteran reporter in Los Angeles who covered many major stories over his 40-year career. He died last week at the age of 90.
Mark Edward had a rather interesting life as a magician (he had to change his real last name of Wilson because there was already a magician with that name), a psychic, a skeptic, and even a punk rocker. He died in August at the age of 73.
Toni Vaz was a stunt woman who worked on such films as The Towering Inferno, The Singing Nun, and Tarzan, The Ape Man, and on TV shows like Mission: Impossible. She also created the NAACP Image Awards. She died earlier this month at the age of 101.
This Week in History
Cornerstone of The White House Laid (October 13, 1792)
Jackie Mason Causes Controversy on The Ed Sullivan Show (October 18, 1964)
In 1968 the Post tried to find out what made Sullivan tick. But we know what made him ticked off: Jackie Mason supposedly giving him the finger on his show (he was welcomed back a few years later).
This Week in Saturday Evening Post History: Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Spaghetti Dinner (October 15, 1955)
I’ve never poured the sauce into a big bowl of spaghetti that everyone is going to eat. What if someone doesn’t want sauce or doesn’t want a lot? I’ve always put my spaghetti on my plate and then put the sauce (and cheese) on top.
October Is National Pasta Month
I’ve also never called spaghetti “pasta.” We never used that word in my family. We always used the specific name of the type of pasta we were cooking – macaroni, ziti, rigatoni, etc.
Here are six recipes that use all of those shapes.
Creamy Baked Mac and Cheese from The Chunky Chef
Spaghetti and Meatballs from Once Upon a Chef
Baked Ziti from The Pioneer Woman
Spicy Chicken Rigatoni from The Practical Kitchen
Valerie Bertinelli’s Mom’s Lasagna from the mom of Valerie Bertinelli
Creamy Italian Rotini from The Salty Marshmallow
Don’t worry, there aren’t any marshmallows in that last one.
Next Week’s Holidays and Events
International Chefs Day (October 20)
You can celebrate by cooking something from the Post’s chef, Curtis Stone.
National Mole Day (October 23)
Nope, it’s not that, and it’s not that either. And it’s certainly not this. It’s actually this!
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Comments
Honestly, I thought every last Kmart had been gone for several years. I’m glad one survived for almost half of this decade. I’m intrigued by some of the Chattanooga stores in Midnight_Rider’s comments, and the wonderful, different features each store there possessed. Most were not in my state, but Woolworth’s was. Somehow the one in TN sounds better than the one’s we had in L.A.
Still and all, I do miss our late, great department stores like The Broadway, Robinson’s, Bullock’s, I. Magnin and the less high-end May Company, Sears and Montgomery Ward. I worked in the accounts receivable (collections) dept. at the original Robinson’s at 7th & Grand in the 1980’s and ’90s.
It got bought out by Macy’s in the mid-2000’s. Not to be snobbish, but it’s not the same. While working there, it was wonderful getting a 25% discount on everything, on TOP of items already marked down by whatever percent off. My favorite colognes like Joop, Cool Water, and most of all, Eternity, of course! I loved the little glass vial samples. Now you don’t even get a quick spritz on a card.
I read the story about using AI to do homework. I agree with you Bob, and so do the majority of people commenting on the feature. I guess more AI is going to have to be deployed to bust AI cheaters? Do I like email? Yes and no. With phone communication deteriorating, it’s a helpful tool along with texting. For example, I have two wonderful tech people that can fix things for me when a mistake is made, easily and quickly.
I was saddened to learn Mitzi Gaynor passed away. A very multi-talented entertainer from that magical era of actresses born during the Depression. I loved everything about her, and got that appreciation initially from my parents. The older I get, the more I appreciate those stars, and hold today’s pretty much in contempt to be polite.
Thanks for including the 2018 1968 Post link on ‘What Makes Ed Sullivan Tick?’ Enjoyable to re-read now. 2018 seems much longer ago than it actually is with most everything so drastically different. Yes, in our home spaghetti was never called ‘pasta’ either. It was a delicious dinner with the meatballs and the tomato sauce on top.
It was easy for Mom to make too, yet was a ‘big deal’ dinner we had quite often. Also fish sticks on Friday nights with ketchup. It made the Catholic rule of no meat on that day a real pleasure. On the spaghetti nowadays, it’s really good too with just some healthy olive oil and garlic and herb seasoning.
In the early 1060s, the father of an inacquaintance of mine in Flint, MI drove C.S. Mott, president of General Motors and S.S. Kresge founder of Kresge’s 5 & 10 Cent stores and KMart to a GM board meeting in Detroit. Two of the wealthiest men in the country directed him to stopped at a McDonalds Drive-in for their lunch.
Bob, I still miss Sears & Roebuck, Gibson’s, Montgomery Ward and K-Mart. Growing up in the sixties we would ride the bus from where we lived near Love Field to downtown Dallas to shop for most everything from shoes, to clothes to sporting goods. My father would always head out on Christmas Eve to do most of the last minute shopping for gifts that had not been delivered to the house by then. Things like bicycles were all stealthily hidden away till Christmas Day. I don’t see how my parents did all they did in the small house that I grew up in. In our home too pasta was called spaghetti. We put the pasta on the plate first, then added a meatball or two followed by the sauce and finally adding the parmesan cheese. Other times we substituted elbow macaroni for spaghetti and repeated the same process. Mac and Cheese was a treat reserved for special occasions in our home. Lots of good memories from days gone by. So thankful for this colum in the Post. It’s the first one I go to every Saturday upon viewing in my E-mail.
Correction: That high school in the AI story is actually Hingham High. Not sure why I put Hudson!
Kmart was originally called Kresges’ and it was a dime store. My sister and I shopped there in the early 1960s’. I have a light up Santa that still has the Kresges’ sticker on the bottom. I also miss the smaller grocery stores.
The world was much more colorful back then!
I could not function without a desktop PC, printer, email, and voice mail on my landline phone. (I’m not big on cell phones.) Of course, in a rural area like where I live I do depend on my fibre/broadband connection reliability provided by my telecommunications cooperative. It is a critical part to our area. Cell service here is quite limited or non-existent.
I, too miss Woolworth’s, Zayre’s, Sears & Roebuck, G.C. Murphy’s, Miller’s, Loveman’s and K-Mart too. When my Mother would take me into Chattanooga back in the late 1960s/early 1970s for shoes, clothes, or braces you could bet we would visit at least three of these stores for various items. Woolworth’s had an awesome soda fountain and it’s wooden floors were so nostalgic. Miller’s had a cafeteria where we could eat some of the best food around all at reasonable prices. Miller’s, Loveman’s, and Sears was where the majority of my school clothes and shoes came from. Anything outdoor-related came from Zayre’s and G.C. Murphy’s. I remember receiving Burt Ward’s autograph as “Robin” all decked out in his costume at the grand opening of Gibson’s in the early 1970s. Yes, sadly those days are gone and today’s young people have no idea of what we were experienced back in our day and what they have missed out on.