Is your Radio Shack like this?

Article: 7928 of alt.hackers
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
From: loki@world.std.com (Loki)
Subject: Is your Radio Shack like this?
Message-ID: D9H9ur.n4L@world.std.com
Sender: loki@world.std.com (Loki)
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 04:58:15 GMT
Approved: Surely!
Lines: 68
Status: RO

Greetings - I wasn't sure in which newsgroup to post this to, but
I figured that alt.hackers is one of the more outspoken Usenet
"think-tanks", so that's where it ended up.  8-)

Yesterday, I was visiting my local Radio Shack to pick up
some batteries.  They keep them in a bin, right by the register,
which set me up for the rest of my story...

At the first register was the manager of the store in a heated
argument with a customer.  If I have nothing better to do, I'll
usually jump into the fray, but I just wanted to get the hell out
of there and be done with it - No arguing for me today.

Unfortunately, the second register wasn't manned, so I was forced
to wait in line and listen to this Radio Shack employee "verbally
assault" this guy left and right.  To make a long story short,
this guy had some 12-volt DC device that he wanted to power off
of 120-volt AC.  (Big deal, you're probably thinking - All he
needed was a transformer.  That's the same thing I thought.)

I have no idea where the manager was coming from.  She started
screaming at the guy, saying "Sir, do you know what your house
voltage is?!  What is it?!  It's 120, and you want to run something
that uses 12 volts!  You can't do that!"

The guy tried to (again) explain what he needed.  No good - same
response from the manager.  At that time, the second register
opened up, and I went to pay for my batteries.  As I was getting
my change back, the guy stormed off (most likely never to return).
The manager came up to the second register, starts laughing, and
asked her fellow employee, "Can you believe that in this day
and age that guy didn't know what his house voltage is?"

I couldn't take it anymore.  This woman was definitely a bitch.
"Of course," I responded, "it's a 220-volt main, split into two
circuits."  The employee at the second register smiled and
nodded to me in the affirmative.  The manager shut up, and that
was the end of the conversation.

My question is this:  Am I the only person blessed with a Radio
Shack that has a complete moron for a manager?  (Not only a moron,
but a bossy, argumentive one at that!)  I don't see how Tandy
makes any money if that's the case.  (As an aside, this is the
third manager at this particular store.  I'm sure she's not the
last, either.)

ObPyschologicalHack: Going back to the same Radio Shack and asking
the manager if she has a power-adapter to plug a 220-volt AC line
into a telephone wall jack.  >8-)

ObBrewskiHack:  When brewing my last batch of American beer,
I ran out of rice syrup (which I use to lighten the body, without
sacrificing the flavor).  I didn't want to use sugar, because it
would have produced a "cidery" aftertaste in the quantity that
I required.

What to do?  Remembering that the Vikings used to ferment honey
(to make mead), I gave it a shot.  I substituted honey, pound for
pound, with the rice syrup.  How does it taste?  Great!  (As
an added benefit, honey is very-fermentable and produces a
large amount of alcohol - 7% by volume!  Not bad for "light"
beer.)

--
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