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My Italian traveling partner and friend, Scott-- called me tonight to tell me Philadelphia is currently under a Tornado watch. Reminds me of a story I heard last month: A California Closets warehouse was nearly destroyed when it was struck by a tornado July 12. The twister, reportedly a first for Westchester County, tore down the company's windows, walls and an entire floor. Tara Kelly was on the second floor of the building interviewing for a new job when the tornado came charging through.
"The sky just got very dark and then all of a sudden we just heard this really loud bang and everybody just screamed and panicked and the whole staircase collapsed and the lights went out,” Kelly said.
No one was seriously injured according to WCBS-TV in New York.
Source: Closets Magazine
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 has severe implications for anyone taking charitable donations, both for cash, and in-kind. If you donate anything to your local thrift store, church or even the Salvation Army bell-ringers at Christmas, these changes affect you. Uncle Sam doesn't trust us anymore, the government was concerned that Americans were padding their returns:
"...where the government once was willing to trust you weren't padding the deducted value of small gifts, now you're going to need proof that you gave something-- and something of real value-- if you want to deduct it."
Check out LA Times Staff Writer Kathy M. Kristof's Charitable Donations Get Stricter Tax Rules.
We guess there are a lot of people who lie about their deductions, but how are you going to get a receipt when the collection plate is passed around? I suspect it may hurt smaller charities who can't keep up with paperwork. Any thoughts? Please share.
Do people hold objects in a higher state than, say, their children?
This evening's Primetime Emmy Awards will celebrate television's best achievements. But what do the victors do with their statues? Do the statuesque statues end up as clutter, sitting in dark butler pantries, wispy wine cellars and carriage-less carriage houses? Do winners value them more than their own flesh-and-blood?
"When I'm watching TV I can look up at them-- they're always in my sight. When my son was little he used to bounce the ball around and I'd say, "Stop that, you'll break my Emmys," and he'd say "You like them more than you like me," and I'd tell him, "You were easier to get them than they were."
--- Wendy Holz, two daytime Emmys outstanding achievement in makeup for a drama series "General Hospital."
Read more and view past victor's statues in today's LA Times West Magazine, including actor Tony Shalhoub's Monk award. Picture above courtesy of Defamer.
We guess it's not so easy anymore to turn in your toner cartridges at Staples Office Superstore.
Not a surprise, the Framingham, MA-based company announced this month they are redefining their, um, commitment to the environment. As we saw in the Wilshire Boulevard location in Santa Monica, the new $3 recycling offer now applies to Lexmark, Hewlett Packard HP and Dell-produced cartridges only.
We tried to turn-in a cartridge earlier this week to the Burbank location (near the Disney Lot) and they ran out of coupons. I guess a commitment to the environment has to be fiscally agreeable. As a professional organizer, we encourage recycling, and this isn't going to make our life any easier. Some clients, not all, want to recycle, and Staples has been a good source for them to help the environment and feel better about their unused clutter going to a good cause.
Read a discussion thread on Fat Wallet.
OrganizingLA Blog readers, where will you now bring your Canon, Epson and Brother cartridges?
We haven't had much luck with wireless keyboards and mice in our office, but it looks like technology does keep getting more reliable. Perhaps it's time for an upgrade and a try-again? Especially if it clears all those ugly wires and creates a clear, streamlined look:
Los Angeles-based Belkin, announced a device recently that will untether anything connecting to a computer through a USB port. USB, or Universal Serial Bus:
"The company's CableFree USB Hub, which will cost $130 and will be available in September, lets users put up to four USB devices anywhere in a room without running cables to a PC.
So, for example, a home-office worker could have a computer set up on one side of the room and the CableFree hub -- linked to a printer, scanner, external hard drive and digital music player -- on the other side.
Read more about this in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
-Cristina Tudino, Self Magazine
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