Is It Best to Live with Roommates? Essay

Is it best to live with roommates? Or is it best to live alone? There’s no right or wrong answer to this question — and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s a personal decision that all apartment dwellers are entitled to make, and your answer should depend on what you want at the time you’re looking to rent. If you need help deciding whether to live with a roommate, consider the common reasons why people choose one route over the other. Reasons to Have a Roommate There are many good reasons to have a roommate. See if any of these reasons appeal to you: * You won’t be lonely. Even if you’re not close with your roommate, having a roommate means having someone else around, so you won’t have to feel lonely. * You’ll gain convenience. Having a roommate adds convenience. For instance, if you have different schedules, a roommate can feed your pet or water the plants when you’re not at home to do it. If you go out of town, your roommate can tell you about any important mail you receive. * You’ll save money. When you have a roommate, you’ll save money in several ways. First, you can rent a larger apartment that would give you both more room and more value. You’ll also split utility bills and the cost of groceries, among other apartment expenses. Plus, if you or your roommate cook (even if you just do the basics), cooking for two (or three or more) normally saves money over cooking for just one. * You’ll have help. With a roommate, you can split the chores needed to keep your apartment in shape. So, you won’t have to be the one to do grocery shopping all the time. Or, if you become the designated grocery shopper, your roommate can take on other errands that you would normally have to do. Sharing errands helps lighten the load for both of you. Reasons Not to Have a Roommate Many people appreciate the reasons in favor of having a roommate but feel that the reasons for living alone present a much stronger case. You shouldn’t live with a roommate if: * You want more privacy. If you live alone, you’ll almost certainly have more privacy than if you live with others. Simply stated, not having roommates means you can do what you want, when you want it. For instance, you can have guests over as you please or get home late and leave early without having to worry about disturbing a roommate. * You don’t want to risk problems. Although having a roommate can be a rewarding experience, there are many types of problems that may arise in a roommate relationship. These range from lifestyle conflicts (think of a roommate who likes to play guitar while you need peace and quiet to study or do work) to financial issues (think of a roommate who has trouble paying his share of the rent and expenses). Living alone is the only way to guarantee that none of these problems ever arises.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

After that I was mostly in the zone. I came out a few times when that scratched-out scrap of genealogy fell from inside one of my old steno books, for instance but those interludes were brief. In a way it was like my dream of Mattie, Jo, and Sara; in a way it was like the terrible fever I'd had as a child, when I'd almost died of the measles; mostly it was like nothing but itself. It was just the zone. I was feeling it. I wish to God I hadn't been. George came over, herding the man in the blue mask ahead of him. George was limping now, and badly. I could smell hot oil and gasoline and burning tires. ‘Is she dead?' George asked. ‘Mattie?' ‘Yes.' ‘John?' ‘Don't know,' I said, and then John twitched and groaned. He was alive, but there was a lot of blood. ‘Mike, listen,' George began, but before he could say more, a terrible liquid screaming began from the burning car in the ditch. It was the driver. He was cooking in there. The shooter started to turn that way, and George raised his gun. ‘Move and I'll kill you.' ‘You can't let him die like that,' the shooter said from behind his mask. ‘You couldn't let a dog die like that.' ‘He's dead already,' George said. ‘You couldn't get within ten feet of that car unless you were in an asbestos suit.' He reeled on his feet. His face was as white as the spot of whipped cream I'd wiped off the end of Ki's nose. The shooter made as if to go for him and George brought the gun up higher. ‘The next time you move, don't stop,' George said, ‘because I won't. Guaranteed. Now take that mask off.' ‘No.' ‘I'm done fucking with you, Jesse. Say hello to God.' George pulled back the hammer of his revolver. The shooter said, ‘Jesus Christ,' and yanked off his mask. It was George Footman. Not much surprise there. From behind him, the driver gave one more shriek from within the Ford fireball and then was silent. Smoke rose in black billows. More thunder roared. ‘Mike, go inside and find something to tie him with,' George Kennedy said. ‘I can hold him another minute two, if I have to but I'm bleeding like a stuck pig. Look for strapping tape. That shit would hold Houdini.' Footman stood where he was, looking from Kennedy to me and back to Kennedy again. Then he peered down at Highway 68, which was eerily deserted. Or perhaps it wasn't so eerie, at that the coming storms had been well forecast. The tourists and summer folk would be under cover. As for the locals . . . The locals were . . . sort of listening. That was at least close. The minister was speaking about Royce Merrill, a life which had been long and fruitful, a man who had served his country in peace and in war, but the old-timers weren't listening to him. They were listening to us, the way they had once gathered around the pickle barrel at the Lakeview General and listened to prizefights on the radio. Bill Dean was holding Yvette's wrist so tightly his fingernails were white. He was hurting her . . . but she wasn't complaining. She wanted him to hold onto her. Why? ‘Mike!' George's voice was perceptibly weaker. ‘Please, man, help me. This guy is dangerous.' ‘Let me go,' Footman said. ‘You'd better, don't you think?' ‘In your wettest dreams, motherfuck,' George said. I got up, went past the pot with the key underneath, went up the cement-block steps. Lightning exploded across the sky, followed by a bellow of thunder. Inside, Rommie was sitting in a chair at the kitchen table. His face was even whiter than George's. ‘Kid's okay,' he said, forcing the words. ‘But she looks like waking up . . . I can't walk anymore. My ankle's totally fucked.' I moved for the telephone. ‘Don't bother,' Rommie said. His voice was harsh and trembling. ‘Tried it. Dead. Storm must already have hit some of the other towns. Killed some of the equipment. Christ, I never had anything hurt like this in my life.' I went to the drawers in the kitchen and began yanking them open one by one, looking for strapping tape, looking for clothesline, looking for any damned thing. If Kennedy passed out from blood-loss while I was in here, the other George would take his gun, kill him, and then kill John as he lay unconscious on the smoldering grass. With them taken care of, he'd come in here and shoot Rommie and me. He'd finish with Kyra. ‘No he won't,' I said. ‘He'll leave her alive.' And that might be even worse. Silverware in the first drawer. Sandwich bags, garbage bags, and neatly banded stacks of grocery-store coupons in the second. Oven mitts and potholders in the third ‘Mike, where's my Mattie?' I turned, as guilty as a man who has been caught mixing illegal drugs. Kyra stood at the living-room end of the hall with her hair falling around her sleep-flushed cheeks and her scrunchy hung over one wrist like a bracelet. Her eyes were wide and panicky. It wasn't the shots that had awakened her, probably not even her mother's scream. I had wakened her. My thoughts had wakened her. In the instant I realized it I tried to shield them somehow, but I was too late. She had read me about Devore well enough to tell me not to think about sad stuff, and now she read what had happened to her mother before I could keep her out of my mind. Her mouth dropped open. Her eyes widened. She shrieked as if her hand had been caught in a vise and ran for the door. ‘No, Kyra, no!' I sprinted across the kitchen, almost tripping over Rommie (he looked at me with the dim incomprehension of someone who is no longer completely conscious), and grabbed her just in time. As I did, I saw Buddy Jellison leaving Grace Baptist by a side door. Two of the men he had been smoking with went with him. Now I understood why Bill was holding so tightly to Yvette, and loved him for it loved both of them. Something wanted him to go with Buddy and the others . . . but Bill wasn't going. Kyra struggled in my arms, making big convulsive thrusts at the door, gasping in breath and then screaming it out again. ‘Let me go, want to see Mommy, let me go, want to see Mommy, let me go ‘ I called her name with the only voice I knew she would really hear, the one I could use only with her. She relaxed in my arms little by little, and turned to me. Her eyes were huge and confused and shining with tears. She looked at me a moment longer and then seemed to understand that she mustn't go out. I put her down. She just stood there a moment, then backed up until her bottom was against the dishwasher. She slid down its smooth white front to the floor. Then she began to wail the most awful sounds of grief I have ever heard. She understood completely, you see. I had to show her enough to keep her inside, I had to . . . and because we were in the zone together, I could. Buddy and his friends were in a pickup truck headed this way. BAMM CONSTRUCTION, it said on the side. ‘Mike!' George cried. He sounded panicky. ‘You got to hurry!' ‘Hold on!' I called back. ‘Hold on, George!' Mattie and the others had started stacking picnic things beside the sink, but I'm almost positive that the stretch of Formica counter above the drawers had been clean and bare when I hurried after Kyra. Not now. The yellow sugar cannister had been overturned. Written in the spilled sugar was this: ‘No shit,' I muttered, and checked the remaining drawers. No tape, no rope. Not even a lousy set of handcuffs, and in most well-equipped kitchens you can count on finding three or four. Then I had an idea and looked in the cabinet under the sink. When I went back out, our George was swaying on his feet and Footman was looking at him with a kind of predatory concentration. ‘Did you get some tape?' George Kennedy asked. ‘No, something better,' I said. ‘Tell me, Footman, who actually paid you? Devore or Whitmore? Or don't you know?' ‘Fuck you,' he said. I had my right hand behind my back. Now I pointed down the hill with my left one and endeavored to look surprised. ‘What the hell's Osgood doing? Tell him to go away!' Footman looked in that direction it was instinctive and I hit him in the back of the head with the Craftsman hammer I'd found in the toolbox under Mattie's sink. The sound was horrible, the spray of blood erupting from the flying hair was horrible, but worst of all was the feeling of the skull giving way a spongy collapse that came right up the handle and into my fingers. He went down like a sandbag, and I dropped the hammer, gagging. ‘Okay,' George said. ‘A little ugly, but probably the best thing you could have done under . . . under the . . . ‘ He didn't go down like Footman it was slower and more controlled, almost graceful but he was just as out. I picked up the revolver, looked at it, then threw it into the woods across the road. A gun was nothing for me to have right now; it could only get me into more trouble. A couple of other men had also left the church; a carful of ladies in black dresses and veils, as well. I had to hurry on even faster. I unbuckled George's pants and pulled them down. The bullet which had taken him in the leg had torn into his thigh, but the wound looked as if it was clotting. John's upper arm was a different story it was still pumping out blood in frightening quantities. I yanked his belt free and cinched it around his arm as tightly as I could. Then I slapped him across the face. His eyes opened and stared at me with a bleary lack of recognition. ‘Open your mouth, John!' He only stared at me. I leaned down until our noses were almost touching and screamed, ‘OPEN YOUR MOUTH! DO IT NOW!' He opened it like a kid when the nurse tells him just say aahh. I stuck the end of the belt between his teeth. ‘Close!' He closed. ‘Now hold it,' I said. ‘Even if you pass out, hold it.' I didn't have time to see if he was paying attention. I got to my feet and looked up as the whole world went glare-blue. For a second it was like being inside a neon sign. There was a black suspended river up there, roiling and coiling like a basket of snakes. I had never seen such a baleful sky. I dashed up the cement-block steps and into the trailer again. Rom-mie had slumped forward onto the table with his face in his folded arms. He would have looked like a kindergartner taking a timeout if not for the broken salad bowl and the bits of lettuce in his hair. Kyra still sat with her back to the dishwasher, weeping hysterically. I picked her up and realized that she had wet herself. ‘We have to go now, Ki.' ‘I want Mattie! I want Mommy! I want my Mattie, make her stop being hurt! Make her stop being dead!' I hurried across the trailer. On the way to the door I passed the end-table with the Mary Higgins Clark novel on it. I noticed the tangle of hair ribbons again ribbons perhaps tried on before the party and then discarded in favor of the scrunchy. They were white with bright red edges. Pretty. I picked them up without stopping, stuffed them into a pants pocket, then switched Ki to my other arm. ‘I want Mattie! I want Mommy! Make her come back!' She swatted at me, trying to make me stop, then began to buck and kick in my arms again. She drummed her fists on the side of my head. ‘Put me down! Land me! Land me!' ‘No, Kyra.' ‘Put me down! Land me! Land me! PUT ME DOWN!' I was losing her. Then, as we came out onto the top step, she abruptly stopped struggling. ‘Give me Stricken! I want Stricken!' At first I had no idea what she was talking about, but when I looked where she was pointing I understood. Lying on the walk not far from the pot with the key underneath it was the stuffed toy from Ki's Happy Meal. Strickland had put in a fair amount of outside playtime from the look of him the light-gray fur was now dark-gray with dust but if the toy would calm her, I wanted her to have it. This was no time to worry about dirt and germs. ‘I'll give you Strickland if you promise to close your eyes and not open them until I tell you. Will you promise?' ‘I promise,' she said. She was trembling in my arms, and great globular tears the kind you expect to see in fairy-tale books, never in real life rose in her eyes and went spilling down her cheeks. I could smell burning grass and charred beefsteak. For one terrible moment I thought I was going to vomit, and then I got it under control. Ki closed her eyes. Two more tears fell from them and onto my arm. They were hot. She held out one hand, groping. I went down the steps, got the dog, then hesitated. First the ribbons, now the dog. The ribbons were probably okay, but it seemed wrong to give her the dog and let her bring it along. It seemed wrong but . . . It's gray, Irish, the UFO voice whispered. You don't need to worry about it because it's gray. The stuffed toy in your dream was black. I didn't know exactly what the voice was talking about and had no time to care. I put the stuffed dog in Kyra's open hand. She held it up to her face and kissed the dusty fur, her eyes still closed. ‘Maybe Stricken can make Mommy better, Mike. Stricken a magic dog.' ‘Just keep your eyes closed. Don't open them until I say.' She put her face against my neck. I carried her across the yard and to my car that way. I put her on the passenger side of the front seat. She lay down with her arms over her head and the dirty stuffed dog clutched in one pudgy hand. I told her to stay just like that, lying down on the seat. She made no outward sign that she heard me, but I knew that she did. We had to hurry because the old-timers were coming. The old-timers wanted this business over, wanted this river to run into the sea. And there was only one place we could go, only one place where we might be safe, and that was Sara Laughs. But there was something I had to do first. I kept a blanket in the trunk, old but clean. I took it out, walked across the yard, and shook it down over Mattie Devore. The hump it made as it settled around her was pitifully slight. I looked around and saw John staring at me. His eyes were glassy with shock, but I thought maybe he was coming back. The belt was still clamped in his teeth; he looked like a junkie preparing to shoot up. ‘Iss ant eee,' he said This can't be. I knew exactly how he felt. ‘There'll be help here in just a few minutes. Hang in there. I have to go.' ‘Go air?' I didn't answer. There wasn't time. I stopped and took George Kennedy's pulse. Slow but strong. Beside him, Footman was deep in unconsciousness, but muttering thickly. Nowhere near dead. It takes a lot to kill a daddy. The jerky wind blew the smoke from the overturned car in my direction, and now I could smell cooking flesh as well as barbecued steak. My stomach clenched again. I ran to the Chevy, dropped behind the wheel, and backed out of the driveway. I took one more look at the blanket-covered body, at the three knocked-over men, at the trailer with the line of black bulletholes wavering down its side and its door standing open. John was up on his good elbow, the end of the belt still clamped in his teeth, looking at me with uncomprehending eyes. Lightning flashed so brilliantly I tried to shield my eyes from it, although by the time my hand was up, the flash had gone and the day was as dark as late dusk. ‘Stay down, Ki,' I said. ‘Just like you are.' ‘I can't hear you,' she said in a voice so hoarse and choked with tears that I could barely make out the words. ‘Ki's takin a nap wif Stricken.' ‘Okay,' I said. ‘Good.' I drove past the burning Ford and down to the foot of the hill, where I stopped at the rusty bullet-pocked stop-sign. I looked right and saw the pickup truck parked on the shoulder. BAMM CONSTRUCTION on the side. Three men crowded together in the cab, watching me. The one by the passenger window was Buddy Jellison; I could tell him by his hat. Very slowly and deliberately, I raised my right hand and gave them the finger. None of them responded and their stony faces didn't change, but the pickup began to roll slowly toward me. I turned lift onto 68, heading for Sara Laughs under a black sky. Two miles from where Lane Forty-two branches off the highway and winds west to the lake, there stood an old abandoned barn upon which one could still make out faded letters reading DONCASTER DAIRY. As we approached it, the whole eastern side of the sky lit up in a purple-white blister. I cried out, and the Chevy's horn honked by itself, I'm almost positive. A thorn of lightning grew from the bottom of that light-blister and struck the barn. For a moment it was still completely there, glowing like something radioactive, and then it spewed itself in all directions. I have never seen anything even remotely like it outside of a movie theater. The thunderclap which followed was like a bombshell. Kyra screamed and slid onto the floor on the passenger side of the car with her hands clapped to her ears. She still clutched the little stuffed dog in one of them. A minute later I topped Sugar Ridge. Lane Forty-two splits left from the highway at the bottom of the ridge's north slope. From the top I could see a wide swath of TR-90 woods and fields and barns and farms, even a darkling gleam from the lake. The sky was as black as coal dust, flashing almost constantly with internal lightnings. The air had a clear ochre glow. Every breath I took tasted like the shavings in a tinderbox. The topography beyond the ridge stood out with a surreal clarity I cannot forget. That sense of mystery swarmed my heart and mind, that sense of the world as thin skin over unknowable bones and gulfs. I glanced into the rearview mirror and saw that the pickup truck had been joined by two other cars, one with a V-plate that means the vehicle is registered to a combat veteran of the armed services. When I slowed down, they slowed down. When I sped up, they sped up. I doubted they would follow us any farther once I turned onto Lane Forty-two, however. ‘Ki? Are you okay?' ‘Sleepun,' she said from the footwell. ‘Okay,' I said, and started down the hill. I could just see the red bicycle reflectors marking my turn onto Forty-two when it began to hail great big chunks of white ice that fell out of the sky, drummed on the roof like heavy fingers, and bounced off the hood. They began to heap in the gutter where my windshield wipers hid. ‘What's happening?' Kyra cried. ‘It's just hail,' I said. ‘It can't hurt us.' This was barely out of my mouth when a hailstone the size of a small lemon struck my side of the windshield and then bounced high into the air again, leaving a white II mark from which a number of short cracks radiated. Were John and George Kennedy lying helpless out in this? I turned my mind in that direction, but could sense nothing. When I made the left onto Lane Forty-two, it was hailing almost too hard to see. The wheelruts were heaped with ice. The white faded out under the trees, though. I headed for that cover, flipping on my headlights as I went. They cut bright cones through the pelting hail. As we went into the trees, that purple-white blister glowed again, and my rearview mirror went too bright to look at. There was a rending, crackling crash. Kyra screamed again. I looked around and saw a huge old spruce toppling slowly across the lane, its ragged stump on fire. It carried the electrical lines with it. Blocked in, I thought. This end, probably the other end, too. We're here. For better or for worse, we're here. The trees grew over Lane Forty-two in a canopy except for where the road passed beside Tidwell's Meadow. The sound of the hail in the woods was an immense splintery rattle. Trees were splintering, of course; it was the most damaging hail ever to fall in that part of the world, and although it spent itself in fifteen minutes, that was long enough to ruin a season's worth of crops. Lightning flashed above us. I looked up and saw a large orange fireball being chased by a smaller one. They ran through the trees to our left, setting fire to some of the high branches. We came briefly into the clear at Tidwell's Meadow, and as we did the hail changed to torrential rain. I could not have continued driving if we hadn't run back into the woods almost immediately, and as it was the canopy provided just enough cover so I could creep along, hunched over the wheel and peering into the silver curtain falling through the fan of my headlights. Thunder boomed constantly, and now the wind began to rise, rushing through the trees like a contentious voice. Ahead of me, a leaf-heavy branch dropped into the road. I ran over it and listened to it thunk and scrape and roll against the Chevy's undercarriage. Please, nothing bigger, I thought . . . or maybe I was praying. Please let me get to the house. Please let us get to the house. By the time I reached the driveway the wind was howling a hurricane. The writhing trees and pelting rain made the entire world seem on the verge of wavering into insubstantial gruel. The driveway's slope had turned into a river, but I nosed the Chevy down it with no hesitation we couldn't stay out here; if a big tree fell on the car, we'd be crushed like bugs in a Dixie cup. I knew better than to use the brakes the car would have heeled sideways and perhaps have been swept right down the slope toward the lake, rolling over and over as it went. Instead I dropped the transmission into low range, toed two notches into the emergency brake, and let the engine pull us down with the rain sheeting against the windshield and turning the log bulk of the house into a phantom. Incredibly, some of the lights were still on, shining like bathysphere portholes in nine feet of water. The generator was working, then . . . at least for the time being. Lightning threw a lance across the lake, green-blue fire illuminating a black well of water with its surface lashed into surging whitecaps. One of the hundred-year-old pines which had stood to the left of the railroad-tie steps now lay with half its length in the water. Somewhere behind us another tree went over with a vast crash. Kyra covered her ears. ‘It's all right, honey,' I said. ‘We're here, we made it.' I turned off the engine and killed the lights. Without them I could see little; almost all the day had gone out of the day. I tried to open my door and at first couldn't. I pushed harder and it not only opened, it was ripped right out of my hand. I got out and in a brilliant stroke of lightning saw Kyra crawling across the seat toward me, her face white with panic, her eyes huge and brimming with terror. My door swung back and hit me in the ass hard enough to hurt. I ignored it, gathered Ki into my arms, and turned with her. Cold rain drenched us both in an instant. Except it really wasn't like rain at all; it was like stepping under a waterfall. ‘My doggy!' Ki shrieked. Shriek or not, I could hardly hear her. I could see her face, though, and her empty hands. ‘Stricken! I drop Stricken!' I looked around and yes, there he was, floating down the macadam of the driveway and past the stoop. A little farther on, the rushing water spilled off the paving and down the slope; if Strickland went with the flow, he'd probably end up in the woods somewhere. Or all the way down to the lake. ‘Stricken!' Ki sobbed. ‘My DOGGY!' Suddenly nothing mattered to either of us but that stupid stuffed toy. I chased down the driveway after it with Ki in my arms, oblivious of the rain and wind and brilliant flashes of lightning. And yet it was going to beat me to the slope the water in which it was caught was running too fast for me to catch up. What snagged it at the edge of the paving was a trio of sunflowers waving wildly in the wind. They looked like God-transported worshippers at a revival meeting: Yes, Jeesus! Thankya Lawd! They also looked familiar. It was of course impossible that they should be the same three sunflowers which had been growing up through the boards of the stoop in my dream (and in the photograph Bill Dean had taken before I came back), and yet it was them; beyond doubt it was them. Three sunflowers like the three weird sisters in Macbeth, three sunflowers with faces like searchlights. I had come back to Sara Laughs; I was in the zone; I had returned to my dream and this time it had possessed me. ‘Stricken!' Ki bending and thrashing in my arms, both of us too slippery for safety. ‘Please, Mike, please!' Thunder exploded overhead like a basket of nitro. We both screamed. I dropped to one knee and snatched up the little stuffed dog. Kyra clutched it, covered it with frantic kisses. I lurched to my feet as another thunderclap sounded, this one seeming to run through the air like some crazy liquid bullwhip. I looked at the sunflowers, and they seemed to look back at me Hello, Irish, it's been a long time, what do you say? Then, resettling Ki in my arms as well as I could, I turned and slogged for the house. It wasn't easy; the water in the driveway was now ankle-deep and full of melting hailstones. A branch flew past us and landed pretty much where I'd knelt to pick up Strickland. There was a crash and a series of thuds as a bigger branch struck the roof and went rolling down it. I ran onto the back stoop, half-expecting the Shape to come rushing out to greet us, raising its baggy not-arms in gruesome good fellowship, but there was no Shape. There was only the storm, and that was enough. Ki was clutching the dog tightly, and I saw with no surprise at all that its wetting, combined with the dirt from all those hours of outside play, had turned Strickland black. It was what I had seen in my dream after all. Too late now. There was nowhere else to go, no other shelter from the storm. I opened the door and brought Kyra Devore inside Sara Laughs. The central portion of Sara the heart of the house had stood for almost a hundred years and had seen its share of storms. The one that fell on the lakes region that July afternoon might have been the worst of them, but I knew as soon as we were inside, both of us gasping like people who have narrowly escaped drowning, that it would almost certainly withstand this one as well. The log walls were so thick it was almost like stepping into some sort of vault. The storm's crash and bash became a noisy drone punctuated by thunderclaps and the occasional loud thud of a branch falling on the roof. Somewhere in the basement, I guess a door had come loose and was clapping back and forth. It sounded like a starter's pistol. The kitchen window had been broken by the topple of a small tree. Its needly tip poked in over the stove, making shadows on the counter and the stove-burners as it swayed. I thought of breaking it off and decided not to. At least it was plugging the hole. I carried Ki into the living room and we looked out at the lake, black water prinked up in surreal points under a black sky. Lightning flashed almost constantly, revealing a ring of woods that danced and swayed in a frenzy all around the lake. As solid as the house was, it was groaning deeply within itself as the wind pummelled it and tried to push it down the hill. There was a soft, steady chiming. Kyra lifted her head from my shoulder and looked around. ‘You have a moose,' she said. ‘Yes, that's Bunter.' ‘Does he bite?' ‘No, honey, he can't bite. He's like a . . . like a doll, I suppose.' ‘Why is his bell ringing?' ‘He's glad we're here. He's glad we made it.' I saw her want to be happy, and then I saw her realizing that Mattie wasn't here to be happy with. I saw the idea that Mattie would never be here to be happy with glimmer in her mind . . . and felt her push it away. Over our heads something huge crashed down on the roof, the lights flickered, and Ki began to weep again. ‘No, honey,' I said, and began to walk with her. ‘No, honey, no, Ki, don't. Don't, honey, don't.' ‘I want my mommy! I want my Mattie!' I walked her the way I think you're supposed to walk babies who have colic. She understood too much for a three-year-old, and her suffering was consequently more terrible than any three-year-old should have to bear. So I held her in my arms and walked her, her shorts damp with urine and rainwater under my hands, her arms fever-hot around my neck, her cheeks slathered with snot and tears, her hair a soaked clump from our brief dash through the downpour, her breath acetone, her toy a strangulated black clump that sent dirty water trickling over her knuckles. I walked her. Back and forth we went through Sara's living room, back and forth through dim light thrown by the overhead and one lamp. Generator light is never quite steady, never quite still it seems to breathe and sigh. Back and forth through the ceaseless low chiming of Bunter's bell, like music from that world we sometimes touch but never really see. Back and forth beneath the sound of the storm. I think I sang to her and I kn ow I touched her with my mind and we went deeper and deeper into that zone together. Above us the clouds ran and the rain pelted, dousing the fires the lightning had started in the woods. The house groaned and the air eddied with gusts coming in through the broken kitchen window, but through it all there was a feeling of rueful safety. A feeling of coming home. At last her tears began to taper off. She lay with her cheek and the weight of her heavy head on my shoulder, and when we passed the lakeside windows I could see her eyes looking out into the silver-dark storm, wide and unblinking. Carrying her was a tall man with thinning hair. I realized I could see the dining-room table right through us. Our reflections are ghosts already, I thought. ‘Ki? Can you eat something?' ‘Not hung'y.' ‘Can you drink a glass of milk?' ‘No, cocoa. I cold.' ‘Yes, of course you are. And I have cocoa.' I tried to put her down and she held on with panicky tightness, scrambling against me with her plump little thighs. I hoisted her back up again, this time settling her against my hip, and she subsided. ‘Who's here?' she asked. She had begun to shiver. ‘Who's here ‘sides us?' ‘I don't know.' ‘There's a boy,' she said. ‘I saw him there.' She pointed Strickland toward the sliding glass door which gave on the deck (all the chairs out there had been overturned and thrown into the corners; one of the set was missing, apparently blown right over the rail). ‘He was black like on that funny show me and Mattie watch. There are other black people, too. A lady in a big hat. A man in blue pants. The rest are hard to see. But they watch. They watch us. Don't you see them?' ‘They can't hurt us.' ‘Are you sure? Are you, are you?' I didn't answer. I found a box of Swiss Miss hiding behind the flour cannister, tore open one of the packets, and dumped it into a cup. Thunder exploded overhead. Ki jumped in my arms and let out a long, miserable wail. I hugged her, kissed her cheek. ‘Don't put me down, Mike, I scared.' ‘I won't put you down. You're my good girl.' ‘I scared of the boy and the blue-pants man and the lady. I think it's the lady who wore Mattie's dress. Are they ghosties?' ‘Yes.' ‘Are they bad, like the men who chased us at the fair? Are they?' ‘I don't really know, Ki, and that's the truth.' ‘But we'll find out.' ‘Huh?' ‘That's what you thought. â€Å"But we'll find out. â€Å"‘ ‘Yes,' I said. ‘I guess that's what I was thinking. Something like that.' I took her down to the master bedroom while the water heated in the kettle, thinking there had to be something left of Jo's I could pop her into, but all of the drawers in Jo's bureau were empty. So was her side of the closet. I stood Ki on the big double bed where I had not so much as taken a nap since coming back, took off her clothes, carried her into the bathroom, and wrapped her in a bathtowel. She hugged it around herself, shaking and blue-lipped. I used another one to dry her hair as best I could. During all of this, she never let go of the stuffed dog, which was now beginning to bleed stuffing from its seams. I opened the medicine cabinet, pawed through it, and found what I was looking for on the top shelf: the Benadryl Jo had kept around for her ragweed allergy. I thought of checking the expiration date on the bottom of the box, then almost laughed out loud. What difference did that make? I stood Ki on the closed toilet seat and let her hold on around my neck while I stripped the childproof backing from four of the little pink-and-white caplets. Then I rinsed out the tooth-glass and filled it with cold water. While I was doing this I saw movement in the bathroom mirror, which reflected the doorway and the master bedroom beyond. I told myself that I was only seeing the shadows of windblown trees. I offered the caplets to Ki. She reached for them, then hesitated. ‘Go on,' I said. ‘It's medicine.' ‘What kind?' she asked. Her small hand was still poised over the little cluster of caplets. ‘Sadness medicine,' I said. ‘Can you swallow pills, Ki?' ‘Sure. I taught myself when I was two.' She hesitated a moment longer looking at me and looking into me, I think, ascertaining that I was telling her something I really believed. What she saw or felt must have satisfied her, because she took the caplets and put them in her mouth, one after another. She swallowed them with little birdie-sips from the glass, then said: ‘I still feel sad, Mike.' ‘It takes awhile for them to work.' I rummaged in my shirt drawer and found an old Harley-Davidson tee that had shrunk. It was still miles too big for her, but when I tied a knot in one side it made a kind of sarong that kept slipping off one of her shoulders. It was almost cute. I carry a comb in my back pocket. I took it out and combed her hair back from her forehead and her temples. She was starting to look put together again, but there was still something missing. Something that was connected in my mind with Royce Merrill. That was crazy, though . . . wasn't it? ‘Mike? What cane? What cane are you thinking about it?' Then it came to me. ‘A candy cane,' I said. ‘The kind with stripes.' From my pocket I took the two white ribbons. Their red edges looked almost raw in the uncertain light. ‘Like these.' I tied her hair back in two little ponytails. Now she had her ribbons; she had her black dog; the sunflowers had relocated a few feet north, but they were there. Everything was more or less the way it was supposed to be. Thunder blasted, somewhere close a tree fell, and the lights went out. After five seconds of dark-gray shadows, they came on again. I carried Ki back to the kitchen, and when we passed the cellar door, something laughed behind it. I heard it; Ki did, too. I could see it in her eyes. ‘Take care of me,' she said. ‘Take care of me cause I'm just a little guy. You promised.' ‘I will.' ‘I love you, Mike.' ‘I love you, too, Ki.' The kettle was huffing. I filled the cup to the halfway mark with hot water, then topped it up with milk, cooling it off and making it richer. I took Kyra over to the couch. As we passed the dining-room table I glanced at the IBM typewriter and at the manuscript with the cross-word-puzzle book lying on top of it. Those things looked vaguely foolish and somehow sad, like gadgets that never worked very well and now do not work at all. Lightning lit up the entire sky, scouring the room with purple light. In that glare the laboring trees looked like screaming fingers, and as the light raced across the sliding glass door to the deck I saw a woman standing behind us, by the woodstove. She was indeed wearing a straw hat, with a brim the size of a cartwheel. ‘What do you mean, the river is almost in the sea?' Ki asked. I sat down and handed her the cup. ‘Drink that up.' ‘Why did the men hurt my mommy? Didn't they want her to have a good time?' ‘I guess not,' I said. I began to cry. I held her on my lap, wiping away the tears with the backs of my hands. ‘You should have taken some sad-pills, too,' Ki said. She held out her cocoa. Her hair ribbons, which I had tied in big sloppy bows, bobbed. ‘Here. Drink some.' I drank some. From the north end of the house came another grinding, crackling crash. The low rumble of the generator stuttered and the house went gray again. Shadows raced across Ki's small face. ‘Hold on,' I told her. ‘Try not to be scared. Maybe the lights will come back.' A moment later they did, although now I could hear a hoarse, uneven note in the gennie's roar and the flicker of the lights was much more noticeable. ‘Tell me a story,' she said. ‘Tell me about Cinderbell.' ‘Cinderella.' ‘Yeah, her.' ‘All right, but storyguys get paid.' I pursed my lips and made sipping sounds. She held the cup out. The cocoa was sweet and good. The sensation of being watched was heavy and not sweet at all, but let them watch. Let them watch while they could. ‘There was this pretty girl named Cinderella ‘ ‘Once upon a time! That's how it starts! That's how they all start!' ‘That's right, I forgot. Once upon a time there was this pretty girl named Cinderella, who had two mean stepsisters. Their names were . . . do you remember?' ‘Tammy Faye and Vanna.' ‘Yeah, the Queens of Hairspray. And they made Cinderella do all the really unpleasant chores, like sweeping out the fireplace and cleaning up the dogpoop in the back yard. Now it just so happened that the noted rock band Oasis was going to play a gig at the palace, and although all the girls had been invited . . . ‘ I got as far as the part about the fairy godmother catching the mice and turning them into a Mercedes limousine before the Benadryl took effect. It really was a medicine for sadness; when I looked down, Ki was fast asleep in the crook of my arm with her cocoa cup listing radically to port. I plucked it from her fingers and put it on the coffee-table, then brushed her drying hair off her forehead. ‘Ki?' Nothing. She'd gone to the land of Noddy-Blinky. It probably helped that her afternoon nap had ended almost before it got started. I picked her up and carried her down to the north bedroom, her feet bouncing limply in the air and the hem of the Harley shirt flipping around her knees. I put her on the bed and pulled the duvet up to her chin. Thunder boomed like artillery fire, but she didn't even stir. Exhaustion, grief, Benadryl . . . they had taken her deep, taken her beyond ghosts and sorrow, and that was good. I bent over and kissed her cheek, which had finally begun to cool. ‘I'll take care of you,' I said. ‘I promised, and I will.' As if hearing me, Ki turned on her side, put the hand holding Strickland under her jaw, and made a soft sighing sound. Her lashes were dark soot against her cheeks, in startling contrast to her light hair. Looking at her I felt myself swept by love, shaken by it the way one is shaken by a sickness. Take care of me, I'm just a little guy. ‘I will, Ki-bird,' I said. I went into the bathroom and began filling the tub, as I had once filled it in my sleep. She would sleep through it all if I could get enough warm water before the generator quit entirely. I wished I had a bath-toy to give her in case she did wake up, something like Wilhelm the Spouting Whale, but she'd have her dog, and she probably wouldn't wake up, anyway. No freezing baptism under a handpump for Kyra. I was not cruel, and I was not crazy. I had only disposable razors in the medicine cabinet, no good for the other job ahead of me. Not efficient enough. But one of the kitchen steak knives would do. If I filled the washbasin with water that was really hot, I wouldn't even feel it. A letter T on each arm, the top bar drawn across the wrists For a moment I came out of the zone. A voice my own speaking as some combination of Jo and Mattie screamed: What are you thinking about? Oh Mike, what in God's name are you thinking about? Then the thunder boomed, the lights flickered, and the rain began to pour down again, driven by the wind. I went back into that place where everything was clear, my course indisputable. Let it all end the sorrow, the hurt, the fear. I didn't want to think anymore about how Mattie had danced with her toes on the Frisbee as if it were a spotlight. I didn't want to be there when Kyra woke up, didn't want to see the misery fill her eyes. I didn't want to get through the night ahead, the day that was coming beyond it, or the day that was coming after that. They were all cars on the same old mystery train. Life was a sickness. I was going to give her a nice warm bath and cure her of it. I raised my arms. In the medicine cabinet mirror a murky figure a Shape raised its own in a kind of jocular greeting. It was me. It had been me all along, and that was all right. That was just fine. I dropped to one knee and checked the water. It was coming in nice and warm. Good. Even if the generator quit now, it would be fine. The tub was an old one, a deep one. As I walked down to the kitchen to get the knife, I thought about climbing in with her after I had finished cutting my wrists in the hotter water of the basin. No, I decided. It might be misinterpreted by the people who would come here later on, people with nasty minds and nastier assumptions. The ones who'd come when the storm was over and the trees across the road cleared away. No, after her bath I would dry her and put her back in bed with Strickland in her hand. I'd sit across the room from her, in the rocking chair by the bedroom windows. I would spread some towels in my lap to keep as much of the blood off my pants as I could, and eventually I would go to sleep, too. Bunter's bell was still ringing. Much louder now. It was getting on my nerves, and if it kept on that way it might even wake the baby. I decided to pull it down and silence it for good. I crossed the room, and as I did a strong gust of air blew past me. It wasn't a draft from the broken kitchen window; this was that warm subway-air again. It blew the Tough Stuff crossword book onto the floor, but the paperweight on the manuscript kept the loose pages from following. As I looked in that direction, Bunter's bell fell silent. A voice sighed across the dim room. Words I couldn't make out. And what did they matter? What did one more manifestation one more blast of hot air from the Great Beyond matter? Thunder rolled and the sigh came again. This time, as the generator died and the lights went out, plunging the room into gray shadow, I got one word in the clear: Nineteen. I turned on my heels, making a nearly complete circle. I finished up looking across the shadowy room at the manuscript of My Childhood Friend. Suddenly the light broke. Understanding arrived. Not the crossword book. Not the phone book, either. My book. My manuscript. I crossed to it, vaguely aware that the water had stopped running into the tub in the north-wing bathroom. When the generator died, the pump had quit. That was all right, it would be plenty deep enough already. And warm. I would give Kyra her bath, but first there was something I had to do. I had to go down nineteen, and after that I just might have to go down ninety-two. And I could. I had completed just over a hundred and twenty pages of manuscript, so I could. I grabbed the battery-powered lantern from the top of the cabinet where I still kept several hundred actual vinyl records, clicked it on, and set it on the table. It cast a white circle of radiance on the manuscript in the gloom of that afternoon it was as bright as a spotlight. On page nineteen of My Childhood Friend, Tiffi Taylor the call-girl who had re-invented herself as Regina Whiting was sitting in her studio with Andy Drake, reliving the day that John Sanborn (the alias under which John Shackleford had been getting by) saved her three-year-old daughter, Karen. This is the passage I read as the thunder boomed and the rain slashed against the sliding door giving on the deck: FRIEND, by Noonan/Pg. 19 over that way, I was sure of it,' she said, ‘but when I couldn't see her anywhere, I went to look in the hot tub.' She lit a cigarette. ‘What I saw made me feel like screaming, Andy Karen was underwater. All that was out was her hand . . . the nails were turning purple. After that . . . I guess I dived in, but I don't remember; I was zoned out. Everything from then on is like a dream where stuff runs together in your mind. The yard-guy Sanborn shoved me aside and dived. His foot hit me in the throat and I couldn't swallow for a week. He yanked up on Karen's arm. I thought he'd pull it off her damn shoulder, but he got her. He got her.' In the gloom, Drake saw she was weeping. ‘God. Oh God, I thought she was dead. I was sure she was.' I knew at once, but laid my steno pad along the left margin of the manuscript so I could see it better. Reading down, as you'd read a vertical crossword-puzzle answer, the first letter of each line spelled the message which had been there almost since I began the book: owls undEr stud O Then, allowing for the indent next-to-last line from the bottom: owls undEr studIO Bill Dean, my caretaker, is sitting behind the wheel of his truck. He has accomplished his two purposes in coming here welcoming me back to the TR and warning me off Mattie Devore. Now he's ready to go. He smiles at me, displaying those big false teeth, those Roebuckers. ‘If you get a chance, you ought to look for the owls,' he tells me. I ask him what Jo would have wanted with a couple of plastic owls and he replies that they keep the crows from shitting up the woodwork. I accept that, I have other things to think about, but still . . . ‘It was like she'd come down to do that errand special,' he says. It never crosses my mind not then, at least that in Indian folklore, owls have another purpose: they are said to keep evil spirits away. If Jo knew that plastic owls would scare the crows off, she would have known that. It was just the sort of information she picked up and tucked away. My inquisitive wife. My brilliant scatterbrain. Thunder rolled. Lightning ate at the clouds like spills of bright acid. I stood by the dining-room table with the manuscript in my unsteady hands. ‘Christ, Jo,' I whispered. ‘What did you find out?' And why didn't you tell me? But I thought I knew the answer to that. She hadn't told me because I was somehow like Max Devore; his great-grandfather and my own had shit in the same pit. It didn't make any sense, but there it was. And she hadn't told her own brother, either. I took a weird kind of comfort from that. I began to leaf through the manuscript, my skin crawling. Andy Drake rarely frowned in Michael Noonan's My Childhood Friend. He scowled instead, because there's an owl in every scowl. Before coming to Florida, John Shackleford had been living in Studio City, California. Drake's first meeting with Regina Whiting occurred in her studio. Ray Garraty's last-known address was the Studio Apartments in Key Largo. Regina Whiting's best friend was Steffie Underwood. Steffi's husband was Towle Underwood there was a good one, two for the price of one. Owls under studio. It was everywhere, on every page, just like the K-names in the telephone book. A kind of monument, this one built I was sure of it not by Sara Tidwell but by Johanna Arlen Noonan. My wife passing messages behind the guard's back, praying with all her considerable heart that I would see and understand. On page ninety-two Shackleford was talking to Drake in the prison visitors' room sitting with his wrists between his knees, looking down at the chain running between his ankles, refusing to make eye-contact with Drake. FRIEND, by Noonan/Pg. 92 only thing I got to say. Anything else, fuck, what good would it do? Life's a game, and I lost. You want me to tell you that I yanked some little kid out of the water, pulled her up, got her motor going again? I did, but not because I'm a hero or a saint . . . ‘ There was more but no need to read it. The message, owls under studio, ran down the margin just as it had on page nineteen. As it probably did on any number of other pages as well. I remembered how deliriously happy I had been to discover that the block had been dissolved and I could write again. It had been dissolved all right, but not because I'd finally beaten it or found a way around it. Jo had dissolved it. Jo had beaten it, and my continued career as a writer of second-rate thrillers had been the least of her concerns when she did it. As I stood there in the flicker-flash of lightning, feeling my unseen guests swirl around me in the unsteady air, I remembered Mrs. Moran, my first-grade teacher. When your efforts to replicate the smooth curves of the Palmer Method alphabet on the blackboard began to flag and waver, she would put her large competent hand over yours and help you. So had Jo helped me. I riffled through the manuscript and saw the key words everywhere, sometimes placed so you could actually read them stacked on different lines, one above the other. How hard she had tried to tell me this . . . and I had no intention of doing anything else until I found out why. I dropped the manuscript back on the table, but before I could re-anchor it, a furious gust of freezing air blew past me, lifting the pages and scattering them everywhere in a cyclone. If that force could have ripped them to shreds, I'm sure that it would have. No! it cried as I grabbed the lantern's handle. No, finish the job! Wind blew around my face in chill gusts it was as if someone I couldn't quite see was standing right in front of me and breathing in my face, retreating as I moved forward, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf outside the houses of the three little pigs. I hung the lantern over my arm, held my hands out in front of me, and clapped them together sharply. The cold puffs in my face ceased. There was now only the random swirling air coming in through the partially plugged kitchen window. ‘She's sleeping,' I said to what I knew was still there, silently watching. ‘There's time.' I went out the back door and the wind took me at once, making me stagger sideways, almost knocking me over. And in the wavering trees I saw green faces, the faces of the dead. Devore's was there, and Royce's, and Son Tidwell's. Most of all I saw Sara's. Everywhere Sara. No! Go back! You don't need no truck with no owls, sugar! Go back! Finish the job! Do what you came for! ‘I don't know what I came for,' I said. ‘And until I find out, I'm not doing anything.' The wind screamed as if in offense, and a huge branch split off the pine standing to the right of the house. It fell on top of my Chevrolet in a spray of water, denting the roof before rolling off on my side. Clapping my hands out here would be every bit as useful as King Canute commanding the tide to turn. This was her world, not mine . . . and only the edge of it, at that. Every step closer to The Street and the lake would bring me closer to that world's heart, where time was thin and spirits ruled. Oh dear God, what had happened to cause this? The path to Jo's studio had turned into a creek. I got a dozen steps down it before a rock turned under my foot and I fell heavily on my side. Lightning zigged across the sky, there was the crack of another breaking branch, and then something was falling toward me. I put my hands up to shield my face and rolled to the right, off the path. The branch splashed to the ground just behind me, and I tumbled halfway down a slope that was slick with soaked needles. At last I was able to pull myself to my feet. The branch on the path was even bigger than the one which had landed on the roof of the car. If it had struck me, it likely would have bashed in my skull. Go back! A hissing, spiteful wind through the trees. Finish it! The slobbering, guttural voice of the lake slamming into the rocks and the bank below The Street. Mind your business! That was the very house itself, groaning on its foundations. Mind your business and let me mind mine! But Kyra was my business. Kyra was my daughter. I picked up the lantern. The housing was cracked but the bulb glowed bright and steady that was one for the home team. Bent over against the howling wind, hand raised to ward off more falling branches, I slipped and stumbled my way down the hill to my dead wife's studio.

Mrs. Meier

Citation: Zelma M. Mitchell v. Lovington Good Samaritan Center, 555 NM 2d, 696 (1976) Facts: Mrs. Mitchell was terminated from her position at Lovington good Samaritan Center because of an argument that broke out with the director of the center, Mr. Smith, and the Director of nursing, Mrs. Stroope. It is said by the company that Mrs. Mitchell was terminated for alleged misconduct. After the termination Mrs. Mitchell applied for unemployment compensation and was denied. She appealed the case and was then awarded the benefits. After being awarded the benefits the defendant in the case appealed the court’s decision to give Mrs. Mitchell the benefits and they reversed that decision and the benefits were taken from Mrs. Mitchell. She again appealed the decision of the courts. Ultimately with the definition of â€Å"misconduct† take Issues: The issue in the case is that there is a back and forth story in what misconduct is and what happen the day Mrs. Mitchell was terminated. The defendant’s case is a history of misconduct and the plaintiff is thinking only about the day she was terminated. Mr. Smith is saying that the incident where Mrs. Mitchell called himself and Mrs. Stroope â€Å"Birdbrains† was the last straw. Rule: In order to establish misconduct the defendant must prove the Mrs. Mitchell was â€Å"evincing such willful or complete disregard of the employer’s interests as is found in deliberate violations or disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or in carelessness or negligence of such degree or recurrence as to manifest equal culpability, wrongful intent or evil design or to show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interests or of the employee’s duties and obligations to his employer. Analysis: The courts found that with the definition of misconduct adopted into the system that Mrs. Mitchell’s acts were in fact constituted as misconduct. Starting with her insubordination, improper attire, name calling and other actions evinced blatant disregard to the way the center was ran and handled on a day to day basis. Conclusion: After the appeals of Mrs. Mitchell and Lovington Good Samari tan center, the decision of the commission to have Mrs. Mitchell’s benefits revoked was reinstated. Analogizing/Distinguishing- A similarity in the two cases is they are both applying for unemployment benefits and they were both fired for misconduct also they were both originally denied for benefits and they are both appealing the decision. The differences in the case are Mrs. Mitchell was terminated for not respecting the higher above and not doing her job when asked. Mrs. Attired was terminated for getting a visible tattoo when warned she should not do so. When asked to get the tattoo removed she chose not to and is now terminated from her position. Application to Client’s Facts- The facts in this case that could be applied to my case are that she did continuously pass the evaluations and was a good employee always had stuff to work on but never enough for the owner to terminate the client until â€Å"the last straw† which in this case is the tattoo and in my case was the disrespect in calling the operator a â€Å"bird brains†. Citation: Billie J. Rodman v. New Mexico Employment security department and Presbyterian Hospital, 764 NM 2d, 1316 (1988) Facts: The plaintiff Billie has been terminated from her job of 8 years for misconduct. She has been denied unemployment benefits because she was terminated for misconduct. She is appealing the decision from the district court to revoke benefits. It is said that over the years of her working at the Presbyterian Hospital she had received 3 corrective action notices. Prior to the termination, restrictions had been placed on Rodman’s conduct due to personal problems impacting her and the people she worked with. Rodman was reprimanded in June of 1986 for receiving to many personal telephone calls and personal visitors at her work station. They were disruptive to her work and the work of her co-workers. The formal reprimand informed Rodman that she was to no longer receive personal telephone calls and/or visitors during work hours. Unless it was at a designated break or dinner time, if she were to have visitors at break or dinner time they could not be visible to patients, co-workers, or the doctors in the hospital. After the reprimand extremely disruptive telephone calls and visits continued. Leading up to the day Rodman was terminated. Rodman was to make every effort to resolve the personal issues in her life so they would not affect her at work. Issues: At issue is whether the misconduct Mrs. Rodman is accused of warranted termination from employment at the hospital rose to the level of misconduct which would warrant denial of unemployment compensation under NMSA 1978, Section 51–1–7 of the Unemployment Compensation Law. Rule: In order to establish misconduct the defendant must prove that Billie Rodman was â€Å"evincing such willful or complete disregard of the employer’s interests as is found in deliberate violations or disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or in carelessness or negligence of such degree or recurrence as to manifest equal culpability, wrongful intent or evil design or to show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interests or of the employee’s duties and obligations to her employer. After being reprimanded 3 times and the behavior continuing, the hospital had proof that the actions were documented and the plaintiff was warned they had no choice but to terminate said employee. Analysis: The court found with the evidence provided from the hospital that Mrs. Rodman was reprimanded and warned as the policy states. The hospital put up with the actions of Mrs. Rodman long enough, they had no choice but to terminate Mrs. Rodman After the disregard of the policy. The plaintiff continued with the behavior she was reprimanded for. Conclusion: Although the evidence in the case is amendable to more than one conclusion it is concluded that there was a substantial basis for the District Court to decide that the Plaintiff is not to receive unemployment benefits. Analogizing/Distinguishing- Citation: Its Burger Time Inc. v. New Mexico Department of Labor Employment security department board of review & Lucy Apodaca, 769 NM, 2d, 88 (1989) Facts: Lucy was terminated from her position at Its Burger time Inc. because of misconduct. Lucy came into work one day with purple tinted hair. She had previously asked her store manager John Pena how Mr. McGrath the owner of the cooperation would feel about it. Mr. Pena said he would ask he never asked and Lucy decided to dye her hair. Mr. McGrath sees the purple hair on Lucy and asked Mr. Pena to relay a message to her that she had a week to decide if she wanted her purple hair or her job. Lucy decided not to change her hair color and in doing so she was fired for misconduct. Mr. McGrath stated that it would affect the prosperity of his business. Lucy had no history of issues in the past year she had worked there and in the few days she was there with her purple hair there were no complaints from customers. A few times Lucy even received compliments on her hair color. Issues: The issue in this case is that the company terminated Lucy because of misconduct. According to the definition of misconduct Lucy choosing to keep her hair purple was not misconduct. The company gave Lucy an ultimatum and she chose to keep her hair purple. Rule: In order to establish misconduct the Plaintiff in this case must prove that Lucy was â€Å"evincing such willful or complete disregard of the employer’s interests as is found in deliberate violations or disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or in carelessness or negligence of such degree or recurrence as to manifest equal culpability, wrongful intent or evil design or to show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interests or of the employee’s duties and obligations to her employer. On the other hand mere inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, failure in good performance as the result of inability or incapacity, inadvertencies or ordinary negligence in isolated instances, or good faith errors in judgment or discretion are not to be deemed ‘misconduct’ within the meaning of the statute. † In this case Lucy did not commit misconduct in any way she made a choice to color her hair and the company could not prove with documentation of policies or past problems that Lucy was a burden to the company. Analysis: The courts found that Lucy was terminated from the company for misconduct, but the company could not prove that she had committed misconduct. She had never had any problems in the past, she asked permission, and decided that she would dye her hair when given the ultimatum she choose to keep her hair purple. That is not what misconduct when given the definition. Conclusion: The district court is reversed and the decision of the Commission is reinstated. Lucy is now able to receive her unemployment benefits.

Narrative paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Narrative paper - Essay Example He taught me that life is not easy and one has to discover how to dance in the rain and not just wait for it to pass. I believe that what this means is that one ought not to wait for his difficulties to pass, but instead should know how to handle them. It also means that if one chooses to spend life sitting on the side and wait as life goes by, then he is going to miss on a lot of opportunities. I watched my brother go through a lot of difficulties when he finished his schooling and was looking for employment. He could apply for jobs and not get any feedback. Sometimes he received interview invitations and attended interviews, but the companies never responded. Nevertheless, this did not stop him from trying more chances in the same and even different firms. My brother could rise up in the morning like everybody else who was going to work and leave the house. Sometimes I asked him why he had to wake up that early without any good seeming to come out of it. To me, there was no difference if he left the house at 5:00 am in the morning and if he stayed a little longer to leave at 10.00 am. After all, he was not employed in those companies that he was going to apply for employment. Logically, he would have chosen to stay home and wait for that time that he would be sure that he has an interview to leave the house early. One day he came home excited and narrated to the family how he had obtained himself a job. Everybody was eagerly waiting to hear the kind of job he got. We were overjoyed and happy that finally, his efforts had been rewarded only for him to say that it was an internship that was just offering him transport to the work place. My parents however encouraged him and promised to support him in whichever manner. Following several months of his internship, he was taken in by that company for permanent employment. The company saw his commitment, hard work and perseverance. From my brother’s

Write about creating success in college as well as successful Essay

Write about creating success in college as well as successful strategies that can help you create an extraordinary life. Include personal experiences or examples - Essay Example For others, what happens outside the classroom is what counts. The ideal situation is to strike a balance between the two. The first step towards achieving this is to â€Å"allow one’s self the full environment on college† (Bader 196). This entails being open to learning what is taught inside and outside the classroom. One can take a subject that is not his major just to widen the scope of his knowledge. Distractions can be evident as one tries to get used to college life. One should make sure they set aside times to study and complete projects Another step towards a successful college life is making the right decisions and choices. They have to be informed and truthful. Most decisions in college are guided by money and peer expectations. Knowing how to weigh on the decisions to make will help one outside college where there are even more complex choices to choose from. This follows the famous Chinese proverb that says, â€Å"A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.† The results of right decisions and choices are acceptance of personal responsibility and increased self-motivation. Networking is another aspect of a successful life in and out of college. Getting to know the professors and fellow classmates will go a long way in determining one’s job prospects and cultivating a rich life with friends. Meeting someone, befriending them and then switching contact information are some of the initial steps. Then cultivate a good friendship. Mary O’Brian is an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Back as a freshman at the University of Iowa, she met and befriended Joey Martin, a business administration classmate. Through Joey, Mary was able to meet Joey’s dad, a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley. Thanks to his recommendation, Mary was able to land a good job at the same firm. This is an example of

13sp2 Rebuttal Argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

13sp2 Rebuttal Argument - Essay Example I firmly believe that the U.S. government, on issues that involve the safety, welfare, and national security of its citizens, is entitled to impose the most effective means of waging war on terror especially that from the very beginning, the state enemy has clearly not followed any fair rules of engagement. NY Times editor/s agreed to a statement released by the American Civil Liberties arguing that every American citizen has their â€Å"constitutional rights† that the judiciary â€Å"must respect† (â€Å"To Kill† par. 6). That stance must be agreeable to any American citizen who commits a crime. However, history has taught us that even President Lincoln needed not issue an executive order announcing he allowed thousands of Confederates to be killed simply because there were sufficient evidence to support that they were threats to the growth and progress of the New World. There are a lot of differences between an American transgressor who commits a crime of theft and robbery compared to any Al Qaeda member who brutally killed thousands of people all over the world, or helped suicide bombing and hijacking to be possible. If there are sufficient evidence pointing out that that person is an authentic Al Qaeda operative, it gives the federal authority the discretion to exert whatever means it sees fit for the situation. Furthermore, the Constitution entitles the authority to declare war or allowed an act of violence against a defined enemy, and for no other reasons, the CIA and other related agencies know exactly who the enemies are. However, that principle alone does not also entitled the executive or the authority to make fast decisions in killing an alleged terrorist member or ally. There must also be consensus and coordination between the executive and the legislative branch, the latter being responsible for the Constitution. Lastly, fair rules of engagement in waging war against

Standards Save Public Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Standards Save Public Education - Essay Example Standards are then made available and accessible to the public and the stakeholders in the education system eg teachers, parents and the textbook writers and publishers. Standards are inspired by the need to have a literate and economically competitive human resource in the country and therefore outline the important things that the students should know and understand and be able to execute perfectly. They are formulated in a way that they are appropriate in growth and development as well as relevant to future education and employment needs (McInerney, Etten, & Dowson, 2007). Standards are set in a manner that all students are able to attain them with ease and the excellent students exceed them ensuring that no student is left behind. Though students, both fast and slow learners can learn new things in their own ways the instructions that help an individual student attain the set standards is emphasized. Standardisation ensures that both excellence and equity are upheld where systemi c bias, discrimination and tyranny of low expectation are greatly reduced. Standardization also empowers the teachers to make decisions that ensure effective learning while highly discouraging social promotion of students as opposed to promotion based on their academic achievement. Reasons for standards in education Education standards ensure that teachers and schools are held accountable of teaching students what they should know in school. Teachers and the school therefore have a social responsibility to ensure that all students gain what they are supposed to gain in school and pass the standardised examination. Poor performance leads to disciplinary actions against the teachers and schools which may involve salary deductions or loss of job. If a school repeatedly exhibits poor results, it is taken over by the government or it can even be closed down. This ensures that no student is left behind or drops out of school due to low motivation or absolute loss of hope in education. Edu cation standards in the united state provide an avenue where students from different schools, districts or even states are compared which would otherwise be impossible without standardisation. Students from the same state e.g. California are expected to do the same standardised exam which allow comparison of students’ performance. Education standards are very important because people do move around nowadays and without standard education curriculum, it would be very challenging for students moving from one school to another. Many students would probably end up dropping out of school due to discontinuation or interruptions after transfers from one school to another. Education standards provide teachers with a standard framework of instructions which guide them on what and when to teach thus creating some uniformity and organisation in schools (National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment et al, 1995). Without the standard instruction framework for schools, maybe a teacher in fourth grade and a teacher in fifth grade would be teaching the same thing which would create confusion in the education sector. This also ensures that students who change school from other districts don’t have difficulties adapting to teaching in their new schools. Standardized tests are usually objective in nature in that the scores are awarded by computers or by individuals.

Marketing Management College Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing Management College - Assignment Example It has recently co-sponsored "The Kustom Jetty Surf Pro Junior" with prize moneyof $30,000AUD at Torquay, Fairhaven VIC from 8 January 2007to 14 January 2007. Clothing is one of basic human need and whole population is potential market for a clothing company. Though the company in question i.e. Jettysurf, presently doesn't have the capability in terms of presences as well as range of cloths, fulfilling the exact demand of all variety of customers, at every place. So it has to take up a portion of the total market for which it can provide its offerings with its current resources. Jettysurf is having around 20 stores which are mainly located in Southern and western part of Australia, and it has one website which is providing only information about Jettysurf, without any online ordering facility. Even if the website had an online order facility, customer would not have liked to order online, as for making a buying decision for cloths, customer normally likes to have a feel of cloth and fitting. This limits the total available market to population near the stores. Purchase of cloths can mainly be driven by various needs like replacement for torn or faded cloths, new cloths for some important occasion, change in anatomy like growing children or persons attending gym for slimming down and lastly just to be in latest fashion and to have some change. First reason can be more dominant for older people who would not like to change a cloth until it has been used fully. These are the people who have seen tough time in there life and are best described by Meredith Schewe and Karlovich (cited in Kotler 2003) as The Dispersion Cohort, The Word War II Cohort and The Post wart Cohort and are above 55 yrs age. This group can also have younger people also but relatively in less number. Purchase decision due to this reason sees a static demand of cloths throughout the year and this group sees cloth as means of covering up the body, though decently. Occasion based purchases are more concentrated during festive seasons or on personal events like birthdays, marriages or anniversaries and this group generally encompasses all age groups. Purchases done just for a change are normally seen in youth, Young at hearts or in one having low responsibility and having disposable income. Since cloths are being purchased for being in latest fashion (which also changes relatively rapidly), to accommodate physical changes or just to satisfy urge for shopping, purchase rate is high in this segment. Further, these impulsive or fashion driven purchase act is relatively seen more in females. This is somewhat true for occasion based purchases also. Census data of Australian Bureau of Statistics, as reproduced below, shows that more than fifty-five percent of Australians are between 15-55 years of age and around fifty percent of Australians are females. AGE Population of Australia % of total persons for Australia Age groups: 0-4 years 1,243,969 6.6% 5-14 years 2,668,506 14.2% 15-24 years 2,566,346 13.7% 25-54 years 8,159,808 43.5% 55-64 years 1,759,742 9.4% 65 years and over 2,370,878 12.6% Population of Australia % of total persons for Australia Males 9,270,466 49.4% Females 9,498,783 50.6% Jettysurf stores provide more of casual clothing and accessories which are

Leadership Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 16

Leadership - Assignment Example Transformational leadership provides a functional ground upon which democratic leadership could be practiced. On the other hand, team building enhances collaboration between all parties bound to the democratic style of leadership. Finally, communication provides a platform for effective and efficient flow of information. A combination of the three activities is a strategic approach towards improving democratic leadership. The above discussed activities are highly likely to foster personal and professional growth and development of all persons involved in democratic leadership. My vision, skills, traits, and background can essentially redesign and revolutionize future leadership. Whilst, democratic leadership entails active participation of group members or employees in decision making, the final say rests with the leader. In this respect, my vision, skills, traits, and background will play a vital role in coaching, mentoring, and supervising the people I will lead in

Ibuprofen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ibuprofen - Essay Example However, other websites say that it is 2-(4-isobutylphenyl)propanoic acid, where methylpropyl is replaced with isobutyl (Broyles, 2009). First of all, Ibuprofen is a propanoic acid, which is a carboxylic acid, characterized by a –COOH tail, and is an organic hydrocarbon molecule with three carbons, which is a property of the basic propane structure. Its being a propanoic acid gives Ibuprofen its pharmacologic properties – analgesic, antipyretic and antiinflammatory – because it is its carboxylic end that reacts with the enzymes that help produce pain hormones. Moreover, Ibuprofen is a chiral or aromatic compound because of its benzene ring or phenyl group, which is attached to the second carbon. Furthermore, there is an isobutyl group, which is made up of four carbons, attached to the second carbon of the phenyl group. Ibuprofen has two optical isomers, the R- and the S+ forms, and where the S+ form has distinct pharmacologic properties and has a significant role in inhibiting the synthesis of prostaglandins. The R- form, on the other hand, has no anti-inflammatory effect. Nevertheless, an enzyme in the human body naturally converts R- isomers of Ibuprofen into the useful S+ forms, thus increasing the total active forms of Ibuprofen in the body (â€Å"The Structure of Ibuprofen,† 2012). According to information from the University of Oxford Department of Chemistry, Ibuprofen is â€Å"only slightly soluble in water but readily soluble in organic solvents such as ethanol† (â€Å"Ibuprofen,† University of Oxford, 2012). Other sources, however, say that Ibuprofen is insoluble in cold water (â€Å"Material Safety,† 2012). The insolubility of Ibuprofen is due to the presence of the non-polar covalent bonds present in the hydrocarbon chains, which are not soluble in polar compounds like water. In fact, this particular physical property of Ibuprofen accounts for some of its less significant pharmacologic effects. Other physical properties

Syllabus critique Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Syllabus critique - Assignment Example A syllabus is a contract, which is written between a teacher and students. A good syllabus meet specific objectives, it has important components and answers critical questions. Nonetheless, few syllabi fulfill all these functions well. A focused and brief syllabus is the best. It should communicate the nature of the course to the students clearly and understandable manner. When the students understand the procedures and purpose of the course, they are more likely to enjoy the learning process. It is very important that all teachers follow the policies and needs set in their syllabi. They should not forget the whole parts of the contract. As the students are required to abide by the procedures and rules spelled out in the syllabus, the teacher is also agreeing to follow the same. A detailed syllabus will make the expectation clear to all parties. A teacher should organize to discuss the syllabus fully during the first class meeting. This requires fast distribution the syllabi to all t he students. Teachers should meet the deadlines of teaching. they should provide the requirements of the syllabus promptly if they require their students to be prompt. Strategies When planning the syllabus, one should consider the following strategies: basic identifying information, information about t6he instructor, texts and other materials, course description, objectives, description and requirements, course calendar, grading procedures and scaling Basic Identifying Information The basic information to identify includes the institution, course title, year, the semester, and time of class and location of class meetings. It should also include benefits earned for completing the course successfully. The title and the name of the instructor should also be included. The office telephone number, location, working hours, and mailing address are important if students can communicate with the teacher. Textbooks and Other Materials The syllabus should specify the authors, titles, editions, and sometimes publishers of the texts. It is important to specify the location for acquiring these materials. The location of library, bookstore, computer laboratory, and personal offices should be clear. It is essential to know the requirements and conditions for obtaining these materials. Course Description The course description is given directly by the institution. It must include a short and clear description of the knowledge, skills, major topics to be covered and any special opportunities and prerequisites obtained. Course Objectives The course objectives are very important because it should emphasize on the evaluation of learners outcome. The syllabus should clearly state the objective of the course. Objectives can be affective, behavioral, or cognitive. A well-set instructional objective provides a layout for instructional approach communicates instructional intent and gives guidelines for evaluating students. Course Requirements This explains exactly what learners are exp ected to do in the course. It includes a brief description of the assessments administered, and the paper written. Course Calendar It contains the dates of specific lesson topics, exams, reading assignments, and deadlines for projects and other papers. Any change s to the syllabus calendar should be provided to learners in writing. Grading Procedures and Scales The syllabus should provide clear criteria and procedures for assessing students’ performance and grade assignment. Regulations regarding extra credit, deadlines, and penalties for late work should be stipulated. It should include academic policy with explanations of these concepts in its literature. A good syllabus enables teachers to share their pedagogical ideas with their students. It tells the students how their teachers view the learning process, whether passive or active. How they emphasize skill building, knowledge enhancement or the combination of both. The syllabus shows how the course is organized from simpl e to complex. It should have

Volkswagen India Strategy Essay Example for Free

Volkswagen India Strategy Essay For all the talk about companies coming to an emerging market like India and setting up shop, no one has been more passive aggressive then the Volkswagen Group. VW is most famously known for its Beetle – one of the best selling cars of all time at over 21 million units. In a bid to move beyond the Beetle, VW in the 90†²s started to acquire many brands and their complete portfolio is quite impressive: Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, Skoda and VW. The VW Group also owns 49.9% of Porsche and set to take 100% ownership in the near future. The linkage between VW and Porsche goes way back, VW was founded by Ferdinand Porsche. Then Ferdinand went on to start Porsche where his son created the iconic 911. Even today the bonds are strong, the Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg share the same chassis (platform in car speak). Long Term Commitment Enough of the history lesson, back to VW’s big bet on India. VW’s foray into India started in 2001 when it launched the Skoda brand and started selling the Octavia. Around 2007, the VW Group also added Audi, Bentley and VW to their Indian product line. These cars were available by importing them individually, however servicing was always an issue since they didn’t have official dealers on the ground in India. In another sign that VW is here for the long haul it opened a massive manufacturing facility in Chakan (near Pune) in 2009 and spent USD $500 million in the process. Towards the end of 2011, VW will add the high-performance brand Lamborghini to the mix. They will most likely unveil the first Lamborghini showrooms when they ship the highly anticipated fire breathing 691hp Aventador to India. Breakout Hit In the 4 door mid-luxury segment, the market leader for years has been the Honda City. The break out hit for VW has been the Vento which was introduced in 2010 and already has beaten the Honda City as the number 1 selling car in that segment. The Vento’s success is a combination of Honda lagging and VW bringing the right product to the market, namely a diesel engine. With petrol prices only going up VW was right to tap into the Indian psyche of affordability. The Honda City has been around since 1998 and all the brand loyalty it built up went down the drain once the Vento was launched and petrol prices started to rise. Honda hit back in early June 2011 with price  cuts by attributing it to â€Å"cost reduction efforts in the supply chain† which sounded like public relations speak then reality. But it didn’t matter, by then the damage was done and the Vento took the top spot. Audi’s Rise Around the world Audi has always been number 3 when compared to the more well known German brands of Mercedes and BMW. However, that is changing in India partly because Audi was able to capitalize on the new designs featuring the â€Å"LED eyelids† that are now copied by every other car company. In addition, the Japanese strategy of not bringing their luxury brands of Acura, Lexus and Infiniti to India was a missed opportunity that Audi used towards its advantage. Toyota which has been in India since 1997 has built a large distribution channel and could have easily used that existing network to seamlessly introduce the Lexus brand but failed to do so. Lastly, Audi got some great mileage with their feel good advertising campaign featuring cricketer Ravi Shastri. Ravi was shown sitting on an Audi 100 on the cricket field when India won the World Championship of Cricket in 1985 where he was selected as the man of the match (most valuable player). Obviously it was unplanned and Au di capitalized on the imagery. Market Segmentation Possibly the only issue with the VW Group’s arrival into India is their market segmentation for their brands. When Skoda first came to India, it’s reputation in the Western European countries was not very high and thought of as a sub-standard product. However, under the VW umbrella it slowly upgraded its perception and in India it’s often thought of as a premium brand. Many consumers gravitate towards the Skoda Superb who want luxury but want to â€Å"fly under the radar† and not appear to flashy. With the arrival of Audi and VW the lines of market segmentation have started to blur. The Audi A4, Skoda Superb and VW Passat are all very similar and in fact share the same chassis. And therein lies the problem, if a consumer wants to spend Rs. 30 lakhs on a car which one – A4, Superb or Passat? Summary Overall, the timing of VW’s entry into India couldn’t have been more perfect  as other competitors have been busy with their own problems. The American automotive giants are dealing with their domestic demand issues. The Japanese automakers are taking a very slow approach to India when it comes to their luxury brands – Acura, Lexus and Infiniti. Lastly, the German automakers Mercedes and BMW have been battling for the top spot for number of cars sold in India. BMW took the crown with over 6,200 cars sold in 2010, which is a very small piece of the overall Indian car market. Since the VW Group has many brands and able to target a much wider audience it will most likely lead overall sales in the years to come.

MBA Marketing Analysis and Planning

MBA Marketing Analysis and Planning The report analyzes the market for Converses Chucks All Star range of footwear in the United States of America and includes a look at other competitive brands for comparison. Graphs depicting market data in terms of net sales in US dollars have been included to support the findings. The report segments the market for Chucks on basis of demographic, psychographic and behavioral factors and then moves on to highlight the target market for the canvas shoe. Also included is the market position of Chucks relative to its competitors. The report describes the products marketing mix and its influence on the market position and customers buying behavior. Also, the approach has been criticized in terms of current and future opportunities. Finally, the report draws a conclusion of the market Introduction to Converse and Chucks All Star It all began in 1908, when Marquis M. Converse launched the Converse Rubber shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts. The company started as a manufacturer of rubber shoes, which offered winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women, and children. By the year 1910 the Converse Shoe Company was producing 4,000 shoes daily, but it was not until 1912, that it first began producing athletic shoes for tennis. In 1917, the company revolutionized basketball by introducing the worlds first canvas high-top performance basketball shoes, that it named the All Star. Five years later, a semi-professional basketball player, Charles Chuck Taylor officially joined Converse as Americas first sports player endorser; Chucks signature was added two years later in the All Star patch and for the next four decades, Chucks, as they became known, were the shoes to have, particularly on the basketball court. The involvement of America in World War II (1941) took Converse into a new phase and it began manufacturing boots and ponchos. Converse designed the A6 Flying Boot for the U.S. Army Air Corps and even post the war these shoes remained the government issued athletic shoes for military training. For its war efforts Converse received a number of honors from the Army, Navy, and U.S. Treasury. Converse shoes became the number one footwear among the teenagers, who wore them as a symbol of youth rebellion in the 50ÂÂ ´s and for the same reason they continued to be popular in the 70ÂÂ ´s and 80ÂÂ ´s. But it was in the late 80ÂÂ ´s that Converses popularity started to decline. A series of unfortunate events and bad decisions lead Converse to file for bankruptcy in 2001. In June, 2003 Nike bought Converse out for $305 million and has ever since invested more than four million dollars into its advertising. Today, Converse has over 1,000 different types of Chucks selling in the market to individuals and organizations, all with the same goal WEAR A SHOE THAT MAKES A STATEMENT. As mentioned in the mission statement of the company: Our MISSION is to deliver personal service to our customers knowing that soon we will become friends. Our hope is that we provide the same shoes that our owners father wore for cross country in 1965, and his grandfather wore to play stickball in the streets of Philadelphia in the 30s. This report is an outcome of an analysis of marketing strategies used by Converse in the United States of America. The main purpose of the report is to indicate the market segmentation and target customer base of Converses most famous range of shoes, the Chucks or Converse All Star, in the U.S. The report further analyzes the position of Converse in the footwear industry in comparison to its competitors; the positive and negative aspects of the positioning strategies. It further discusses the product, pricing, promotional and distribution strategies and their influence on the buying behavior. Market Segmentation, Target Market and Positioning of Chucks Converse claims to be the first shoe company to launch footwear with Self Expression and till date Chucks enjoy the status of being the most popular shoes with this advantage. Despite this fact, Converse prefers to focus only on certain preference clusters and chooses target marketing over traditional mass marketing. The market for the Chucks All Stars has primarily been segmented according to demographic factors, namely, age and income. Furthermore, the company also divides the market on basis of psychographic factors like lifestyle and personality. Behavioral factors, like attitude and user status, have also been used to segment the market further. The product goes beyond segmenting the market on basis of gender, by offering shoes for both men and women, and also unisex shoes. The market for the Chucks has been segmented on basis of the following factors: Demographic Under this factor the U.S. population is primarily categorized on basis of age, discretionary income and generation. The age groups have been split into four parts, namely: under 13, 13 to 19, 20 to 35 and above 35. *Further, the income groups have been divided into: 0 income (students), $ 1 to $ 30,000 (young entry-level professionals) and above $ 30,000 (upper middle class). The generations have been segmented into baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964), Generation X (those born between 1964 and 1984) and Generation Y (those born after 1984). Psychographic For this factor the market has been categorized on basis of lifestyle and personality. The population of the U.S. has been segmented on basis of lifestyle into seven groups, namely: Resigned Rigid, authoritarian, chauvinistic (older) Mainstream Domestic, conformist, conventional (Part of the mass, favoring big brands) Aspirer Materialistic, acquisitive, image conscious, attractive more important than quality of contents (Younger, clerical/sales type occupation) Succeeder Strong goal orientation, confidence, work ethic (Top management) Explorer Energy-autonomy, adventurous (Younger students) Reformer Freedom from restriction, intolerant of bad taste ( Higher education) Behavioral The market has been segmented on basis of loyalty status into Hard-core loyals, split loyals, shifting loyals and switchers. Also, attitudes of the American populace have been used to factor the market into: upbeat enjoyers, insecures and financial positives. Converse has analyzed web users online activities to figure out who is most likely to be interested in its product, which enables them to place ads on whatever sites those consumers are visiting. For example, behavioral segments important to the footwear industry, such as fashion-interested, outdoor sports enthusiast or soccer mom, would be based on where the user has gone and/or what they have done on various web pages. Share of U.S. Footwear Retail Sales by Consumer Group and Major Product Category, 2008 (%) Target Market With respect to the segments classified above, the Chucks have been made to target two age groups: the Teens, ranging from 13 to 19 years of age and the entry-level professionals ranging from the age of 20 to 35. The Chucks are designed for both male as well as the female consumers with different variations and patterns for both. The product also offers a unisex range to its consumers. Chucks marketing strategy also targets the zero, mid and upper range income groups. The marketing focus lies mainly on the younger generation, Generation X (Gen X) and Generation Y (The Echo Boomers), who fall in the Aspirer, Explorer or Reformer category based on lifestyles. *The shoes became very popular with rock musicians, and younger generations wore them for their distinctive looks, colors, and comfort and as an alternative to the high priced high performance shoes made by Nike and other companies. They were considered a leisure shoe and also were purchased because they were fashionable.* People from inner-directed hierarchy of stages, particularly I-am-me and Experimental lifestyles are being targeted. Product Positioning of Chucks relative to its competitors Converse once stood for athletic footwear. Now the brand has developed into a fashion statement for the retro-modern sub-culture prevalent in todays generation and is marketed as a Classic shoe for the new generation. Converse has obtained a good position in the buyers mind through better product attributes, price, quality and image, offering the product in a different way than the competitors do. The company offers the product in a variety of colors and styles at an affordable price with high branding, which ultimately helps to position the Chucks, in the buyers perspective, as trendy yet simple shoes. Converse has adopted the Cultural Symbol Approach to position Chucks in the market by associating the product with the basketball legend Chuck H. Taylor and appending his signature with the brand logo. The brand value of Converse is such that owning a pair of Chucks is equivalent to owning a piece of history, which apparently is a value offered by none other in the market. The Product User Approach for positioning the Chucks relative to its competitors. Another advantage Converse enjoys over its competitors is the association of the brand with music. The shoe became associated with puck rock and counter culture after being worn by the bands The Ramones and Blondie, who communicated with both strong music and fashion statements. The Ramones used the shoe as part of their street image with black leather jacket and blue jeans whereas Blondie gave the shoe a glossier menswear revamp creating an alternative suiting look as band members wore red and black colored Chucks with tight black pants, black jackets, shirts and ties on the cover of their Parallel Lines LP. Adopting the Product User Approach to position the Chucks Converse have also collaborated with designer John Varvatos and worked on several innovative marketing and charitable projects. They also released a collection of Converse shoes inspired by Kurt Cobain featuring artwork sourced from Cobains journals. Cobain was often seen wearing Converse and was wearing Chucks when he ki lled himself. The Converse Cobain collection has earned a mixed response from Nirvana fans who have noted that Cobain was particularly concerned about corporate appropriation of counter culture value. The unique selling proposition (USP) of Converse All Star is their simple design, wearing which the consumers declare the ownership of the old-school essence. The classic 2-ply canvas and rubber sole has been the only design that Converse shoes have revolved around and always will. Apart from the image value provided by Chucks, the product also provides its consumers with a diversity of patterns and colors to choose from, a most attractive attribute for the youth. Moreover, Chucks also come in low ankle height design and high boots to suit the style of every individual. The Chucks also compliment almost all outfits for both the genders. Be it under skinny jeans, or a short skirt, Chucks can give a trendy look to all. The big broad colored laces in the shoes can easily be arranged by youngsters in different ways to give a new look on every arrangement. It has also been a fad amongst youngsters to paint the shoes highlighting their individualism. *Therefore, Chucks are more than just shoes. Marketing Mix and Market Position of Chucks This section describes the way Converse uses the tactical marketing tools for marketing Chucks in the United States. This section will cover the product attributes, pricing, distribution channels and promotional activities of Chuck Taylor All Star. Product The benefits provided by Chucks can be classified into three groups: The core benefits of the product comprise of the fact that Chucks are classic kicks that fit any look. They provide a perceived look of self-expression, free-spirit and creativity for every owner. Also, Chucks are easy to care for and teens prefer them because of the low maintenance feature that comes from a simple canvas and rubber design. The actual benefit of the shoe is its exquisite quality for a reasonable price. The Chucks use 2 ply canvas and a sturdy rubber toe-guard, which looks trendy and at the same time protects your feet. Although Chucks are not designed for athletics, they feel pretty comfortable and have a relatively simple design. Another special quality is their ability to transcend cultures; they appeal to punks, rebels, athletes, and kids. Another benefit of chucks is that they come in an unimaginable range of colors and also are packaged in color-themed shoe boxes, making it more appealing to the target consumer base. One of the most important features of chucks is that they provide the consumer with a variety of choices in terms of designs and patterns. The consumer can choose from hi-top, low-top, X-Hi and Slip-On. Above all, Converse is a recognized brand in the market of canvas shoes. Because of this, even after Nike took over Converse, they carried on the range with the same brand name. Augmented benefits include, the consumers being offered with an option to buy a customizable shoe with user-generated content, allowing users to design and select colors for the entire shoe. Consumers are able to create unique custom canvas shoes by uploading their own designs, patterns, illustrations, images and text, and then preview their shoes instantly. Users can also embellish their shoe designs with preset colors and patterns. The shoes are embellished and assembled from scratch within 24 to 48 hours, which enables consumers to receive their shoes in one to two weeks. Apart from all these benefits offered by Chucks, they also come in limited editions for those who want an exclusive shoe. Converse keeps coming up web exclusive offers to increase sales and make consumers revisit the site frequently. The sales and purchase agreement of Converse also offers an easy return within 30 days if the consumer happens to be unsatisfied with his online purchase. If purchased at high-end retailer, satisfaction guarantee Price Converses Chucks are priced quite reasonably relative to its competitors. On one hand, where brands like Sketchers, Vans, Levis, Adidas and Lee Cooper, offer the same quality and style for a high price, Converse All-Stars dont usually cost more than $35-60. Chucks are positioned to suit practically every pocket. Consumers can also avail the Just Reduced and Last Chance offers on particular shoes while purchasing online. The company usually provides discount coupons or vouchers on in-store purchases which can be utilized at the time of the next buy. Place/Distribution Converse has 53 outlets in the Unites States located in all major cities like California, Florida and Texas. (www.converse.com) Apart from exclusive Converse Stores, the product is also distributed to major retailers and is sold to the consumer through a variety of channels. According to data from BIGresearch, in the years 2006-2008 BIGresearch, nearly 18% of adult consumers have no preference for a particular branded outlet, 12% of consumers shop most often at Wal-Mart and Payless for footwear. Chucks can also be bought online from Converses official website www.converse.com. Promotion Apart from competing in price, Converse has to fight for market share through strategies like strengthening brand image and product proliferation. The brand image of Converse is created by extensive marketing campaigns and celebrity endorsements. The product has had a collection of classic advertisements after Nike invested a sum of $4 million post its takeover of Converse. The figure below shoes the growth in the sales of Converse after Nike pushed its promotion. Nike, Inc. Net Sales of Cole Haan, Converse Other Products and Percent of Total Net Sales, 2005-2009 (in millions $) Source: Nike, Inc. annual reports and press releases. Chucks have been marketed by famous personalities like Chuck H. Taylor, The Ramones and Will Smith from the field of sports, music and entertainment respectively. Converse has been actively building up a presence within the hip, indie/alternative music youth culture for the better part of the past decade, in particular emphasizing its retro-tinged Chuck Taylor All Star brand. Previously, the company has tapped musicians like Tokyo Police Club and Matt Kim to design shoes and sponsored collaborative singles from blog-hyped acts, including a recent release from Best Coast, Kid Cudi, and Vampire Weekends Rostam Batmanglij. The company also sponsors rock concerts, a kind of event associated with the target market. Since Converse is more like a community, a part of its advertising is done by its existing consumers through Word of Mouth (WOM) and internet blogs. Influence of Marketing Mix on Buying Behavior for Chucks Though the marketing mix needs to be updated on a regular basis to suit the variable needs of the existing customer base and to foray into newer markets, Converse has always promoted Chucks as an affordable trendy shoe for youngsters. With its classic customizable range of kicks, Chucks directly meets the need of creativity and self-expression for the youth. Also, the association of the brand with music since decades is a strong attraction to the followers of punk rock. Colors, styles, fashions, and what is likely to be hot are important criteria in the design of fashion footwear, and Chucks meet them all. Moreover, Converse is a renowned brand for canvas shoes and this brand familiarity influences the buyers decision to purchase Chuck Taylors each time he walks into a store with the intent of buying a pair of shoes. Chucks are reasonably priced and therefore are more likely, than its competitors, to be purchased. The frequent discounts and offers that Converse comes up with play a significant role in attracting the customers. The vouchers earned on in-store purchases work to persuade the customers to shop at Converse again. With several factory stores in the important cities of the country, Converse has made the purchase of Chucks quite convenient for its customers. Comforters are also lured by the option of website purchases and the availability of the shoe in ubiquitous retailers like Wal-Mart and Payless. The association that Converse has made with the celebrities from all spheres of life, sports to music to media, has helped it make a positive impression on minds of the targeted younger generation. The followers of indie/punk rock also relate with Converse much more than with any other brand, owing to Converses sponsorships of music events. Also, since Converse is a recognized brand, customers tend to buy Chucks since influencers or the reference groups possess the shoe. Conclusion Converse is a recognized brand in the fashion footwear industry, which positions its Shoe, Chucks All Star, as a shoe of self-expression. The product is reasonably priced and targets the younger generation of students and young professionals. With a variety of designs and colors, high quality standards and relatively low pricing, Chucks are amongst the most preferred shoes in the target market. Converse promotes Chucks through a number of distribution channels and celebrity endorsements. Overall with its marketing activities Chucks has been a successful brand. The only area in which Chucks are lagging is the athletic footwear segment which is huge market to be forayed in.