Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Does your sign spin around, revisited

I was checking my analytics and noticed that this 2008 post was getting a lot of traffic, so I figured I'd revisit the topic of sign spinning (a/k/a "human directional services") and Tryden Staffing in particular.

It turns out that Jobster has posted details on the secret to getting hired at Tryden Staffing. (Hint: there is no secret.)

Tryden Staffing has its own website, but it's for employees only. (westher.msn.com is a recommended resource for employees.)

Another firm, Builders Marketing Group, does have a public-facing website that speaks of their human directional services in detail.

BMG provides the best Human Directional Service available anywhere. We consistently achieve 98-100% attendance across the board, and have many quality control systems in place to ensure that you are getting the highest level of service available from anyone....

With a pool of over 7500 employees in California alone, BMG is large enough
to handle any and all of your Human Directional needs, yet small enough to
care about always doing whatever it takes to keep your business.


But, in an interesting turn of events, Tryden Staffing and Builders Marketing Group are actually the same firm.

Tryden Staffing is California’s Premier Marketing, Advertising and Promotional Staffing Agency. We are the inhouse recruiting firm for Builders Marketing Group.

A WHOIS search of buildersmarketinginc.com (plus one of trydenstaffing.com) reveals an underlying firm, JL Enterprises of Temecula (third-party info here and here). But they do seem to conceal their identity a bit.

Unless, of course, there's a sign spinner in front of 43218 Business Park Dr # 105.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Why John Adams wouldn't be mad about Ontario's July 3 celebration

Decades ago, when I was in the Boy Scouts, my friend and I went to play flute and drum at a Veterans Day event for a service organization. I can't remember if it was the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars or who, but whoever it was, they were pretty traditional.

You see, they celebrated Veterans Day ON VETERANS DAY. And they made a point of saying so. Even back long ago when I was a Boy Scout, Monday holidays were the rage, but not for everyone.

Of course, there are other reasons to move a holiday. In a nation where a good number of people self-identify as Christian, there is often a reluctance to celebrate on Sunday. This affects my home city of Ontario, California:

Residents will start celebrating Independence Day on July 3 with a Fourth of July parade. The celebration will begin at 9 a.m. and feature community floats and equestrian teams. Following the parade there will be a "bring your own picnic," gathering along the Euclid Avenue median.

Yes, my city is celebrating July 4 on July 3. (Although for some odd reason, the fireworks will still take place on the 4th. The fireworks take place in the newer part of Ontario, though - perhaps they're a bunch of Satan worshippers or something.)

Now I'm sure that some people are horrified about celebrating July 4 on July 3, but I imagine that John Adams wouldn't be one of them. (And not just because of his Unitarian leanings.) Because, you see, the U.S. didn't declare independence on July 4.

We declared independence on July 2 - an act that caused Adams to state:

"The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival."

Adams was wrong on his celebration date, because we ended up celebrating on July 4, the date that the final approval, with edits, was given.

By 12 of the 13 colonies. New York waited a few days to approve.

Oh, and the document wasn't signed until August 2.

By 53 of the people who approved it. Three signed later.

So if you want to choose a day to celebrate American independence, take your pick.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Trigger to be sold? Say it isn't so!

For some reason Roy Rogers entered my mind this evening, and I idly searched my FriendFeed friends to see how much they talked about Roy. After seeing the paltry response, I wrote:

Only three of my FriendFeed friends have mentioned Roy Rogers in calendar year 2010. I need new friends.

So I searched outside my friend circle to see what people were saying about Roy.

I wish I hadn't.

You see, I ran across this article, which mentioned:

...a weekend clear-out at the former Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum, which closed last year.

Last I heard the museum had relocated from Victorville to Branson in 2003. The former Victorville site is now an auto mall. Apparently the museum didn't succeed in Branson either. Here's part of what Roy Rogers Jr. said:

The decision to close the Museum has come after two years of steady decline in visitors to the Museum. A lot of factors have made our decision for us. The economy for one, people are just not traveling as much. Dad's fans are getting older, and concerned about their retirement funds. Everyone is concerned about their future in this present economy. Secondly, with our high fiscal obligations we cannot continue to accumulate debt to keep the doors open.This situation is one I have not wanted to happen. Dad always said- “If the museum starts costing you money, then liquidate everything and move on.” Myself and my family have tried to hold together the Museum and collection for over 15 years, so it is very difficult to think that it will all be gone soon.

But the article was not about the museum closure. It was about something even more shocking.

One of Hollywood's most beloved animal stars is to be sold off at auction -- even though it's dead.

Country cowboy and singer Roy Rogers had his trusty equine sidekick Trigger stuffed when the animal died in 1965.

A taxidermist was commissioned to mount the animal in a rearing position.

Now, the creature is to be sold off next month....


Yes, they're auctioning off Trigger.

And you know how the joke goes...there's a likely buyer.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Avoiding the three letter "t" word in Ontario hotels

Cities that market themselves as travel destinations have to maintain a fine balancing act. The purpose of the marketing is to make money, but at the same time you want the destination to be attractive.

Of course, when you make money, you have to determine whether it's more important for city businesses to make money, or the city government to make money. The cities themselves can make a case for the latter, saying that the income is not only needed to continue to promote the city, but is also needed to maintain all of the services that the visitors and the residents require.

And when you're in a recession, everybody loses. In the case of Ontario, the city lost 27% of the revenue that it gets from its transient occupancy t - wait, I'd better not say that three letter "t" word.

As a result, the city of Ontario has increased its transient occupancy...you know...rate from 11.75% to 12.75%. It is expected that this will result in a $680,000 revenue increase.

As for my reluctance to use the t-word, I'm taking this from Councilman Alan Wapner:

"I don't see the TOT as a tax as much as a user fee, and, right now, we don't have as much users as we use to," Councilman Alan Wapner said.

However, this isn't a case in which you'll have to pay the tax, whether you like it or not. No, this will have to be voted upon by the people on November 2. Unfortunately, according to Liset Marquez, the vote itself will add $125,000 to election costs.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Riverside and Upland Footy Fun

LiveSoccerTV.com includes a list of soccer-friendly pubs in North America. Two local pubs are listed:

Auld Dubliner in Riverside

The Black Watch Pub in Upland

But will either place be open early for the 7am (in our time zone) World Cup games?

Friday, June 4, 2010

How local can you get?

I've had the day off of work today, and I've taken care of a few tasks here at home, built some Apollos and Poseidons in Starfleet Commander, and sent this tweet:

@OntarioCA did howard snider stop by YOUR house?

Now @OntarioCA didn't answer my previous tweet (see this post for the story behind that), so I'm not holding out hope that this one will be answered either.

But while @OntarioCA may not know who Howard Snider is, long-time readers of Empoprise-IE certainly know. Snider is the former mayor of Ontario and an active member of Kiwanis, and he has come door-to-door in 2009 and 2008 to promote an early June Kiwanis breakfast event.

A few weeks ago he made his annual visit to our door, and we bought tickets for this year's event, which will take place on Euclid Avenue tomorrow. He happened to visit just after the L.A. City Council announced its intent to study selling Ontario International Airport back to Ontario. Sadly, Snider had no special knowledge of the L.A. City Council's actions.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Is the original Vince's Spaghetti not the original Vince's Spaghetti?

In the process of writing my Monday post about the @OntarioCA Twitter account, I performed a Google search for "vince's spaghetti." When I did, the first search result was Vince's Spaghetti...in Torrance, California.

The first part of the Vince's Torrance story sounds familiar to a lot of us:

It has been over 55 years since Vincent Cuccia and his two brothers first opened Vince's Restaurant in Ontario, California.

Built on Holt Boulevard near the corner of Mountain Avenue, the original Vince's was a six-stool, open-air roadside stand which put to good use the acres and acres of orange groves that comprised Ontario in the middle 1940's. Along with orange juice, Vince's originally served a French Dip Sandwich, based on an Au Jus recipe created by Vince's mother, to the many movie stars as they traveled along the highway to Palm Springs, and to the members of the Armed Forces stationed at Edwards Air Force Base.

But ever the visionary, and frustrated by an inability to find spaghetti and meat sauce comparable to that in his native Chicago, Vince convinced his mother to help him develop the meat sauce recipe that is still used today. After almost two years of trial and error and taste tests, to which the family would add their opinions: "add some more of this," or "it's got a little too much of that"—Vince and his mother created exactly what they—and apparently a lot of other people—were looking for.

At the same time, the menu was not the only thing marked for expansion. As word of Vince's fabulous spaghetti sauce spread, people would line up to get take-out of the same generous portions that are still served today. Before long, the original idea of orange juice and fresh fruit was absorbed by the almost 600 plates of spaghetti served daily—a total of almost 11 tons of spaghetti served per week.


But fast forward a few decades after 1945, and the story...um...forks:

After 25 years of working with the family, Vince and his brothers agreed to go their separate ways; Vince sold his interest in the Ontario location and moved with his wife Louise, daughter Rosemary (affectionately known as DeeDee), and her husband Bill, to the South Bay.

Hawthorne Boulevard looked attractive to Vince, so he settled on the corner at 23609, and in April, 1973, Vince's Spaghetti Restaurant of Torrance was opened.


So if Vince himself (who has since passed away) moved to Torrance, then is the Torrance location the original Vince's?

Interestingly enough, the Ontario version of this story seems to be lacking one particular word. See if you can spot it.

The Cuccias arrived from Chicago as WWII was ending.

Once in California, the Cuccia's opened a family sandwich stand in late Summer 1945. Frank Cuccia's father John was still in Europe in the Army when Cuccia's uncles and aunt opened the stand. Two months later Cuccia says, one of those uncles happened to be eating a plate of his mother's spaghetti when a customer spied it and asked if the plate of pasta and meatballs was on the menu. It wasn't, but anything for a good customer and a plate of spaghetti was brought in from the family's home. The rest is history.


Yes - if you scan the entire history, you will never see any of Frank's uncles mentioned by name. And, needless to say, the Ontario website says nothing about the Torrance location.

I don't know if this apparent schism is accidental, if there's a simmering feud, or if the two branches of the family are lobbing meatballs at each other.

Have any of my readers been out to Torrance? Can you offer a comparison?