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Most people watch the Macy's Day parade on Thanksgiving Day. The famous Thanksgiving Day parade is almost as traditional as turkey and dressing. More than 40 million viewers watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on television each year. Many tune in just to see the huge parade balloons.
The history of the Macy's parade balloons is an interesting one. The very first Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in 1924 didn't have balloons. Instead, real live animals were borrowed from the Central Park Zoo.
Large balloons weren't used in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Macy's Day parade balloons were inflated with air the first year that they were used. Each year after that, helium was used to fill the huge parade balloons.
The first year that Macy's used helium balloons they released them at the end of the parade for a big finish. The balloons accidentally burst. The next year the Macy's parade balloons were redesigned so that they would lose helium slowly and float for several days.
Originally, the huge Thanksgiving Day balloon's were released at the end of the parade. The grandiose balloons had attached address labels. The lucky people who found and returned the balloons received Macy's gift certificates for 100 dollars or some other prize.
The 1941 Macy's Day parade occurred just weeks before the start of World War II. It featured a prominent Uncle Same helium parade balloon. When rubber became in short supply because of the war, the famous Uncle Sam balloon was donated by Macy's to support the war.
The Thanksgiving Day parade balloons require massive amounts of helium. For example, the Jimmy Neutron balloon needs 12,300 cubic feet of helium to be properly inflated. By comparison, a 10 foot diameter hot air balloon needs 475 cubic feet of helium.
The balloons are inflated by volunteers the night before the parade. The balloons are unfolded. Then they are covered with nets and weighted down. Next, the parade balloons are inflated. The whole process takes six hours. Many people attend to watch the balloons as they inflate. Some say that watching the parade balloons inflate is more fun than watching the actual Thanksgiving Day parade.
The Macy's Day parade balloons are guided along the parade route by volunteers. Some of the balloons require 50 handlers.
Popular Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons
Bullwinkle is one of the oldest Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade balloons. He is also one of the most popular of all the Macy's balloons.
Mickey Mouse first appeared in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in 1934. He has been a favorite balloon at the Macy's Day parade ever since. Mickey's friend, Goofy has also been transformed into a Macy's balloon.
Snoopy is another favorite parade balloon. He has appeared in Macy's Day parades since the late 60's. he has worn six different costumes including an astronaut, a king, an ice skater, and of course, a World War I flying ace. Charlie Brown has also made an appearance at the Thanksgiving Day parade, trying to kick that elusive football. Snoopy's pal Woodstock, is another Charles Schulz creation that has floated in the Macy's parade.
Cartoon characters have always been popular balloons at the Macy's Day Thanksgiving parade. Woody Woodpecker, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Garfield, Bart Simpson, Pink Panther, Bugs Bunny, and Rugrats have all been honored at Macy's parade. Many other cartoon characters have been made into balloons for the Macy's Day parade.
Several Sesame Street characters have appeared as balloons at the Macy's Day parade. Kermit the Frog has been navigated through the parade route. Big Bird has appeared in two different versions. Grover has been transformed at the Thanksgiving Day parade into Super Grover.
Superman has appeared in several Macy's Day parades since 1940. Superman has been the biggest Macy's Day parade balloon ever.
Corporations haven't missed their chance to advertise at the famous Thanksgiving Day parade. Some of the company balloons have been popular. They have included the Energizer Bunny, Ronald McDonald, Honey Nut Cheerios Bee, Nestle Quick Bunny, and M&M's candies.
How Are the Macy's Day Balloons Made?
The first step in making a Macy's parade balloon is drawing the sketch. Details are evaluated and approved by aerodynamics engineers to be sure the balloon can fly.
If the balloon passes the first test, a clay model of the parade balloon is made. The clay balloon model is an exact replica of the balloon built to scale. Close attention to detail is used to be certain that the balloon will be an exact likeness of the original character and that the balloon will be ale to float successfully.
Next, a second model is used that is painted with the exact details of the future parade balloon. Exact polyurethane pattern pieces are then cut. Each balloon has several chambers with an inflation tool and a large zipper.
The Macy's parade balloon is assembled and given a test flight. Each chamber is inspected for leaks. If all goes well, the balloon will be guided down the route for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
Macy's Day Parade Balloon Incidents
Popeye's sailor hat filled with water in 1957. He got so heavy that the balloon handlers lost control. The balloon got off course and dumped water on spectators. There was a helium shortage during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in 1958. but the parade and balloons did go on. The Macy's Day parade balloons were inflated with plain air and suspended with huge cranes.
The 1971, the Mickey Mouse parade balloon was canceled because of high winds. He appeared the next year in the holiday parade.
Wind was also a major problem during the 1997 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour kept balloon handlers on their toes, sometimes literally. The wind caused a Cat in the Hat parade balloon to hit a street lamp. One parade spectator got injured severely and was in a coma for a month. This prompted the local government to implement stricter safety parade rules.
In 2005, the M&M's Macy's Day parade balloon also hit a street lamp. Two people suffered minor injuries. As a result, new rules required the balloons to fly at lower altitudes.
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade continues to be a big hit with Americans more than 80 years later. Hopefully, 80 years into the future, kids will still wake up on Thanksgiving morning and rush to watch the Macy's Day parade. After all, Christmas doesn't start until Santa arrives at the end of the Macy's parade, does it????


text:
Browsing Working Papers (ECON) by Author "Ionascu, Delia"
Now showing items 1-2 of 2
Ionascu, Delia; Kristjánsdóttir, Helga; Davies, Ronald B. (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper applies the panel fixed effects with vector decomposition estimator to three FDI datasets to estimate the impact of time-invariant variables on FDI while including fixed effects. We find that the omission of fixed effects significantly biases several of these variables, especially those proxying for trade costs and culture. After including fixed effects, we find that many time-invariant variables indicate the importance of vertical FDI. We also find that by eliminating these biases, the differences across datasets largely disappear. Thus, controversies in the literature that are driven by differences in data sets may be resolved by using this estimation technique. JEL Classification: F14, F23 Key Words: Foreign Direct Investment, Trade Costs, Culture URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7610
Files in this item: 1wp2-2007.pdf (355.7Kb)
The Role of Competition and of the Initial Firm Efficiency. Evidence from the Czech Republicla Cour, Lisbeth; Ionascu, Delia (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: It has been argued that the effect of competition on a company's incentive to innovate and to reduce managerial slack depends on the initial level of efficiency. For example, while firms close to the technology frontier invest more in innovation if competition increases, backward firms reduce innovation. On a panel data of Czech companies, for the years 1993-2005, we empirically assess the impact of increased competition on firm productivity and the importance of the initial firm efficiency level. We depart from the empirical literature on emerging markets by taking into account both domestic and foreign competition. In line with the theory, our results show that there is an inverted U-relationship between domestic competition and firm productivity. Our results also confirm that trade liberalization has a positive impact on productivity. However, the effect is less significant if domestic competition is not taken into account. In addition, we find that both domestic and foreign competition have an effect on productivity in companies close to the technology frontier but not in backward companies. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7653
Files in this item: 1wp9-2007.pdf (2.398Mb)
Now showing items 1-2 of 2

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sometimes talk is not enough. Sometimes people need to stand up and act. The oil industry has throughout history shown a lack of respect for people and the environment. Now here in the frozen north they are doing it again. Cairn doesn't care about the Arctic or the people who live here.
Greenpeace has been accused of running a campaign of misinformation by the Greenlandic minister of the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, Ove Karl Berthelsen.
That is a harsh, and clearly false, accusation.
I would like to address the three main strands of criticism and provide the sources behind the facts we are using in our argument against Cairn's risky and unnecessary oil drilling.
We say: One single exploratory drilling discharges more red listed chemicals than all the Norwegian and Danish drillings combined.
The overall amount of discharged chemicals is problematic. The chemicals are categorised and the red listed chemicals defined by OSPAR (Oslo-Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic) as chemicals that "gives reason for suspicion because of several polluting effects on the environment and for that reason should be substituted".
Every single Greenlandic exploratory drilling will discharge between 45 and 48 tons of red listed chemicals. That means that this year alone 187 tonnes will be discharged in to the Greenlandic sea. This is stated in the drilling license given by the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum appendix 3, p. 81-97.
The overall discharge from Danish drillings was in 2009 1.4 tons according the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (lastest public figures). In 2009 Norway discharged 32 tons of red listed chemicals from all of its oil drillings (down from almost 4,000 tons in 1997) according to the Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency.
In the submission from the Danish National Environmental Research Institute the formulation is not so 'green' as the Greenlandic Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum claim it is. On the first page of the submission you find that "the discharges of red chemicals is substantial (aprox. 200 tons from all four drillings) and in the longer term unacceptable (…) Capricorn has in supplementary documents explained the safety issues that makes the water based drilling mud used in Norway unfavourable solution for drillings in Greenland, 2011. The Danish National Environmental Research Institute has accepted this explanation after informal valuation by the environmental authorities in Norway".
The Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum has also demanded that Capricorn (Cairn) develop a plan for substitution and a roadmap to phase out the use of red chemicals later on. This is stated in the drilling license given by the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum on p. 66.
Later on Cairn told the Greenlandic broadcast company, KNR, that the oil company has no intention to follow that demand.
On critical issues the Greenlandic drillings is not in terms with Norwegian standards.
The Bureau of Minerals & Petroleum and Cairn Energy often claim, that 'the drilling is carried out in accordance with very high demands for security and environmental protection'. This is not true.
For instance the Norwegian standards demand a zero discharge or, alternatively, minimal discharges of all chemicals. Red chemicals have extra high priority for substitution. This is stated in the Norwegian operational plan p. 64.
Best practise is more stringent than the Norwegian standards. For instance the rules regarding discharges in the Barents Sea and Lofoten in Norway are more stringent. In general there is zero discharge of red listed chemicals. This is stated in the Norwegian operational plan p. 65-66 box 5.2 & 5.3.
We say: Cairn and the Greenlandic Government is keeping the oil spill plan secret.
The director of The Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, Jørn Skov Nielsen, has told Danish media, that the Greenpeace accusation regarding the Greenlandic government holding the oil spill response plan secret is not true. This is clearly false as you can see from our freedom of information application into the plan.
Among other things an oil spill response plan should contain:
Cairn Energy has published some oil spill scenarios, but everything that explains what to do in case of a oil spill, and for instance an estimation on how much of the oil Cairn will be able to recover, is not published. The Arctic Council , of which Greenland is a member, recommends that an oil spill response plan should be public. In the council guidelines on offshore drillings in the Arctic it says on p. 45, that "Operators should allow the opportunity for public review and comment on the (oil spill response) plan".
According to the Norwegian standards an oil spill response plan has to be public – see page 7 in this report from the Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency.
If the Greenlandic Government wishes to challenge anything else we've said, will update this blog with our response.
We play with an open hand.
Mads ChristensenExecutive DirectorGreenpeace Nordic
Knud Seblon
From Nuuk, Greenland
@ Mads Christensen
How should Greenland pay its health services, social services, build its infrastruc...
From Nuuk, Greenland
@ Mads Christensen
How should Greenland pay its health services, social services, build its infrastructure up, build sanitation in small and remote villages, it´s democratic process, sports and culture.
When, in due Greenpeace can not do it with oil revenues?
Where shall money come from?
6 June, 2011 at 10:51
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(Unregistered) Daithesci
It's unravelling for you GP. A quick search of their drilling application (p55) reveals:
"Preparedness for oil spills
It's unravelling for you GP. A quick search of their drilling application (p55) reveals:
"Preparedness for oil spills
The licensee has in the dossier submitted a contingency plan for oil spills, this is found satisfactory by the BMP.
The contingency plan for oil spills contain an action plan, description of resources handling of oil spills, description of relevant legislation, environmental and education and contact information.
Also describes the contingency plan for oil spills, how the licensee's preparedness to operate internally between holder and their subcontractors as well as how licensee must communicate with emergency management in Greenland.
The collecting has taken up the Coastal Zone Atlas ("Oil Spill Sensitivity Atlas"), including plans for placement of equipment and manpower DMU has prepared for the BMP.
Kystzoneatlasset describes various regions sensitivity to oil pollution and ability to protect vulnerable areas, anchorages, etc.
Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) is a subcontractor of the licensee's oil spill preparedness. The company is part of the "Global Network Response", which is a cooperation between several major international oil spill response organizations. Rights of oil contingency plan describes the resources collecting and OSRL can insert depending on the extent of any oil spills.
The licensee also as part of its plan forwarded a list of equipment and material kept clear of the three levels of action and a timetable for how quickly the equipment and crews can be mobilized if a spill occurs."
1) there is an oil spill plan
2) The plan has been approved by Greenlands BMP
3) It includes assessments of various zones sensitivity to oil spills
4) The three stage plan is described in broad detail in the document
5) The specifics of the plan include the locations of emergency equipment and crews.
Is it any wonder that BMP/Cairn do not want the details of 5) to get to GP? If they did GP would blockade, steal, Sabotage the equipment endangering lives again to stop the drilling.
6 June, 2011 at 12:54
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Andrew Davies
Hey Knud,
Oil drilling is a plain bad idea. As I've said before, consider the fishing industry. What happens then with an oil spill? W...
Hey Knud,
Oil drilling is a plain bad idea. As I've said before, consider the fishing industry. What happens then with an oil spill? What about people who catch fish to eat themselves?
The oild industry feels free to risk these things. They aren't Greenlanders. They can make a big mess and then just move on to another country.
6 June, 2011 at 13:32
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Dear Andrew,
"consider the fishing industry. What happens then with an oil spill? What about people who catch fish to eat themselves...
Dear Andrew,
"consider the fishing industry. What happens then with an oil spill? What about people who catch fish to eat themselves? "
Statistically fishing is the most dangerous job in the world, so it's not everybody's first choice.
Why then is Greenland's main industry fishing? Well because a) they have the resources, but also importantly b) it's because it's a poor country and there is little other choice to go and risk your life everyday on the high seas.
Oil revenue may open up other areas for people to work in. You want to deny them that. Shame on you.
6 June, 2011 at 14:06
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Greenland gives permits for oil wells drill.
The big greedy companies will not drill for oil without Greenland gives permits.
Greenland c...
Greenland gives permits for oil wells drill.
The big greedy companies will not drill for oil without Greenland gives permits.
Greenland can not cope it with just one one-pronged business structure with fishing alone.
What other real industry, may Greenland start in order to develop the country as we see it in Scandinavia and how?
6 June, 2011 at 14:13
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(Unregistered) TH
Dear Mads Christensen,
You mention the submission from the Danish National Environmental Research Institute and quote it. Strangely, you ...
Dear Mads Christensen,
You mention the submission from the Danish National Environmental Research Institute and quote it. Strangely, you have omitted the key part explaining why DNERI has accepted the use of "red" chemicals just a little bit lower on the page:
"hovedparten af de "røde" kemikalier, der foreslås udledt, har lav giftighed og lav
bioakkumulerbarhed men udelukkende er klassificerede som "røde", fordi de er langsomt
"the majority of the "red" chemicals that are proposed to be discharged are of low toxicity and low biological accumulation, but exclusively classified as "red" because they are slowly degradable."
This means: the "red" chemicals are not particularly toxic and they are not accumulated in the food chain like a lot of the nasty stuff travelling from the industrialised countries to Greenland.
On that basis (and i.a. on the basis of a promised post-impact assessment of the seabed) DNERI finds the proposal acceptable. Your claim to have put cards on the table would be more convincing if it didn't take less than 10 minutes to find the contrary arguments you omitted for the sake of advocacy.
6 June, 2011 at 14:26
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Dear Mads Christensen,
You also write: "According to the Norwegian standards an oil spill response plan has to be public – see page ...
Dear Mads Christensen,
You also write: "According to the Norwegian standards an oil spill response plan has to be public – see page 7 in this report from the Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency."
I have been unable to locate that quote on page 7 in the report you list. The closest thing is it saying that "Dokumentene skal være tilgjengelige ved behov, for eksempel i forbindelse med høringer av søknader og tilsyn."
"The documents shall be available as needed, for example in connection with consultations on applications and oversight." (my translation)
Is that the same as being publicly available in general?
6 June, 2011 at 14:49
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(Unregistered) greenpeace supporter
Thank you greenpeace for trying to look after our planet and all the creatures living here.unfortunately money talks...wish that sense did!
6 June, 2011 at 15:45
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(Unregistered) Mads
Dear TH and Daithesci
I argue that the oil spill response plan should be made public. You argue that there is no need to and that you trust your...
Dear TH and Daithesci
I argue that the oil spill response plan should be made public. You argue that there is no need to and that you trust your government when they say it is a good and strong plan, and further that if it was public Greenpeace would probably destroy or mess with the clean up equipment.
I think the latter is an absurd allegation. You seem like smart guys and I have difficulty believing you yourself really buy that argument. I believe the reason for keeping the plan secret is that neither the Greenlandic government, nor Cairn, nor anyone else, has a good plan for how to clean up a major oil spill in Greenland, especially in those areas which is covered by sea ice part of the year. And I don't think there is any good answers on how sufficient clean up equipment can be brought into the region quickly enough if needed.
The only way we can find out if I am right, is if the plan is presented so everyone can see it and judge for themself. Is that such a dangerous suggestion TH? Based on the comments in Greenlandic media a lot of Greenlanders seems to think that it would be a good idea to see the plan. That is also why Arctic council guidelines requests transparency in these kind of documents and why the NORSOK standards request that they are made publicly available.
TH, you seem to think that release of red listed chemicals in the Arctic is ok. I think Red listed chemicals should not be released into the sea. Not in Arctic, not anywhere. Danish experts from DMU thinks the same. They say a plan must be developed to phase out such releases, but they think it is the least problematic alternative this year. We are not that patient and we don't agree. If Cairn were at all interested in environmental safety, surely at the least they could do would be to collect the red listed chemicals and take them for safe destruction on shore? If not possible in Greenland then in Europe or US. That is what is done elsewhere, also in Norway. So why not in Greenland?
Dear Knud. You ask what is the answer for a sustainable economy in Greenland independently of Denmark, if not oil. I wish I could present you with a masterplan of sustainable ideas which would guarantee wealth, prosperity and independence for Greenland. I can't. But most likely, neither can oil, and for certain not the coming decades. The history is paved with false promises from the oil industry and many countries have realized over the course of history that even if oil is found, the only clear winner is the oil industry. What I can say is, that already today a number of interesting projects is being considered and developed in Greenland. Which to me just makes it even more sad that the Greenlandic government with support from many in Greenland has chosen so aggressively to go after the perhaps least environmental sustainable resource, offshore oil.
Both for the global climate and for the Arctic environment this pathway is dangerous. Also for the key income of Greenland, fisheries, it is risky. One interesting alternative is the rare earth metals in Kvanefjeld, metals the world really needs. I hope Greenland will find a way to secure an environmental sound mining operation where also the problems around uranium is solved. I hope that Greenland will find use of its vast hydro energy potential. Here I especially think it is worth looking into the feasibility study Iceland has just done on a 1200km HVDC power cable to the UK. In China even longer HVDC cables have been constructed. Imagine connecting Greenland to the European grid, providing clean energy. A dream perhaps. But our world needs clean energy, and a lot of it. Europe more than anyone else has high ambitions for Co2 reductions and are increasingly phasing out nuclear. Oil is not part of the energy mix after 2050, many countries have already decided that, including Denmark. A visionary and sustainable development pathway for Greenland should take that into consideration.
6 June, 2011 at 16:54
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Dear Mads Christensen,
Just to address the two points you mention:
1) On publicly releasing the oil spills plans: I do not n...
Dear Mads Christensen,
Just to address the two points you mention:
1) On publicly releasing the oil spills plans: I do not necessarily disagree with the aims of Greenpeace, but with the means applied. I don't agree with interfering with ongoing drilling operations in an adverse environment - mainly because it is dangerous for activists as well as police personnel. That said, there can be good reasons for not releasing everything and some of the claims of Greenpeace have simply not been particularly accurate. In the Norwegian report you quote for instance, it is not clear if such plans should be publicly available overall. That is a shame, because it doesn't just affect the credibility of the Greenpeace campaign, but makes it harder to have a debate on the overall issues: as you mention, Cairn's liability and insurance coverage is a good point.
2) On the use of chemicals: this is my other problem with your argument - you used the headline red-listed chemicals without mentioning the actual type/impact of the chemicals used. So the comparison with Norway is a bit misleading. And it is not just about releasing chemicals, it is about the credibility of the management of oil drilling off Greenland. In this instance, there has been a consultation involving DMU who have accepted this as a temporary measure, so it is not just a gung-ho decision in favour of oil at any cost.
On a more general level, my problem with these campaigns is that they're all one-issue campaigns. You don't want Arctic oil - fine, but what's the trade-off? You also don't want coal and nuclear (and possibly bio-fuels may be bad to ecosystems as well seen in an isolated context). There are good reasons for that, but again - it's the system of energy consumption that's the main problem. As long as the demand is there, there will be oil exploration and drilling somewhere.
6 June, 2011 at 17:15
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One Friday afternoon in 2010, Pat Contri got the Facebook message of every videogame collector's dreams. A friend who worked at the local game store started texting him cryptic photographs of something a customer had just traded in.
He stared at the blurry, gray-and-green pictures. What at first looked like a row of shelves, he eventually realized, was a close-up of several exposed DIP switches. Just then, like a Tetris block dropping neatly into place, it clicked. Contri slammed his finger on the "Call" button.
"You better not be fucking with me," he said the second his friend Ian picked up. On the other end of the line, Ian sounded like he was hyperventilating.
"It just ... walked into the store," Ian said.
Contri owned hundreds of Nintendo games, almost the full set, but what had "walked into the store" was something he'd never laid eyes on before: A Nintendo World Championships cartridge. Only a handful were known to exist, and they commanded upward of $5,000 each from collectors.
Now one of the incredibly rare cartridges – known to hard-core Nintendo collectors as the Holy Grail – had randomly shown up a mile away from Contri. "It's almost like I was destined to have it," he said.
The Golden Nintendo Game ————————
Like baseball cards and comic books, videogame collecting is fast becoming a popular and expensive hobby. Collectors share (and sometimes hoard) information in online forums, print up price lists, and meet up to buy and sell vintage games at shows like the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. No matter how obscure the old game hardware, there's a subgroup of collectors devoted to cataloging everything released for it.
The hottest area of collecting today is the classic Nintendo Entertainment System. Released in 1985, the 8-bit NES dominated the videogame landscape to an extent that no single game machine has since.
"Kids nowadays that have an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation don't realize how large a part of everyone's childhood [Nintendo] was," says collector Contri. "It was all anyone knew about."
Nintendo sold 34 million Nintendo Entertainment Systems in the United States alone and more than 200 million games. Most of those titles are worth a couple of bucks today, far less than their original $30 or $40 retail prices. But as more and more people get into the hobby and start building out their collections, prices on harder-to-find games have been skyrocketing.
Mint-condition copies of early educational game Donkey Kong Jr. Math have sold for north of $500. Complete editions of The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak demand even more than that. These are not fun games. They're just difficult to find, especially with their original boxes and instruction manuals. Examples of these games still in their original shrink-wrap packaging routinely fetch thousands of dollars.
And then there's the Holy Grail.
Every serious collector knows about it. Many dream of finding one, but few have ever seen one in person.
It's covered in shining gold – well, gold paint, actually – but to a Nintendo collector, it's more rare and valuable than any precious metal. The Nintendo World Championships cartridges contain the unique three-game, six-minute triathlon challenge the company used to find the best Nintendo players in America during the summer of 1990.
"That cartridge is infamous," says Nintendo collector Jason Wilson. "Everybody is aware of the 1990 World Championships. It may not be the rarest item out there ... it's just the most well-known."
There are two versions of the cartridge: There are gray-colored ones that were given to the 90 finalists in the Nintendo World Championships, hard-won prizes for a grueling gaming competition that consumed the lives and thumbs of thousands of Nintendo maniacs one long summer in 1990. Many remain undiscovered.
And then there are the 26 gold cartridges awarded in a Nintendo Power magazine contest. These became the most valuable Nintendo games in existence, valued at somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 – and rising. Of the 26 gold cartridges Nintendo made, only 13 have been found.
Wired.com tracked down some of the Nintendo World Championships participants and serious videogame collectors whose lives have touched by these coveted artifacts of a bygone 8-bit era. Here are their stories.
The Tetris Masters ——————
"If it's a Nintendo game, one of the world's best [players] lives right here in Portland," intones the Oregon news anchor. Cut to Robin Mihara, a cherubic 13-year-old fresh off a third-place finish at the Nintendo World Championships.
"Hand-eye coordination. Finger speed," Mihara says to the reporter as he sets another personal best record on the NES version of Tetris, stacking up perfect, unbroken rows of blocks. He pulls out his Christmas present, a Power Glove motion controller, speeding along in Rad Racer with flicks of his gray-gloved wrist. Robin is the Nintendo savant every kid wanted to be in 1990.
Mihara saw the Nintendo World Championships as his chance to test his skills against the best of the best. He didn't know anybody in Portland as good as himself, and he'd all but stopped buying NES games altogether: He beat them so quickly it made more sense to rent them for a weekend instead.
The Nintendo World Championships were just one part of PowerFest, a consumer show that let gamers immerse themselves in three full days of Nintendo bliss. Besides competing in the tournament, kids could be the first to try yet-to-be-released games like Final Fantasy and River City Ransom. Or they might meet and seek advice from the Nintendo Game Counselors, the team of mulleted experts that normally dished out gaming tips on the company's lucrative 900-number phone service.
The festival toured 30 cities across the U.S. throughout 1990. Each regional event would crown one champion in each of three age groups. Each of these 90 winners would receive a few small prizes but most importantly an all-expenses-paid trip to Hollywood later that year to compete in the championships at Universal Studios. The prizes, besides world fame, included a $10,000 savings bond and a brand-new car, a Geo Metro.
When he arrived at the convention center, the scene blew Mihara away. "It was a huge expo center, bigger than a basketball stadium or something," recalls Mihara, now a 34-year-old graduate student and married with children. "The regionals were massive, 15 huge trailer trucks.... There was a skateboard ramp, there were monitors and monitors of free play."
For the millions of kids who loved Nintendo but would never be as good as Mihara, it was like they'd built a mecca right in Portland.
Mihara knew the games in the championship were Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer and Tetris, and he practiced them before the event. What he couldn't have known was just how different the competition game would be.
The Nintendo World Championships used a pastiche of small snippets of the three games, and a strict, total time limit of 6 minutes, 21 seconds. First, the player had to collect 50 coins in Super Mario Bros. Next, he would tackle a specially designed course in Rad Racer. The player then used the balance of the allotted time to rack up as high a score as possible in Tetris.
The goal, strategically, was to blow through the first two levels to make it to the Tetris phase as quickly as possible.
"I heard of one guy setting up three Nintendos [at home] to try to practice all three games in a row," Mihara says, "but you couldn't really re-create it." To make matters even more difficult, it cost $3 at the PowerFest every time you wanted to try your luck at the game. The top scorers at the event were the ones who traveled to multiple Nintendo World Championships and got in the most practice, trying out different tactics to max out their scores, he says.
He built his perfect, unbroken wall of bricks. All he needed was the four-bar.Mihara easily did well enough in his first attempt to make it to the semifinal rounds, where he had one chance to score high enough to get into the finals. Along the way, he discovered that, no, he was not the best player in the world: Other kids in his age bracket played Tetris at superhuman speeds he couldn't even comprehend. But he figured he could hang, maybe even squeak out a victory if the blocks went his way.
He was playing perfectly. He built his perfect, unbroken wall of bricks. All he needed was the four-bar – the vertical stack of blocks every Tetris player covets, the only one that lets you clear four lines at once. Mihara waited and waited, but the long piece never came. He built his perfect wall high, high, all the way up to the top of the screen, and got a Game Over. His eyes welled up with tears.
There was still a glimmer of hope. One of those kids with the crazy Tetris skills mentioned he was planning on following the PowerFest to its stop in Oakland, California, a few months later in October. That summer, when he wasn't practicing Tetris, he was mowing lawns, saving every penny he could get his hands on. He and his mom caught the bus to Oakland, and with months of intense Tetris under his belt, Mihara dominated, routinely setting scores of almost 2 million points, blowing the competition away. He was going to Hollywood.
But first, he decided on an intelligence-gathering mission. Though he was already set for the finals, he took his meager $250 winnings from the Oakland regionals and invested it right back into his quest, flying to Tampa, Florida, to scope the competition at the last PowerFest regional before the big game.
There he made an unsettling discovery: 2 million points was chump change. The best players were closing in on a top score of 4 million. To do this, they were playing Super Mario Bros. in a way that nobody had thought of before. They would collect a cache of coins, then deliberately kill off Mario, then collect them again. Mihara studied them as they played, then returned home and furiously practiced the new Mario run.
When he arrived at Universal Studios on Dec. 7 for the grand finals, it was clear that those who had practiced the Mario-murdering routine held an advantage. Going to Tampa for reconnaissance had paid off.
But Mihara was no match for the unbelievable Tetris speed of another young competitor, Texan seventh-grader Thor Aackerlund. Mihara did his best in the finals, but ended up coming up heartbreakingly short. He'd scored 2.5 million, while Thor racked up 2.9 million to emerge as world champion. Thor claimed the savings bond, the Geo Metro convertible and other top prizes.
But there was something Mihara wanted almost as much as victory.
Before the PowerFest tour finished, Nintendo had launched its contest for the gold Nintendo World Championships cartridges in Nintendo Power magazine. But the company had not announced any plans to give cartridges to winners or finalists in the competition. Mihara says two of the parents of the top players, having driven their children around for months going to regional events, tried to convince a Nintendo representative to hand out the games to their kids, too.
"The word Thor used was, they 'cornered' [Nintendo's] Howard Philips and they brought up that they thought the kids should get them, because they kids had worked hard for these things and they were more deserving than some [magazine] contest winner," he says. "Howard saw the truth in it."
Later that day, Philips announced to the crowd of kids and families that every one of them would get one of the Nintendo World Championships cartridges to take home. The crowd let out a mighty roar.
"It was pretty crazy," Mihara says. "A lot of these families, this had been their whole life that year. We were paying $3 a pop to play the game. I was dreaming of having one someday.... I just remember a roar of happiness louder than anything I'd ever heard. Parents hugging who didn't know each other."
A month later, Mihara got his Nintendo World Championships cartridge in the mail. He didn't stop playing it until he'd broken 4 million points.
Years later, with professional gaming on the rise, Mihara revels in being one of the original e-sport athletes. "When I was 13, people older than me would roll their eyes when they heard I was a videogame champion," he says. "It's finally getting respect 20 years later."
Jason Wilson's Magnificent Seven ——————————–
Jason Wilson, an editor at videogame magazine Tips & Tricks, collected Nintendo games way before it was cool. Nobody collected Nintendo games in 1998. Nintendo had discontinued the NES three years earlier, and was publishing new games for the system as late as 1994.
A coalition of classic gaming collectors wrote up rarity lists and price guides, distributing them through Usenet newsgroups, but they looked down on Nintendo. Atari was all they cared about. Newcomer Nintendo didn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the sainted Atari 2600.
But Wilson cared, and he foresaw a day when plenty of other people would, too. So he went to great lengths to build up his collection, buying out retailers, making friends with game developers he met on the job. He learned all about the rare and collectible Nintendo games and bought them up. Eventually, he started thinking about the Nintendo World Championships cartridges Nintendo had given away seven years prior.
Wilson figured that because Nintendo Power always printed, in some tiny corner on a back page, the names and home towns of every reader who'd won one of its giveaways, there must be a list in a back issue of everyone who owned a gold cartridge. Some of those people probably still lived in the same geographic areas.
The Tetris block fell into place. Click. Could it really be that easy?
No, it wasn't easy – but it worked. Wilson started looking up the names on the list, and began finding the winners. At that point, buying the crazy old Nintendo games they'd won in a random contest when they were kids was the easy part. One sold his cartridge to Wilson for $50.
When it was all over, Wilson had not one, not two, but seven Holy Grails.
He later sold six of them to other collectors, but he remains extremely protective of his investments. Information is power in the cutthroat world of game collecting, and Wilson won't tell other collectors which of the names on the list he was able to get the games from. He also keeps meticulous track of how much each of his original seven cartridges has sold for each time it has changed hands. The copy of Nintendo World Championships that made headlines when it sold for a record $17,500 was one of his seven, and Wilson can effortlessly reel off its history.
"He bought it from a guy in New York, who bought it from a guy who was in St. Louis, who bought it from a guy in Florida, and I sold it to the guy in Florida," he says. "It went from me selling it to a guy for $6,500, and him needing money really bad and selling it for $2,700, and the $2,700 guy sold it for 15 grand, and 15 grand guy sold it for 17.5."
The price keeps going up. One of Wilson's seven games sold earlier this year to a collector for an undisclosed amount, which Wilson says to the best of his knowledge is a new record high. But we won't know for sure just how much the Holy Grail is worth until someone puts another one up on eBay.
It Just Walked Into the Store —————————–
Jason Wilson went out and found his grails, but sometimes the grail comes to you.
Pat Contri was a voracious player of Nintendo games as a kid, but sold off all his games as a teen. It happens to all of us: Sometimes our mom throws them out, sometimes they burn up in a house fire, sometimes we think we've outgrown them and sell them off for beer money. Either way, we always lose our favorite toys, and at some point we think about buying some of them back.
### Stadium Events: The Rarest Retail Game
Nintendo World Championships cartridges were never released to the public, which makes them exceedingly difficult for collectors to get hold of. But one game that was sold in stores is just as hard to find. Stadium Events, produced by publisher Bandai in 1987, is an athletic game that uses the Power Pad floor mat accessory. In fact, you've probably played it: Nintendo licensed the game directly from Bandai, rechristened it World Class Track Meet and packed it in with millions of NES consoles. But the version called Stadium Events was quickly pulled from the market. A sealed copy sold for $22,800 in January 2011.
Contri didn't outgrow gaming – he just thought he was happy playing shooters on his PC. But around 1998, with high-speed internet the new thing at college, he started reading up on all the rare and obscure Nintendo games he'd never known about and that other collectors were starting to lust after. In-store demonstration units. Religious games from a software maker called Wisdom Tree. At the same time, a piece of PC softwarewith the unfortunate if memorable name NESticle was released. It could perfectly emulate Nintendo software.
"That got the bug into me," he says. "First I went to FuncoLand and bought an NES, then ... started hitting the flea markets again."
He also started using a new website called eBay. For $35, he won a rare variant of the game Gyromite on the online auction site. The game now sells for 10 times that much. By 2010, he had amassed almost every single NES game ever released. Then he got the fateful Facebook texts from Ian.
After their brief phone conversation, Contri dashed out the door. Minutes later, he was in the store holding a gray Nintendo World Championships cartridge in his hands. The two gamers were, in Contri's words, squealing like little girls.
He'd never seen one before, but he'd read enough to know this was real. It was sequentially numbered, like all the gray cartridges. This one was number 205. It was heavy, thanks to the custom circuit board inside.
"I made it known then that I would be interested in the game," Contri says. Ian had told his boss, who was now the legal owner of the cartridge, about the game and let him know that he had a buyer.
Ian's boss spent two weeks researching the game, getting counteroffers, doing his homework. It was a "nerve-wracking" fortnight for Contri. He vowed never to speak to Ian again if he didn't end up with the cartridge. In the end, he bought it from the store owner for an undisclosed sum.
Contri wasted no time bragging about his big score, writing multiple blog and web forum posts about the fateful day. That's when a kind of Law of Accumulating Returns set in: One of the original 26 Nintendo Power contest winners – one that Jason Wilson had failed to track down in 1998 – read one of Contri's articles, and wrote in for advice on how to sell his own golden cartridge.
"Turns out his mom still had his box of games," Contri says. "I gave him advice, e-mailed back and forth for two weeks.... Finally, I said, 'Why don't I just make an offer myself?'"
Settling on a price, Contri soon found himself flying out to buy the game. Returning home to San Diego with his prize, Contri broke the news to the Nintendo-Age collector forums.
"Now there's 13 of 'em," he wrote.
One grail fewer. One fewer golden ticket hidden in the Wonka bars. Collecting gray cartridges was starting to look more appealing.
The Big Crash ————-
Heather Martin was 11 years old, and she felt like she'd just blown the biggest chance of her life. She'd come all the way to California on an all-expenses-paid trip to participated in the Nintendo World Championships, and now she'd have to trudge back to her little town in Texas with nothing to show for it.
That morning, a bundle of nerves in the Universal Studios hotel, she'd argued with her mother, who kept fussing with the girl's clothes and trying to do her hair. Heather didn't want any of that. She'd come to play videogames.
Now she'd crashed and burned, blowing her chance at $10,000 in prize money. As the dead-tired gamer got on the bus, a Nintendo World Championships staffer approached and handed something to Heather's mom: one of the specially made Nintendo game cartridges used for the Hollywood finals that capped a yearlong, 30-city tour.
"You'll want to hang on to this," said the Nintendo rep to Heather's mom, handing over the gray cartridge with its plain white label. "It'll be a collector's item someday."
Not likely, she thought. But she hung onto it all the same.
Martin started gaming at an extremely young age. At 2 or 3 years old, she played arcade machines for free at a Texas bowling alley her grandparents owned. She liked Mario Bros. and pinball, but she excelled at Tetris. At the Oklahoma City regionals, Martin's score was good enough to clinch the trip to California.
The Oklahoma City finals had unfolded on a "little stage, kind of in a warehouse," she recalls. But Universal Studios was the big time. There were kid celebrities like a young Elijah Wood, whose most notable film role to that point was as one of the kids who says, "You have to use your hands?!" to Marty McFly in Back to the Future, Part II after he fired off a few shots in the Nintendo game Wild Gunman.
"All the stars there, that was exciting in itself," Martin says. "All the lights, a huge production. I was very nervous.... When we were playing, they had that speaker guy who sounded like we were at an auction, he was just talking so fast.... There were cameras in our face, they were moving down the aisle.... I think that's why I screwed up."
Crash. With lights and cameras assaulting her 11-year-old senses, Martin skidded off the road in Rad Racer, crashing her car and costing her precious seconds. She didn't have a chance after that.
After the Universal Studios event, some players ran back home and played their gray Nintendo World Championships game over and over. Martin never wanted to see the damned thing again.
"I don't believe I even played that game when I got home," she says. She put it away with her other Nintendo games. As the years went by, she stopped bringing up the Nintendo World Championships. "I guess I didn't want to be the girl that was the geeky gamer, or something," she says.
Eventually, her dad gave away the NES, but her mom, remembering the prescient words of the Nintendo staffer that handed it to her, saved the prize cartridge. This was out of character for her, Martin says: "She's just not one of those hoarders."
Almost two decades later, Martin, now Heather Ireland, got a call from her ex-husband. Do you still have that game, he asked, because one just sold for something like $20,000 on eBay.
Well, mine's not gold, it's gray, said Ireland, now a vice president at a home-loan company in Texas. She found her game and looked it up online, and saw that hers would fetch about $2,000 at that time. Not worth it, she thought. She put it back in the box with all the other stuff her mom had saved: her trophy from regionals, the nameplate that went above her monitor at Universal. But she kept tabs on the prices of gray cartridges, and saw them spiraling up.
"I talked to people who collected other things," she said. "I had a lot of people say, 'Well, you know, it might be like baseball cards, worth something one day and the next there's no interest in it.'"
So she put it on eBay with a price of $10,000 or best offer. She got an overwhelming response.
"I kind of sat back for a minute and said, 'I don't know if I should sell it now,'" she says. "Because it kind of scared me."
Forums like Nintendo-Age leapt on Ireland's eBay listing immediately, trying to see if she was for real or a scammer running a fake auction, hoping to take someone's money and run. Faking a picture of a gray Nintendo World Championships cartridge would be easy. To prove herself, Ireland registered an account at the gamer geek forum and posted a picture. In the picture was herself, the cartridge, her trophy and her nameplate.
It didn't take very long before she sold the cartridge for $8,000. Ireland says she'll use the money to take her family to Disney World next year.
Back in Portland, Mihara is working on a documentary about competitive Tetris players, co-starring his one-time nemesis Thor Aackerlund. Mihara never lost his urge to be the world's best at the Russian game.
"My claim to fame is that I'm the greatest Tetris player in the world with two kids and a mean wife," he says.
He eventually sold his Nintendo World Championships cartridge for $6,600, to a teenage pizza-delivery guy who saved up for six months.
Unlike Ireland, he spent much of that money on Nintendo games. He's set out to put together a collection that, to the best of his knowledge, no one else has: Sealed copies of the "black box" games, the first 30 or so games that Nintendo published for NES, known for their signature package designs. As the very first games for the system, they possess an appeal akin to the first issues of popular comics, or rookie cards of popular baseball players.
"There's something about the appeal of sealed games," Mihara says. "Don't ask – it's almost like a sickness. If you're ever, like, attracted to somebody you're not supposed to be, and you can just feel how wrong it is, it's kind of like that."
While $20,000 for a videogame might not sound like much compared to the most valuable comics, consider that the owner of the best-condition copy of Action Comics No. 1, which contains the first appearance of Superman, paid what was then considered to be the absurd amount of $25,000 for the comic book in 1984. These days, it's worth more than a million dollars.
Who knows? If videogame collecting continues to grow in popularity, the golden Nintendo World Championships cartridges might be selling at Sotheby's for seven figures in 20 years.
Meanwhile, 13 of them remain in the wild, waiting to be found.
See Also:


text:
Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton is distinguished visiting professor of English literature at Lancaster. His latest book, Humour, was published in April.
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Term 1
Monday 18th September - Saturday 2nd December 2017
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Hey there! My name is Erica and I am completely obsessed with all things related to paper and lettering. I use my Cricut almost every day, and am known for being "the girl with no less than 37 different pens and brush markers in her purse at any given time." I live in Indianapolis with my better half, our little lady, and our furry friend. I've had a love of art since I was very young, but my love of letters and paper started when I was in high school. In adulthood, I have been so fortunate to get to channel that love of art into a career in design. As Lead Designer here at Cardstock Warehouse I manage the Design Team, branding, product photography, social media content, and lots and lots of paper crafting. :-) I am so grateful to be able to share my creations with all of you and LOVE seeing the wonderful things you create as well!
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Hello everyone! I'm Daisie of Daisie's Scraps. I am an OR Nurse by night and a scrapbooker and mom by day. I am happily married with 3 children and 2 dogs. I started scrapbooking in 2009 as a creative outlet and was soon addicted. My style has evolved tremendously and now I enjoy making 12x12 or 8.5x11 works of art. Scrapbooking is my way to desires and unwind from the sometimes hectic life I live. My favorite technique is paper piecing, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to get this gig!! I cannot wait to start using the amazing papers to make fun and interesting projects to share with you!!
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Hi everyone, my name is Tara from Handmade By Tara! I'm a California girl living in Utah with my husband and two beautiful daughters. When I'm not taking care of one of them, I'm in my crafting corner coming up with new project ideas. Crafting is as much an addiction as it is a cure to the stresses of mommy life for me; I go a bit mental if I don't have some way to express my creativity! I never would have guessed when I started making cards for fun that I'd be here now with my own business and getting the opportunity to work with Cardstock Warehouse. Thank you for allowing me to explore my creative side!
WEBSITE: www.handmadebytara.com
INSTAGRAM: @handmade.by.tara
Greetings from San Francisco! My name is Jen and I'm a mom to two little ladies and a rescue pup. I work as a freelance artist, bouncing between family portrait photography, illustration and craft making. I am fascinated by unusual animals, especially marine creatures, and my goal is to inspire wonderment of nature through my art. While native to California, I grew up in Hong Kong - an experience which shaped my art aesthetic. I'm eager to dream up projects that will not only teach techniques but will also intrigue with cultural and biological insight. Join me and let's make stuff out of paper!
INSTAGRAM: @ginkgomaker
WEBSITE: www.ginkgozee.com
BLOG: www.ginkgozee.com/jzeestudio/
Hey there, my name is Shea from The Gilded Sparkle! I am currently living in the great state of Texas with my husband, son, and fur baby. I purchased my first Cricut back in 2015 and also decided to start my small business in the same year. I love creating with paper. The possibilities are endless, and you're literally only limited by your own imagination. I love to challenge myself when it comes to designing and always strive to make the next item even more beautiful and detailed than the last. I am so excited to start this journey as a Cardstock Warehouse Design Team Member, and I can't wait to share my passion for paper crafting with you!
INSTAGRAM: @the_gilded_sparkle
ETSY: TheGildedSparkle
Hey there!!!!! I'm Stephanie Vittorio, the person behind Coffee Stamps Chaos. I can't remember a time in my life when creativity wasn't a part of my life and something I enjoyed. I have been creating handmade cards since 2007 when a friend asked me to help her reach her goal for her Stampin' Up! Party…the rest is history! I have been in love ever since! I love paper, die cutting, stamps, embossing, and watercolor is my jam! I am passionate about card-making, it brings me such joy to create something from nothing and to share it with the world. I love giving handmade gifts and dabble in a variety of crafts from photography and DIY projects, to dreamcatchers, loom weaving and building things. I just love to create! I'm the one my friends call when they need help with projects or have creative ideas they need help executing.
I live in the beautiful PNW in Washington State, with the love of my life: my husband & best friend, I am the very blessed momma of 6 children; 3 boys, and 3 girls ranging in age from 5 to 17! We have a bunch of animals including 2 dogs, 3 cats, 5 chickens, 9 ducks, and a goose. There's never a dull moment around here! I hope to inspire others to create, and to find joy and passion in creating! I am SO excited to be here alongside so many other VERY talented crafters and creators!
FACEBOOK: Coffee Stamps Chaos
INSTAGRAM: @coffeestampschaos
ETSY: Coffee Stamps Chaos
We've included photo illustrations, how-to tips, and videos to help you create the paper project you've been dreaming of. Just add your imagination and go!
Here are a few considerations for the beginner:
Are you finding paper weights to be confusing? Why is 80 lb. text lighter than 59 lb. cover?
The terms text and cover come from the paper manufacturing world. There are also other paper types that include index and bond, for instance, but we will stick to papers more commonly used for paper crafting here,
Both the size and weight of your finished product will determine the amount of postage required to mail it out. This may be an important consideration if mailing a large volume of pieces, such as announcements, invitations or holiday greeting cards. Mailing a piece with its own special envelope? Be sure to keep in mind the following size requirements for letters...
Paper color is all a matter of personal preference, style, theme and occasion. Ink color, paper bleed and ink absorption are also important considerations when printing and applying ink to paper. Multi-layered cards create a visually pleasing look with options for contrasting color or monochromatic color themes.
Printing is an important factor to consider when choosing paper for your printing projects. Whether you plan on DIY printing or professional printing, do your homework before buying a large supply of paper. Not all paper types are suitable for all printers, especially home printers.
Paper is made up of tiny grains of fiber. During the manufacturing process, they align in the same direction, usually with the longest side of the parent sheet, much like a school of fish or a flock of migrating birds! Knowing how to find the grain, and score your paper is key to creating professional looking pieces.
When it comes to die cutting, all it takes are the right settings to create beautifully intricate designs. EVERY paper Cardstock Warehouse sells is die cut machine compatible and, when using the right settings, will produce crisp, clean cuts.


text: SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMISSION Minutes of the regular meeting of Tuesday, February 21, 2002 (As approved March 21, 2002) The San Francisco Public Library Commission held a regular meeting on Thursday, February 21, 2002 in the Koret Auditorium, Main Library. The meeting was called to order at 4:08 PM by Vice President Steiman. The following members were noted present: Commissioners Chin, Coulter, Steiman, and Swig. Commissioners Bautista, Higueras, and Streets were reported excused attendance. Agenda Items: 1. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF JANUARY 17, 2002 2. LIBRARY BUDGET REPORT 3. CIAC REQUEST 4. BOND PROGRAM MANAGERS REPORT 5. PROP 14. (State Library Bond) REPORT 6. PUBLIC COMMENT 7. ADJOURNMENT 8. Appendix A AGENDA ITEM #1 APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF JANUARY 17, 2002 Public comment: An anonymous member of the public noted that the Minutes had not been posted on the Library's website and found them eviscerated and impoverished. This individual called attention to reported comments discussing the Library Commission meeting on an Election Day noting that they had strongly protested against the Commission's past practice of doing So. Mr. Ed Regan commented that his remarks had been accurately reported. Mr. Peter Warfield cited numerous omissions and inaccuracies in the Minutes. Mr. Warfield commented that his remarks concerning the disproportionate size of the new Mission Bay Branch Library given its patron base had not been reported. Commission comment: Vice President Steiman suggested that the anonymous member of the public's comments concerning the Commission meetings on Election Day be clarified to indicate more clearly their opposition to the Commission's practice of doing so. Motion: for approval of the January 17th Minutes by Commissioner Chin, seconded by Commissioner Swig as amended. Action: AYE 4-0 (Chin, Coulter, Steiman, and Swig) AGENDA ITEM #2 LIBRARY BUDGET REPORT Library Finance Director George Nichols outlined three proposed options for the Library Commissioners to consider in order to comply with the Mayor's Budget Office's instructions to the Library to prepare for a 10% reduction in the Library's budget in anticipation of a continuing revenue shortfall in the next fiscal year. Mr. Nichols discussed in some detail the various aspects of each of these proposed budget reduction scenarios (copy attached). Mr. Nichols emphasized that these reductions did not involve the loss of any current staff positions and would only go into effect if the city's revenues continued to decline. Public comment: An anonymous member of the public commented on deficiencies in the way this item was described in the Agenda and found a lack of specificity in the details of the proposed budget reduction plans observing that they seemed based on problematic assumptions. This person suggested that everything could be changed and that approval should be contingent on future review. Mr. Tim West, SEIU, Local 790 urged the Library Commission to seek any means other than employee layoffs to attain its budget goals. Mr. West suggested freezing rather than losing positions and doing everything possible to avoid layoffs. Mr. Peter Warfield agreed that he disliked staff cuts and noted that the explanatory documents did not provide a full view of which cuts might be appropriate. Mr. Warfield suggested that the lack of a full budget made understanding the proposed reductions difficult. Mr. Warfield identified proposed budget cuts such as 2nd overdue notices that he opposed. Commission comment: In response to a query by Vice President Steiman, Library Public Affairs Chief Marcia Schneider described proposed reductions in non-personnel expenditures by her department. The City Librarian, responding to another question by Vice President Steiman, indicated that preliminary reports from a study on the effectiveness of 2nd overdue notices seemed to indicate that they were not very effective. Vice President Steiman suggested that staff develop a priority list of items that could be put back in the budget if the cuts proved not to be necessary. Ms. Hildreth noted that should the Mayor ask for a reduction in the requested budget cuts, this matter would be brought back to the Commission for its review. Mr. Nichols indicated that recent Controller's Office reports showed that revenues from property taxes were improving over expectations but that overall revenues were down. Mr. Nichols pointed out that the Library's allocation of property tax revenues had increased to the degree that a projected $1.2 revenue shortfall was now reduced to $865,000, an amount he expected could be fully addressed by other saving in the budget. Mr. Nichols reported that a Controller's Report due for 9 months of the fiscal year, would provide a better picture of what revenues were likely to be during the next fiscal year. Motion: by Commissioner Coulter, seconded by Commissioner Chin for approval of the proposed revisions to the 2002/03 Library Budget. Action: AYE 4-0 (Chin, Coulter, Steiman, and Swig) AGENDA ITEM #3 CIAC REQUEST Library Bond Program Manager Marilyn Thompson reported to the Commissioners on the details of the proposed $23.020 million 2002/03 capital improvement program budget for the Library including a second bond sale that, with their approval, she proposed to take to the Capital Improvements Advisory Committee (CIAC) for its approval. She discussed in detail two exhibits that she provided (copies attached) that described annual capital improvements budget encumbrances and these encumbrances by program component. Ms. Thompson suggested that the Commission consider a third bond sale next year and noted that the 2nd bond sale will cover the costs involved in Phase One of the Bond Program. Public comment: An anonymous member of the public commented that the explanatory documents had not been listed on the agenda and that they were both heartened and dismayed by the speed at which the program was going forward. This person commented that it seemed that half of the projects had begun without being discussed, that cumulative totals reported did not seem in balance, and observed while money was being spent at a galloping rate they wished the picture were clearer. Mr. Peter Warfield commented on the large numbers of figures presented, remarked that the exhibits had not been provided with the agenda, and commented that the lack of advance access to documents by the public made meaningful comment difficult. Mr. Warfield suggested that copies of documents discussed be provided in advance. Ms. Barbara Berman, Friends and Foundation commended the staff for their hard work in preparing and presenting information on the Bond Program. Commission comment: Ms. Thompson in response to a question by Vice President Steiman pointed out that this proposal merely encumbered funds not expended them. Ms. Thompson then discussed related aspects of the purchase and sale agreement for the new Glen Park Branch Library that she proposed to bring back to the Commission for further discussion as it developed. Motion: by Commissioner Coulter, seconded by Commissioner Chin for approval of the proposed fiscal year 2002/03 capital improvement projects budget to be forwarded to Capital Improvements Advisory Committee (CIAC) for its approval. Action: AYE 4-0 (Chin, Coulter, Steiman, and Swig) AGENDA ITEM #4 BOND PROGRAM MANAGERS REPORT Branch Bond Program Manager Marilyn Thompson briefly outlined the manner in which she would structure future reports to the Commission under this agenda item, then introduced Commissioner Tim Kelly of the San Francisco Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board. Commissioner Kelly proved the Library Commissioners with an extensive overview of the historic landmarking and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) issues and requirements that would be addressed during the course of the Branch Library Bond Program for historic structures (copy of handout attached). Ms. Thompson then brought the Commissioners up to date on the status of the Bond Program Budget, noting that the current budget report reflected the actions taken by the Library Commission during the past several months. Ms. Thompson then recapped the Library's Prop. 14 (State Library Bond) strategy and discussed details of the projects to be addressed during the phased opportunities to compete for funding from the State Library Bond Program. Ms. Thompson then provided an update on active projects including community meetings at the Richmond and Glen Park Branch Libraries, an update on the development of the purchase and sale agreement on the new Mission Bay Branch Library, and noted preparations for a Prop. 14 (State Library Bond) application for the Excelsior Branch Library. Ms. Thompson then provided a schedule of community meetings that either were hosted by the Library or where the Library would be making presentations on Bond related projects in the coming weeks. Finally, the Branch Bond Program Manager provided a detailed presentation on a proposed Design Excellence Program that would be integral to the Bond Program. Ms. Thompson described in some detail (copy attached) how such a design excellence program could be created to provide the highest standards of civic design for Bond Program projects. Public comment: An anonymous member of the public noted that the print was very small on the explanatory documents making them difficult to analyze. This person commented on the importance of preservation of our heritage, citing the fate of the Old Main Library as a bad example when compared to Los Angeles and Portland that had refurbished their Main Libraries. The anonymous member of the public observed that this matter required close attention, as the place of these libraries in their communities was irreplaceable. Ms. Jeannene Przyblyski, Noe Valley, praised the concept of a design excellence program and cited the importance of quality rehabilitation work to be done at the Noe Valley Branch Library. Mr. Peter Warfield requested copies of the presentations made by Ms. Thompson and Commissioner Kelly noting that not having the documents in advance diminished ability to comment. Mr. Warfield questioned the lack of provision for public participation in the design excellence program noting no provision was made for the public to offer comments. Mr. Warfield requested that he be informed about the details of where and when meetings held by or attended by representatives of the Library to discuss Bond program projects would occur. Commission comment: Ms. Thompson proposed to provide the Commission Secretary with a list of dates and times of Bond related community and organizational meetings. In response to questions by Commissioner Chin, Ms. Thompson clarified some apparent imbalances in the total amounts reported for project encumbrances when compared to project baseline figures. Commission Swig observed that it was sometime difficult to follow the small print in the presentations and suggested that they be re-formatted to make them easier to understand. AGENDA ITEM #5 PROP 14. (State Library Bond) REPORT City Librarian Susan Hildreth presented a report that discussed in great detail seven key review factors and other complexities involved in making a successful application for Prop. 14 (State Library Bond) funds, (copy attached). Public comment: An anonymous member of the public found Commissioner Streets absence for this discussion unfortunate, commenting that this proposal raised concerns about when grants are accepted which party is being leveraged. This person also expressed concerns with the impact of homework centers on branch library services, questioning whether by cooperation with the school district the library was expending its funds to replace school funds. This individual commented that the public library and schools had differing mandates. Mr. Ed Regan opposed cooperative programs with schools such as homework centers, commenting that schools should have their own libraries, and that the public library was established to serve adults. Mr. Peter Warfield expressed concerns with the services impacts of the proposed cooperative programs with the schools, suggesting that the library might be undertaking inappropriate programs in order to qualify for state funds. Mr. Warfield further commented that the nature of these joint ventures might be inappropriate for the library suggesting that there was nothing in these proposals about books. Mr. Warfield questioned what a homework center might be and noted this matter-raised questions of conflicts. Commission comment: Commissioner Chin noted that in these changing times the mandates of public agencies serving the community needed to change to reflect the changing needs of the people they served. Commission Chin observed that our public libraries were not private clubs for those over 21 and that 25% of the City's population was youth that the libraries must serve. Commissioner Chin suggested that the Library should support those projects that worked with its programs and that she would do whatever she could to encourage cooperation by the schools. In response to a question by Vice President Steiman, the City Librarian discussed the varying degrees of cooperation that she had been able to obtain from the school district. Ms. Hildreth noted greatest successes with local school site leadership working with the Library to create cooperative and viable projects. Ms. Hildreth in particular called attention to the cooperative work being done at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School. Commissioner Chin noted that it was right for the Library to take the lead in dealing with neighboring schools located near the libraries. She additionally suggested that the children using libraries do a better job learning. Agenda item #6 PUBLIC COMMENT An anonymous member of the public raised questions concerning the Library's meetings with private organizations, asking if these meetings were closed or open to the public. This person commented that information about a meeting was not the same as access to a meeting. The anonymous member of the public then discussed issues raised in The Ugly American. Mr. Ed Regan suggested that Library public service hours be expanded from 6AM until Midnight 7 days per week, placing an exterior fire escape on the Main Library, and commented that the Library should request that the school district extend its libraries hours. Mr. Peter Warfield thanked Vice President Steiman for informing him about a meeting that was discussed and asked for detailed information concerning meetings that library staff attended to address bond program related matters. Mr. Warfield commented that it was inappropriate that such information was not available. Agenda Item #7 ADJOURNMENT Public Comment: Not offered Commission Comment: Motion: by Commissioner Chin, seconded by Commissioner Coulter that the meeting be adjourned. Action: AYE 4-0 (Chin, Coulter, Steiman, and Swig) The meeting was adjourned at 6:25PM. Michael Housh, Commission Secretary 3/22/02 The number of members of the public who spoke anonymously at this meeting: 1 Please note: Copies of Commission Minutes and handouts are available in the Office of the Commission Secretary, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 Copies of Public Comment Summary Statements as authorized by San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.16 can be found in Appendix A. These summary statements are provided by the speaker and their contents are neither generated by, nor subject to approval or verification of accuracy by, the San Francisco Public Library Commission. Appendix A The Public Comment Summary Statements included in these Minutes are authorized by San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.16.. These summary statements are provided by the speaker. Their contents are neither generated by, nor subject to approval or verification of accuracy by, the San Francisco Public Library Commission.


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Four Sweetbay Supermarkets in Southwest Florida and 33 other stores statewide closed for good Wednesday, a week earlier than previously announced.
The Tampa-based chain's store on Beneva Road in Sarasota, stores on 33rd Street East and State Road 70, in Bradenton, and another on U.S. Highway 301 in Ellenton were shuttered as a part of a plan unveiled last month.
In all, the company announced it would close 30 percent of its Florida stores stores by Feb. 13.
The local store closings cost 300 people their jobs. Statewide, Sweetbay's decision will leave more than 2,000 people jobless.
The supermarket chain will still operate 10 stores in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties, including two stores on U.S. 41 in Bradenton and Sarasota and another on Clark Road in south Sarasota.
A Sweetbay spokeswoman said Wednesday the stores were closing ahead of schedule because they were running out of merchandise and were not being restocked.
"The retail industry is going through a major transition right now, even in grocery stores," said Phil Lempert, a grocery store analyst and editor of Supermarketguru.com.
"It is hard for chains to compete with brands like Publix that are so dominant in some areas, and with Walmart Neighborhood Markets expanding at such a fast rate."
Sweetbay, under Belgian parent company Delhaize Group, was built from former Kash n' Karry stores beginning in 2004.
But the chain has suffered from image problems and an inability to carve out a niche among Florida shoppers. While Kash n' Karry appealed to budget-conscious consumers, Sweetbay's more upscale approach alienated some of its customer base with higher prices on wine and other items.
Most notably, Sweetbay has failed to gain traction against firmly embedded competitors such as Publix Super Markets Inc. and newcomers like Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's.
The chain has struggled, as well, against lower-cost competitors like Aldi, Sav-A-Lot and members' clubs like Sam's Club and Costco in Southwest Florida.
"The way people buy food has changed. We no longer shop at just one store anymore," Lempert said. "We don't get everything we need at Publix. We shop around at stores like CVS and competing grocers, too. People don't care so much about brand loyalty as much as they do about the quality, convenience and price."
Most of Sweetbay's Florida closings are north of Manatee County. Of the 33 closings, 12 are in Pinellas and Pasco counties and another six are in Tampa, the company said.
When the restructuring is complete, Sweetbay will have 72 stores in Florida.
The closings come as Delhaize Group's American revenue slipped in the fourth quarter. Earnings estimates are expected to fall considerably for last year as a whole, according to company data.
Revenue in the fourth quarter fell 2.1 percent, the company said. Perhaps more significantly, however, the company is anticipating a 17.5 percent decline in its 2012 operating profits when it formally reports earnings later this year.
In addition to Sweetbay, Delhaize America operates Food Lion and Dollar Food supermarkets, among others. In all, Sweetbay has 1,500 stores in 16 states.
Four Sweetbay Supermarkets in Southwest Florida and 33 other stores statewide closed for good Wednesday, a week earlier than previously announced.


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'Jealous' peeping tom spied on women after bugging computers
A "jealous" peeping tom who spied on women after bugging their computers has walked free from court.
Pervert Andrew Meldrum, 30, secretly installed spying software on their computers, allowing him to access private, nude pictures taken covertly.
In one case, he conned his victim into believing he could help solve her computer problems. But the goodwill gesture was a ruse for his deviant fetish and he was able to remotely access her webcam.
One of his victims wept in court and held her head in her hands as Meldrum was handed a 12-month suspended sentence and a fine.
Meldrum, previously of Crosslet Vale in Greenwich but more recently of Lewisham Hill in Lewisham, south London, admitted three counts of unauthorised access to computer material and was found guilty of two counts of voyeurism after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
Sentencing, Recorder Mark Heywood QC described the former Goldsmiths University student as "jealous and controlling".
He said: "It's clear from the evidence that many, many, many recordings were made by the computers of the three young women... concerning the most private acts in their own homes."
The court heard that around 11,000 images were taken covertly, including some of one victim naked, in her underwear, on the toilet and "in positions of intimacy".
The judge handed Meldrum sentences of 12 months each for voyeurism, and six months for each count to which he pleaded guilty, all of which to run concurrently.
Meldrum's criminal activity remained undetected for 15 months until the women - who cannot be named for legal reasons - discovered the programme had been installed on their computers.
The judge said Meldrum pursued his plot for his own "personal sexual gratification".
He said: "They did involve a degree of sophistication. This software is not readily used.
"You abused their confidence. This course of offending showed persistence and a degree of premeditation."
Meldrum was told to forfeit his computer and pay a contribution to prosecution costs of £2,100, plus a £100 victim surcharge.
Prosecutor James Vine said Meldrum exercised a "significant degree of planning".
He said Meldrum, wearing a black suit, white shirt and dark tie in the dock, made contact with one of his victims as the police investigation tightened.
Mr Vine told the court: "He said 'Please don't call the police'.
"He wiped the computer because he knew they (police) were coming."
Defending, Shila Whitehead said the volume of images was not under her client's control as the software automatically saved an image every two seconds.
She said a psychological report identified Meldrum had "issues" but that he could be paranoid.
She told the court he was remorseful - a comment which drew mutterings from one of Meldrum's victims who was weeping in the public gallery.
A Met Police spokesman said: "I would like to thank all witnesses in this investigation but especially the three victims who gave evidence on matters that were clearly of a private, intimate and personal nature to them. Meldrum effectively hacked into their lives.
"I hope that they can take some consolation in the guilty verdict that sends out a clear message to anyone that this type of intrusion into a person's private life is not acceptable and the Metropolitan Police will support all victims and pursue all suspects."
PA Media


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