Surprise them with Politeness

I've been trying my own little "social experiment" lately...when I go through a fast food drive through or a checkout lane at a store I've been saying two words:

"thank you"

What I find odd is that often people don't know how to react...sometimes I get a "your welcome", sometimes I get silence, sometimes I get indignation that I "stole" their line (not that it was what they wanted to say, but that they were suppose to say it).

I don't understand, maybe it was the 12yrs of Catholic School, maybe it was being raised by people who believed in basic courtesy, maybe it was the 10yrs that I worked in the service industry...when did we get to the point that "Thank You" and "Your Welcome" had to become scripted phrases...

Books for the Families of the Troops?

Taking this blog off hiatus for a quick post...

Are any libraries out there sponsoring programs to give books to the families of the troops? or sending books/magazines/DVDs/CDs to the troops?

I don't know if the USO or the military has a program that already does this, but it seems like it would be a great idea to take some of the great materials that are going to a library book sale and sending them to the troops or troops families...I know the military probably has libraries as well, but I'll bet they're underfunded...