Alan,

Believe it or not...the same thing happened to me today at a Sam's Club. A
man and his wife were looking very closely at one of those Meade (made for
department store only) telescopes. I asked if they were buying a telescope
for their child, and they responded, yes. It was to be a special Christmas
gift for their 12 year old son who shows a deep interest in astronomy. I
spoke with them for a while, telling them to pass on this plastic wonder and
showed them where they could buy a real telescope for nearly the same amount
of money. After speaking to them briefly, they put that dreadful plastic
telescope down, thanked me profusely and were on their way. In a way, I
feel like Santa...a nice little boy will not get one of these garbage scopes
for Christmas because I intervened.

Al


"Alan W. Craft" wrote in message
...

This evening, as I was leaving Wal-Mart with a cartload
of reasons for living, and dying, I spied a gentleman not
quite racing as he should've been towards customer
service with a large box that I had no trouble at all
identifying. It was one of those...

..."TELESCOPES!"

Hooray! He was going to get a refund...I hope!

I did so want to speak to him, to warn him, especially if I
had followed behind and eavesdropped only to find that
instead he wanted an...EVEN EXCHANGE???

Say it ain't so!

Alas, but I did not.

Besides, even if he had sought a refund, he probably
would've bought a deer stand in its stead.

Alan