Arcania

Cheerleaders Are Not Just Team Mates They’re Best Friends

Archivist — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:25:53 +0000

All The Rallies Will Never Set Them Free

Cheerleading is a full-contact performance of collective gymnastics and collective dance meant to inspire enthusiasm. Oftentimes, the cheerleading team is affiliated with a sports team or few and appear at those events. There are also cheerleading competitions between cheerleading squads. To be clear, I respect the athleticism of cheerleading.

Socially, however, I do not care for the disproportionate status boost that being a cheerleader provides because this attracts people that are selfish and superficial rather than only those committed to spreading good cheer. Obviously, I do not mean that every individual cheerleader is selfish and superficial. What I mean is that selfish and superficial people tend to crave social status. Cheerleading happens to be one of an assortment of social utilities, such as law school or the Apple Store ⇒, that are not bad in and of themselves but which are used by social climbers to attain status at the expense of developing worthwhile friendships.

From what I understand, the base pay for cheerleading at professional sporting events is very low per game though one can be augmented somewhat through additional appearance fees. A practical requirement would be to have an additional job and consider cheerleading to be supplemental income and a chance to get public exposure.

The potential for a college scholarship for cheerleading is an opportunity to cash in on school spirit. If the market is there, a cheerleader ought to take advantage. When I have attended college athletic competitions, I have noticed a higher number of male cheerleaders than at any other level.

The institution of high school cheerleading seems to thrive due to taxpayers wanting to indulge in vicarious living. For some, high school was the peak of their lives. To be able to relive those times through a younger person provides an opportunity to reinforce a diluted form of a memory. People from all subcultures like to have the decisions that they made in life reaffirmed. Seeing local youngsters allows a certain part of the adult audience to go back in time while also outwardly supporting their own kid or their neighbor’s kid. I find this to be creepy.

Friends Are Preferable To Team Mates

The shirt implies that team mates are automatically friends. Humans are too varied for such a blanket statement to be true. Then again, if the definition of a friend is rendered meaningless to the point that anyone who is not actively an enemy then I suppose the statement is possible.

I would prefer to not redefine what a friend is because I have a number of true, quality friends. None of them, to the best of my knowledge, have ever been cheerleaders. So it goes. I am not opposed to befriending a cheerleader, but so far it just has not happened.

I can not even recall if I have ever been team mates with any of my friends in an organized setting. Informal teams are much more fun to me. I have been team mates, and opposition, of countless donors and friends. It is just a part of the fun of informal games. Let’s be real; friendship is much more valuable than being team mates. Each individual friend is more interesting and special than whichever teams into which we decide to split. To think about in parlance of this shirt, I would state that “Friends are Team Mates in addition to being Friends, but being Team Mates does not matter outside the game at present”.

The Free Shirt Archive is a celebration of friendship. I look at this site as nothing less than as a way to acknowledge that my friends have given me material gifts in addition to the greatest gift of friendship over time. I wear these shirts not just for myself, but also to demonstrate to my friends that I appreciate what they do for me. Not doing so would be dishonorable. If by mentioning them on a website means that I provide donors with the benefit that other people know that they are generous, I suppose that is a small repayment. I like to think, though, that I do more to better their lives than by merely mentioning them on a website. If not, I have some extra work to do.

Junga For Judge

Archivist — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:08:46 +0000

Judge Lest Ye Be Elected Judge

After serving 10+ years as a public defender, Attorney Christopher T. Junga ⇒ earned the opportunity to run unopposed to represent the Republican party in the race for one of seventeen judgeships of the county’s Common Pleas Court General Division ⇒. Junga then ran against the incumbent Democrat Judge Laurel Beatty ⇒ on the November 2, 2010 Franklin Country (Ohio) General Election Ballot. Both candidates decried judicial activism ⇒ during their campaigns.

Junga received 83,241 votes (page 3) ⇒. That amount, however, accounted for only 32% of the total ⇒. Beatty was victorious. Her second term started on January 6th, 2011 and will conclude on the same day in year 2017.

Missed Opportunity

Neither the race nor the General Election had a ballot cast by me. I failed in my duties as a citizen. There is no excuse, it just did not happen. I missed my chance to vote for Junga. I only cast non-partisan ballots during primaries, so I was bound to miss the first opportunity to vote for him on principle.

They Do Not Even Pretend To Want My Vote

Shirts from political campaigns that end up on this site have yet to be from candidates that win. I think a reason is that I also do not receive shirts from incumbents that already hold the office. The other is that I am too little of a person with far too few dollars to target even though I operate a website that could reach some people.

No candidate nor their election committee has ever directly given me a promotional shirt. My donations are from those people that are deemed worthy. Those worthy people do not get the shirt to me until after the results have been determined. Fortunately, I do not mind receiving shirts after the campaign has concluded. I do not have to worry about the appearance of endorsement.

Giant Eagle {Team Benefits}

Archivist — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:45:42 +0000

Big Bird

Giant Eagle is a supermarket chain of around 200 locations mostly within Western Pennsylvania and Northeastern Ohio. The chain has made some inroads into other parts of those two states, West Virginia and Maryland. A few of the stores are designated as Market Districts which are quite large and have expanded selection and expanded departments to match. Giant Eagle also operates Get-Go gas stations and a string of Valu King ⇒ discount supermarkets that was repurposed from the company’s acquisition of Tamco {Safety Pride}.

As a customer, I only think of Giant Eagle as a grocery store. I get the impression that company brass want the company thought of as something more considering how many non-food items like gift cards, pharmaceuticals, and flowers are given prime placement. Try as Giant Eagle might, I will continue to spend my money at various businesses.

I have lived in markets where Giant Eagle was the dominant grocery store, and also in markets where there is competition. Early on, it was my only reference. Later on, I was able to see that the selection tends to include a wider variety of the fewer products that they stock. For example, Giant Eagle will either have 10 varieties of quinoa or 0.

Lack Thereof

Most Giant Eagle stores are corporate owned and employ non-union labor, but there do exist some franchised stores and also some stores that have unionized labor. This particular “team benefit” was provided to Donor & Receiver Brian* at a corporate-owned, non-union Giant Eagle. This shirt was not the only team benefit that he received, but it was the only benefit that he ever successfully donated to me. He later offered me his uniforms of which I had no interest in wearing to his chagrin.

There were no such team benefits at the unionized franchise store I worked at as a stock clerk and bagger. I understand that the industry standard for supermarket profit margin is about 2%, but I would have liked to received some sort of promotional material from the franchisee beyond a paycheck. The union that represented the workers at that store was United Food and Commercial Workers Union ⇒. There was never a strike or a worthwhile collective bargaining agreement during my time there; I was not even able to benefit from being a “part of the union team” or the dues I had to pay either.

Highlights

One Saturday, all employees were given the option to donate blood while on the clock. I took that option and in so doing was entered in a contest to win a 13″ color television. I won. The television is somewhere in my parents’ basement.

Rodney was a co-worker of mine that went out with quite the display of insubordination. Had Rodney simply refused to clean up some gum on the floor with more raspberries than were on sale in the produce department one time his quitting would have been garden variety. Rodney delivered the repetition word for word, calmly, and firmly inches from the general manager’s face. The manager was the type of manager that liked to rule by intimidation and passive-aggressive commenting. Rodney returning fire was the strongest display of minerals I saw while I worked there. The manager ended up cleaning the gum after Rodney walked away. When I quit, I just left a two-week written notice.

Divi Resorts

Archivist — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:24:00 +0000

Last Resort

Divi Resorts ⇒ (“Divi”) is a resort operator with a sales arm to direct tourist to their resorts throughout the Caribbean. Divi is an American company based in North Carolina with European and South American sales offices. The company has three locations within Aruba ⇒. At the time of the aforementioned honeymoon, Divi was only offering two.

I was informed that the design on this shirt was recycled for each destination. I found that to be a sensible design decision because the image shown is more of a collage of generic tropical tourism potential rather than anything specific to any particular Caribbean island. I enjoy the disproportionate sizes of the different stuff with each other and how colorful all of the things are.

One Happy Island

Aruba is a 69 sq miles/178 sq km island in the Caribbean Sea that is located North of Venezuela and West of Curacao. Originally a Spanish colony, the island became a Dutch colony in the 17th Century. The capital and largest city on the island is Oranjestad. As a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Arubans have Dutch citizenship and local self-determination within the Dutch Constitutional Monarchy. The Netherlands is responsible for militarily protection and international representation of last resort. Papiamento is the language of many of the people, Dutch is the language of official business, and other languages that are spoken by tourists will have some level of use so as to extract florins from those tourists. If considered on its own, Aruba is tied for the 168th largest economy in the world in size, but is 32nd per capita due to the low number of citizens serving the profitable tourism industry.

Acquisition

Donor & Donor Jess* and Donor Tony* got married and went to Aruba for their honeymoon. They were provided with this shirt at a requisite meeting with the resort agency. I was informed that I was immediately thought of as a person willing to wear this shirt upon their return home. Neither of them had any interest in having a memento of the time that a company forced them to sit through a presentation while on a vacation.

Limits Of Mentionabilty

There are a lot of small details about this shirt that may or may not be worth mentioning. In order to keep this dossier concise, I have decided against rambling on about details that would only serve to extend the length of this explanation.

Now, I know that this site revels in detailed reflection of minor stuff. It is not that I want to deprive anyone of detail that they crave, but that I want to maintain the quality of the detail that I provide to the reader. I am not convinced that reporting on a vacation that I did not go on would be germane. To cover each of the different items in the image would be to enumerate a bunch of random ideas about leisure. Discussing other locations that Divi Resorts operates at the level to which I considered Aruba would be over the top.

Subway {I Make This Look Easy, Don’t I?}

Archivist — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:18:01 +0000

Doctor’s Associates

Subway ⇒ is a chain of fast food restaurants that sell submarine sandwiches ⇒. Subs are relatively healthier than other popular food, but cookies, chips, and pop are usually also sold as well. Most locations are franchises of Doctor’s Associates Incorporated, though there are a few corporate shops. McDonald’s ⇒ is associated as Americana because that chain had so many locations during the post-WWII boom that sold low quality food at a low price. Subway, however, overtook the burger chain for number of fast food locations worldwide in 2010. I might not want to be a franchisee for either chain considering that both have so many locations.

I often eat at Subway these days. I find that, of available options around where I live, I can extract the most energy for the fewest dollars while covering the shortest distance to acquire the food by getting a sub. This habit increases to practically everyday whenever the $5 Footlong promotion ⇒ is in effect. Different markets in American have different subs that are always on the five dollar menu. Unfortunately, my preferred Turkey sub is regularly priced higher so I have to take advantage of the sale when it occurs.

Sandwich Artist

I had stopped eating at Subway after working as a “Sandwich Artist” for a couple weeks. That title should not have been bestowed upon me because I did not feel that I was expressing myself through the franchisee’s stock ingredients and the customer’s stated preferences.

In short, working a fast food job sucks. The work that I was allowed to perform was boring, repetitive, and standardized. Some customers are liable to be aggressive when they are hungry. Other customers will unfortunately disrespect anyone behind the counter for having a lack of occupational prestige. At least I gave it a try to experience how not for me the job was.

Gilbert Gottfried

The shirt was provided to employees for compulsory wear to coincide with the launch of an advertising campaign. At least one television commercial commercial that featured the shadow puppet seen on the shirt going from scene to scene offering commentary. I only recall ever seeing one of the ads on television one time. I can assure the reader that there was in-store promotional material that featured the shadow puppet as well. The campaign was far less successful than the Jared Fogle ⇒ or $5 Footlongs campaigns that followed.

The shadow puppet was voiced by stand-up comedian and voice-over speaker Gilbert Gottfried ⇒. Gottfried is best known for talking in a loud voice ⇒ in various entertainment products such as Saturday Night Live ⇒, the late 90s early 2000s version of Hollywood Squares ⇒, USA Up All Night ⇒, and AFLAC commercials ⇒.

Within the lore of these sites, however, Gottfried is fondly remembered for the multiple typos I made referring to him as Gilberry Goodman. These typos incited Donor, Receiver, & Proofreader Dale*‘s ire to the point that he sent me an email highlighting this error in strong terms. Dale’s response remains the most authentically exasperated communication ever directed towards me. I have no idea how I got that name in my head. As far as I know, there is not a real Gilberry Goodman of note or otherwise.

It’s So Easy

The shadow puppet on the shirt makes a statement in the form of a question that “I make this look easy, don’t I?”. Possibly. I am not sure what the shadow puppet is referring to in this instance as there is not much that puppet is doing other than existing withing a border amongst corporate logos and talking.

Perhaps we are supposed to be like Machiavelli interpreting the shadows in Plato’s Cave as reality? Maybe there is some food and drink on the side? More likely, the shadow puppet was an attempt to establish a nationally-recognized mascot that exuded confidence and dished out sarcastic humor. In that sense, it looks quite difficult because most of the other mascots that are targeted to Americans attempt to do the same thing. A crowded marketplace leaves little room for growth.

Reclassification

When this shirt was provided to me it was with the understanding that I was to wear this shirt at least a few times at work. Being forced to do anything is inherently not free. A compulsory wearing shall rightfully earn an otherwise positively appraised shirt a Less Than Free Shirt Archive classification.

Valley National Gases, Inc.

Archivist — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:01:01 +0000

Now You’re Cooking With Gas

Valley National Gasses, Inc. (“Valley National”) was an industrial gas and a specialty gas wholesaler. To be clear, Valley sold gasses such as carbon dioxide for fountain pop, medical oxygen, helium for ballons, and argon for conducting experiments. The company operated in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic United States.

The company was acquired by Matheson Tri-Gas ⇒ and remade into a division and renamed to Matheson Valley ⇒. Matheson Tri-Gas is an American subsidiary of the Japanese company Taiyo Nippon Sanso ⇒.

I have seen Valley National products out in the wild. Being that most gasses do not advertise themselves, I had rely upon my heightened sense of awareness after receiving this shirt to take notice of Valley National stickers. The stickers were placed on various gas canisters in places such as hospitals, restaurants, and universities.

Tiny Tim & Barry White

The most enthusiastic I have ever been about gas that Valley National sold is making my voice high-pitched from helium balloons. Even then, I was only so enthusiastic even as a kid. Sulfur hexafloride will make a voice as low as helium makes it high, but can also asphyxiate someone that inhales too much. So do not do it.

(Once) They Were Eagles

Other people in real life seem to respond positively to this shirt’s design despite usually not being familiar with the company. With other popular shirt designs, I think that familiarity with the subject of the shirt design is part of what resonates with people. In this instance, that reason can not partially explain what people like. My hypothesis is either the amount of embroidery or eagle iconography what gets people excited about this design.

Swap-A-Palooza

This shirt was acquired at a Swap-A-Palooza along with some other shirts. Swap-A-Paloozas are inherently less than free because there is an expectation that a participant should give as well as take.

The student group that organized the group also provided sewing machines with which to create frankenshirts. I have no interest in combining shirts before I can understand the meaning of and experience life within each individual shirt.

Your Place Restaurants

Archivist — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:03:01 +0000

You Can Tell Everybody This Is Your Place

Your Place Restaurant & Pub ⇒ is a regional series of establishments that sell food and spirits. There are six locations throughout South Eastern Pennsylvania. Based upon the menu ⇒, the restaurant food is as would be expected from a general local pub with the addition of being able to ship stromboli. The beer selection is targeted to those that only wish to drink American.

It appears that this shirt features an old logo. I kind of prefer this logo to the new logo featuring a “YP” in front of a yellow flag that is within a circle. The old logo is simpler and more easily understood because the old logo is just a wordmark. I have to wonder why Your Place decided to change logos considering that the old logo stood on its own.

My Place

I have no intention of ever having my own place as in running my own pub. The responsibility involved with owning either establishment seems higher than any enjoyment that I would get out operating my place. I am neither a cook, an accountant, nor a bartender so I would either have to learn or pay other people to perform those tasks. Furthermore, I would feel guilty about paying a tipping wage to stay competitive.

Some may think that the Free Shirt Archive and subsites is, in effect, “my place”. I suppose that websites can be thought of location in a sense. I do not consider this series of sites to be my place, though. Sure, I own it and allow people in and it is possible to conduct business online. I think of this site as an expression of an idea that happens to have a URL.

My physical residence feels more like my place than anything else. Home is awesome because I am able to relax there. Protection from the elements and closet space also comes in handy to execute my Free Shirt Archive idea. For my own privacy and sanity, however, I would rather that random people who are still strangers not loiter or even randomly arrive at my place.

Swap-A-Palooza

This shirt was obtained through a Swap-A-Palooza. A student group set up a number of tables and expected people to bring in clothing. Such an expectation is hardly free. As such, this shirt must be classified as part of the Less Than Free Shirt Archive

Another hope that the student group that operated the Swap-A-Palooza had was that those who participated would use the provided sewing machines to create new frankenshirts from the available material. I did not take them up on this opportunity in part because I prefer to wear clothing whole as originally intended. Additionally, if I had a preference for remixing, then I would have learned how to properly and efficiently use a sewing machine.

Saint Vincent

Archivist — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:50:00 +0000

Get Well Soon

Saint Vincent Health Center ⇒ is a hospital with 456 beds located in Erie, Pennsylvania. The hospital is church-owned by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania ⇒. According to the hospital’s website, Saint Vincent accepts all ills while specializing in “Cancer, Heart, Neurosciences, Orthopedics, Primary Care, and Womens’ Health”.

“We know how to treat people” is printed about the name on this shirt’s design. I like this particular slogan because it has both medical and ethical meanings. I have never been injured or sick in Erie so I do not have experience with Saint Vincent. Still I give hospitals the benefit of the doubt.

There are multiple Saint Vincents to whom this particular hospital might be dedicated. I suspect that Saint Vincent of Saragossa ⇒ is the saint so honored due to his fame. There are, however, numerous saints with the same name ⇒ that the dedication could be directed towards. Questioning an employee on the telephone did not yield an answer.

Swap-A-Palooza

This shirt is properly categorized within the Less Than Free Shirt Archive because it was acquired at a Swap-A-Palooza. The expectation of the event is that a participant should donate some of their own shirts in order to take from what other people have donated. This is all well and good, but my donations of shirts that I had bought years before prohibits this, and a few other shirts, that I got from the same event from being free.

Furthermore, the shirts are to be remixed with other shirts to create a new shirt. I have neither the sewing skills nor the desire to change original garments. The archives seek an understanding of the original shirts on their own merit and within my life. Rushing to create a frankenshirt seems rash unless and until the originals can be considered.

Let’s Do What Mary And Joseph Did Without The Kid

There are other hospitals named in honor of Saint Vincent besides this particular location in Erie. I would not know that going through site statistics. Oftentimes, random web surfers have somehow landed at this page the search strings are for a couple of other sources. I wish to officially acknowledge that this shirt has nothing to do with either of those topics.

Saint Vincent de Paul societies ⇒ are known for helping the poor through a number of different methods in the example of Saint Vincent de Paul ⇒. The most visible expression of their work are the society operated stores found in many cities. The stores are often used by the kind as place to donate old stuff and the cruel to find stuff to buy low and then sell high online.

There is also indie singer-songwriter named Annie Clark goes by the stage name St. Vincent ⇒. She has released a few albums and goes on tours.

ESPN Classic

Archivist — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:51:37 +0000

Goal Through The Proper Channels

ESPN Classic (“Classic”) is a branding that applies to a number of cable television channels throughout the world that air sports-related programming. There are Classic networks in Canada (through TSN ⇒), throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa that rerun country-appropriate archived game broadcasts The American version currently only shows reruns of Entertainment and Sports Programming Network ⇒ (“ESPN”) programming. This mirrors other networks such as Cable News Network ⇒ that are able to do things straight internationally, but are financially under pressure to reinforce the bubble that American audiences want to believe.

Classic was created as a channel when the former Classic Sports Network (“CSN”) was merged into ESPN in 2005. In much the same way, the channel’s logo as printed on this shirt was also a combination of the two logs. The anonymity of the celebrating athlete within the “C” is a welcome change from other free shirts that often attempt to personalize human figures.

TV Party Tonight

I never have had personal access to Classic. By far my clearest memories of Classic are of watching Cheap Seats ⇒ over at Donor & Receiver Nick*‘s. Though the show was clearly a sports-related rip-off of Mystery Science Theater 3000 ⇒, some of the stuff that the Sklar brothers would watch was amusing even on mute. For a show that only lasted four seasons, Cheap Seats sure seemed to have quite a bit of airtime.

The memory that I want to have, but have not been able to experience so far, is of a rebroadcasted Rocky Marciano prize fight filmed from way back in the stands with a voiceover of a Marciano impersonator. Donor & Receiver Brian* informed me that he watched such a thing on Classic and that he would have called me at that moment had it not been very likely that I would have been sleeping. I hope that I have not over-hyped the actual episode with my imagination. I do hope one day to see this video, but I admit that I lose hope as the years grow long.

Fun On The Margins

Sports leagues have undertaken making their own channels to show archived games to die-hard historical fans willing to pay to watch. This setup probably works better for fans of individual sports, and it may provide additional funds for the leagues in time. This demand will probably always remain niche.

Entertainment at the edge of sports is easier for me to get into than full rebroadcasts. I, for one, would prefer to watch NFL Films of the Facenda and Spence era ⇒, former New York Rangers of the National Hockey League ⇒ do Vidal Sassoon commercials ⇒ or former Major League Baseball player George Brett of the Kansas City Royals discuss… “stuff” with a coupe of teammates ⇒ than many sporting contests after those events occur. Sports is certainly not the only thing that generates amusements at the margin of its activity, but everything else is not germane to this free shirt. Classic is not the station that would serve me this type of content. Fortunately, the Web is around to host such content to my delight.

Beyond, though including, sports programming of the past I like the way that color television shot on film from earlier decades looks compared to the super clean and amazingly high definition of today as an aesthetic. I do not mean to imply that the programming in general was better back then or now. What I do mean is that imperfections and experimentation can have a certain beauty to it that clear and unambiguous representations do not have as often.

Inner Circle Pizza

Archivist — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:00:46 +0000

Bad Boys, What Are You Going To Do When They Come For You?

Inner Circle Pizza is a chain of independently owned and operated bar-restaurants in the Youngstown, Ohio area. I have patronized some of the locations a few times over many years. I can fondly recall playing air hockey at one location until they got rid of the table, drinking pineapple juice after a couple of ultimate frisbee games at another, and going other times just to eat at a couple more.

I also remember the one time that I tried applying to one of the location I was not allowed to take the application outside of the building. Either a manager or someone that wanted to be in management gave me attitude for walking towards the door. I got the message that at least one guy did not want to hire me. Given the choice between not getting the job if I provided incomplete information on the application or losing self-respect if I let this guy talk to me like that, I decided to give attitude right back and never patronize that particular Inner Circle again.

On A Chicken Wing And A Prayer

Among the food that I have consumed at an Inner Circle have been the chicken wings that are proclaimed to be hot by the design. I would state that my memory is that that their wings can taste hot, and that even the mild wings do taste fresh from the kitchen. To be fair, it has been years since I last ate Inner Circle wings. The hottest wings that are sold in the same market, however, are no doubt sold by Quaker Steak and Lube ⇒.

It might seem odd that a pizza place would be promoting their wings. This is one of those cases where a local business finds an additional niche after the business is named.

Pizza is part of the name of the business. The pizza is OK.

Armpit Stain

Perhaps the most noticeable feature of this shirt are the confusing dark grey and red stains that only appear at both armpits. These stains have stubbornly resisted efforts towards removal. I have no idea what the grey stains are from. As far as I know, people do not sweat in grey colored sweat. The red stains might be blood, but might also not be.

Donor, Receiver, & Proofreader Dale* directly addressed the stains upon donation with the same confusion with which I now communicate. It must be noted that Dale’s other donations and other clothing do not have these stains. Though he also does not know the context nor constitution of the stains, he does know the owner previous to him of this shirt. We both consider that two previous owners is either responsible or knows the story. That person, however, is not spilling the beans on this issue.

Do not get any ideas. My preference is against stains. Nonetheless, I accepted this donation because the location of these particular stains minimize their exposure. Considering that I have already accepted a shirt with weird stains, there would be nothing conceptually interesting with receiving another stained shirt.