Thousands of snow geese making a pit stop in the St. Louis area

LINCOLN COUNTY?•?Drivers on Highway 79 along the Mississippi River bottoms might mistake the multitude of geese for leftover snow.

But if they look closely, the white stuff is moving like a wave.

Snow geese are congregating in the St. Louis area in record numbers, driven southeast by heavy snow in northern and western Missouri where they usually stop over on the way back to their nesting grounds in the arctic tundra.

In some cases, as many as 50,000 of them have converged on a single field, local experts said.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/224dbf32-fb03-51b3-9e83-256d1a695fb6.html

How companies force ‘emotional labor’ on low-wage workers

A Starbucks barista’s job is more than just serving coffee. She also needs to be polite, even friendly, to the customers. If she does her job correctly, then maybe the customer will walk away feeling like the barista was actually happy to serve him—that it was not only her job, but a genuine pleasure. In many jobs, that sort of projected enthusiasm may just be a way of earning some additional tips on top of the employee’s base pay. But in other lines of work—including the occupations which fuel America’s growing low-wage service sector—proper emotional responses are mandatory.

The sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild coined the term “emotional labor” in her 1983 book, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, where she described it as ”management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display … sold for a wage.” The term can apply to work in a variety of professions, from escorts to doctors, but it is most often used in reference to the sort of attitude management which occurs in low-wage service sector jobs. Josh Eidelson and Timothy Noah recently discussed two prominent examples in articles for The Nation and The New Republic.

In The Nation, Eidelson highlights Starbucks’ famous “come together” cups as a perfect example of emotional labor. When the CEO of Starbucks required that DC area employees write “come together” on every paper Starbucks cup served until the fiscal cliff negotiations were over, writes Eidelson, he was forcing those workers to “act out a part—from speaking from a company script, to smiling despite verbal abuse or physical pain, to urging that Congress embrace a deal that could imperil their retirement.”

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/01/how-companies-force-emotional-labor-on-low-wage-service-workers/

March 9th is Genealogy Day

But I am sure that for many that would be everyday.

Match 9th is National Meatball Day

March 8, 1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

The origin of the NYSE can be traced to May 17, 1792, when the Buttonwood Agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street.[10] On March 8, 1817, the organization drafted a constitution and renamed itself the "New York Stock & Exchange Board." Anthony Stockholm was elected the Exchange's first president.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Stock_Exchange

March 8, 1924 Castle Gate Mine disaster

The Castle Gate mine disaster occurred on March 8, 1924, in a coal mine near the town of Castle Gate, Utah (now dismantled), located approximately 90 miles (140 km) southeast of Salt Lake City. All of the 171 men working in the mine were killed in the series of three violent explosions. One worker, the leader of the rescue crew, died from carbon monoxide inhalation while attempting to reach the victims shortly after the explosion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Gate_mine_disaster

March 8, 1782 Gnadenhutten massacre takes place at Gnadenhutten, Ohio

The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing on March 8, 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, of 96 Christian Lenape (Delaware) by colonial American militia from Pennsylvania. The militia attacked Lenape at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhütten, Ohio.

The site of the village has been preserved. A reconstructed mission house and cooper's house were built there, and a monument to the dead was erected. The burial mound is marked and has been maintained on the site. The village site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In an unrelated event in 1755 during the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years War), Native Americans allied with the French massacred 11 missionaries and converted Munsee Lenape at a Moravian mission village in Pennsylvania that bore the same name. The term Gnadenhutten massacre usually applies only to the 1782 event in Ohio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnadenhutten_massacre

March 8: National Peanut Cluster Day

8 injuries reported in Granite City steel plant explosion

GRANITE CITY, Ill. (KMOV) – At least eight people were injured in an explosion at the American Steel Plant in Granite City Thursday morning.

The explosion was reported at 8:11 a.m. at the plant, located at 1001 Niedringhaus Avenue.

Two people were being treated at Gateway Regional Medical Center, while two others were taken to Gateway then airlifted Mercy Hospital in St. Louis.

Officials said two more people were airlifted from the scene to a local hospital, and at least two were transported by ambulance to Gateway.

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Explosion-reported-at-a-Granite-City-steel-plant-195862931.html

JCPenney Is Quietly Firing More Store Employees After A 'Secret Broadcast'

JCPenney is quietly eliminating more positions in its stores company-wide, sources familiar with the matter told us.

Store managers watched a "secret broadcast" on Tuesday afternoon, where they were informed that stores must prepare to "work harder with less" in 2013.

"Service Leaders," "administrative assistants," and "office/cash room associates" are being cut from the hierarchy, effective on April 5, sources told us.

There's no word yet on exactly how many people the cuts will affect, and there has been no official announcement from JCPenney. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jcpenney-quietly-firing-more-store-140801863.html