Hey, Jeff... I have a bit of info about the whole Wal-Mart/walker connection...  but first, you shouldn't feel bad about just getting around to "Fight Club" -- I still haven't seen it, and I _am_ one of those surreal art-house flick fans. I think I've been overly intimidated by the fact that the DVD was universally praised for having about 80 hours of extras or some such bullshit -- I always feel like I haven't gotten my rental money's worth until I've seen everything on the disc (including all the menu animations and such), and I guess I just haven't had an uninterrupted week that I could devote to one single fucking movie. Either that, or the "IKEA Boy" taunt would hit a little too close to home (as I look around my living room at about a dozen pieces of crappy laminated RTA furniture). But now that it has the WVSR Seal of Approval, I guess I'll have to check it out. Anyway, my brother works as an insurance claims adjuster processing Workers Comp claims -- which is a surefire way to generally sour you on humanity, what with on the one hand employers trying to deny benefits to guys who shatter their spines or get caught up in giant shredding machinery; and on the other hand lying malcontents who ring in notorious ambulance-chasing doctors and lawyers to bolster claims that their ingrown toenails entitle them to a year off with pay -- and in this job, he's had to adjucate a lot of claims against Wal-Mart. What he told me is that fairly often, the gimps at the front of the store didn't start off that way -- they're formerly healthy (fairly healthy, at least) employees who get hurt on the job. For example, take some 67-year-old woman who throws out her back trying to lift a carton that she really has no business lifting. To be a WM floor clerk, you have to be able to lift boxes -- it's a documented job requirement. Bad back = no lifting = inability to work = disability payment.  But au contraire, say the Waltons (who only have gotten to occupy 5 of the top 10 slots on the Forbes 400 by virtue of their attorneys' ability to find & exploit such loopholes). You have to use a walker to even stand up, so you say you certainly can't lift anything anymore? We'll transfer you to our "greeter" position, where no lifting is required. Therefore, you can still work = so you don't lose your job here because of your disability = and so we don't have to pay _anything_ on your wage claim. This is fucking brilliant...in the same sick way the Borgias were brilliant.  Don't know whether this is connected to the NOW/ADA screed or not, but it's still pretty shoddy practice, and is an (informally) acknowledged truth in the insurance industry. Actually, most of the insurance bigwigs think it's the greatest advance in labor relations since the cat-o'-nine-tails. Expect to see McDonald's adopting this policy any day now, forcing you to run a gauntlet of crippled burn victims before you can get your Happy McMeal.  I don't see why these mega-employers don't force their pet Members of Congress to reinstitute slavery and just get it over with. Do it now, while Strom Thurmond can still introduce the bill! Imagine the resultant sloganeering -- "At Wal-Mart, you'll get to work seven days a week even if you're crippled, AND we'll give you a brand-new pair of shoes (factory seconds, of course) every other year!" Jeff S