Watercooler Stories

Banker hands out $60M to workers

MIAMI, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Past and present employees of Miami banker Leonard Abess Jr. say they were surprised when he gave his workers $60 million of his own money.

Abess passed out the $60 million to 399 current staff members and 72 former employees after selling his majority stake in National Bancshares, The Miami Herald reported.

The bonuses exceeded more than $100,000 in certain cases.

''I retired seven years ago, and all of a sudden I get this wonderful letter and phone call,'' Evelyn J. Budde, a former City National Bank of Florida vice president, said.

''I was shocked,'' said William Perry, another former vice president who spent more than 43 years working his way up the executive ladder after being hired as a janitor.

Abess, who sold his 83 percent stake to the Caja Madrid banking group for $927 million in November, said it was a way of giving back to his loyal workers.

''Those people who joined me and stayed with me at the bank with no promise of equity -- I always thought some day I'm going to surprise them,'' he told the Herald.

Utah teens hold anti-Valentine's Day party

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Teenagers taking part in an anti-Valentine's Day party in Salt Lake City, Utah, said they oppose the holiday more than the idea of love.

Party attendee Fay Fay Ye, 16, said the young people who gathered Saturday at Salt Lake City's Whitmore Library were against celebrating a commercialized holiday that confines the expression of love to a single day, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"It's not that we're against the idea of showing love," said Ye, who helped organize the event, which included the sharing of anti-love poems and the gleeful destruction of candy hearts and heart-shaped cookies.

Attendee Dan Turchenko, 17, said such traditional Valentine's Day gifts are part of the mass packaging of the holiday to consumers.

"It's just like pre-packaged romance, you know ... you go out and buy it from a store and it means nothing," he told the Tribune.

New fashion buzz words for hard times

NEW YORK, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- The top fashion buzzwords during the current time of economic hardship are Chiconomics and Michelle Obama, or so says the Global Language Monitor.

"The fashion world is affected by the global economic meltdown like everyone else this year and are reflected in this season's buzzwords like Chiconomics and Recessionist," said Millie Payack, the monitor's fashion correspondent. "Another significant influence is, of course, First Lady Michele Obama, who is subject of vast Internet and Blogosphere buzz."

The monitor released a list of 30 buzzwords timed for New York Fashion Week. While many of the buzz words have a timeless quality, like Gladiator, Recessionista at No. 6 seems geared to the downturn.

Chiconomics is defined as the drive to be chic remaining strong even in hard times.

Some other buzz words may have new connotations. Metallic, this year, is more about copper and pewter than silver and gold.

Young Brits: Parents swear too much

LONDON, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- A survey of British 11-year-olds finds most have heard their parents swearing and 40 percent say they use bad language themselves.

Ninety percent of the 3,000 youngsters questioned said their parents swear in front of them and almost as large a percentage said the older generation and celebrities who cuss in public are setting a bad example, The Daily Telegraph reported. But only one-third said they have asked their parents to stop.

Peter Foot, chairman of the Campaign for Courtesy, said parents must start thinking about what they are teaching their children.

"We need parents to be the ones to put their children right before they ever get to school with 'please' and 'thank yous,' rather than leaving it to teachers," he said. "But this is awful, appalling really. There are some age groups now who can't say a single sentence without the F-word in it."

The survey was done by youngpoll.com.