Everybody’s business

Chico’s Mervyn’s safe
Even though Mervyn’s is closing stores across the Northwest, the Chico store is safe for now.

The Hayward-based company announced last week that it will close 20 stores in Washington, Oregon and Salt Lake City by February 2007. Some stores will be closed by the end of this March.

It’s the second round of closings for the chain, which in September revealed that it would close 62 stores by February so it could focus on its locations in the West and Southwest.

Chico, probably, counts as being in the West.

Target unloaded Mervyn’s last year for $1.65 billion.

Good trade
The ARC Trading Company, the antique store run by the ARC of Butte County, is expanding its consignment area.

“We are very excited about the expansion, ATC Manager Charles Williams stated in a press release. “A big area is going to be dedicated just to music: Large and small musical instruments, records, rare sheet music and all kinds of unique collectibles.”

With an extra 750 feet being added to the shop at 1900 Park Ave., they’re looking for new consignment vendors to offer goods for sale on-site or via eBay.

The profits go toward the Family Support Programs of the ARC.

Don’t meet me at 420
I was hanging out in Oxford Suites over the weekend when the parties with whom I was visiting noticed that there is no Room 420 in that establishment. The fourth floor skips right over it, much like some hotels supposedly leave off the 13th floor out of superstition. Are they worried that marijuana-lovers, whose vocabulary includes those three numbers, will book the room and trash the joint despite pot’s presumed propensity for mellowing one out?

We asked the desk clerk, a nice young man who giggled nervously with one eye on the older, managerial-looking worker behind the counter. “No particular reason,” he said.

I did hear that the Grateful Dead stayed in Room 420 whenever the band traveled, but that’s an urban legend, according to Snopes.com.

You’re chance too win
In honor of my fellow grammar, spelling and punctuation nerds out there, I’d like to propose a contest: As you go about your business in Butte County, take note of the various misspellings, misplaced apostrophes and other abuses of the English language that makes those who care writhe in intellectual pain. You’ll find them on signs and billboards, in store windows, on fliers and in newsletters and elsewhere in the public eye. E-mail me your observations.

I will be the sole judge and my mighty gavel of grammar will determine the champion. I will take into consideration the severity of the error, its prominence and permanence, any humorous results and other criteria to determined by me at my discretion. Anyone who has brought my own errors to my attention in the past will be automatically disqualified.

Prizes will be scraped up from in and around my desk, and could include: a trial-size packet of Folgers Flavors Cinnamon Swirl; a paper Krispy Kreme hat; a Nair press kit with assorted hair-removing products and a commemorative medallion from the funeral of Assemblyman Bernie Richter, R—Chico.

The contest deadline, is, oh, I dunno … Feb. 13 at 9 a.m.