Yeah well ... I passed at the top bottom 2% of mine class. Got 2 whole tin gold leafs for it too. It was very hard!

Sheesh, I didn't know you did so well.... I know some who didn't even get in the bottom 1%.

Like tha swab who become shark food.  He wur suppose ter wipe up a bit o' pee off tha plank [blast them nervous plank walkers] n' he slipped n 'e falled in.

Aaaarggghhh.

Oh man....I don't know how I could function without having stores open until 11pm, that's just madness.

It'll get that way here soon enough, what with retailers lobbying govt to extend trading hours across the board.

Thing is, that's suburban stores and larger country town that stay open 'til 9.00pm... the capital cities never close down these days.

Anything that would/could attract a tourist dollar in capital cities is open 24/7 363 days a year... 364 on a leap year.

Me, I haven't been in Brisbane [out state capital] for almost 10 years, except once last week, and only then to attend a lawyer's appointment with my son's significant other half as moral support.  Don't like big cities, myself, so I avoid them like the plague whenever possible.

I just can't understand how the govt can dictate what a business's hours can be. Sounds kinda communist/socialist to me. How is anyone supposed to get any shopping done after work if the stores close at the same time people get off? Retarded.

The Internet!  beats standing in line!

They use to do it here (and in some places they still do).  They are called Blue Laws and for the longest time, retailers were not allowed to open on Sunday and certain holidays.  What changed was the retailers got greedy and wanted more sales! (But of course that was pre-Internet, so they never stopped to think that if ALL stores were closed on Sunday, they were not losing sales).

Even the free market regulates store hours sometimes.   All the farmers' markets in my area, you have to open shop at exactly 8am and close at exactly 12pm, to be fair to everybody.  And that's even if you're sold out at 10--you still have to remain open until 12.  Otherwise people would be trying to open shop at 6am to try & increase sales, and soon they're sold out at 8am.  Then everybody else feels the pressure to be there at 6am, and you've pretty much screwed up the whole market.

Labor unions curtail the work hours of their members, even if the workers want to work longer hours (again, in an attempt to out-compete).  You have to show up to work at 8 and leave at 5. 

And then in athletics, the regulatory commissions (like the NCAA) forbid you from holding practice out-of-season.  Otherwise coaches would be holding 2-a-days the whole off-season and stress everybody out, in an attempt to be competitive.  And the student-athletes wouldn't be getting an education. 

Regulating the markets to cut back hours is not automatically a bad thing in this instance.  And it's arguable as to what exactly constitutes a "free market" or even if it's a good thing 100% of the time.

I avoid lawyers like the plague whenever possible.

Q: What happens when a lawyer takes Viagra?
A: He gets taller

Q: Why to lawyers wear neckties?
A: To keep the foreskin from crawling up their chins.

CarGuy made a funny.

It has something to do with protecting the small traders from the giant retailers who can afford to pay staff to operate 24/7.  However, it usually applies only in regional areas where there is little competition and small competitors don't stand an earthly against the major chains.  In larger cities there are few trade restrictions and it's more or less a free for all.

Oh there's never an issue with that, well not in the major cities and surrounding precincts... and in the country LOL, they're all in bed by 8.00pm anyway, so it don't matter to them if the stores are open 'til midnight, closed at 5.30pm or open all hours.

@ CarGuy.... that's rude, about the lawyers, but I like it.

I know this banker who likes to go horse riding on weekends, so I asked him: "what's the only animal in the world with an arse hole half way along its back?"

He replied: "I don't know."

So I told him: "A banker's horse."

Now that's rude ... too. Guess you told him huh.

You guys are really hurting my feelings.   You don't know what I do for a living.   I'm going to need your names and contact information.

Okay

Okay, so are you gonna tell us?

Um, if I sent it you'd have to disappear soon thereafter.

It is highly hush hush.