On the Street

Hey, I Know That Guy: When President Bush spoke Tuesday at an office supply company in the Washington suburb of Chantilly, Va., he was introduced by David Guernsey, principal shareowner and chief executive officer of Guernsey Office Products. His cousin, Vivienne Romans of Quincy, saw him during Bush's televised press conference. Romans said Guernsey, 60, was born in Quincy to Jackie and Doug Guernsey and lived in the Sixth and Van Buren area as a small child. Bush spoke at Guernsey's company after talks earlier in the day with European leaders, hoping to ease the financial crisis spreading around the globe.

• Kindergarten Cop: Kindergarten student Sam Barbagiovanni collected more than $400 for the Ellington School Walk-A-Thon. His reward was to be acting principal of the school on Friday. He led the morning meeting, read a story to a third-grade class, handled recess duty and ate a lunch from McDonald's with Principal Anne Cashman and Ken Mansell, the school's physical education teacher. Cashman reported that Sam's favorite part of the day was the recess duty, a chore that many grade school teachers typically don't like. "He was out there for every recess," Cashman said with a laugh. "I hope we haven't created a monster."

• Service with a smile: A woman who had been painting her home took a break Thursday afternoon to shop at Merkel's. The store's final day was Saturday and many items were on sale. As she browsed for tennis shoes, a male shopper kept asking the woman if the store had wrestling shoes in a certain size. The woman answered politely and even helped look for the appropriate size shoes. After several minutes of interaction, the man noticed something. "You're carrying a purse," he said. "I guess you're not a store clerk like I thought."

• Ask not for whom the phone rings: A Quincy office worker pointed to a co-worker in a neighboring cubicle when a phone started ringing last week. But the co-worker was already talking on the phone and held up his cell phone to show that it was not ringing. "Oh, wait. That's mine," the first man said as he dug in his pocket for his cell phone. After the conversation the man sheepishly said his daughter must have changed his ring tone without his knowledge.

On the Street is a compilation of tidbits gathered by Herald-Whig staff. Readers can contribute at onthestreet@whig.com.