Tag: 20

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Juxtaposition

Robin has been on Prednisone for about nine months now.  Prednisone is a very efficacious drug to use when the body is beating itself up. It also has many awful side effects.  Among those are weight gain, mood swings, cataracts and hair loss.  The list goes on, but those are the ones that Robin has experienced so far.  The mood swings have been the most difficult for me to deal with.  As a woman the hair loss has been the most trying for Robin.

At work the other day, we went to Old Spaghetti Factory as a group for lunch.  There were about 20 or 25 of us.  I accidentally ended up at the head of the table.  As our waitress approached the table I heard her remark, “My, what beautiful hair you have.”  I thought she was speaking to the young lady seated next to me.  The young lady was looking at me, and I realized the waitress was talking about me.  The waitress went to make a comment along the lines of, “It is amazing how many of the guys that come in here with long hair look like they stole it from a fashion magazine.”  Or something along those lines.  Of course, this amused all the folks at the table, a few of whom have teased me about my long hair in the past.  There was some more teasing afterwards when we returned to the office.  I have broad shoulders and it was all in good fun. Continue reading “Juxtaposition”

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No Driver Left Behind

I spend way too much time commuting which allows me time to observe the idiocy of the motoring public. And yes I know from time to time while driving I fall under the rubric of idiot. My primary rule when I amindex driving is to consider everyone on the road an idiot except myself, and do not be too sure about myself.

I was thinking driving home today with all the push for testing and evaluating for competence in schools perhaps we should do the same for drivers. Some method could be devised to evaluate overall driving skills. This would then be tied into everyone’s driving records. If you fell in the bottom 20% you would have to have a red flashing light on your car. If you fell into the next quintile an orange light, then yellow and so forth. That way you quickly recognize the total idiots and give them a wider berth. Of course, you would have to retest annually as skills change. And I can see some folks sandbagging to get the red light so folks would stay away, but if you tied it to their insurance rates…

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James Watt by Andrew Carnegie

jameswatt_1206James Watt invented the steam engine.  This is a fact that I learned in grade school.  Such was my comprehension that I often mixed up James Watt and Robert Fulton, the inventor of the first commercially viable steamboat.

James Watt invented the steam engine.  This brings up an imagine of a man having a flash of inspiration, sitting down at his drafting table, sketchy a design in 30 minutes, and passing it on to mechanics to build.  The nature of such things is not so.  Like Edison and his light bulb, Watt ran a long, arduous race to bring his steam engine into fruition. He built upon the work Thomas Newcomen and the atmospheric steam engine.

Watt was home schooled and self-educated.  He inherited a natural genesis for things mechanic from his father.  Being somewhat impatient to begin his career he did not want to go through a 7 year apprenticeship in the mechanical arts.  He managed to learn what he needed to about the trade in about a year.  Unfortunately, the union/guild laws of the time Continue reading “James Watt by Andrew Carnegie”

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Minimum Wage Over Time

Comparing the value of labor over time is apparently not that straight forward. I was wondering about minimum wage. When I graduated high school in 1970 kennedy-half-dollar(gasp… yes) the minimum wage was $1.60. I dropped out of college after a year, and I went to work in a factory for somewhat more than the minimum wage. After a few months I had raises that put me up to $2.60 an hour which was nearly 60% higher than minimum wage. Even at that astronomical wage, even without a car to support, even with living in basically a slum apartment, I was having a hard time making ends meet. I had to be careful with every penny. I had a crisis back then that wiped out very quickly what little savings I had. I had absolutely no benefits. A medical emergency would have been a financial disaster.

Using data as calculated on the website, Measuring Worth , I came up with the following data:

Current data is only available till 2012. In 2012, the relative worth of $1.60 from 1970 is: Continue reading “Minimum Wage Over Time”

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Insurance Companies: Not Price Fixing, But Just As Bad

Name a product you must have if you own a home. If you said homeowner’s insurance give yourself a pat on the back. Even as a renter it is a wise idea to have renter’s insurance to protect losses from burglary, fire, etc.

greedNow name the one thing you should not do with these policies. If you said make a claim give yourself another pat on the back.

I live with my girlfriend who owns her house outright. She has been with the same insurance company for many, many years. I will not name names as I have come to learn these companies are vindictive. Just as an aside my girlfriend is financially stable, has been employed steadily for the last 25 years as a teacher, and has a good credit rating.

Several years ago due reasons beyond her control there a sewage backup that ruined practically everything on the first floor and the basement of her house. The company graciously took care of everything. Continue reading “Insurance Companies: Not Price Fixing, But Just As Bad”

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TicketMaster… a cynical, jaded company

Manager Peabody Opera House
1400 Market St.
St. Louis, MO 63103

Dear Sir/Madam:

I found out Emmy Lou Harris is coming to the Peabody Opera House.  Both my girlfriend and I were as excited as we are both huge, huge fans of hers.

I started looking into buying tickets and at first blush they did not seem too bad.  Then I realized I would have to buy them from TicketMaster, who in my humble opinion is one of most jaded, cynical companies in America.   I looked into buying them directly from the Peabody Opera House box office, and I discovered this was not an option.  So I bit the bullet and went online to purchase tickets from this evil, evil company.

I chose two $37 seats.  A $3 facility charge per ticket was added, and then a $9.20 convenience charge.  My $37 ticket was now up to $49.2.    Next they wanted to charge me to deliver the tickets to me, including an outrageous charge of $2.50 for me to print them myself????? But they were not done yet.  As I was checking out they added a $4.25 order processing fee.

There were 2 or 3 points in the whole processed I was so angered by the process that I nearly just closed the browser, but I did want to make my girlfriend happy.

Part of the thrill of going to these events is the anticipation.  After the ticket purchase process I have a bad taste in my mouth, and frankly feel violated.  My anticipatory fever has evaporated.

There really should be another option for buying your tickets beyond TicketMaster.  Failing that they should have a face value that includes all these additional charges so purchasers do not feel raped after the process. 

Sincerely,

———————–

These folks seem to have a monopoly on ticket sales in just all the markets I am aware of.   Why don’t we bust up monopolies like we used to.  Oh I forgot, our politicians are bought and paid for by these folks

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American Savings?!?!

From Freakanomics…

50% of Americans say they cannot lay their hands on $2000 in 30 days.   Why $2000, because that is a good guess at what an average, sudden crisis would cost.  20% of households making $150,000 per year say they cannot come up with the $2000.

On the flip side an American household spends on average $520 per year on lotteries.  20% of households say their only chance of accumulating wealth is the lottery.  40% of households making less than $25,000 a year make that claim.

Just something to chew on. Sorry link was taken down…

 

 

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$40 A$$

I use Yahoo as my web portal, partly out of habit, but mainly because I like their financial section.  I follow the market and my investments there.  The news section on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired.  Oh it touches all the key stories of the day, but then I have to wade through the celebrity gossip, the reality show buzz, and other such nonsense.  What really tears me up is that sometimes I find myself reading that garbage.

The other day for some reason still unclear to me,  an article on 10 styles of jeans trending currently caught my attention.  What really made my eyes pop were the prices.  The cheapest pair was maybe $60, most were over $100, and a couple pair were north of two bills.  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I still think a good pair of Levi’s should cost $20.  Of course, they don’t, but if I have to pay much over $30 or $35 for a pair of jeans I am not a happy camper.

The overpriced jeans reminded me of an incidence with my now grown daughter when she was in 5th or 6th grade.  This would have been around 1979 or 1980. That year we made the leap and bumped her up to Levi’s from Wranglers.  She was after all a little older now, and young women are very into fashion.  Given our budget at the time we thought this a generous move on our part. Continue reading “$40 A$$”

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9-9-9

I do have a question for presidential candidate Herman Cain with his 9-9-9 tax proposal.

If we institute a 9% Federal tax is that to be added on top of state and city taxes?  In Tennessee very little is excluded from sales tax. That would have citizens in this part of the world paying close to a 20% sales tax every time they buy anything.

Can you say regressive, and let’s tax the poor a bigger percentage of their incomes.  I suppose his argument would be to point to the 9% income tax, but many of the our poorest citizens pay little or no taxes now.  There is another whammy on this group.  Especially so since many of these folks are the hard core unemployable, uneducated, disabled, or facing other life circumstances keeping them down.  ( I know a lot of folks will argue with me, but I do not believe that the percentage of folks willing to not work and live hand to mouth is that large.)

Could there be some meaning to 9-9-9.  If you turn it upside down it is 6-6-6.

I ran across this little tidbit after I posted this article:

“Without bold alternatives, Americans desperate for big solutions are attracted to bold crackpot ideas like Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” proposal, which would raise taxes on the poor and cut them for the rich.”

The above quote is from an article by Robert Reich at commondreams.org

To see the whole article follow this link:  The Meagerness of the Republican Debates, the Smallness of the President’s Solutions, and the Need for a Progressive Alternative

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Busted…

I have a confession — I love women.   I love them tall.  I love them short.  I love them skinny, and I love them plump. Red heads, brunettes, blondes, short hair, long hair, curly or straight, I love them all.  They can have milky white skin or deep rich mocha, I just love them. Curves, no curves, it matters not.  A young woman, or not so young, they all fascinate me.  I do confess I just love women.

Perhaps the previous ramble is objectifying women.  Truth is I also love the company of women.  I am always amazed that such beautiful, wondrous creatures would have anything to do with the uncouth, self-centered animals that are males.  It does make the world go round, nevertheless. One thing I have figured from years of watching men watch women and listening to men talk about women, we men are pigs. Women watch men also, but they generally have the good graces to be discreet about it.

That is my preamble for what happened the other day as I was shopping in JCPenney.   I was about to enter a main aisle in the men’s department.  Two women stroll by.  They are obviously mother and daughter.  Continue reading “Busted…”