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Even when things get back to normal, this will be a long-term blow to the High Street shops, which (at least in Britain) have been steadily losing 'footfall' customers. Now that more of us are getting into the habit of online ordering and getting things delivered to our homes, the High Street shops will suffer a further decline in real shoppers. Unless they adapt: 'click-and-collect' can sometimes be a useful compromise.
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I thought I would have to wait until retirement to use this meme, but . . .
Saturday and Sunday are pretty much the same as any other day right now.
Brilliant, Martin! Great minds think alike ...Now the really difficult question is - how do we support our local pub? They’re not open at the moment and must be losing money hand over fist.
Will wrote: "Now the really difficult question is - how do we support our local pub? They’re not open at the moment and must be losing money hand over fist."I fear that there will be a lot of second-hand pub tables and espresso coffee machines coming onto the market by the end of this year.
We are all in admiration of the staff of our NHS, and deservedly so. However, I think that shop staff also deserve praise and recognition. In a way they are also in the 'front line', but with even less personal protection than our nurses and medics. All day long they face shoppers from their checkout tills with, at most, a low quality facemask and some disposable gloves. Lets give them all a pleasant smile - after we have stood in the queue for a while before being allowed in!
Agreed. There are lots of heroes these days. Taken with the toilet roll hoarders, I suppose it shows the best of us and the worst.
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(All this sheltering at home has left my mind free for deep thoughts such as these.)
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The government realized they could generate revenue by taxing PF cookies like they do gasoline. The actual cost of the cookies is really only $1.199.
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Actually, that's a fairly modern concept.
Traditionally, "price" is the cost of materials and labor to make a finished product or service marketable, plus shipping, advertising, and other related costs, plus a reasonable profit.
In today's world, "price" is ideally a cornered market, preferably for a product or service where lives hang in the balance, then price gouge the sh** out of your fellow human beings even if they face unimaginable suffering or death, while shifting all blame to ANYONE ELSE AVAILABLE, such as the insurance companies, the legislature, government regulators, etc. Social responsibility is for morons.
-BONUS #1: Shift your "damage to the environment costs" onto the consumer, or just ignore them until they qualify for a SuperFund cleanup. (So mishandled waste kills a few critters. No one swims in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and, eventually, the critters that are left will eat that Texas-size gob of floating plastic garbage anyway.) Tree hugging is for morons.
-BONUS #2: If the market turns down, or your greed threatens to destroy the entire world economy due to criminal financial manipulations, withhold campaign contributions from your congressmen until your corporation gets YET ANOTHER bailout at taxpayer expense. True democracy is for morons.
-BONUS #3: Spend millions on politicians and tax lawyers in order to save billions in corporate tax liability. Paying a fair share is for morons.
-BONUS#4: It's less expensive to pay off a few outlandishly expensive injury or wrongful death lawsuits, or tie them up in court forever, than to fix most problems at the source. Empathy for others' suffering is for morons.
-BONUS#5: The neighborhood food bank doesn't serve caviar, and their clients' children don't even have a bank account or a financial statement. However, if one's sociopathic soul is as Stygian black as the ink on one's quarterly report , one can always claim ruthlessness is the new black, and simply the latest fashion trend, as they pour another round of Dom Perignon on their yacht and sail away from anything they don't want to look at. Seriously, who gives a rat's ass as long as one is rich far, far beyond one's ability to spend in a lifetime. A social conscience is for morons.
Look around. "What the market will bear" has miserably failed the vast majority of our neighbors, most of whom just want to raise their family in peace without being financially raped on a regular basis.
Sometimes, I wonder if the market can bear a little more concern for the common good.
Wait! Is that cynicism or a realistic look at the current "morality" of unrestricted capitalism? ...Oh good! Another dilemma to ponder hour after hour during this lengthy "stay at home" time!
Now that I look at it, I also wonder if I should have sent this to the 'RANT' thread.
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I didn't say that I thought "what the market will bear" was a sustainable approach, let alone a moral one. Just maybe an explanation for why the prices are different :D
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I didn't say that I thought "what the market will bear" was a sustainable approach, let alone a moral one. Just maybe an explanation for why the prices a..."
What can I say, I get riled up when anyone mentions overpriced cookies.
This seems to be an appropriate time to read Defoe's "A journal of the plague year". I have had a nice Folio Society edition sitting, in its slipcase, on my bookshelves for many years. Unread, apart from looking at Peter Pendrey's modern woodcuts that illustrate it. I find it surprisingly readable, and also timely. Defoe describes some of the apparitions, claimed to have been seen by some and believed in by many. Comets were apparently seen above London, and believed to warn of disaster. It is so similar to the misinformation, 'fake news' and conspiracy rumours circulating now about the Covid-19 pandemic. Here in Britain there has been a spate of attacks damaging mobile/cell phone masts because of some rumour circulating on social media linking 5G with the virus!
Defoe's book is so readable that one forgets that it was fictional. He was only about 5 years old in 1665 and this book was not published until 1722. He must have drawn on the memories of many survivors, and he seems also to have used parish and other records to keep the factual parts fairly accurate.
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Sounds like it might be an interesting read, Martin.
Amazing isn't it, our ancestors didn't have the advantage of modern medicine, so all they could do to avoid spreading a disease is hide in their houses and social distance themselves. ...Wait a minute...
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I named a restaurant in my latest book Delle Peste. Maybe a little prescient, though I doubt most people will get it!
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You're probably right, Joel, but there may be exceptions.
(I wonder what spices one uses to combat 'bad humors' these days.)
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You're probably right, Joel, but there may be exceptions.
..."
Bravo.
Rebecca wrote: "We could probably learn a thing or two from how societies dealt with plague (which kept coming back...). Well, those who know how to read and think, and understand that it's good to learn from others."There is a passage in Defoe's 'Journal' that is particularly poignant during the present pandemic:
"... several physicians, even some of them the most eminent, and of several of the most skilful surgeons.... they ventured their lives so far as even to lose them in the service of mankind."
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Sentimental Friend: You can get a nice pet burial plot for less than $600.
Practical Friend: Cremate him. It's only about $150.
Disavowed Whenever I'm in Public Friend: It's always free. The American south is just littered with alligator farms.
Decisions, decisions...
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I thought the accepted procedure was a nice grave under the rosebushes in the back yard, but what do I know? I've never had a dog.
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Backyard burials are illegal in some municipalities. But then, so are alligators.
LA has the best procedure. You just call the county and they send someone out at no charge to pick up the remains , which are then taken to a rendering plant. This cuts down on the number of coyotes digging for snacks in people's backyards.
Speaking of macabre, disturbing, etc... You've "never had a dog"????!!!!
Rebecca wrote: " I thought the accepted procedure was a nice grave under the rosebushes in the back yard."An old apple-tree is also good: as in this sad poem.
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Very nice, Martin. Since we're posting deceased pet poems, I've always loved this one - http://www.garrisonkeillor.com/in-mem...
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Congratulations on adopting an older pet, Jay. These dear creatures often sit unwanted as few people want to deal with the problems an aging pet can create.
We lost our 15-year-old golden retriever in January. Legally buried, or not, he's resting in our back yard in his favorite spot near the pond where he could keep an eye on all passing wildlife . . . particularly that evil groundhog under the shed.
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If I didn't have allergies, I'd have a cat, but I've never much cared for dogs. Which isn't really true, because I've rather liked the dogs of some of my friends, and we lived for a few months back in 2018 off-and-on with a friend and her 2 corgis. The dogs were okay, their hair... ugh.
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It took a while, but my over-the-hill mutt actually listens to commands now. So much for NOT being unable to teach an old dog new tricks.
Yes, older pets can presents some problems, however I don't find that nearly as annoying as a puppy who waters his entire world (my house) and needs constant attention to avoid growing up with one or another neurosis.
As to the evil groundhog under the shed... My 65 lb. beast seems quite content giving the local squirrels a run for their money, and giving the occasional feral cat an after-dark heart attack.
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There, we differ, Rebecca. My most respectable opinion of cats is that they are violin strings on the hoof.**
Dogs on the other hand make good companions, and get my lazy butt up and moving for a daily walk.
** Don't worry, you folks at home. You'll figure it out.
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Five-thousand-year-old Egyptian tomb opens for virtual tour
Egypt’s classical wonders are off limits but a royal tomb is one of four sites where 3D modelling gives us a fascinating glimpse of antiquity.
-OR- Skip the article and go straight to the TOUR.
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'Tis said that a dog is the only piece of exercise equipment you can't ignore.
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'Tis said that a dog is the only piece of exercise equipment you can't ignore."
That is the main point in favor of them. But I cannot tell a lie: I'm actually quite good at getting my own lazy butt out the door for exercise.
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I realize many, many people are having a difficult time financially, but if you can, please consider a donation to your local food bank. Some of your neighbors have no choice but to count on the kindness of strangers to keep their children from going to bed hungry.
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Sincere condolences to our northern neighbors.
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Gunman evaded police for nearly 12 hours and killed at least 18 in one of Canada's deadliest mass shootings
Sincere condolences to our northern neighbors."
Why do I have this sick feeling he'll turn out to be from the US?
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Is their omelet fluffier? No.
Does their cake rise higher? No.
It's bragging rights that they support hoity-toity chickens.
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Is their omelet fluffier? No.
Does their cake rise higher? No.
It's..."
Pretty much, I think. OTOH, I *do* notice a difference if I get hold of truly fresh eggs, like when a friend with chickens shares some.
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Well, sure! There's always an advantage when buying direct from the manufacturer.
Jay wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "Pretty much, I think. OTOH, I *do* notice a difference if I get hold of truly fresh eggs, like when a friend with chickens shares some."Well, sure! There's always an advantage whe..."
We had free range chickens for years - there's a pretty big difference in yolk color and egg quality when you get eggs freshly-squeezed from happy chickens that eat grasshoppers all day and shit on your porch. But the store-bought brand-name eggs? Meh.
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First, let's assume that I have no happy chicken droppings on my porch. However, I still stand by my original point.
The store brand eggs come from chickens, through a distributor, and are refrigerated all the way to the store shelf.
On the other hand...
The brand name eggs come from chickens, through a distributor, and are refrigerated all the way to the store shelf.
Clearly, there's a reason for the brand name eggs' higher pricing.
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Covid-19 is the latest zoonotic disease that seems to have plagued us as a result of eating the meat of wild animals (probably bats in this case). Other recent ones include Ebola, Swine Flu, Avian Flu, SARS, 'mad cow disease' (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) and Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease. Even HIV seems to have originated in wild animals. A strong case for veganism? (Just joking).
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Or learning how to properly cook your bat.
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There's no doubt that both mankind AND the planet would be far healthier if we ate less meat, but it's hard to change tradition and cultural attitudes. Dogs are eaten in some countries, carried around in little purses in others; cows are both revered and slaughtered. Supposedly, we should ALL be eating bugs. But, all things considered . . . I'd definitely prefer tofu to bat.
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Tofu???? Wouldn't you prefer some sort of food?
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Best response.
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Does anyone else remember when reliable news sources didn't have a weekly (or daily) segment debunking fiction?
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'Swastikas and nooses': governor slams 'racism' of Michigan lockdown protest
[Governor] Gretchen Whitmer says heavily armed men and Confederate flags at state capitol ‘depicted some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history’
Wackadoodle Update: Trump's "very good people" have made the headlines once again by bringing their swastikas and rifles to the Michigan state capitol.
Reality: The polls range from 60 to 80% of the American public supporting stay at home orders. That is, caution to prevent the spread of a possibly fatal illness, particularly to our vulnerable elderly population. Truth be told, most of us like grandma and grandpa.
Just once, I'd like to see a headline over a picture of the swastikas and rifles that reads: "The Crème de la Crème of Trump's "Very Good People" Again Protest Against Rational Thought and Common Decency."
Never gonna happen!
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The Humour Club
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Well done Will!
We are in an almost identical situation, in that the UK lockdown regulations forbid our very nice cleaner from coming. She must be losing virtually all her income, but still has a family and home that cost money. We have arranged for a retainer, almost equal to her basic pay, to go into her bank every month.