Hot, humid, but maybe, just maybe a bit less than so far this week. It would be nice to get a break. We did get a bit of one yesterday in that it was overcast for much of the day and that helped keep the heat down, at least in my neighborhood.
I did some computer stuff, then went out and did some grocery shopping. I put my observations about this Costco trip in yesterday’s comments, later in the day. TL:DR is that things are still disrupted, and will be for some time, but there is a chance to get ready, as things are still available.
My auctions are full of preps. This week there were chest freezers in one, a dozen generators in another, sometimes there is food, usually tools, or garden equipment, and lately there has been a lot of building material. There are solar panels, batteries, shelving, can organizers, openers for #10 cans, kitchen equipment, fishing and hunting gear, gubs, ammo, radios, scanners, clothing, traps, and all kinds of good stuff.
If you can’t find it in the store, or you can’t afford the store prices, and you don’t mind a little work or compromise, check out the online auctions, estate sales, yard sales, and peer to peer selling platforms.
You need it, and someone is selling it.
Find it and stack it up.
nick
The local Faux News led with the heat wave, including footage of ERCOT’s fancy control room, and then immediately went to this story.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/poll-greg-abbott-leads-beto-orourke-among-surveyed-voters-by-5-points
My guess is that University of Houston is Prog like University of Tampa. My wife’s associate in Vantucky and her husband, the full-time cocktail recipe blogger, did their undergrad at UofH, and whatever the husband did mucking about in Fredericksburg politics in 2010 was part of the reason why they left Texas.
Oof, Kim Dotcom says it. Twitter seems down right now so I can’t see the real post:
Psst… Looking for a Javelin?
This could be bad If true. Enough firepower to take out any armored vehicle. Who knows what ground to air systems are being sold.
Shot GirlTM, the ultimate in hypocrisy:
AOC Trashes Capitol Police in Epic Meltdown After Man Heckles Her on Capitol Steps (Video)
The video is hilariously sexist and wrong, but she displays her hypocrisy and sour grapes. She is constantly screeching about protestors outside SCOTUS homes is tough potatoes. Talk about thin skinned. “I was actually going over to deck him.” Sure you were. She also lied about what he said in a tweet and had to delete it after being called out.
Rules for thee, not for me.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the science is settled:
WHO declares ‘sex is not limited to male and female’
This is as bad as the CDC stealth editing the definition of vaccine. This is crazy. Human sex is male, female, or mutation of chromosomes. tRump was right to not fund the WHO in any way. We need to ignore the WHO and the UN for that matter.
The gender “spectrum” is not woke enough. The PLTs now want to change the definition of human sexes. Jerks testifying in front of Congress refuse to define the word woman. Capitol protesters declared terrorists and jailed for a year and a half, no bail. Abortion up until the child is born. Hydrocarbon fuels vilified.
The Dumbos, PLTs, and commies are plain evil.
Game over, man, game over.
Alex Stein is deliberately pushing things to the point where he hopes he will be assaulted.
Given some of the anger on that side, he may regret that tactic, but it will make for excellent footage and establish his vlogging “career”.
He really likes to push the buttons of one of Robert Francis security goons. Go watch the YouTube channel.
Shot Girl’s whole “career” is based on people finding her attractive, whether she’s serving shots of Pappy Van Winkle Reserve or empty-headed Prog rhetoric. Stein probably isn’t even moving the needle compared to what she probably gets on the streets of her home district, even from supporters.
85F and 81%RH with sunny skies this morning. It hasn’t been below about 83F when I went to bed for a week or more. Hard for those neighborhood electrical transformers to cool down at night if it’s hot, and they are busy running the A/C, all the appliances people delayed running during the day to help out ERCOT, and charging Teslas…
n
Austin Energy has trouble keeping the lights on in the city proper even under normal circumstances.
2024 will be the bad Summer. The utilities will do whatever it takes this year and get bailed out by the Legislature in 2023.
The rest of 2023 will be back to “swimming naked”, business as usual, but Tony still won’t have the Jesus Truck in garages until late in the year … maybe.
My wife’s unofficial back channel into Toyota San Antonio says that the Japanese don’t believe Musk can deliver the Cybertruck for under $100k and that’s the current problem he’s covering in Austin with the weird PR moves as of late.
I was in an upscale suburban part of town shopping at a regional grocery chain and when I was leaving I was stopped by an employee at the door who asked for my receipt and gave my groceries a once-over. Similar to what they do when you’re leaving Costco. So, I commented, “Um, this is new…” and she replied that they’ve been directed by corporate to do it as grocery theft has spiked. I was pondering it on the drive home and I’m not surprised. No retail sector has been as lame on loss prevention as grocery has. You could go to the meat counter and ask for $200 worth of USDA Prime steaks, walk down an empty aisle, pull a wadded up branded bag from your pocket, put the steaks in, and then head for the door and you’d never be questioned or stopped. There’s been times I’ve had a basket full of groceries, realized I needed a cart instead, and walked right past the registers and out the door to the entryway to get a cart. Basket in hand the whole time. Nobody even raised an eyebrow. So, given the inflation on groceries I am not even remotely surprised that grocers are seeing a huge increase in theft. Reminds me of grocery stores in parts of LA where the meat has theft prevention tags on it and there are detectors at the door.
I’ve heard from a number of sources – crowd-funded content creators, not-for-profits – that contributions are down. I think it was around the beginning of the year that I first notices someone saying it and it was within the past three months that I’d heard it enough times to notice it as a trend.
I suggested to one content creator, who thought that his change in topic and style might have driven away funding, that no, it’s groceries and gas and rent all going up faster than “the inflation rate” and much faster than pay increases that is the problem.
In the past people were brought up to be honest. A small percentage were not.
We’ve been giving successive generations of that small percentage fewer and fewer consequences. After three generations or so, the training they get is now “you can get away with anything”.
See San Fran and the rest of the Left Coast, as well as the general list of Blue Shiiteholes. That works, for a miserable definition of “works”, only so long as there is plenty to go around.
The backlash is comimg as the margin moves up the socioeconomic ladder and more people become marginal.
National news on ABC last night suggested that families are paying $500 per month more, on average, for the same goods and services as compared to last year.
Contributions already affected. What’s next? New car sales (already down?) and eating out.
Producer price index up 11.3%. Brandon stumbling in Israel, Kneepads making word salad. Cheney’s think Trump is the only problem in the world.
We’ve already adjusted dining out. Ice water all around now and never any appetizers or desserts. I’m not paying $3.50 for a glass of iced tea. Tips are capped at 15%. Don’t throw that 18%, 20%, or even 25% sob story my way. I don’t care.
Yep, I have made adjustments too, in advance of need. We don’t get the “meal” when we do the occasional fast food with the kids. For one, it’s way too much food. For two, fries are crazy expensive all of a sudden. One large fry is more than enough for the kids and me at Jack in the Box. And it costs more than the kid’s burger.
Lays Classic potato chips went from $2.50 to $4.89 a bag. We’ll eat fewer chips.
Thankfully we all like pulled pork, pot roast, and beef stew, all great and easy crock pot meals.
HEB’s version of diet Dr Pepper isn’t bad. It’s not quite DrP, but it’s better than MrPib.
And there was an awful lot of <$13 bottle wine to choose from at costco including new Kirkland branded box wines. It can’t all suck.
n
We ate at one place last week with a mandatory 18% gratuity for parties over six, but we still saw it added to the bill for our party of four.
Of course, the tip line on the charge statement was blank, with a suggestion number representing 20% printed off to the side. I gave the guy an extra couple of bucks on top of 18% since he was decent, but I wasn’t going to tip him twice.
Examine your bills carefully.
Word came out yesterday that Hunter Biden may have had The Big Guy’s phone number in his iCloud address book under the name “Pedo Pete”.
Hunter’s laptop and iCloud account are compromised in terms of criminal court evidence, but they make for interesting stories.
Tipping is just out of of control in this country. It’s gone from rewarding great service to a guilt trip to bump the pay of the server. Except in rare circumstances, I solve the problem for myself by refusing to go to restaurants.
My daughter has a good friend whose parents own a few very popular gymnastics gyms in town and so they’re fairly wealthy. Yet when they take their family of six out to eat they only order 3 entrées and split them all. Makes sense both financially and from a calorie perspective. Though, my daughter’s friend does admit she sometimes leaves restaurants still a little bit hungry as splitting entrées in some restaurants does not result in very much volume of food.
There’s other things they do. Like they believe in spending money on experiences rather than things. So, they have a modest Christmas despite their wealth, but the family will spend Spring Break in Greece, for example. Their summer vacations are also overseas and usually 4 to 6 weeks in length.
Agreed. The beauty of tipping being a percentage of the ticket is that the percentage never needs to change. As restaurants raise their prices over time the servers get a percentage of those raised prices and thus their average tip amount also goes up. Then, several years back they start this crap about how little servers make and that 15% is outdated and you should be tipping 20-25%. People have actually fallen for that crap. I think not. Nice try. I can find plenty of back alleys online where servers chat about how they make more in a 3 hour dinner shift than their friends do working 8 hours in some other sector. Then they laugh about how they claim almost none of their cash tips. Cry me a river. They’re getting 15% max. I may bump it up if someone in my party is ridiculously high maintenance or we sit there forever tying up a table in their section. I’ll also adjust it down for poor service or if I think it’s an absurd amount for what they did (it takes the same amount of effort to bring a lobster to my table as it does to bring a sandwich, but the former will result in a much heftier tip than the latter), Don’t like their job as a server? Think they’re underpaid? Find a different job. It’s still a job seeker’s market.
@greg, the pedo pete story broke a couple of days ago, in some places, but it’s so crazy that people weren’t being explicit when they talked about it. Took me a bit to figure out what the memes meant, and then to figure out they were serious.
Supposedly also pix of the “inappropriate showers” girl in bed in just panties, and other nasty stuff.
There are screenshots of texts with pedo pete in the text itself, along with jill’s name, showing it was a general nickname and not just a joke entry in a phone book.
It’s all depressing and nasty as hell.
n
From yesterday’s discussion about home security systems / cameras.
Many thanks, Rick! Wyze products don’t seem to be available here, at least not on Big River (Surprise! They are in competition with Amazon’s Ring, after all..), but searching for them brought up another brand, EUFY, which looks promising. https://eu.eufylife.com/
In other news, I am still feeling miserable with the COVID – I had a few nervous hours last night wondering if my oxygen saturation was sufficient – why does that feeling always occur in the wee small hours…? I really should get a fingertip oximeter. By morning, I felt less breathless. Now I am expectorating nasty stuff, and hoping that is a sign the the immune system is winning and the virus letting go. On the positive side, Mrs Denis seems to have turned the corner and be on the upswing.
@denis, eufy is one of those brands that the chinese seem to have decided to make into a real brand. Kind of like Anker went from cheap gas station counter gadgets to decent quality for the price…
I don’t have any real experience with their stuff, but I do think it’s probably better than the stuff with “almost” brand names.
I do see a lot of it in the amazon returns auctions, so make sure you can return it if you don’t like the quality.
n
added- and I’m glad you and the Mrs are feeling better. I’m still having occasional coughing and the mildest possible tightness of breath.
“get a fingertip oximeter”
In other news, I am still feeling miserable with the COVID – I had a few nervous hours last night wondering if my oxygen saturation was sufficient – why does that feeling always occur in the wee small hours…? I really should get a fingertip oximeter. By morning, I felt less breathless. Now I am expectorating nasty stuff, and hoping that is a sign the the immune system is winning and the virus letting go. On the positive side, Mrs Denis seems to have turned the corner and be on the upswing.
I just bought a new fingertip oxymeter from Big River since the daughter stole mine. Get one now ! Anyone over the age of 45 should have one or two of these in the house.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PQ8WTC4?tag=ttgnet-20/
I say this as man who had his first heart attack at 49 and the second one at 51. I have had two heart surgeries. An oxymeter is good for peace of mind.
Yuuup, when we go out to eat my daughter and I always split one order. When she is not with me, I take ½ home to have for next dinner here. I am not participating in the obesity epidemic.
How long before Brandon’s pulpit puppet explains why getting infant formula back on the shelves is so much harder than producing a new vaccine?
“Update: Texas Grid Operator Takes Emergency Measures to Avoid Rolling Blackouts As Wind Turbines Fail to Produce Energy Due to Low Winds”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/update-texas-grid-operator-takes-emergency-measures-avoid-rolling-blackouts-wind-turbines-fail-produce-energy-due-low-winds/
““Wind generation is currently generating significantly less than what it historically generated in this time period,” ERCOT said in a press release. “Current projections show wind generation coming in less than 10 percent of its capacity.””
Yup, the wind turbines suck. They are never there when you need them the most. But at 3 am in the morning, they are trying to supply the entire grid and forcing the steam power plants offline since the wind turbines are subsidized by the feddies, $0.023 per kwh produced if I remember correctly. Plus a tax credit on their installation cost. No wonder the Goldman Sachs is reputedly the number one owner of wind turbines in the USA. They got Congress to give them an incredibly sweet deal.
That’s us. Except for one work lunch and rare take-out for the kids*, in the past eight (?) years I’ve been in a restaurant only for family get-togethers, like when a grown kid comes up to visit. There’ll be ten of us, tying up three tables for two hours. I always throw in a big tip.
* McDonalds because of ubiquity and because the girls want nuggies whenever they’re given half a chance. KFC because they really like that, too, but there’s only one anywhere near us and they’re in a direction we seldom go. Dunkin Donuts from time to time, and Spare Kid was shocked and delighted when I told them to pick out a half dozen early one morning and that could be their breakfast. Wife objected, but what’s the difference between PopTarts (acceptable to her) and donuts (not acceptable to her)?
To modify what Trump said about Mexico, we’re not sending our best to Washington.
Black female QWERTY (reading from her “book”): It….is….SCOTUS’s…..fault. Babies…..must….die….climate…..change…..Putin…..tRump.
It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.
Speaking of QWERTY lady:
‘Beyond parody’: Karine Jean-Pierre says Republicans are blocking a Biden-supported ‘anti-inflation’ bill
Mo money, mo money. “We’ll spend our way out of inflation.” Are more stimmies coming. You know, the one I’ll never get. Hi, Mr. Lynn!
In regards to tipping one of the things I’ve noticed lately that I find annoying is takeout places are adding a line for tips. Wife and I didn’t feel like cooking the other night so I ordered a pizza for pickup online. At checkout there was a place to add a tip. This seems to be a fairly recent trend, when will McDonald’s start asking for a tip at checkout?
Our local pizza place does that too. I think it’s just a function of the restaurant software they use, it always prints a ‘tip’ line, ‘cuz it’s a restaurant….
n
Pay the tip online so the little skivers have to pay tax on it.
SteveF
“what’s the difference between PopTarts (acceptable to her) and donuts”
Donuts are more nutritious?
How about when they hand you a tablet with a 20% tip pre-selected and then hover while you process payment. Tipping through guilt and intimidation. It probably works really well too. Me, I’ll lock eyes with them as I adjust to back to 15%. Or, they do something similar in fast food (or fast casual) restaurants where you’re paying at the counter and they flip their POS screen over for you to fill out and there’s a tip prompt. I don’t tip at fast food or fast casual and them staring at me while I select “No Tip” isn’t going to pressure me to do it either.
MIL complains that I put too much butter on my toast but will put half a pound of cream cheese on a bagel without blinking.
People are weird about food. Probably more weird than they are about sex, and people are pretty dang weird about sex.
n
I see that a lot with mayonnaise. People who make pretty decent choices on what they eat, but will then proceed to put a cup of mayo on a sandwich. Have you looked at the nutrition info for regular mayo? It’s horrible. Personally, I’m a mayo hater, so avoiding it has never been an issue. It’s the damn potato chips (crisps for you limeys) that get me.
Try sriracha mayo.
Speaking of QWERTY lady:
‘Beyond parody’: Karine Jean-Pierre says Republicans are blocking a Biden-supported ‘anti-inflation’ bill
Mo money, mo money. “We’ll spend our way out of inflation.” Are more stimmies coming. You know, the one I’ll never get. Hi, Mr. Lynn!
Yup, they will make it on the volume.
When the spousal unit and I go to a place to eat I get the meal, she just gets the entree. We split the fries, share the drink, and refill the drink on the way out. I also ask for a senior or veteran discount.
As a Boone’s Farm consumer in my youth, it probably is up at least a couple of notches. I have since given up drinking due to a couple of bad experiences when I was plastered.
Breathe, dude, breathe.
People in Germany use mayonnaise for french fries rather than Ketchup. I use BBQ sauce.
I’m being ragged by CPS via email for dropping 8 spots lower on my energy usage based on 100 neighbors. I’m 23/100 using 12.67kWh. The top slot is .83kWh. You really thing that house is occupied, CPS? They show #1 then skip to #21. I’m betting at least 10 of the top spots are unoccupied houses.
They also tapped into Apple’s Emergency Alert system. I got an alert “Public Service Emergency…” on the phone a couple of days ago.
I also get texts about emergency power usage and how to contribute to savings.
How much energy could they save by not sending me emails and texts every day? I’m sure Apple gleefully agreed to an Emergency Alert. Climate Change! Climate Change! We’re All Gonna Die! Turn Your A/C Up Dirt Person! Buy A New iPhone!
People in Germany use mayonnaise for french fries rather than Ketchup
–Canada too. I found I like it. I like it on hotdogs too. And I like the Mexican way of corn on the cob, where they dip the whole corn into a big jug of mayo, then sprinkle on salt and hot chili powder. There are whole food trucks devoted to corn on the cob here.
Of course I joke that Canadians are so bland they think mayonnaise is spicy….
n
I like mayo. I’ll even dip a spoon from the jar. Miracle Whip is a whole ‘nother thing. That stuff is gross.
I’ve tried mayo for french fries. Not bad. BBQ sauce works. I usually add some mustard to the ketchup.
Best of all is right from the grease french fries with butter. Salt and pepper the fries and dip in butter. What could be better than fried baked potato?
As a Boone’s Farm consumer in my youth, it probably is up at least a couple of notches.
– I drank Lancers on my prom night, and once shared a bottle of MD 2020, Orange Jubilee Wine with a friend, so I’m not in any position to throw stones….
n
>> Re Costco…They weren’t giving out a lot of sample food either.
Aren’t the food sample stations run by a third-party which gets paid by the distributors of the products being pushed?
And I remember pre-crud, going to Costco mid-day and getting enough food for lunch just from the sample stations.
I ordered the oxymeter Lynn linked. $23 and free shipping.
I can have it delivered on Sunday with Prime. That was the default setting. Or on Monday with what? Sub-Prime? Or on Saturday the 23rd and get a dollar off of whatever digital thing I might buy.
Sunday it is.
The digital credit expires after three months or so.
>> This reminds me, Mrs Denis has expressed the reasonable wish that I install an alarm / remote surveillance system at our BOL. I am tempted to go the path of least resistance with a doorbell/alarm/cameras/lights package from Amazon Ring: Ring.com
The hardware seems pricey, and they try hard to upsell to a monthly subscription to access useful features. There is also some doubt about what Amazon is doing with the Ring data. On the other hand, Amazon is behind the products, rather than some no-name Chinese generic manufacturer, in case support or replacements are needed..
Has anybody used the Ring stuff, or does anybody have recommendations for good alternatives?
For just cameras I use Wyze. For a full alarm system I’m happy with my SimpliSafe setup. If you’re interested, get on their mailing list as they run lots of promos.
>> I was in an upscale suburban part of town shopping at a regional grocery chain and when I was leaving I was stopped by an employee at the door who asked for my receipt and gave my groceries a once-over. Similar to what they do when you’re leaving Costco. So, I commented, “Um, this is new…” and she replied that they’ve been directed by corporate to do it as grocery theft has spiked.
They can ask you for your receipt but you don’t have to comply. If you don’t and attempt to leave the store they can’t detain you unless they have a “reasonable suspicion” that you shoplifted something (see US Constitution, Amendment #4). If you are illegally detained you can sue for damages.
Costco, on the other hand, IIRC states in their membership agreement that you can be stopped on your way out of the warehouse.
>> In other news, I am still feeling miserable with the COVID – I had a few nervous hours last night wondering if my oxygen saturation was sufficient – why does that feeling always occur in the wee small hours…? I really should get a fingertip oximeter. By morning, I felt less breathless. Now I am expectorating nasty stuff, and hoping that is a sign the the immune system is winning and the virus letting go. On the positive side, Mrs Denis seems to have turned the corner and be on the upswing.
@Denis, you may also want to search “breathing exercises for Covid.”
Ack! CPS says I dropped another spot to 24. I guess running the heat pump at 73℉ is bad. Also, too bad, CPS.
We use many of the Wyze products. They are ‘good enough’. The cameras, temperature/humidity sensors, and outdoor electrical outlets have been very useful in the rabbitry. Helped me prioritize where to use electricity in the rabbitry and maintain a comfortable environment for them. Having a camera over the nest box saved me the loss of two kits. The kits were accidentally drug out of the nest box, camera showed them naked on the wire, we ran out to rabbitry and put them back safe in their nest.
We use the door sensors not only on house doors but the chicken coop – sometimes none of us remember if the hens were put up for the night. A glance at the Wyze app and we can check.
We also like the Wyze door cam thing.
Pretty good products overall.
—-
Saw Thor last night. Not a great movie but entertaining. Once was sufficient. Saw far better movie the night before at home. “Phantom of the Open”, very funny, based on a book about actual events. Looking forward to seeing “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”, though I suspect the story will be slaughtered in translation. The book was delightfully funny and poignant and intelligently written.
Any cheap wine is decent cut with sparkling water, which is the reason you see so much of it it the liquor stores. At decent beer prices with half the production cost.
MAYo on fries is sick.
Malt vinegar is ok. Good ketchup in moderation is best.
Mayo just covers up corn without taste. Getting very hard to find yellow corn.
@jenny:
Yes, the original is written giving Mrs ‘Arris a strong Cockney accent, including the dropped “h”s. I’m suspecting the version you are planning to watch is the 2022 remake, starring Lesley Manville in the title role, and since she’s English she should know how to do Cockney – if she’s allowed to do it.
In this regard, I’m reminded of the controversy over “Brave”, and the title character Merida’s broad Scottish accent.
G.
Malt vinegar, yeah, I’ve tried that at Long John Silver’s. It’s sort of ok. I prefer lemon juice on my fish.
The local Walmart does this once in a while. I just hold up my receipt from the self check and keep walking. I’ve had “sir, I need to check your receipt” and I’m like “If you think I’m a shoplifter, call the cops, I’ll meet them at my car”.
Yeah, I understand what the boss told you to do. But you ain’t rummaging through my bags of groceries.
Sure, Bubba and his hugely obese female companion with a 55″ TV in a cart, yeah, double check they paid for it. Me? With all my stuff in bags, piss off.
Added: If they think folks are not scanning all of their stuff, how about having checkers and get rid of self check?
@drwilliams:
In the UK Midlands, fries are often eaten with curry sauce, which is just wrong. D3 is occasionally guilty of this, but I agree with you, malt vinegar is better. Ketchup though… just no.
G.
I run my heat pump at 78f during the day and 77f at night. I also have had no laundry to wash since about the middle of May. My tan lines are from my flip-flops.
Visualize that. 🙂
I discovered mustard on French fries in middle school, then mixing mustard and ketchup. That continued all through high school, as fries were an almost daily lunch staple.
Anything that gets you through high school fries.
>> In regards to tipping one of the things I’ve noticed lately that I find annoying is takeout places are adding a line for tips. Wife and I didn’t feel like cooking the other night so I ordered a pizza for pickup online. At checkout there was a place to add a tip. This seems to be a fairly recent trend, when will McDonald’s start asking for a tip at checkout?
Whether it’s on the check or via a “tip jar,” the guy at Domino’s is not getting paid as if he is expecting tips so I just bypass it. Occasionally I’ll make an exception if it’s a place we know and one of the servers is handling the takeout orders.
I run my heat pump at 78f during the day and 77f at night. I also have had no laundry to wash since about the middle of May. My tan lines are from my flip-flops.
Visualize that.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no !
I liked the fries. Lots of fat, lots of salt, lots of ketchup and mustard. Surprisingly my arteries survived. I also liked the school pizza – you know, the rectangular industrial stuff. Mustard was great on that too. The sausage was better than the pepperoni though. Oh, and my high school had great peanut butter and chocolate squares for desert. It’s a good thing I was on the swim team to burn off all of those calories.
You silly savage.
Yes, never mind the rest of the movie, starting with the plot recycled from “Brother Bear”, the main character’s accent was the biggest problem with “Brave”.
The first post-Steve Jobs Pixar flick.
>> How about when they hand you a tablet with a 20% tip pre-selected and then hover while you process payment. Tipping through guilt and intimidation. It probably works really well too. Me, I’ll lock eyes with them as I adjust to back to 15%. Or, they do something similar in fast food (or fast casual) restaurants where you’re paying at the counter and they flip their POS screen over for you to fill out and there’s a tip prompt. I don’t tip at fast food or fast casual and them staring at me while I select “No Tip” isn’t going to pressure me to do it either.
Another thing I notice from time to time is the credit card slips coming from the server without the original bill. Not sure about others but I tip on the pre-tax amount and without the original bill I have to do the math to come up with the pre-tax total. I may also adjust the tip amount if we ordered a large number of alcoholic beverages.
And trying to do away with tipping hasn’t always worked out too well: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/dining/danny-meyer-no-tips.html
@greg:
A Scottish character shouldn’t speak with a broad Scottish accent? That’s exactly my point. And the reason for the controversy. You would have Merida speak with a Bronx Jewish accent? Like Fran Drescher? Or some other equally incongruous accent?
OK, I accept that Hollywood is the the Centre of the World, the Hub of the Universe, but throw us benighted heathens who don’t speak right a bone, occasionally.
Are you trying to claim that every plot that comes out of the Left Coast is original? Ha, ha, it is to laugh…
G.
But wait…..there’s more: In Californication, the wind turbines will more eagles than the AOC-Newsom types will admit to. Now if a forest ranger sees you shoot an eagle with a legal shotgun, you will be immediately arrested, locked up and hugely fined.
@Lynn
Most that did left because they quit making the Crown Vic and Taurus.
Not if they source chips in china. Dumasses.
@Geoff Powell
Not the only sign that the England I knew is long gone.
@ITGuy1998
Chef Boyardee. Grew up on it.
If Sean Connery could play a Russian submarine commander who spoke in a Scottish accent, then Merida can be played by a women who speaks with a Bronx Russian-Jew accent.
@CowboyStu
The wind turbine operators pay a “fine” for every eagle and migratory bird that they admit killing.
The rest of us should be able to get the same rate.
And anyone that kills an eagle, wind turbine executive or not, should go into a lottery where the losers get salted on a game farm and the rest of us can apply for permits. “Yeah, this is sausage* made from my wind turbine executives kills this year. Bagged two of the sunsabeeches, and one of them was a nice doe…”
*Like the signs at the cons under Weapons Policy: You kill it, you eat it.
@stevef:
And yet there were nowhere near as many complaints about that as there were about Merida. Why?
G.
The patriarchy. It’s the only possible explanation.
Except maybe for global warming (which is real! and we’re all gonna die!). Global warming wasn’t a thing in 1990, but was in 2012, so the complaints could have been suppressed by the earlier global cooling and enhanced by the later global warming.
And when you multiply global warming by the square root of patriarchy, you get Trump. And there’s your answer. People complained about Merida because of Trump.
Sean Connery’s accent in “The Hunt For Red October” has been a cornerstone of Craig Ferguson’s act going back at least 15 years.
And if you listen carefully during the movie, you’ll hear Alec Baldwin imitate Connery with a Scottish accent.
I always believed that Connery was the one guest Ferguson wanted on his show but couldn’t get.
There were complaints about Merida’s accent? Really? Huh. I enjoyed it, myself.
They hung a delightful lampshade on it, though, in Ralph Breaks the Internet: https://youtu.be/ICUMGYHYBKY
I haven’t seen Brave, so have no thoughts on accents. I got the movie from Blockbuster because I thought the 6(?)-y-o daughter would like it, but she lost interest before the opening credits rolled.
I saw Hunt for Red October once, on VHS or HBO or something when it was first available. Paid little attention to it because I watched it with other people and the movie was more the excuse for everyone to get together than the actual reason. I do remember that someone was alert enough and sober enough to point out the humorous accent.
Craig Ferguson? Don’t recognize the name. Don’t much care, either. Comedian turned entertainment talk show host, sounds like. Nope, don’t much care.
Craig Ferguson’s show was unique. One of my big regrets was going to see Ferguson live at the creative peak of his show, a generous anniversary gift at a time when we were broke, and then spending the whole night worried about a grad school project due the next day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCtIVti7uRI
File under “things are not always as they appear”
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/07/14/officer-seen-checking-his-phone-was-waiting-for-word-from-his-wife-whod-been-shot-n482830
Still the best of the Tom Clancy movie adaptations and perfectly cast if you overlook the accent from Connery.
Yes, including Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan.
@lynn, possibly of interest for your daughter?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/lenovo-ideapad-5i-pro-82l9006dus-16-laptop/9065xd7dx4qx?ranMID=24542&ranEAID=lw9MynSeamY&ranSiteID=lw9MynSeamY-EH037XdHhRAO.1Lou4AWjA&epi=lw9MynSeamY-EH037XdHhRAO.1Lou4AWjA&irgwc=1&OCID=AID2200057_aff_7593_1243925&tduid=%28ir__qqxwsfczb9kfbja3st1urdkm622xvtvrrt231egd00%29%287593%29%281243925%29%28lw9MynSeamY-EH037XdHhRAO.1Lou4AWjA%29%28%29&irclickid=_qqxwsfczb9kfbja3st1urdkm622xvtvrrt231egd00&activetab=pivot:overviewtab
@lynn, possibly of interest for your daughter?
We bought her a Dell desktop. Will be arriving tomorrow according to a text they sent the wife.
https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/eqww
So, Elon Musk has ten kids from three different women. Sadly, the first one passed away from SIDS. His first wife gave birth to a single boy, twin boys, and then triplet boys. That has got to be unique. One of the boys has decided that he is a she (start the Lola music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemG0cvc4oU ).
https://nypost.com/article/what-elon-musk-has-said-about-his-many-children/
His step-sister has given birth to two of his step-brothers. Apparently Elon thinks that is creepy and so do I.
https://nypost.com/2022/07/14/elon-musks-dad-76-confirms-secret-child-with-stepdaughter/
What a kinky world we now live in.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/breaking-ivana-trump-dead-found-manhattan-apartment/
–apparent cardiac arrest.
n
added- it’s a testament to western civilization that my first reaction was “73 isn’t that old….”
What a kinky world we now
live inknow about.FIFY
n
@lynn, on the other hand…. you do have a point.
n
My first thought was the Clinton machine is still active.
And another assassination… granted it’s probably drug and corruption related and not just because of who daddy is.
Moment 23-year-old son of former Honduras President Porfirio Lobo and three other men are forced to stand facing a wall before they were executed after leaving a nightclub
n
What a kinky world we now
live inknow about.In that very line, Ace of Spades HQ has some follow up on the 10-year-old pregnancy case.
Lot’s of sick shiite speculated, including
The mother may have allowed boyfriend “access” to her daughter.
A reference that has the potential to blow the whole thing up in the PLT’s faces:
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2022/07/14/columbus-dispatch-story-allegedly-proving-10-year-old-girl-rape-abortion-story-accidentally-also-proves-why-roe-needed-to-go/
added- it’s a testament to western civilization that my first reaction was “73 isn’t that old….”
She was only eleven years older than me.
For the first part of the movie, Connery was – or appeared to be – speaking Russian, with English subtitles. Then they switched to English, and his Scottish accent wasn’t all that noticeable.
“Manchin will not support climate spending in reconciliation package”
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3560404-manchin-will-not-support-climate-spending-in-reconciliation-package-reports/
“The West Virginia Democrat told Democratic leaders on Thursday that he was unwilling to support a spending package with either climate provisions or new tax increases on corporations or wealthy individuals.”
Sweet !
Well, that stinks. I got in contact with a new foundation guy, and was set to meet him on site Saturday. I sent him some pictures and he just bailed out. It’s a bigger job than he is capable of doing.
I thanked him for his honesty and asked if he could recommend anyone.
I’m going up and I’ll look at pulling off any task I can do myself or sub to someone else to get ready and clear a path. Eventually I’ll find the right company.
n
wow, it’s down to 78F atm, but it is saturated. 99%RH and not raining.
and OH BY THE WAY, when some time ago we were talking about getting started, prices going up, etc??? on amazon, a single (larger) can of Keystone ground beef is now $25. Pork is $15. Not for a case, but per can…
I really hate to think of a future scenario where that looks cheap.
n
and OH BY THE WAY, when some time ago we were talking about getting started, prices going up, etc??? on amazon, a single (larger) can of Keystone ground beef is now $25. Pork is $15. Not for a case, but per can…
I really hate to think of a future scenario where that looks cheap.
n
It makes retiring scary. I don’t want to eat cat food.
“Is a US-Russia War Becoming Inevitable?” by Pat Buchanan
https://buchanan.org/blog/is-a-us-russia-war-becoming-inevitable-159511
“If Putin makes a military move into Finland, the U.S. will go to war against the world’s largest nation with an arsenal of between 4,500 and 6,000 battlefield and strategic nuclear weapons… To go to war with the Soviet Union over the preservation of Finnish territory would have been seen as madness during the Cold War.”
“At the NATO summit in Madrid, Finland was invited to join the alliance. What does this mean for Finland?”
“If Russian President Vladimir Putin breaches the 830-mile Finnish border, the United States will rise to Helsinki’s defense and fight Russia on Finland’s side.”
Why the heck did we do that ?
They are looking for a reason to go to war. It’s the only way out of the coming crisis. Destroy a bunch of stuff that you then get a boom replacing. Wipe out countries and debt at the same time.
Kill a bunch of hot heads and young men to calm things down for a while.
Reorg society to better fit your desires.
n
>> Added: If they think folks are not scanning all of their stuff, how about having checkers and get rid of self check?
Not happening. The self-scan technology is improving and the machines don’t need bathroom breaks. Six or eight scanners overseen by one clerk is appealing down in Bentonville. If something doesn’t scan you’re waiting on your dime for that one clerk to assist you. Our Target now routinely has just one manned register open and usually one or two customers waiting for a self-scan register. Our Wally Mart typically has two manned registers and self-scan at both ends of the checkout area.
I was just listening to Coast To Coast AM on the way home and they were talking about the Koof surging in Los Angeles. Apparently there is a variant coming out of India. His consultant recommended masks across the entire USA and getting up to date on boosters. “New Mutant Covid Variant From India, BA.2.75, Detected In California & 6 Other States, Raising Concern About Fall 2022 Wave”
https://deadline.com/2022/07/ba-two-75-new-covid-variant-india-1235063096/
Lovely, just lovely. Hopefully this will just be a flash in the pan.
>> Added: If they think folks are not scanning all of their stuff, how about having checkers and get rid of self check?
Not happening. The self-scan technology is improving and the machines don’t need bathroom breaks. Six or eight scanners overseen by one clerk is appealing down in Bentonville. If something doesn’t scan you’re waiting on your dime for that one clerk to assist you. Our Target now routinely has just one manned register open and usually one or two customers waiting for a self-scan register. Our Wally Mart typically has two manned registers and self-scan at both ends of the checkout area.
Yup, our HEB and Kroger love the self scan also. The machines even work, mostly. The wife is going to make banana cake with cream cheese icing this weekend for a church function so I stopped by HEB and got more bananas, singles that were fairly ripe. The self scanner totaled me out while I was placing the third banana out of the eight. The nice young lady came over and reset the transaction for me, by then I had the eight bananas in a sack. I just threw the sack back on the self scanner and it worked this time.
Man, I am getting old. “Nice young lady”
>> Still the best of the Tom Clancy movie adaptations and perfectly cast if you overlook the accent from Connery.
One of several movies such as Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile that seem to be in permanent rotation on late-night cable.
>> Why the heck did we do that?
Umm, because we can? Remind when was the voting for “Leader of the Free World?”
>> It makes retiring scary. I don’t want to eat cat food.
Stick with the dog food…according to a friend…