Fast food: Less value for more money
Jul 12, 2010
Have you noticed that the sizes of the sandwiches sold in fast food joints have gotten smaller recently? For example, although the size of the bun on Burger King’s “Whopper” hamburger still lives up to its name, the beef patty has shrunk until it’s little more than a caricature of what it once was. And [...]
“Just pay separate shipping & handling”
Apr 4, 2010
I’m constantly amazed at the ingenious ways marketers come up with to entice consumers to part with their hard-earned money. The scams employed vary all the time as folks finally begin to catch on, and it’s always interesting to see what angle they come up with next. Right now the ploy of choice seems to be [...]
Picking up sycamore branches
Mar 30, 2010
Well, it’s springtime again, and around here that always means having to pick up a ton of sycamore branches before the first mowing of the season can take place. Lots of the gnarled branches fall to the ground every winter, but the gale-force winds and heavy snows we had this year left a lot more of [...]
“Hey buddy, need a watch?”
Dec 7, 2009
Spammers and scammers tend to change the products they’re hawking from time to keep in order to keep the public off guard, and the “hot” product of the moment seems to be ”luxury watches”. Lately I’ve been receiving dozens of spam emails per day offering me either a Rolex or a TAG Heuer timepiece at a ridiculously low [...]
“Diplomas for everybody!”
Oct 13, 2009
It seems that about once every month a new “favorite” pitch gets added to the bottomless spam bucket, and this month’s flavor appears to be fake diplomas. Of course they aren’t hawked as fakes, and in some cases they truly are real diplomas made available to people who haven’t earned them (in exchange for a [...]
Longing for a fresh loaf of bread
Oct 8, 2009
When I was a kid my mom could go to the grocery store most any time of the day or week and buy a fresh loaf of bread. There was a Kerns Bakery just down the road in Bristol, and all the local stores sold their bread, cakes and other bakery items just hours after [...]
Getting a new PC ready for use
Oct 6, 2009
From my perspective, setting up a brand new PC should be about as simple as taking it out of the box, connecting the cables, and installing whatever software programs you plan to run – but nothing could be further from the truth. These days most new computers come from the factory with trial-ware, adware and tons of [...]
The Empire State Building honors Communist China
Sep 30, 2009
This is truly a sad day for all freedom-loving Americans. For some inexplicable reason the folks in charge of the iconic Empire State Building in New York City lit up the top floors of the building in red this evening to honor the Chinese communist regime’s 60th anniversary of rule over the world’s most populous [...]
