Cost Story

 Just something to ponder. 

I noticed this guy's story on Twitter....he'd gone to a place in Manhattan.....sharing a cocktail situation with someone and having small platter of cheese sticks.  Pricey?  With tax....just over $50.

The wife and I had a scene like this back in the summer....just two drinks and no snacks....totaling out near $30.  Course, it wasn't Manhattan.  

By the time you figure inflation, the cost of employees, heating or cooling these establishments....things have escalated over the past five years.

The big deal is that city/state sales tax....escalated with this.  So you wake up and think over this past habit....then reach a point where you avoid moments like this.  Yes, it slows down the commerce path, and establishes a new problem for city/state tax revenue folks.  

I should note....all of this talk takes place before you get to the 'tip'.  And what would you tip for two drinks and a cheese plate at $50?  Old guys like me won't go past $5.  My wife, the German?  She might not go past $3 if she's controlling the situation.  

What If We Were Left To Our Own 'Devices' To Identify Ourselves?

 At least forty times a week, I'll be watching some YouTube or Twitter video....where some gal or guy wants to let you know how to 'identify' themselves.  They assume you want to know them, their problems or woes, and you wouldn't mind conducting this experience with a special title or ID.  

In my military years, you wore a rank identifier on your sleeve/collar, and a name ID on your chest....with 'Air Force' on the opposite side.  That was all the ID that you really needed (at least at that point in time).  So it's hard for me to see this new trend as being legit.

The chief problem I see with the identify-people....if they were to meet forty new people a day....they are wasting at least two hours of time in getting the ID across and fully understood.  The minute you say binary or non-binary....that usually opens another hour (for the 40 people) where you need to explain your sex route and how things seem fluid or non-fluid.  

Me?  The minute you start on this chat....I'd probably stop you and ask about your car....mostly wanting to know if it's a Buick, Honda, or if you are carless.  Then right before you restart your identity chat....I'll ask about your dog or cat.  After that minute long response....I'd probably go on and ask about favorite episodes of 'Friends', and who you felt was the better character on 'Lost'.  I might ask about your health, particularly your mental health.  I might dwell five minutes on the crappy state of baseball, or this idiot DeSantis, or if you had any favorites passages from the Old Testament.

I know that you'd like to just control the conversation and make it a pronoun thing or sexual thing....but there ten-thousand other potential chat topics and you might spill your guts over any number of things unrelated to sex or pronouns. 

Yeah, in a way, you are living a fairly miserable life if the conversation can only touch on pronouns and sex (unless these were juicy stories over the librarian lady who wears naughty see-through blouses, or the Piggly Wiggly clerk who has a dozen lip-piercings).   

Gen Z Story

 The NY Post published a news item entitled: "Gen Z young people suffer from ‘menu anxiety’ when dining out — with many too scared to order their own meals."

I sat and read over the story.

It would appear that they sit down....gaze over a four-page menu, then get all hyped-up and unable to really select anything.  So they end up asking others at the table to order for them, or getting some advice from the waitress.

I pondered over this.

I grew up in rural Alabama in the 1970s.  When you did get a eating-out opportunity....you typically had a one-page menu, which prominently featured catfish, chicken and some lunchtime roast-beef special.  Three-quarters of the time, you went to the bottom where a hamburger plate was offered up for $2.99 (ice tea was unlimited in those days).

The amount of time you spent gazing at the menu?  Less than 20 seconds.

After that, I went off to the Air Force....where the chow hall typically had four offerings....the grilled ham and cheese sandwich, hamburgers, cheap fish-sticks, or crappy tasting spaghetti and meatballs. You spent less than 3 seconds on menu-gazing.

To some degree, I'm puzzled over this Gen Z crowd. I admit...maybe a four-page menu is a bit difficult to analyze.  Maybe the pricing scheme is such....that you really don't want to spend $26 for a marginalized plate of Lamb (with gravy out of a can). 

But if you have such a problem over lunch or dinner....how does dating go?  Do you gaze over a 8-page list of things NOT to mention prior to the date?  Do you carry a 3 x 5 inch card around to remind you of polite things to say to the gal or guy?  

Life was confusing...even before Gen Z folks came along, but it seems like they've made things twice as confusing with their antics.

Breathing Story

 I sat looking this week over a Daily Mail UK newspiece: "Now scientists say BREATHING is bad for the environment: Gases we exhale contribute to 0.1% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.|"

You can read the whole  piece here.

By the end, you are left with two observations.  First, we could be doomed no matter what we do.  Or, we could adapt here and learn to breath less.  

I pondered over the breathing less.  At the Alabama pool where I failed to learn how to swim.....you had training to hold your breath thirty seconds.  This practice might work, and if so....we could lessen the destruction of the planet, by holding our breath on a regular basis. 

If none of this matters, and we are fairly doomed?  Well....then breath on....like you would normally breath.  

Next week?  I expect the next science worry to be excessive farting...causing climate change, and getting people to lessen their farting. 

"What Kind Of American Are You?"

 "What kind of Americans are you?"

-- Jessie Plemons character in spring 2024 'Civil War' talking to some journalists that he's encountered.

The scene is fixed.....a civil war in America has broken out, and there's the US gov't, the 'western alliance' (whatever that means) and the Texas 'guard'.  The journalists are portrayed in the movie as being good guys.  Jessies's character has encountered them and wants to identify them as 'good-guys' or enemies. 

I pondered over the question, and how one should respond.

The attempt by the production team is to portray various people as enemies of the Republic, or nutcase militia types.

The fact that the movie has not be released or seen beyond the 3-minute preview....leaves a lot to your imagination.

My response to the Jessie-character.....I'm American-American.  

Releasing some piece like this in an election year?  It's an attempt to stir up public anger....making them perceive civil conflict being just months away.  It won't go well.

Booze-Discussion

 In the old days of the Air Force (prior to the 1990s)....booze on a base was sold at two locations (your local 'club' or the Class-6 store).  The club sold drinks....the Class-6 store was the place to buy it in bottle form.

To describe a Class-6 shop?  It would be typically like any beverage shop that you'd walk into today, with ultra-cheap prices.  If you were off-base and found a bottle of 'X' for $6....Class-6 would probably sell it for $5.

From the 1950s to the 1990s....Class-6 survived (actually thrived). 

In the 1990s...the BX-folks came along and said they could do a better job, and the Class-6 empire was dissolved.

What you figured out five years later...was that the $6 a bottle of 'X' off-base.....via the new BX shop....was now about $5.90 for the same bottle.  Yeah, this became a much discussed topic.

Occasionally, you'd walk in and find some case of beer on sale, and the discount made sense.  But you had to view each week of what was coming up on sale, and only buy when discounted prices were in effect.  

But the BX went and changed things in an odd way as 2000 came around.  The shopette gimmick was invented, a 24-hour shop came up out of thin air.  I was retired at this point, but young enlisted guys would talk about going over at midnight....to buy X and Y.  This was something that 1970s/1980s enlisted guys weren't into.

This week, I noticed that the BX-management had gone to another modification....saying there were too many suicides on bases....with people buying booze after 10 PM.  So there is a new being established....the 24-hour operation will still continue, but you can't buy any beer, wine, or booze....from 10 PM to 6 AM.  No one really caring?  Well....they had to admit that in normal operations....booze sales from 10 PM to 6 AM....only amounted to 1-percent of the booze sales.  Yeah.....99-percent of booze/beer sales occurs from 6 AM to 9:59 PM

This brings me back to the odd factor....guys committing suicide after dark (mostly from midnight to 4 AM).  No one says booze or drugs are involved, but this BX decision makes you wonder about this.  

Folks just readjusting to the time change, and rush over between 9 and 10 PM....to buy beer or booze?  Well....yeah, people tend to adjust.  The other factor?  If you needed booze or beer....why limit yourself to the BX-management situation?  

New Scenario: Haley-Newsom-Trump-RFK Jr?

 It came up yesterday....Haley suggesting to Democrats (since there is no D-primary stuff going on) to cross the line and vote for her.  So it's the next likely gimmick to have Haley as the Republican convention winner....leaving Trump to be a Independent.

In a race where it's Trump-RFK Jr-Haley-Newsom?

I'd say Haley wins zero states.

RFK and Trump will split 45 states, and Newsom will mostly win west coast states, and NY. 

Crazy year for an election.