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On the front page of LJ there is a "Spotlight" item for a Valentines Day community. The tag line is:
"Leave someone a Valentine, and see if any are left for you."
"Leave someone a Valentine, and see if any are left for you."
turbans at the annex: serious business
Feb. 3rd, 2008 02:02 amOur local lame bar, Pierce Street Annex, has revised their policies to allow turbans in the bar, after a Sikh complained and asked for an apology.
The article says: "Sanjum Paul Singh Samagh, 24, accompanied friends to the Pierce Street Annex bar last year, only to be turned away because his turban was deemed to conflict with a rule prohibiting hats."
Good, he can enter with his turban now.
What's not mentioned is why bars ban hats: it's to keep out black guys. American black guys almost always wear a hat going out at night. It's an old, known technique for keeping their presence to a minimum. It's similar to gay bars banning open-toed shoes "for safety" to keep down the number of women who show up to dance with gay guys.
For some time now, Pierce Street has been a destination for black guys from Riverside County who drive out here to be in Newport/Mesa instead of Riverside. I guess the management decided there were too many of them.
Bars are just a disaster in Southern California. Everyone drives home, and a bar can't make money unless you have at least two drinks, so the entire business relies on drunk driving. And then they make desperate attempts to keep a money-making "demographic" in the bar, which they can only achieve by violating discrimination laws and acting like assholes.
I liked the bars in SF and NY, where you could walk home if you wanted. I bet they have similar issues with the "mix of the crowd" though.
The article says: "Sanjum Paul Singh Samagh, 24, accompanied friends to the Pierce Street Annex bar last year, only to be turned away because his turban was deemed to conflict with a rule prohibiting hats."
Good, he can enter with his turban now.
What's not mentioned is why bars ban hats: it's to keep out black guys. American black guys almost always wear a hat going out at night. It's an old, known technique for keeping their presence to a minimum. It's similar to gay bars banning open-toed shoes "for safety" to keep down the number of women who show up to dance with gay guys.
For some time now, Pierce Street has been a destination for black guys from Riverside County who drive out here to be in Newport/Mesa instead of Riverside. I guess the management decided there were too many of them.
Bars are just a disaster in Southern California. Everyone drives home, and a bar can't make money unless you have at least two drinks, so the entire business relies on drunk driving. And then they make desperate attempts to keep a money-making "demographic" in the bar, which they can only achieve by violating discrimination laws and acting like assholes.
I liked the bars in SF and NY, where you could walk home if you wanted. I bet they have similar issues with the "mix of the crowd" though.
The liberal nazis and moonbats must have got to him, because the CEO of Shell Oil predicts peak oil in seven years, worries about a global scramble for scarce assets, advocates international cooperation to reduce consumption, and describes global warming as a "critical global issue."
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/wef/article3248484.ece
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/wef/article3248484.ece
zzzzz music industry? zzzzz
Jan. 15th, 2008 10:28 pmThe old Tower Records here is gonna be a Walgreens.
ticketmonster
Jan. 14th, 2008 05:41 pmI just bought show tix (Mountain Goats in March at the Troub!) on the web from Ticketmaster. Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm a rich dot-com twit, and I didn't fight the power. Anyway.
There's the usual hilarious set of charges reminiscent of a Near Eastern hotelier or a bank. Heifer Mastication Charge, Plonk Fee, Spline Adjustment, bla bla. The $32 for two tickets balloons into $52 by the end.
Then there are two new kinds of Ticketmaster fun. First, they charge you $2 extra to print the tickets out on your own printer right away. But it's free to get them by regular mail. In my putative Near Eastern Hotel, this is like providing free bottled water but charging for running water in the room. It only makes sense if your business model consists of "we've got them by the short hairs now, boys!"
Finally, there's the checkout line sales pitch. The usual items like insurance for your tickets show up, but now there's a new one! They try to get you to buy music by the artist from iTunes.
In this particular case the artist has loads of stuff available in friendly DRM-free mp3 via emusic, so the temptation is particularly low.
Maybe the next step should be a hard drive search for downloaded music, followed by a pop-up auto-sue device that charges you $150,000.
I'm going to go see people play pop music anyway, and it's not the kind of monopoly that kills little kids or strangles the free internet to death; it's essentially trivial.
But it sure is fucking funny!
There's the usual hilarious set of charges reminiscent of a Near Eastern hotelier or a bank. Heifer Mastication Charge, Plonk Fee, Spline Adjustment, bla bla. The $32 for two tickets balloons into $52 by the end.
Then there are two new kinds of Ticketmaster fun. First, they charge you $2 extra to print the tickets out on your own printer right away. But it's free to get them by regular mail. In my putative Near Eastern Hotel, this is like providing free bottled water but charging for running water in the room. It only makes sense if your business model consists of "we've got them by the short hairs now, boys!"
Finally, there's the checkout line sales pitch. The usual items like insurance for your tickets show up, but now there's a new one! They try to get you to buy music by the artist from iTunes.
In this particular case the artist has loads of stuff available in friendly DRM-free mp3 via emusic, so the temptation is particularly low.
Maybe the next step should be a hard drive search for downloaded music, followed by a pop-up auto-sue device that charges you $150,000.
I'm going to go see people play pop music anyway, and it's not the kind of monopoly that kills little kids or strangles the free internet to death; it's essentially trivial.
But it sure is fucking funny!
Bonjour ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
substitute!
Pardon! On est désolés! Le serveur a mangé trop de bûche
à Noël et nous avons du retard pour l'envoi des brouzoufs.
Nos petites mains ont travaillé dur et le problème est
maintenant résolu : voici 222 brouzoufs.
Avec toutes nos excuses!
A bientôt sur [REDACTED]
L'équipe [REDACTED]
1. I have no idea why they'd owe me 222 euros.
2. I had to look at an online French slang dictionary to find out that a brouzouf is a euro.
Edit:A commenter has the real story: it's some kind of bonus point scheme at LaFraise.com, and not 222 euros. So it is for real and not incomprehensible! Yay!
substitute!Pardon! On est désolés! Le serveur a mangé trop de bûche
à Noël et nous avons du retard pour l'envoi des brouzoufs.
Nos petites mains ont travaillé dur et le problème est
maintenant résolu : voici 222 brouzoufs.
Avec toutes nos excuses!
A bientôt sur [REDACTED]
L'équipe [REDACTED]
1. I have no idea why they'd owe me 222 euros.
2. I had to look at an online French slang dictionary to find out that a brouzouf is a euro.
Edit:A commenter has the real story: it's some kind of bonus point scheme at LaFraise.com, and not 222 euros. So it is for real and not incomprehensible! Yay!
I was soured after my trip to B&N and nicholasjamesb and I started riffing on the "publishing market." Here are some sure fire books we came up with:
Hitler's Secret Weapons: Your Success Advantage for Life
The Templars, 9/11, and God's Promise for Your New Life after Divorce
Chicken Soup for the Unholy Occult Secrets of the SS
Harry Potter and the Liberal Traitors of the Media
Donald Trump's lives of the Templars
Sylvia Browne Channels Gilles De Rais
Q is for Quagmire: Sue Grafton's Tour in Baghdad
Joel Osteen's TEMPLARMANIA! & workbook
Mein Kampf: The Essential Church Group Reading Guide
My Pants Got Wet: A Suburban Woman's Essentially Uneventful Life, Overexplained
A Wide Stance for America: The Larry Craig Story
Dr Laura's TEMPLAR DIET AND WORKBOOK
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FROM JOHN GRISHAM'S CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE NEW AGE TEMPLAR SOUL BY DAVE KOZ
any of the above + (THE DAILY MEDITATIONS JOURNAL)
nicholasjamesb and I started riffing on the "publishing market." Here are some sure fire books we came up with:Hitler's Secret Weapons: Your Success Advantage for Life
The Templars, 9/11, and God's Promise for Your New Life after Divorce
Chicken Soup for the Unholy Occult Secrets of the SS
Harry Potter and the Liberal Traitors of the Media
Donald Trump's lives of the Templars
Sylvia Browne Channels Gilles De Rais
Q is for Quagmire: Sue Grafton's Tour in Baghdad
Joel Osteen's TEMPLARMANIA! & workbook
Mein Kampf: The Essential Church Group Reading Guide
My Pants Got Wet: A Suburban Woman's Essentially Uneventful Life, Overexplained
A Wide Stance for America: The Larry Craig Story
Dr Laura's TEMPLAR DIET AND WORKBOOK
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FROM JOHN GRISHAM'S CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE NEW AGE TEMPLAR SOUL BY DAVE KOZ
any of the above + (THE DAILY MEDITATIONS JOURNAL)
Why I like the Village Hat Shop
Dec. 28th, 2007 02:54 pmDear Customer:
I cannot write an email suggesting that you purchase a hat. Chances are, you do not need another hat. If you have opted into this email newsletter, it is likely that you have recently bought a hat for your one and only head. (If so, we hope that hat is serving you well.) In fact, you probably don’t need any more stuff right now. So, I suggest that you take a walk in your neighborhood instead. Identify a plant that’s new to you, or watch the birds, smile at your neighbor, or pet a dog - but take a moratorium on consumption.
Eighty percent of the traffic that comes to VillageHatShop.com is new i.e. first-time visitors. This is no surprise, as we aren’t selling a product that needs to be replenished on a routine basis. When you return from your walk, if you have a moment, I am asking a favor. We now have a Product Review option at our site. Please find your hat’s product page at VillageHatShop.com, click the Product Review link, and submit a review. The more we learn about how our hats are functioning - on heads, not on shelves - the better we can serve our customers. The new visitors to our site will appreciate it also.
Thanks … and Happy New Year!
Fred Belinsky &
The Gang at The Village Hat Shop
www.VillageHatShop.com
www.Berets.com
www.JaxonHats.com
I cannot write an email suggesting that you purchase a hat. Chances are, you do not need another hat. If you have opted into this email newsletter, it is likely that you have recently bought a hat for your one and only head. (If so, we hope that hat is serving you well.) In fact, you probably don’t need any more stuff right now. So, I suggest that you take a walk in your neighborhood instead. Identify a plant that’s new to you, or watch the birds, smile at your neighbor, or pet a dog - but take a moratorium on consumption.
Eighty percent of the traffic that comes to VillageHatShop.com is new i.e. first-time visitors. This is no surprise, as we aren’t selling a product that needs to be replenished on a routine basis. When you return from your walk, if you have a moment, I am asking a favor. We now have a Product Review option at our site. Please find your hat’s product page at VillageHatShop.com, click the Product Review link, and submit a review. The more we learn about how our hats are functioning - on heads, not on shelves - the better we can serve our customers. The new visitors to our site will appreciate it also.
Thanks … and Happy New Year!
Fred Belinsky &
The Gang at The Village Hat Shop
www.VillageHatShop.com
www.Berets.com
www.JaxonHats.com
The life of a repo man is always intense
Dec. 12th, 2007 11:26 pm
http://www.repohometour.com/
Stockton's Magical Misery Tours
"As the bottom falls out for many owners, one real estate agent helps others find relative bargains through his Repo Home Tour."
Tuesday's Children
Oct. 30th, 2007 06:48 pmI met with Bob at Kean today so I could order a new automatic clutch for his Whizzer. (No, really!)
The patio was packed with moms and babies because the new expensive baby food store was having a grand opening Halloween event.
"Expensive baby food store" falls short of the mark. "Pomme Bébé" looks at first to be a high-end salon, art gallery, and Apple Store in one spot. Whiteness gleams tastefully. Sheer ivory surfaces, smock-clad employees, menu of the day in the style of an ice cream store. They sell organic and otherwise perfect food for infants.
So as Bob and I ordered bike parts on the Internet and bullshitted and played with his dog Mancha, this river of super-rich mothers flowed. They were all 20 and perfect forever, and their babies were all 6 months old and perfect forever. The baby carriages themselves were worth more than my car. They stretch across the sidewalk and have racks and racks of toys clacking above their passengers. More than a few were double wides with twin skulls bobbling in them.
Mancha slumped on our feet in a heavily adoring way and we skritched him. My iced tea was good.
The patio was packed with moms and babies because the new expensive baby food store was having a grand opening Halloween event.
"Expensive baby food store" falls short of the mark. "Pomme Bébé" looks at first to be a high-end salon, art gallery, and Apple Store in one spot. Whiteness gleams tastefully. Sheer ivory surfaces, smock-clad employees, menu of the day in the style of an ice cream store. They sell organic and otherwise perfect food for infants.
So as Bob and I ordered bike parts on the Internet and bullshitted and played with his dog Mancha, this river of super-rich mothers flowed. They were all 20 and perfect forever, and their babies were all 6 months old and perfect forever. The baby carriages themselves were worth more than my car. They stretch across the sidewalk and have racks and racks of toys clacking above their passengers. More than a few were double wides with twin skulls bobbling in them.
Mancha slumped on our feet in a heavily adoring way and we skritched him. My iced tea was good.
Genentech makes an eye drug called Lucentis. It's expensive: $2000/month. They also make a cancer drug called Avastin. It's inexpensive: $40/month.
The two drugs are chemically very similar. So similar, in fact, that compounding pharmacies are repackaging Avastin and doctors are prescribing it for the eye problem.
Genentech doesn't like this. They want the money for Lucentis. So, they're stopping shipment of Avastin to all the pharmacies and sending it only to hospital pharmacies or directly to doctors. Furthermore, they're refusing participate in the NIH study to confirm or reject the similar usefulness of the two drugs, and not even providing drugs at cost to the study as is customary.
Result? $1-$3 billion more a year of taxpayer money into Medicare, because almost all the patients involved are over 65. I think it's great how the drug companies selflessly do research and development to keep us all healt... yeah.
Wall St. Journal article below.
( article )
The two drugs are chemically very similar. So similar, in fact, that compounding pharmacies are repackaging Avastin and doctors are prescribing it for the eye problem.
Genentech doesn't like this. They want the money for Lucentis. So, they're stopping shipment of Avastin to all the pharmacies and sending it only to hospital pharmacies or directly to doctors. Furthermore, they're refusing participate in the NIH study to confirm or reject the similar usefulness of the two drugs, and not even providing drugs at cost to the study as is customary.
Result? $1-$3 billion more a year of taxpayer money into Medicare, because almost all the patients involved are over 65. I think it's great how the drug companies selflessly do research and development to keep us all healt... yeah.
Wall St. Journal article below.
( article )
But maybe they shouldn't place the ads right on the popup you see when you mouse over an incident. Hmm?
THE MOTHER OF ALL BUTTLES
Oct. 9th, 2007 03:08 pmThe "health" "plan" from my last job has still not paid any of the claims from February to March of this year.
Today I got a bill from a collection agency for an $800+ charge, now with added interest.
A month ago I spoke to a "rapid resolution expert" at the health plan who was shocked, shocked at the lack of payment and pressed lots of buttons and told me it would be resolved in 30 days.
Nothing was done.
Today I spoke to another "rapid resolution expert" who was even more shocked and promised me a written response in 48 hours and resolution within ten business days. He gave me a magic string of digits which supposedly will make the collection agency back off.
Once again let me observe that I am at the very top of the privilege ladder here, and I'm getting reamed really hard.
Today I got a bill from a collection agency for an $800+ charge, now with added interest.
A month ago I spoke to a "rapid resolution expert" at the health plan who was shocked, shocked at the lack of payment and pressed lots of buttons and told me it would be resolved in 30 days.
Nothing was done.
Today I spoke to another "rapid resolution expert" who was even more shocked and promised me a written response in 48 hours and resolution within ten business days. He gave me a magic string of digits which supposedly will make the collection agency back off.
Once again let me observe that I am at the very top of the privilege ladder here, and I'm getting reamed really hard.
Middle class retail is so dead now.
Bob and I went on an expotition yesterday to get him some clothes. Off to Adventure 16 we went! He needed some swim trunks from Patagonia and a jacket and pants thing from Sierra Design that folds up into its own bag.
Because it's September, the store had no swim trunks. They're still in the Patagonia catalog, however. We asked if they could order them for us, and they indicated that this might be possible. They all stood there looking uncomfortable; we were the only customers in the store. It was clear that they just wanted us to leave.
One employee did find a jacket (but no pants) of the folds-into-its-own bag line. We again asked if they could be ordered for store delivery and there was another uncomfortable silence with mumbling. The manager had his back to us most of the time and was on the phone otherwise, and fiddling with pieces of paper.
We left. Expotition: failed.
Today we met at Panera and I fired up the laptop. The Patagonia website had the swim trunks he wanted at half price, $18 instead of $36. We got him three pair. The Sierra Designs site had the pants he wanted and referred us to the REI site, where we bought those as well.
The REI site wanted us to go to a store to pick up the stuff, and pointed out it was FREE! shipping this way. So we clicked that button, only to find out that "items for store pickup may have an extended delivery time compared to mail delivery." Clearly they just wait for your item to show up in the regular weekly shipments and then at some time you get a phone call. Fuck that. We spent the shipping charge for Internet order.
When I was a kid, there were lots of stores. We had department stores, toy stores, specialty hobby stores, hardware stores, discount stores, all kinds! Some of the stores were in malls and others were not. Not all of them were chains.
That's just gone now. The department stores were eaten by the big box chains. Same with toys and hardware. The discount stores became the big box stores. Everything is a chain.
Now it's all poor folks or rich folks, no bourgeois. The middle-class shopping experience has disappeared. If you have a shitload of money you can go to Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus or some boutique place like Restoration Hardware and blow five bills on a few things. If not, you're going to Target or Wal-Mart.
Bob is 60 so he finds this incomprehensible. But he likes the Internet. Click, click, done. He gave me $140 in cash to buy his shit with my laptop and then we had iced tea and bullshitted.
Bob and I went on an expotition yesterday to get him some clothes. Off to Adventure 16 we went! He needed some swim trunks from Patagonia and a jacket and pants thing from Sierra Design that folds up into its own bag.
Because it's September, the store had no swim trunks. They're still in the Patagonia catalog, however. We asked if they could order them for us, and they indicated that this might be possible. They all stood there looking uncomfortable; we were the only customers in the store. It was clear that they just wanted us to leave.
One employee did find a jacket (but no pants) of the folds-into-its-own bag line. We again asked if they could be ordered for store delivery and there was another uncomfortable silence with mumbling. The manager had his back to us most of the time and was on the phone otherwise, and fiddling with pieces of paper.
We left. Expotition: failed.
Today we met at Panera and I fired up the laptop. The Patagonia website had the swim trunks he wanted at half price, $18 instead of $36. We got him three pair. The Sierra Designs site had the pants he wanted and referred us to the REI site, where we bought those as well.
The REI site wanted us to go to a store to pick up the stuff, and pointed out it was FREE! shipping this way. So we clicked that button, only to find out that "items for store pickup may have an extended delivery time compared to mail delivery." Clearly they just wait for your item to show up in the regular weekly shipments and then at some time you get a phone call. Fuck that. We spent the shipping charge for Internet order.
When I was a kid, there were lots of stores. We had department stores, toy stores, specialty hobby stores, hardware stores, discount stores, all kinds! Some of the stores were in malls and others were not. Not all of them were chains.
That's just gone now. The department stores were eaten by the big box chains. Same with toys and hardware. The discount stores became the big box stores. Everything is a chain.
Now it's all poor folks or rich folks, no bourgeois. The middle-class shopping experience has disappeared. If you have a shitload of money you can go to Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus or some boutique place like Restoration Hardware and blow five bills on a few things. If not, you're going to Target or Wal-Mart.
Bob is 60 so he finds this incomprehensible. But he likes the Internet. Click, click, done. He gave me $140 in cash to buy his shit with my laptop and then we had iced tea and bullshitted.
THE ACK STEAK HOUSE, PROUDLY SERVING THE FAMOUS AND JUICY PTUIBONE STEAK:
IT'S NATURAL LIGHTER FLUID, YOU KNOW, THE STUFF THAT SQUIRTS OUT OF TREES, SUDDENLY, FATALLY AND PAINFULLY BURNING YOUR SKIN WITH A STICKY NAPALM-LIKE BUT TOTALLY NATURAL GEL:
IT'S NATURAL LIGHTER FLUID, YOU KNOW, THE STUFF THAT SQUIRTS OUT OF TREES, SUDDENLY, FATALLY AND PAINFULLY BURNING YOUR SKIN WITH A STICKY NAPALM-LIKE BUT TOTALLY NATURAL GEL:
The Afghan mujahedin CIA operative-owned IHOP on 17th Street in Costa Mesa has big news. They are leaving the IHOP family to be free! With luck, they will not need any Stinger missiles to do so.
However, they do need to rename the place, and they're having a contest to do so.
Ready... set... GO!
However, they do need to rename the place, and they're having a contest to do so.
Ready... set... GO!
