Air conditioning, revisited

I have a new theory on how globalization affects the United States. You can think of the world as a giant house in summer where the owner can only afford to air condition one room. The rest of the house is hot, humid, and full of mold except for the one room that has an air conditioner. The room with the air conditioner is the developed world. The United States, Canada, western Europe, Australia are relatively comfortable and (until recently) prosperous.
If you open the doors of that room you have the world economy under globalization. The outer reaches of the house get a slight increase in comfort. Most noticeable, however is the one room that had air conditioning. It's conditions deteriorate rapidly.

It's the theory of supply and demand. When there is a limited resource, (water, energy,  air conditioned cool air, diplomas, doctors, teachers, nurses) limiting those people who have access to these resources to the few is better for the few. When college degrees were scarce, people who had such things had a leg up in the job market. After the sixties, when practically everyone had one of those things, they became less valuable. Hence people like me selling hot dogs with a BA degree. Free college for all will only devalue further the degrees for people who already have them. 

The same can be said for doctors and nurses. With health access for all, the doctor's offices will be crammed with people and it will be harder for the people who have health insurance today to get appointments. With an onslaught of immigrants, housing will get even scarcer and teachers will have dozens of new students and they will need to be taught English. This will not benefit the kids who are in these schools now as they will have to compete in more crowded classrooms. Unfortunately, in most places, local taxpayers are not going to want to see their property taxes raised to accommodate other people's children. 

These facts could hurt our Democratic candidates in a general election. One thing I miss about work is now I have to pay for my own air conditioning. 

Editor's note: Expanded from a blog written a few years ago. 

The changing meaning of drop

Recently I've noted that the word "drop" seems to have acquired a new meaning. A meaning at odds with its old meaning. Old:
I dropped a book. Meaning the book fell from my hands and landed on the floor. Old: The publisher dropped his book. Meaning the publisher is removing the book from its catalog, usually because of poor sales. New: I dropped my book today. Meaning I have released my book to an unsuspecting public. The publisher is dropping the new book. Meaning the publisher is adding the book to its catalog.

Confusing. Still, I dropped acid, she dropped her boyfriend, drop a dime (giving information to the police) is still in current use.

Editor's note: The long out of print paperback "To Drop a dime" is the classic book on organized crime in New Jersey.

Oh what should I do with my supermarket cart

There is an etiquette to supermarket carts. Certainly if you shop at one of those European stores that use the quarter in the slot procedure, you retrieve your cart with your quarter and return it to the line of carts to get your quarter back. Nobody wants to give a quarter to the supermarket. Even a lawyer who gets a thousand dollars for billable hours will march the cart back to the store to get his quarter.

I usually go to the more laissez faire suburban supermarkets where the customer has discretion as to where he deposits his cart. Here there is a choice of being super nice and marching the cart to the front of the store and add it to the line of carts already there. Another option, when where there is a corral for supermarket carts in the parking lot, is to add the cart to this group. I like to stand five feet away and propel my cart into the group, creating some excitement for my day.

When it is convenient, or I have time on my hands, or perhaps am looking for some exercise, I will be a nice guy and return them to the proper places. But sometimes I am lazy, or I am late for something, or it is raining. Then I face the moral dilemma of how to handle the now empty cart.

The morally repugnant thing would be to deposit it in the driving lane. However, if there are lots of empty spaces I might deposit the cart in a parking space, ideally a space empty of cars but that already has a cart or two. In effect I am not ruining a parking space but am using a parking space that is already ruined.

Of course there is the old lift half of the cart on the grass and leave the other half of the cart in the front end of a space maneuver. The space is still usable, although now it is perhaps not an ideal parking choice. This is a morally ambiguous choice, similar perhaps to that of a devout Catholic who votes for a pro abortion candidate. It will not extend one's time in purgatory, but may result in being placed in a harder chair.

Editor's note: Those marked off queuing areas where you can put your cart at the entrance of the parking lot is called a cart corral. I learned that today with the help of Google.

Thoughts on Mad Men

Thanks to Netflix, I have finally watched all of the episodes of Mad Men. I didn't start watching the original show until around the fifth season, and by the that time it was in it's second and less illustrious path. It's a great show, part historic documentary of the advertising agency in its classic period, part social history, and part telenovela.

Here are some random thoughts on Mad Men.

1) It must be great working in an office with that much booze. Instead of coffee breaks the workers apparently got Scotch breaks.
2) Women are there for the pleasure of the men. They get coffee, handle personal errands and are there for erotic purposes when the need arises. A happier time.
3) It could be  a stressful. A random decision from a client could kill one's career.
4) Thanks to the poetry of Don Draper pitching a campaign, the American dream of prosperity through buying things almost looks like a noble cause.
5)Those long hairs and beards ruined a good thing.
6) Women slowly learned to get what was theirs, and not just by the capricious decisions of men.
7) Whenever a new company tries to buy the firm, the staff realizes that "better the devil you know" is a prudent policy.
8) The show is primarily a workplace show and wives, girlfriends, and children are distractions in search of the perfect ad campaign.
9)The most important relationship in the show is between Don and Peggy, who both knew that work and advertising was the heartbeat of life.
10) Robert Morse was always a treat in the show. Makes you want to view the movie "How to Succeed in Business without really trying". Loved when he sang a song after he died. Loved the way he made everyone take off their shoes before entering his office. Now that was power. Still he was a better boss than anyone else. "Better the devil you know".
11) High class restaurants in New York were boring.

Editor's note: The one bad thing about viewing the show on Netflix instead of the original tv series is you miss the commercials. Commercials on Mad Men were like the ones on the Superbowl. The ad agencies used it to show off their best stuff.
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D Day

I think it's time to retire D Day. The day will always be there but now that we have reached the 75th I think it's time to retire the ritual of world leaders, who don't really like each other, to have to pose together in France for a picture. Sometimes I think they do it to embarrass we Americans who had the temerity to select such a silly person as president.

the kids on Better Things

I love Better Things. I watch it religiously when it's on and often watch the instant rerun that follows it to catch the nuances that I may have missed the first time around. I have often said that most of my experiences of family life comes from watching television situation comedies. In turn, most of what I know about raising daughters comes from watching Better Things.

Lately there has been some negative buzz about the show. It revolves around the behavior of the older girls. Do all American teenagers act like Max and Frankie? Granted, most middle class American girls are privileged, demanding, and view their parents as walking credit cards.  Such is life. Still, I predict that, although annoying as youth, they will succeed in the game of life.
My predictions for the girls:

Max is pretty and knows how to manipulate people to get money. She will do fine in life, she'll end up getting occasional roles and will  couch surf from upscale Hollywood apartments to mansions in the Valley with various male directors and producers.

Frankie will end up becoming a doctor. I suspect she is good at math. She has the personality of someone who is good at math. She will get a good job in a hospital but will not be known for her bedside manner.

Duke will get married and live in the suburbs of LA. She will be the one to cajole her sisters into visiting Mom for Mother's Day. She will be the only one of the girls to visit Grandma in the nursing home. When Grandma dies the two older sisters will turn up, demanding their share.

Taking the senior bus to Atlantic City

The mandatory activity for the retiree in New Jersey is the experience of taking the senior bus to Atlantic City. Like the trip to Florida during spring break for college students, all seniors are required, by law, to do this pilgrimage at least once a year.

Apparently you have to buy the tickets in advance and on the big day show up at 8:30 at the local senior center ready for bear and the expectation of a rewarding and lucrative day in Atlantic City.

Today the big day is here. Looks like it is going to be cool and damp, no sunshine. Oh well. Got on the bus. No problem. Nice ride. Always fun to see the windmills of old Atlantic City. Back in the day you were greeted at the casino with a roll of quarters. Now it's high tech. Fortunately I was able to find an old Resorts card and it was able to take in the credit for twenty five dollars.

Resorts is nice. Cozy, a little old fashioned, I was reminded how, as a tot, I vacationed with my parents there when it was the old Chalfonte Haddon Hall. There were no televisions in the rooms. You had to go to one of the television parlors, each named for a network. In the NBC room I sang along with my parents and other guests to Sing-a-Long with Mitch.

I digress. My partner and I went to the slots machines. I played on the bus money. Every once in a while there would be fireworks and the machine would explode in sounds as it went into the bonus round. After all the excitement I realized I had won a few dollars.

Walked over to the Hard Rock Cafe. Very modern decor, had an overpriced burger. Slots again. Lost money. Had a free drink from the roving waitress. Yes I know you are supposed to tip them.

Finally we went home, a little lighter in net worth, if not in pounds.
Okay, no big deal. Last time I took the bus to AC we got donuts in the morning, bingo during the ride, and a movie on the way home. Oh well, I'll always have my memories of bus rides past.