A gnomes village

Traipsing through my local park a few months ago I spotted a gnomes village. It seems to be collecting more stuff and expanding. It has yet to be discovered by the camera crews and YouTubers that go for these types of things so I am not revealing the exact location. Sort of cute. I had to look up the word "gnomes" on the Internet. 

 

I shaved off the beard

It started with Covid. Millions of men throughout the world had to do something with their newly minted time. Many did home projects, maybe even watched the kids do school on the computer. Of course millions of men grew beards. I noticed on a hike that summer that most of the men were sporting facial hair they didn't have before. Since they didn't have to look presentable at the office they could grow their hair longer, grow a mustache or beard and even cut back on the once daily showers. 

Today I was looking up information on the Real ID program, and at one point I had to find my driver's license. I looked at the picture and said "boy, what a good looking guy". I then looked at the mirror and it struck me. Even though friends were supportive in the beginning, the truth is that a scraggly beard does not really add to my appearance. In a moment of spontaneity, I shaved it off. Did most of it with the electric razor but I had to use an old Bick disposable to finish off the job. Even now I have a five o'clock shadow. 

I've always wanted to go there

 

The other night I was sound asleep and was awoken by the sound of people talking in what seemed like a Germanic language. At 3AM it seemed perfectly fine for newly arrived European guests to have a conversation on one of the porches near me. The conversation occasionally lapsed into English. I could hear a male voice say "Oh, I've always wanted to go there."

A lady mentions an exotic locale and a guy says, "Oh I've always wanted to go there." I wonder what sort of places reside in our brains in the category of places we want to but never will visit.  People often say that about Greece or Italy. These are the types of places that are shown in travelogues to school children on the day or two before summer vacation. The teacher has finished the exams and is too tired to try to teach anything so she shows a movie about the cable cars of Lisbon. These movies are soon forgotten until years later someone mentions a place that is residing in our memory from that long forgotten movie. 

Should women get paid menstrual leave

 Spain recently passed legislation allowing paid menstrual leave, up to three days a month. New Jersey is also considering menstrual legislation. Many Americans are now considering whether monthly leave for "that time of the month" is a good idea.

I personally would favor such legislation. However, to be fair to men, there would also be what I call baseball leave. This would be one day a month when a man could go to the ballpark or racetrack.  Perhaps car shows could be scheduled for weekday afternoons. This would be fair to both men and women. What's good for the goose ......

Going back to the office

 For millions of Americans, the past month or so has meant the return to the office. After working from home for over a year, many companies and government agencies (i.e. New Jersey government) have been requiring a return to the office. While this is great news for restaurants that depend on the office workers for business, it has not been the best news for workers.

I recently was listening to the lament of a back to the office employee. "Now I have to rush in the morning and do my hair          everyday!" Before nobody cared what she looked like. "Now I have to deal with morning traffic!" Not like commuting from the bedroom to the living room. "And I'm still making coffee because the lazy people in my group wait for me to do it!" Well, she was making coffee before. "All the people I liked are gone and all the people I can't stand are here!" That always happens.  "Nosy Marilyn didn't know I was divorced and she insisted I give her all the gory details!" Every office has nosy people. 

Another development seems to be that in many cases, higher ranking people are still allowed to work from home while the peons are forced back into the office. So if you have a question you still have to email somebody. 

Having the boss away has its advantages. I remember I liked when my boss wasn't there. I could work without being interrupted or asked to go to surprise meetings. Sometimes you can work more efficiently when bosses and even co-workers are miles away.  

Shopping bag day

 

And now the second step in the Californication of New Jersey. The end of free plastic bags at the supermarket. Just watching the tv news and learned that some stores are giving out free re-usable shopping bags. Unfortunately the store I went to was not doing so. At any rate I have been collecting plastic shopping bags for months and have a few re usable bags I have collected over the years.

Things went pretty smoothly. I tempted fate by trying one of the  self check out stands. I could fit my plastic bag in the metal poles where the free bags used to be. I placed my large re-usable bag on top of the scale. I filled out the bags like I usually do.

At the very end the screen asked me how many bags I used. I was going to punch in 2 then I remembered those were the bags I brought and they may want to charge me for using their bags. Instead I  pushed the zero button. I got my change and my receipt and headed for home. 

I now need to remember to bring the re-usable bag back to the passenger seat to the car so I don't forget next time.  In a few years New Jersey will have a Republican governor and people will blame it on the shopping bags.

Elon Musk

Over the years, I have ignored certain public figures, even though they are constantly being discussed in the media. I could not recognize a record by Rihanna or Beyonce if you played it for me. I have not watched the Kardashians in at least a decade. And even though this is, nominally, an economics blog, I have never once mentioned Elon Musk. 

For some reason, I have never been that interested in him. I have no intention of buying a Tesla, although I'm intrigued by the electric pumps at the travel courts. I have no interest in going into space in one of his vehicles. I never read Twitter, although it is apparently the way most media savvy people get their news. 

Now he is talking about buying Twitter. Will he, won't he, can he, would he? is the big news that people are preoccupied with now. I don't know. I should care because one of my mutual funds is invested heavily in both Twitter and Tesla. Just to show I'm not a luddite, I am finally going to listen to the new record by Billie Elish.