Wednesday, July 22
The Top Secret Thing Phase Two Mark IV (A Quinn Martin Production) came to its conclusion this afternoon. Now what? Summer. Six weeks of meetings in dark windowless rooms: done. Powerpoint: no more. Wearing a suit and gesticulating in front of slides – it was fun, and as I’ve said before, I’m having more fun at work now than ever. With great powerpoint comes great responsibilities, as the man said.
Noted this tweet from Jake Tapper: “Hardware store employee informed me to stay away from LG products Their old brand name was Goldstar.Junk then junk now”
I beg to differ. My LG microwave has performed solidly every day for two years; ditto the washer and drier. Solid, well-made; when you close the door on the appliances, it has the satisfying CHUNK of a ’61 Caddy. Compare to the Electrolux Icon appliances we own:
100% failure rate.
Granted, I only have two. But the fridge arrived broken; the electronics panel was dead, and it would no more give ice than a dead cow would give milk. Okay, a dead cow would give a little milk as it lost muscle control, but it’s nothing you’d want. (How do cows die, anyway? In the wild, I mean. Aside from those that just sit down and check out, there has to be the occasional case of a cow just falling over dead. I wonder if a cow has died a natural death in the United States in the last 100 years. They don’t get the chance.)
Anyway, the dishwasher died last week. It should not fail after two years, especially since the rigorous use consists of pushing one (1) button four (4) times a week. a repairperson is coming by tomorrow; unless his vehicle is stocked with replacement circuit boards, he will just look at it, push some buttons, and say “well, I’ll have to order parts from the other side of the planet.” We all know that’s how it will go. But they can’t order the parts until an expert comes out and says “we need to order parts.”
Googling around I find I am not alone. Of course you’ll always find lots of posts kvetching about appliances, swearing they’ll NEVER BUY IT AGAIN, and the company DOESN’T CARE and next time they’re buying the other brand – which has its own 40-page Google result for customers enflamed beyond reason. Things break, some units go bad, people extrapolate. But I found a page that described a recall for an earlier version, due to some units, um, BURSTING ON FIRE. Now. It takes a special sort of perversity for a dishwasher, so concerned with water and its salutary attributes, to catch on fire. Apparently the circuit boards weren’t properly shielded from moisture.
You’d think “moisture” would not be one of those left-field issues that bedevil dishwasher designers.
So I have a new battle: I will not pay for labor. Sorry. With careful patience I will work my way up the tree until I either get the labor costs waived, or I get someone to admit, on the record, for the Bleat, that the top of the line item they sell, the pride of the fleet, dies after moderate use, and it’s your problem. I know what you’re thinking: flush from my victory over Target and UPS, I’m overreaching. This is the equivalent of invading Russia in the Winter, and I will end up in the Bunker ranting about how long it’s taken to get my rebate on a $19.99 DVD. UND VERE ARE MEIN REVARD POINTS?
Back now to watching “John Adams,” which is still interesting but loses a bit of the . . . drama in the third and fourth episodes. A lot of sitting around Europe, with Giamatta in full Peevish Man About to Excrete Hornets From His Ears mode, but the fourth ends with the inauguration, and it’s hard not to feel your heart expand past the capacity the breast can hold. Also, everyone has bad teeth, which is good touch. Adams looks like he just came in first in a Tar Pie eating contest.
Tom WIlkinson’s Franklin is the great delight of the program – a roue, a sly lazy , a dilettante given gravitas by his twinkly aphoristic skills and “learned rustic” routine. Jefferson floats on breezes of idealism and self-amusement; Hamilton stings. Washington is all reserve and muted, impenetrable dignity. It’s just how you imagine them, which is why it seems right.
There’s a scene where Adams and Jefferson are arguing about the nature of government in the future; Adams says, with considerable intensity, that he is trying to establish a domain in which the state cannot intrude, in which it has no place. Only thus will liberty be preserved. I imagine he would be stunned to find the dimensions of that domain today.
More Price is Right today around 10 AM; Out of Context Ad Challenge around 11 or so; Mpls update later. See you around.
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apparently a fair number of cows in the US do die natural deaths. Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs did an episode on what happens to them.
Basically, if you ever wondered what happens at a rendering plant, well… it’s one of the very few – perhaps only – episode where they put up a “the following scenes may not be suitable for younger or sensitive viewers”. The scene in question involves a cow, a chain hoist, and a grinder.
In the end they gave mike a shoebox of brown powder that was about one cow’s worth of end product.
James –
re: the dishwasher.
A few danger signs to watch out for:
1. The repair person appears to be 18 years old or younger.
2. The repair person calls “back to the shop” for help.
3. The repair person replaces more than 2 parts with no sign of improvement.
I’ve fought many an appliance battle (one week the washer, then the dryer, then the frige, then the furnace all went out on alternating days). In some cases after a battle royale with “repair companies”, I finally dug in myself, diagnosed and then repaired the problem with some help from google. I know you don’t have time for that, but… experience has shown me the average repair person isn’t what he/she used to be.
If the repair is done quickly by someone who knows what they are doing (and you’ll be able to spot that real quick), or unless you are under an extended warranty, in my opinion it’s unfair to the repair company to not pay the labor. I only say this because many times the repair company is subcontracted by the appliance company… they have no control over the quality of the appliance or the policies of the manufacturer, and you’re (again, IMO) taking food out of someone’s mouth for something they have no control over. In this case the fair thing to do is pay the bill, then work your way up the chain demanding a rebate of the labor.
Again, I only speak from experience…. I’ve thrown more than a few “repair techs” out of my house, and gladly paid a few others because they did a quality job in a short time frame. Which brings me to a sore point of mine: people who get charged $175 – $200 for a repair that took 15-30 minutes, and then complain they shouldn’t be charged for such a quick repair. I always ask them: would you have felt better if it took them 4 hours? The reason people get charged $200 for a simple (or even complex repair) is basic: The tech knew what they were doing, and because of that were able to go straight to the problem and fix it the first time – you’re paying for their knowledge and experience, which takes years to accumulate.
I just hope you’re not planning on having the repair completed and then telling the tech you aren’t paying (which doesn’t seem like something you would do).
In any event, please keep the updates on this coming…. and best of luck!
(PS: If you bought the appliance at a company whose name I won’t mention, but which starts with an “S” and ends with an “s”, used to have a catalog of their various merchandise, and who can be found at most any mall….. I’ll say an extra prayer for you…. you’re going to need it). Sorry for the ranting……
I dunno–it seems to me that no appliance, of any kind, should break down after only two years, unless it was defective to begin with. I want everything I buy to last at least ten years. My KitchenAid stand mixer’s still going strong after 21 years, but my Cuisinart coffee maker pooped out after 14 months. (At least Cuisinart replaced it, but still…)
Why is it that Granny had the same pots, pans, and appliances 50 years after she bought them? Oh, that’s right–they didn’t have any circuit boards. Just iron and steel.
FYI, LG used to stand for ‘Lucky Goldstar’ & is one of the Korean chaebols like Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai (making everything from soup to nuts). When I was stationed in the ROK back in 1984, I noticed that Korean businesses (especially the small ones) had some interesting names – ‘lucky’ was included in a good many of them. Probably the owners hoped it would rub off. The US base exchanges in country carried a lot of Goldstar & Samsung electronics. I bought a Goldstar VCR & Samsung 13″ color TV while I was there & still have the Samsung. Even back in the ’80s the Koreans were trying hard to get to Japanese levels of product quality & I thought did pretty damn well. Today’s LG products seem to be going for the sleek, pseudo-european luxury vibe which I guess doesn’t go with ‘lucky goldstar’ so it’s not surprising they changed the brand name, but they’ll always be goldstar to me.
I bought a new dishwasher on the ‘damaged’ aisle six years ago. The lowest-end of the line, with a dent in the lower panel. Got it for just over a hundred bucks. Still runs like a champ. Of course, it only has to clean my Corelle and some glasses a couple times a week now, but for 3 years it was run by 3 marauding teenagers who lived here. I think it’s a GE.
Didn’t know LG used to be Goldstar. That was the first microwave we owned and it lasted a LONG time – 10 years and 3 moves? And it, too, would’ve been the bottom of the line, price-wise. I’d like a new microwave now, but the one I have is 6 years old and still does its job…which is making popcorn and heating up a few leftovers now and then.
A Whirlpool dishwasher came with the house when we bought it in 1990. Found the warranty card in a drawer. It was bought and installed in 1974. Still runs great 35 years later. First sign of trouble it will be replaced with no attempt at repair, but until then…..(I’m the same guy who had the ‘76 Vega that went over 130,000 miles without benefit of oil changes)
My monitor is an LG and it’s performed flawlessly for the past five years. It’s a “Flatron Slim” which is also my rap name. The only reasons why I’m thinking of getting rid of it are a) it’s not widescreen and b) it’s not HDMI compatible but none of that is the monitor’s fault. The next monitor I get will almost certainly be a Lucky Goldstar.
I have the LG Washer and Dryer and love them. Both are fully stainless steel on the interior and solid. No center agitator for the washer, so it doesn’t eventually destroy your clothes, and uses only the water needed. Both are fully programmable for about anything you can think of in washing or drying. After four years of solid use, I’ve had zero problems. Yep, love that LG duo.
LG used to be pretty iffy for appliances, but have really upped their quality in recent years (much like that other Korean company mentioned above, Hyundai). That might be another reason they switched monikers from Goldstar to LG, just to get away from their previous reputation.
If I was buying an appliance, I’d seriously consider them as the frontrunner.
I have successfully fixed several appliances using Fixitnow.com (this is not an ad, I just like them). I sent them a few bucks beer money and got some priceless advice in return. Since I live in the middle of nowhere, any service visit is expensive, and it gives me a great feeling to do it myself.
One problem was a refrigerator that was whizzing on the floor, apparently at random. Their troubleshooting guide led me to the chilled water hose, which had a pinhole leak from resting against a hot motor, and leaked water whenever you pressurized it by using the water fountain in the door. Repair cost me about $20 for parts and shipping. I also used them to get detailed schematics and instructions for disassembling my dishwasher (had an olive pit stuck in a check valve) – repair cost $0.
You’re right on the inauguration scene from John Adams – best scene in the series.
Used to buy GE but most of their stuff is dookey now.
Have an LG 42″ flatscreen. Beautiful HD picture and no problems at all in the two years I have owned it. I don’t know about their other stuff. Samsung’s rep wasn’t all that good at one time but I use eight of their monitors in my business and they have been fine.
I sometimes think that buying an appliance during the right moon phase is the key. I have a Sears food processor still going strong after 35 years. Good Karma with that one.
LG is the old Lucky Goldstar brand out of Korea – The quality of their appliances has really improved dramatically over the last ten years, making them a good value. LG is also a big private label manufacturer, so you might be surprised at whose “store brands” are actually LG under a different nameplate.
“How do cows die, anyway? In the wild, I mean.” Wild cows! I’m still laughing. Along those lines, the Aflac commercial in the barnyard where they have a milking machine attached to a white faced hereford… I can only hope they were trying to be funny. My LG cell phone is the best I’ve had but I never would have selected it if it had been a “Goldstar” I reckon.
If Adams is “stunned” then Jefferson has sold the Virginia estate and moved to Belize by now. And Hamilton has gone back to the islands. But Franklin is happily cavorting in a tub with a comely lass half his age. Some things must remain constant.
Now that the Top Secret Thing is over and done with, maybe you can give us the thrill-packed conclusion to the Irritable Bear saga. (When we last left our story, Irritable Bear had climbed in the wind ow and was stealthily approaching the sleeping man? Who is he? Why is the bear irritated? Is the bear irritated with him, or something/someone else? Will the sleeping man awaken to a nightmare of terror as the small but irritated bear rends him limb from limb? Inquiring minds want to know….)
Be thankful you don’t own any Maytag appliances. I believe their design engineers may in fact be “chromosomally special.”
Case in point, we inherited a Maytag washing machine after the original owner chose throwing it away over hanging himself. The spin cycle was insufficient to wring enough water out of the clothes, so it was necessary to run it through the cycle a good half-dozen times before transferring the load to the dryer.
Turns out the motor sits on a track, and is supposed to pivot on this track between two positions: the normal position and the spin position. Problem is, the awesome Maytag engineers never considered that this track might need to be lubricated in order to allow the motor to slide across it. Nope, the thing comes from the factory bone-dry and chock-full o’ friction. So the motor never pivots fully into the spin position, hence sopping wet clothes. Days of Googling, total disassembly of the motor unit, and a liberal application of WD-40 later, it works like a charm. But getting there was ridiculous.
Maytag, for their part, has acknowledged there is a design problem with this unit, but apparently have been unable to come up with this simple fix. Their official recommended course of action, swear to God, is to buy a different washing machine. MAYTAG YEAH!!!
Learned my lesson well with the “state of the art” Whirlpool Calypso Washer/Dryer combo set we purchased back in 2000. I was lured in by the salesman with his bright white shirt and equally bright capped teeth. This was one of the earlier models with the large capacity minus that agitator thing that is in the middle of the standard washers. You can cleanse several small children inside of this baby. Unfortunately there was product flaw with the hoses and the darn things RUSTED away from the inside. It was a pretty day when I called out to Noah asking for his ark with that flood. Barked for weeks at corporate and they sent a brand new one, the upgraded model. Works like a charm now for 8 years. Now, it’s sister, the dryer… on it’s fourth or fifth heating element. They can’t seem to figure that one out but since it’s under super duper warranty for life now I’m on speed dial to the repair center.
Kenmore appliances are the only way to go. Our house is full of them from a garbage disposal to a washing machine, dishwasher, fridge, etc. All but the microwave are American made and all have been beyond perfect. Our flooded basement did briefly take out the washer, but it was repaired in one visit for less than $100.00.
You have to love old appliances. My folks bought a Sears washer and drying in 1973, in harvest gold no less. Eventually these came to me as hand-me-downs in my first house. The only trouble, the dryer snapped a belt in ‘04. Bought a new belt online for six bucks and was back in business.
We’ve had our LG front-loading washer for 3 years now, and it’s never given us a lick of trouble. Well, that one time when I was unloading it and the drum spun around about three times, and I heard this weird click and the power lights came on – then the machine wouldn’t work and threw up an error message.
I spent some time on Google, and finally came up with the solution. Unplug the machine, then plug it back in. Works fine, and I now avoid spinning the drum.
Can’t blame you for using the power that comes with a widely-read blog to demand that labor charges are waived for you. If it works, good for you. But not so good for us, because the other side of the threat has to be, “…but if you do waive the charges for me, I won’t trash you in the Bleat.” I’ll still have to pay labor charges and I won’t have had the benefit of knowing that a particular brand is kaka. Or am I mis-reading your intentions? No biggie in any case. I’ve been a daily reader since a certain date in 2001. Can’t wait to hear about the TSTP2MIV. Got a big grin from recalling the Mark VII-steel hammer-hairy-wristed dude dealie at the end of The FBI – A Quinn-Martin Production. Here’s a link so the youngsters will get the reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_VII_Limited
Thanks to Ron Moses I’m probably going to use “Chock full o’friction” in some context today.
How do cows die, anyway?
1. hoof and mouth disease.
2. lightning.
3. udder despair.
You hit the nail on the head with the Adams series. Not only bad teeth but you definitely got the sense that most of the founding fathers didn’t bathe that regularly and wore wool in all seasons. The White House when it was first built was in a muddy swamp. Tom Wilkenson did very well to reinvent the role, less sagacity and more self interest. Jefferson comes off as less than heroic, more vain. Only pudgy Adams with his bad teeth embodies the middle class virtues and the scene where he chafes to be fundraising among the decadent French aristocrats is priceless. If you have a middle class background, you can actually feel his discomfort. Which is different than his discomfort meeting King George when he became ambassador. That’s more like cognitive dissonance, because although politically he was opposed to him, he was probably also weaned on God Save the King.
There are no wild cows in the United States, and never have been. (Perhaps a few ferals now and then, but given their value, that’s unlikely.) The cow is native to Eurasia and North Africa. It was domesticated from a wild creature called the aurochs. (The word is believed to be the Germanic version of “Ur-ox.”) The last one died in Poland in 1627. Natural death probably involved being eaten by wolves or bears or some other predator.
I know I would get an argument from a vegan but, it seems if tomorrow everyone on the planet went vegan, we would still have to raise and kill animals for the numerous by-products we rely on.
I also get vegans upset when I point out that all agriculture interferes with the life cycle of other animals. Stop feeling guilty about being alive.
I remember in “All Creatures Great and Small” an old farmer blamed all cow deaths on “stagnation o’ t’ lungs” which I assumed led them go “tits up”
Add me to the LG fan club. I have a DVD-recorder and an HDTV from them, both behave very nicely. Excellent features for the price, too.
On the other hand, I had one of their super-multi DVD burners in my PC, which developed dementia. Couldn’t read discs, would claim to burn discs but produced frisbees, became slower and slower, and so forth. I tossed it out and replaced it with a no-name OEM drive from newegg.com and have had no trouble since then.
So 2 out of 3 of my experiences with LG electronics have been pretty favorable.
There’s a guy in Sussex County, NJ, who operates Bobolink Dairy. Great raw-milk cheeses, organic beef and pork, and breads made in a brick oven. His website is cowsoutside.com, because literally the only time the cows are inside is when they’re being milked. The rest of the time, they’re “in the wild.” So some of them end up dying of old age. (Then they’re made into hamburger!)
“Googling around I find I am not alone. Of course you’ll always find lots of posts kvetching about appliances, swearing…” Filing the above comments under “quod erat demonstrandum.”
Now, let me tell you about my garbage disposal….
I’ve had to replace the one LG gadget/appliance I’ve owned to date (a Verizon LG Dare) not once, but twice. I’m convinced it was the charger, but still…
LG was a huge upgrade from Goldstar, the south-Korean mfg. appliances are the best to be had, overall, in construction an electronics quality. The Germans may say Immer Besser but the Koreans seem to really have their hearts in it today. LG puts many American and German brands to shame.
I picked up a number of props from the John Adams prop sale. The coffin has received the most use. I’m still mad I didn’t buy the snakey flag from the opening credits.
Also I presume you checked your circuit-breaker.
Baby M: Irritable Bear would also like to know Irritable Bear’s motivation. Irritable Bear has been approaching Sleeping Man for months now, and has no idea why, though Irritable Bear suspects it may have to do with laxatives. Or Doris. Or having to type the words “Irritable Bear” endlessly. Or Rita Hayworth.
@Baby M: “…maybe you can give us the thrill-packed conclusion to the Irritable Bear saga.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Right–and just after that, we’ll get the Lance solutions we’ve been waiting for.
Don’t you get it? James is the type of guy who never looks back! (Unless he’s watching old episodes of The Price is Right.)
While I am sure the Founding Fathers would be saddened by what has come of their endeavor, I doubt that they would be suurprised. They were very conscious of the propensity of the state to intrude into the affairs of the people. Benjamin Franklin pointed out that the Constitutional convention had established a Republic “if you can keep it”. Perhaps they would be pleased that it has taken nearly 250 years to degenerate this far from their original vision.
My automatic Hotpoint dishwasher is 60, yes 60 years old and still works as good as anything on the market today. No circuit boards, pot scrubber cycles, sanitizers or what have you – it has one button you push and a mere 30 minutes later the dishes come out clean and dry. the racks are stainless steel – no plastic here, and though it makes a fair amount of noise while operating, I love it – it actually sounds like it’s doing a thorough job scrubbing away. It’s simple and well made – that’s why it lasted.
I like LG generally, but from now on I’m steering clear of their cellphones. I’ve had problems with each one and I refuse to pay for insurance for a product that “should” last two years (at which time I will change/upgrade anyway). I’ve yet to have an LG cellphone that didn’t shut off randomly or make random calls, regardless of what happy locking feature was engaged.
I bought a corner dented dryer real cheap, but after about 3 months the thing smelled like burnt hair and the drum would slowly start moving then ramp up after about a minute. so I took the front off and discovered the exhaust pipe that ran the depth of the dryer had split and spewed all styles of lint that coated the inside of the dryer 3 inches thick, kinda like a furry cave, cleaned it all out, but while I had the drum out my kids decided to play in the drum and flatspotted it a wee bit, it made a galloping sound soon after. At about 6 months it finally kacked, it literally ground its way out the front sheet metal panel, I looked inside and it was the furry cave all over again, more fun for the kids to play in though.
Every time there’s a discussion about how The Founding Fathers would react to the America of today, I’m reminded of a fact I learned in high school U.S. History, while researching my assignment for a debate in which every student had to argue as some major player or group of the time: the others may have been brilliant, audacious, lucky, etc. but only Hamilton was right about the future. Of all the major thinkers of the new republic, only he confidently predicted our future would be urban/industrial/commercial & that a Federal bank would be neccessary(& not just for us, but all industrialized states).
Oh, and Margaret’s observation they didn’t bathe all that often(except Franklin, who was fond of skinny dipping and nude “air baths”) is correct. It was the standard wisdom that bathing too frequently was an invitation to illness(not always as backwards as it sounds, given most people’s heating arrangements & local water quality) and that one should always wear wool(or linen, when unavoidable) next to the skin. It’s startling how long after the widespread use of cotton fabric it was finally recognzed as safe hot-weather material.
@THX 1138
In regards to THX 1138’s post above about Sears. My grandfather retired from Sears as an appliance repairman. He used to talk about how customers would get angry if the repair only took a few minuts; rather than getting competent efficient service, they would complain that they weren’t getting their money worth. The repairmen were therefore trained to hem and haw and bang on things with their wrench and to strech a 10-minute job to an hour so that the customer wouldn’t complain and refuse to pay. Most customers could have their repairs done very quickly, but wouldn’t accept it from fear of having a shoddy job done. In his retired years, when a repairman would come out to do a job for him, he’d tell them that he knew the routine: Just do it quickly.
At the Betsy Ross home tour in Philadelphia one of the character actors talks about the in-home cultures of the time, rather than the historical stuff we often read.
Apparently, when it came time for dinner, food was distributed based on who’d earned their keep. The least productive among them getting the least.
Same goes for baths, which apparently happened every six months or so. The primary bread winner went first, and on down the line in the house, with the smallest bathing last. All in the same water.
“…It takes a special sort of perversity for a dishwasher, so concerned with water and its salutary attributes, to catch on fire. Apparently the circuit boards weren’t properly shielded from moisture”
We had one of those self-immolating dishwashers, the problem was that the main wiring harness was located adjacent to the Jet-dry dispenser, and said dispensers were leaky, allowing jet-dry to wander at will throughout the electronic guts. Ours had obvious scorch marks on the wire insulation, lucky it did not go up in flames.