 I was standing behind a well-dressed 40ish woman at Traders Joe tonight, and she was staring at the payment pad.
“It wants me to say okay but it only says that when I want cash. I don’t want cash. Do I enter my PIN number?”
The clerk asked if she was using credit or debit.
“I don’t know,” she said. “What’s the difference?”
The clerk explained the difference.
“I didn’t know that. So credit means you pay later, and debit means you pay now? I don’t know what kind of card this is. Do I have a choice?”
The clerk explained that it had probably already asked her which one she wanted.
“What’s the advantage for credit?” she said, while THE LINE GREW LONGER AND LONGER AND EVERYONE’S ICE CREAM DELIQUIESCED INTO A SLURRY OF SUGAR AND GUAR GUM
Eventually she was satisfied with the results of her financial lesson, and left - after spending another minute putting everything away in her purse. Everyone has to learn the difference between credit and debit at some point,and I’m just glad I had the chance to be there when it happened for her. What was fascinating to me was her utter inability to comprehend the collateral damage, how there were six people with carts who really wanted to move this along. It’s like a shield forms around some people when they’re at the checkout, and the rest of the world evaporates.
Well, that was as tough as my day got, so things are pretty good. I bought a an appliance that doesn’t go with anything in the kitchen, but I think I’ll save that for Monday. (groans of disappointment from the audience) You’ll live.
Friday: Detritus time! Stuff accumulated over the course of the week.
Remember the Construction Updates? The thrills we had? No? you remember the updates, but not the thrills. Got it. Well, there's more to come. The surface lots continue to be consumed by new projects, and while I'm . . . happy, they're too small and blocky DAMMIT BUILD SOMETHING TALL
If they build the taller structure to appear this translucent, it'll be nice.
Not to say they aren't building tall. They start this one this year - it's downtown, but outside of the core.
I love it. Closer to the core, they're close to moving ahead on this.
It'll probably be different; that's an old rendering. This might seem too avant-garde.
Buzzfeed, my favorite source for Detritus BS, ran ads constantly for Jessica Jones. I watched a few of the first eps, but was bored by the grimdark AWESOME YET HAUNTED main character, who was unpleasant and also superpower but drunk and yet vulnerable but also a Super Good Private Investigator. And, she’s gorgeous, and could probably find happiness with someone decent, but, well, grim dark haunted & also super-powered but drunk. Yes, she had a reason for being unhappy and drunk; that guilt & pain ain’t gonna numb itself, but sometimes - bear with me - damaged people wallowing in damage aren’t a joy to be around.
Except for Batman! He’s awesome. Anyway, there were two ads. One of them said she was BADASS because she would be KICKING ASS and ASS needed to be kicked.
The other ad talked about the time she was the hero 2018 needed for REASONS.
Some of the Hero Things the Bad Ass Does To Inspire The Kicking of Additonal Ass Where Needed:
She thinks "talking like a lady" is complete horsesh*t.
The self-censoring is my favorite part. It’s as if the writer thought “mom might read this” and mom thinks you should talk like a lady, meaning, use good grammar and don’t eff eff em-eff to show you’re authentic and also unfiltered
Sometimes her badassery threatens traditional masculinity.
There is a gif in which traditional masculinity is threatened by badassery
She doesn't care who's "uncomfortable" discussing women's issues.
I think there’s a gif whose text indicates that menstruation is mentioned, because men freak out when strangers bring that up within the first two minutes you meet them
She's not here for intolerance.
This could mean she is somewhere else for intolerance, but I doubt it. “Intolerance” is a word that stands in for “the bad things, you guys” and everyone knows it’s super bad
She looks like a psycho, frankly:
If you were a college professor and you discovered this when you went to your office you'd call security. I have friends who liked the show, but as I said a while back, my interest in Troubled People with Powers is waning.
One of the most unexpected things about Twitter is the way it encourages people to be the worst person they can be at that particular moment, to a stranger.
To which this guy responded:
To which one can only say what is the matter with you?
It's not that there are more jerks than ever, it's just that more people feel duty-bound to be jerks. As though there is an obligation to be the worst person you can be, usuall to OWN or DESTROY someone you perceive as . . . differently tribed, shall we say.
The opposite end of this is the Reddit graphic, which always makes my teeth hurt, because it’s so soy:
Daughter said, quite sensibly, "why are you searching for empathy on the internet?"
Not that cats or empathy are bad; no, not at all. It’s just so timorous and wounded. It’s the opposite of “come for the dogs, stay for the debates!” Not every condition or emotion automatically deserves empathy; it's not an automatic Good Thing. But I suppose the graphic is meant to suggest “we have a subreddit for men who sleep with My Little Pony pillows,” and there’s no judging.
Yes, it's the return of Lance Lawson! All new strips! New in the sense that they're from 1948, but weren't posted before.
You're crazy, Lawson! Yeah, that'll work. Puzzle it out before you leap to the answer!
This feature began with an account of the music cues for The Couple Next Door. Why not revisit the subject?
First you'll hear the original theme - and then some of the perfect mid-50s little cues.
As for #3: there was an entire suite of those horse & yokel cues.
#4: one of my favorites. The Jaunty Honking Theme.
Instead of the swank old sounds of Goodwill albums, this year we're going to share bad 1960s pop music. The second- and third-tier tunes.
Fuzz: check. Sludgy sound: check. Inelegant chord progression: oh yes.
Happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend; see you at the usual time and the usual spot on the usual day. |
