Random Acts of Blogging
Desarmes family to God: Missed us again!
Friday, March 5th, 2010Think you had a bad couple of months? Check out these folks:
SAN BERNARDO, Chile – The Desarmes family left their native Haiti two weeks after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, joining the eldest son in Chile for what seemed a refuge from the fear and chaos of Port-au-Prince. Their sense of security lasted barely a month. It was shattered at 3:43 a.m. Saturday when one of the most powerful quakes on record shook a swath of Chile.
All the Desarmes’ immediate family survived both quakes. But twice cursed, the family now sleeps in the garden of a home that the eldest son, Pierre Desarmes, found for them just south of the Chilean capital of Santiago. They fear yet another temblor will strike.
Pierre Desarmes, 34, [and the lead singer of a popular Haitian reggaeton band in Chile] managed to get his family out of Haiti thanks to personal contacts at the Chilean Embassy in Port-au-Prince and the Chilean armed forces. Nine members of his family — his parents, two brothers and their families, and three cousins — arrived in Santiago on a Chilean air force plane Jan. 23.
I don’t think I could blame them if they started to take this personally…
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 1 Comment »
Oklahoma, it ain’t…
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010“Enron,” the Broadway play? Really?
Categories: New York, New York, Random Acts of Blogging | No Comments »
Just when you thought Toyota was out of the woods…
Monday, March 1st, 2010Ya know, some blog posts are just so funny that they bear repeating in their entirety. This post by Matthew Baldwin of Defective Yeti is one such post:
Toyota Recalls Remaining Models Due to Faulty Chick Magnets
February 24th, 2010Toyota suffered yet another setback today, as it was forced to recall all remaining models due to faulty chick magnets. “We’ve received numerous complaints about the complete lack of arousal induced by our dependable, fuel-efficient vehicles,” said Shotaro Kamiya, spokesman for the beleaguered automotive company. “The panty-dropping capacity of our products falls far short of our standards, and for that we apologize.”
Owners are urged to bring their vehicle into local dealerships, where technicians will replace lithium-ion batteries with hemis, install chrome rims, and affix Truck Nutz to the underside of pickups.
Kamiya stressed that the recall was voluntary, and that no deaths were attributable to the defect. “But as no one has ever gotten laid in the backseat of a Yaris, no births are attributable either,” he added. “We regret this senseless loss of life.”
Well done, Mr. Baldwin…
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 1 Comment »
Bookstore of Love…
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010Ostensibly because of Valentine’s Day, the bookstore at my train station had a table in front of the store today covered with various books about love and/or sex. There were the titles you’d expect to see – The Joy of Sex, Karma Sutra, etc., but this one gave me a real chuckle:
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 2 Comments »
Squaring the Monopoly Circle
Saturday, January 30th, 2010Call me a curmudgeon, but some things just don’t need to change:
According to Gizmodo, the 75th anniversary edition of Monopoly not only features a round board (I’m sorry, “wedges” belong in Trivial Pursuit, not Monopoly), but it also features digital currency! Apparently, the gizmo in the middle keeps track of how much money you have, handles payments, gives you $200 for passing Go, etc.. Monopoly without Monopoly money? Are you freakin’ kidding me?
And while I’m at it, GET OFF MY LAWN!!
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 5 Comments »
Helping or Hurting the Little Guy: Big Booksellers Sell Cheap Books
Monday, December 28th, 2009Building on the book theme from yesterday, we turn to this post from Megan McArdle at Asymmetrical Information. She relates a story about the American Booksellers Association, which is upset at Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart for selling us books too cheaply:
Wal-Mart announced that it would offer Walmart.com customers . . . the chance to buy the books in hardcover editions for just $10. Typically new hardcovers sell for $25 to $35, although some discounting is common. Amazon.com quickly matched Wal-Mart’s pre-order price on the same books.
Wal-Mart then lowered the price to $9, and Amazon followed suit. By late Friday afternoon Wal-Mart had cut another penny off the price. On Monday, Target entered the fray by offering six of the preorder titles on Target.com for $8.99. By Tuesday Wal-Mart had lowered the price on those titles to $8.98.
The association . . . accused the retailers of “devaluing the very concept of the book” and effectively selling the books at a loss in an “attempt to win control of the market for hardcover best sellers.” Retailers typically pay publishers a wholesale price of half the list price of a hardcover book — so on a $35 hardcover, the retailer pays $17.50, meaning that it loses money on a $9 consumer price.
Now, the story of the big chain taking over the Mom & Pop store is so common that Tom Hanks made his movie about it more than a decade ago. But that story usually relates to the big chain undercutting the small store by selling products at razor-thin margins, making its profits on high volume, and reducing overhead by deprioritizing customer service and amortizing its fixed costs (e.g., its employees, its rent) over a much wider customer base.
This time, it’s different. The big chains are offering these discounts on their websites. And they’re selling these books as loss leaders, in hopes that when people click over to buy their $8.98 book, they’ll throw another, more profitable item in their electronic shopping cart as well. The advantage Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart have here is the variety of products they offer and their high-value brand names that drives a lot of traffic to their web sites. Small booksellers could also choose to lose money on certain books by selling them for $8.98, but they’d run a greater risk that people would buy only those books, leaving them with a loss, rather than a profit, on the sale.
My question is this: in the online model, where customer service is mostly self-serve and Google searches, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Yes, the Kathleen Kelly’s of the world may be forced out of business by these tactics, but then again, isn’t it the Kathleen Kelly’s of the world who would appreciate the chance to pick up the newest hot novel for $8.98, rather than $30? We may be putting the “little guy” bookseller out of business, but are we not providing the “little guy” consumer with equal quality merchandise at a much lower cost? Have we finally jumped off the cliff where the small, specialty shop isn’t so much “under attack” by the big chain, but has become a dying industry because it’s no longer the best way to serve the customer?
That’s your socio-economic question of the day. Discuss…
Categories: Money Talk, Random Acts of Blogging | 3 Comments »
Closing the barn door after the tomatoes have run away…
Friday, December 18th, 2009Those who follow Sarah Palin (either with amusement or disdain) may have heard that at a recent book signing in Minneapolis, a man threw two tomatoes at her from a second floor balcony.
So when she showed up at a Costco in Salt Lake City, the store manager took steps to prevent another drive-by fruiting:
While going through the check-out lane, again with no wait, [Helen Rappaport] told the clerk she forgot to get some grape tomatoes, which she loves, so she would be right back. That’s when the bells went off. The clerk told her they had no tomatoes that day. No tomatoes? At Costco?
As she was leaving, she noticed a man with a store manager’s name tag and asked him why they had no tomatoes. He informed her the store did have tomatoes, but they were taken off the shelves for a few hours. It turns out that Palin had been pelted with a tomato at an earlier stop on her book tour and the management at the Costco was determined it wouldn’t happen here. The manager told an employee to go into the storage area and get Rappaport some tomatoes, which he gave her for free.
The Costco store manager believes, apparently, that someone out there had decided to throw things at Sarah Palin when she visited the local Costco, went to Costco empty-handed, proceeded immediately to the tomato aisle, saw there were no tomatoes available, and then decided to give up and go home, rather than, you know, throwing something else at her.
Score one for the ingenuity and quick action of the Salt Lake Costco manager…
Categories: Political Rantings, Random Acts of Blogging | 2 Comments »
Some Events, I Just Can’t Fathom…
Sunday, December 6th, 2009We took the kids to see Disney’s A Christmas Carol last night (super-quick review: an intense telling of the story, Jim Carey could legitimately win an Oscar for it if he isn’t careful, the 3-D is so good that I can’t imagine it not being the future of all movies, but way too scary for the kids – especially the seven-year old. Consider this your Parental Guidance). Anyway, during the previews (most of which were also in 3-D, by the way), there was an ad for something called FathomEvents.com.
The idea here is to bring special events into movie theaters for one-time only or limited-run performances. They have operas performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, old-time movies that get eviscerated by the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000, special on-location news reports by Elizabeth Vargas, and the like. Pretty cool idea, if you ask me. But then there’s this: “Glenn Beck’s The Christmas Sweater – A Return To Redemption.” From the website:
Before a studio audience, Glenn will tell you about the real life events that inspired him to write The Christmas Sweater, and he’ll share stories of the overwhelming response he received about how the tale’s message of redemption literally changed people’s lives, bringing many back from the brink of collapse and restoring family relationships. Then, Glenn will show a re-mastered and exclusive version of The Christmas Sweater taped live during his 2008 cross-country tour. Afterward, Glenn will introduce you to some of the people who were touched by the story and you’ll experience their intimate journey of transformation through the simple gift of redemption.
This incredible Christmas celebration will be simulcast to HD movie theatres all over the country. Join Glenn for the next evolution of The Christmas Sweater and see for yourself why critics and audiences alike are heralding it as a new American classic.
OK, seriously. Who let this guy out of his cage? What’s next? Rush Limbaugh Sings the Classics?
Categories: Movie Talk, Random Acts of Blogging | 4 Comments »
Random Acts of Blogging – 12/3/09
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009So many blog-worthy things going on in the world all at once! So, some quick thoughts on several things:
Adam Lambert emerged from his #2 finish on American Idol as one of the most promising singing talents in years. At the American Music Awards, he decided to make his performance a social statement, rather than make it about the music. He’s since been cancelled by ABC from Good Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. And the shows that are letting him on suddenly want to talk about nothing else but the AMA’s. I’m disappointed. Not because I have a particular opinion about his “cause,” but because he’s allowed his cause to overshadow his music, which I was looking forward to enjoying. On the upside, I think maybe he’s realizing his mistake. Here’s what he told Ellen Degeneres:
It was maybe a little too far. I think in hindsight I look back on it and I go, “OK, maybe that wasn’t the best first impression to make again, the first second impression.” I mean, I had fun up there, I had a good time, my dancers had fun and the band had fun. I respect people and feel like people walked away from that feeling disrespected. I would never intend to disrespect anybody. So that was not my intention.
What he needs now is a musical “reset” – another spotlight moment, like the AMA’s, in which he knocks everyone’s socks off musically, and convinces people that music is his thing, not social commentary.
Tiger Woods released the following statement yesterday:
[N]o matter how intense curiosity about public figures can be, there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to some simple, human measure of privacy. I realize there are some who don’t share my view on that. But for me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one’s own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.
Whatever regrets I have about letting my family down have been shared with and felt by us alone. I have given this a lot of reflection and thought and I believe that there is a point at which I must stick to that principle even though it’s difficult.
I wish every celebrity in the world would memorize these two paragraphs and recite them whenever some nosy reporter presumes to suggest that his/her private life is somehow my business.
Tiger had a car accident and knocked over a fire hydrant. He needs to explain that to the police, and hence, to the public. If someone were knocking over fire hydrants in my neighborhood, I’d want to know who, where and why. That’s a public safety issue and a law enforcement issue. However, if the answer to “Why?” is “domestic dispute” or “private matter,” then I have no need or desire to know more.
Michaele and Tareq Salahi are the latest in a series of Reality TV inspired stupidity. Years ago, people would do dumb things to get noticed, to be sure, but the result was rarely more than the standard fifteen minutes of fame. Today, with the institutional backing (and financing) of a Reality TV Show’s production company, exhibitionists like these have the capability of distracting the entire nation for fifteen days, not fifteen minutes. The Salahi’s, like the Balloon Boy family before them, only benefit from their actions if they get caught. And even though the news media knows this, they play right into the perpetrators’ hands, because they also know that it sells soap. My only hope is that the largely negative reaction to both the Salahi’s and the Heene’s dissuade Reality TV producers from pulling stunts like this in the future. Because the media is certainly not going to show any restraint.
HBO recently aired the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th Anniversary Concert. Culling through two nights of music, they presented a “mere” four hours of musical genius, ranging from Stevie Wonder to Simon & Garfunkel to Aretha Franklin to Crosby, Stills & Nash to U2 to Metallica to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Add to that a truly amazing array of “guest stars,” such as James Taylor, Joe Cocker, Smokey Robinson, Sting, BB King, Bonnie Rait, and Billy Joel. As I watch these folks float on and off the Madison Square Garden stage, all I can think is, “These are the masters that today’s musical acts can only dream of approximating.” I’m not a fan of every musical style in the show, but the amount of raw musical talent on display is so far and away beyond the artists of today, that one wonders what the 50th Anniversary show could possibly have to offer. Maybe it’s just my age showing…
Categories: News and/or Media, Political Rantings, Random Acts of Blogging, Words about Music | 4 Comments »
Robo-Warrior Draft
Saturday, October 24th, 2009My phone just rang. It was a gentleman from the Democratic National Committee. He said that President Obama needs me to fight for Jon Corzine because Jon Corzine is fighting for New Jersey.
Very strange – I would think President Obama would have people that could do that for him. You know – without having to call me and all. Maybe he should nominate a Fight for Jon Corzine Czar? Besides, I’m too busy to fight for Jon Corzine today. I mean, at a minimum, I need to stay home and field all these calls!
I hope there isn’t a Fight for Jon Corzine draft. But just in case there is, I think I better find out who, exactly, is fighting against Jon Corzine. I mean, maybe it’s someone we really don’t have to worry about. Like the Boston Red Sox…
Categories: Political Rantings, Random Acts of Blogging | 2 Comments »