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How About A Little Bit Of Respect For The USPS
It’s time to give our much maligned United States Postal Service some respect. Yes. Really. If you haven’t noticed, sending a package thru the Post Office is cheaper and faster than using either UPS or FedEx. Yes. Really. The problem, historically, was that once you turned your package over to USPS, it got disappeared into an … Continue reading
Bank of America, Now Channeling Peanuts
Every year Lucy tells Charlie Brown that she’ll hold the football for him while he kicks it. We all know how that works out. This week I felt like Charlie Brown, with Bank of America holding the football. The football was my new Bank of America Debit card, which arrived in the mail appearing to be an EMV CHIP and PIN card. Wow, I’ve been … Continue reading
We Are All PIN-Heads, If You Believe The Bankers
After a series of ever more serious data breaches, and millions of identities stolen, the banking industry promised to introduce credit cards with advanced security features this year. Just Another Fantasy. Turns out that instead of introducing ‘Chip and PIN’, they are going with ‘Chip and Signature’. Which may sound equally secure, but is in fact, a real meh. As reported … Continue reading
Is It T-Rex, No It’s A Porterhouse
A few weeks ago I alluded to the fact that having switched to a low carb diet several years ago, I’ve become something of a streak steak snob. So just in time for Labor Day, here’s today’s tip, and I’m not talking Tri-Tip. It’s generally agreed that when you visit a fine steakhouse, the cut of … Continue reading
Kitchen Confidential
It all started simply enough, with a little yellow sticker offering a 2X Money Back Guarantee. I only noticed the sticker while putting away a bottle of dish washing liquid under my kitchen counter. The storage space was dark but the label beamed brightly at me with a wide smile. There it sat, like a … Continue reading
Big Latte
I was recently surprised to learn from The Economist that a Starbucks Tall Latte sells for the same price as a McDonald’s Big Mac in the USA. $2.80 to be exact, and really I shouldn’t have been surprised. This in The Economist’s latest update on their annual exchange rate survey of PPP, which we’ve written about previously … Continue reading
The “New” iPad Is Out, What Do We Arm Ourselves With Next?
With the release of the iPad this month, and Apple’s market cap now above half a trillion dollars, it’s natural to kick yourself for not investing with them a year ago. But, there are stocks that have delivered even better returns than Apple.
To Bundle Or Not To Bundle, That Is The Question
Airlines and Cable Networks, two of our most popular industries today. If you ignore the Banks. Sign up for Cable and you get more channels than you need or want. You’ve been bundled. Get on an Airline and nothing is included in the price of your ticket. You’ve been unbundled. And yet, as a consumer, … Continue reading
What Does A Verizon Moment Feel Like?
Talk about being “in the zone”. The final episode of Mad Men (Season 1) shows Don Draper coining the word Carousel for the gizmo that holds the slides on Kodak’s slide projector. And creating the Kodak Moment campaign to sell memories instead of hardware. Which got me thinking about what could top this bit of … Continue reading
If You Can’t Trust Big Box Anymore, Who Can You Trust?
We all know that Big Government, Big Oil, Big Tobacco and Big Bank cannot be trusted. But I’ve always thought I could trust Big Box. Not any more. Up until now I had written off ever-shrinking product packaging evilness to manufacturer’s greed. You know, charge the same price but put less ‘stuff’ in the box. … Continue reading
USA Manufacturing, Getting Our Groove Back In A Smallish Way
I revel in a good day every so often, as an attempt to avoid morphing into a grumpy old man. Recently I went to Lowe’s home Improvement Center with the goal of purchasing a “Shrub Rake”. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a shrub rake before I got there, I was just … Continue reading
Just Another Mystery
- Weaving A Different Kind of Necklace
- Jumping into Spring
- The Art of Using Natures Bounty to Dye Cloth
- A Shibori Stitched and Felted Wrap
- Faux Fur, Vogue and Verve
- The Perfect Dance, Part 2
- The Perfect Dance
- The Vest That Mysteriously Turned Into A Purse
- Vintage Kimono Baby Booties
- Zipper, Keys, and a Linen Belt Buckle
Sterling Jewelry & Gifts
Not A Mystery 