- DEADLINE
Sorry folks on a tough deadline, I’m just going to post some photos for the next few days- maybe you find them interesting maybe you don’t. But hey, this is all free, right?
- Top Movie Serials That Inspired Superhero Films
I highly recommend the site above if you’re interested in checking out some high quality serials– some are up for FREE.
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I’ve been a fan of old time movie serials since the 1970s when Channel 56 would show FLASH GORDON (1936) one week at a time on Friday nights. From there I learned about all the other ones and as I got older (and made more money) I started to track them down.
If you’re a fan of the Marvel or DC Cinematic Universe’s or have any interest in film history you might be surprised to know the movie serial is where many of these costumed heroes made their debut in live action.
Over the next few days I’m going to spotlight the characters, some of whom continue to thrill audiences and some of whom inspired other versions, but all of them are Saturday Afternoon fun.
- Coney Island Hot Dogs
I’m a fan of Coney Island Hot Dogs– but to be honest it’s not like it used to be when I was younger– I’d down eight of the little gems and wonder when I could make it back over. Today “once in a while” is much better– and that means like once every three or so months.
I had occasion to be at the WooSox opening day– I like baseball, it can be a little slow, but it’s an American institution and even though I voted against the idea of building the ball park because I knew that even with assurances it would not cost us taxpayers “one nickel” it would– and it has. At the park is an official CONEY ISLAND stand– same exact dogs you can get around the corner only now they’re $9 each– I’m not making that up– the hot dog is $2.95 cents at the restaurant but you can pay 3x more for it to eat it in the ballpark. Amazing.
Can you fathom John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson allowing nonsense like this? We fought a war for independence over tea, I feel a lot stronger about hot dogs.
I stopped at Hot Dog Annie’s in Leicester a few weekends ago while taking the convertible for a spin, I hadn’t been out there in about 30 years, and I still maintain while Annie’s is good, Coney Island is better, but not at the WooSox Park.
- Why Are Circus Peanuts So Hard to Find Today?
I like Circus Peanuts, I don’t think I have an addiction or anything, and I only recently discovered they are actually “banana” flavored– I’ve always considered them circus peanut flavored.
At a recent stop at the market I decided to pick up a bag and after walking the whole store several times over I couldn’t find any. Apparently they’ve become a “nostalgic” item which means only old people like them now.
Okay, no big loss.
But then I tried another market, then another, then CVS, Walgreens and still no luck.
I finally got a container of them from Amazon for $20 which was a little more than I wanted to pay for them and they would arrive the next day.
Except they were delayed, it would be the day after, sorry, said Amazon.
Then the same thing the next day, another delay another apology.
Then it was knocked into “we aren’t sure when you’re getting them” with another apology.
About a week later they arrived. I’m not sure what the dilemma is here, I don’t know if RFK put these on the unnatural food enemy list, I’m not sure if there is an active conspiracy– knowing this is Massachusetts I’m sure there will soon be a punishing tax on anyone who even wants to think about them.
But whatever the reason, they’ve become very hard to find.
- Minimum Wage
I completely understand the reasoning behind creating a “living wage” by raising the minimum wage to $20-$25/hour– on first glance it’s a sound idea, but that’s the problem with anyone who stops the thought process right there, and this includes many people I consider extremely intelligent.
Let’s go through this step by step and I bring some expertise here, having run a series of Supermarkets where many of my employees were minimum wage, I myself started at $1.30/hour and rose up through the ranks to where I was making $44/hour plus bonuses– it’s important to take note of that, especially when we get to item #2.
Item #1 – Minimum wage is supposed to be the lowest link on the food chain, it primarily was designed to allow high schoolers to pick up some part time work after school. All of my grocery baggers when they were hired (and the job I started with) earned minimum wage.
Minimum wage is for NON SKILLED WORKERS. Essentially if you are healthy and don’t have a ridiculous criminal record you should be able to be hired into this position. It is supposed to give you a foot in the door, and it’s also worth noting that if two people got hired, one as a bagger and one as a cashier the cashier got a higher rate because they had a SKILL the bagger didn’t have. The bagger, however, has the opportunity to obtain an in-house learned skill that would net them a higher hourly rate. They can also grow that rate with consistent and quality work at there annual review.
Item #2 – It therefore goes without saying, or at least I don’t think it needs to be said because it’s simple logic, that if you are someone who is working at a minimum wage job and you are an adult who had been employed for longer than a year then there is something WRONG with your work ability. Or it means you’ve spent the last several years of your life bouncing from job to job, never being able to get a foot hold on any advancement. The counter argument is that some people are capable of getting beyond the lowest entry level– I would say as someone who managed well over 3000 people that is never the case. If you take an entry level job and you do what is expected of you, and you show up, occasionally filling in for an extra shift when needed, you will advance, it’s honestly that simple.
Item #3 – All raising the minimum wage to such a large amount accomplishes is two fold;
A- It makes the cost of everything go up, because the company will pass the added labor rate on to the consumer. Making this new “living wage” now no longer valid because a Quarter Pounder just jumped from $4 to $10.
B- It causes people to lose jobs– remember those cashiers I mentioned? Yeah, take a look at how many are manning registers now and how many have been replaced by self service checkouts. Even McDonald’s has placed Kiosk’s in their restaurants so they no longer need a front end cashier–they are replaced by six kiosks and guess what? We’ve also learned that it’s faster to order at a Kiosk and it’s faster to check yourself out. All we did was eliminate jobs and replaced them with more efficient lower cost solutions, putting those minimum wage workers out of work, and cutting the number of jobs available in the first place.
Its also lead to many businesses, especially small businesses, out of business because they cannot possibly afford those higher payrolls.
So on first glance its a nice idea, but giving it some thought its actually just releasing destruction on these industries that rely on low wage workers, and hurting those low wage workers in the end.
Welcome to the new Blog– this whole thing is a work in progress, but you’ll get the latest updates here (just click the links above). It was a longtime coming but a short-time putting it together.
More soon and regularly like the old blog.
Thanks for stopping by.
Andy
It's Andy Fish! 