Honesty Box
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Oh yes. The buttons:
I was also tickled by this subsequent, self-flattering comment:
This is said while repeating an idiocy uttered many times, over many decades, by equally vain and underwhelming people – as if it were a dazzling breakthrough – and while pining, obliviously, for a world of deadening uniformity and dystopian state control. In which nothing, not even peanut butter, is allowed to be different.
It seems that not understanding even the most basic implications of your own pronouncements is, for some, a sign of brilliance and radicalism. A brilliance and radicalism cruelly unappreciated by “right-wingers.”
And again, I’m not sure we should be taking lectures on self-improvement from someone who pre-emptively blocks any attempt at correction or dissent, and who is supposedly oppressed by the fact that varieties of peanut butter exist.
One more time: wokeness is stupefying.
LOL. He can’t get over himself.
[ Freed from the crushing chore of choosing which peanut butter to spread on toast, takes moment to reflect on the glamour of the blogger’s life. ]
Blame that on careless reading/writing in the linked article:
Because the original Times of India source says:
Which is entirely different.
[ Looks blearily at screen. ]
This feels like a two-mugs-of-coffee morning. I hope the headlines don’t make it a two-cups-of-coffee-with-brandy morning.
My preferred version of “What if things were different” is:
and:
He “brainstorms” about how to achieve his “pragmatic utopia“.
What sort of headlines will we see when the paparazzi discover David?
[ Imagines the celebrity sections of the Daily Mail, Mirror, and Sun. ]
Thanks for what you do, David. Belated ping. 🙂
Some kinds of dumb vanity should be shaken out of children before they’re set loose on the world.
Bless you, madam. May you always have a selection of cheeses. Not just, you know, some non-specific cheese.
And he then responds to dissent, even factual correction, as some kind of wickedness, another thing to be suppressed. When all he wants to do is wreck the world in order to appease his own psychological quirks.
Rather than spend your time in the grocery wondering “Which brand shall I buy?”, you’d have the mindspace to wonder: “What person shall I become?”
It worked so well last time one can hardly find a name brand anymore.
I’m reminded of the unglamorous Fine Fare supermarket chain, which disappeared sometime in the 80s, and its budget ‘Yellow Pack’ range.
“You can taste the savings,” as some comedian once quipped.
I’m reminded of the unglamorous Fine Fare supermarket chain, which disappeared sometime in the 80s, and its budget ‘Yellow Pack’ range.
See also East Germany circa 1991…
If he got rid of all the competition how does he think anything would improve?
If he got rid of all the competition how does he think anything would improve?
Those who do not learn history are doomed to drive Trabants. Well, unless you are a party apparatchik, then you might get a Wartburg.
Political activist Sophie wants to show you his breasts.
Sophie is apparently upset that a Southend Labour councillor referred to him as a “bloke.”
Behold ye the politics of the twenty-first century.
Remember would-be commissar Reg Shoe in Night Watch?
Speaking of the Labour Party and all its wonders.
I think we’re supposed to find it… endearing?
Snotty note miscalculation.
Pleasantly so. I didn’t much care for the implications of what I read.
If he got rid of all the competition he wouldn’t have to worry about improving.
Or developing skills.
Or personal hygiene.
Speaking of the Labour Party and all its wonders.
Governor Whitmer says hold my boba tea.
Nothing says “I’m hip, I’m with it” quite like “cooking with gas” which was old when I was young.
23 skidoo, oh you kid.
Great way to get fired.
It does raise the question of who to call first – the police, the restaurant, or the delivery service?
It also demonstrates the merits of tipping upon conclusion of the service, as was generally the custom, not pre-emptively, before you know whether or not the service is actually any good.
That way, you aren’t tipping someone who leaves snotty notes in your food. For instance.
I say that as someone who’s punctilious about tipping. I’m happy to tip good service. I find it helps motivate delivery drivers to remember the address, for instance. Which, given where we are, has sometimes been a problem.
[ Ensures tip jar is well-lit and clearly visible from a distance. ]
Tip jar
Tip jar, seen from bunker, 32 miles away.
I have a theory that the “suggested tip” thing, as helpful as it may be to the math challenged, may have been the…uh…tipping point where people started to get, perhaps subconsciously, more irritated with the process/concept such that it has become more accepted to speak up about it. Last summer one kinda hipsterish restaurant presented the bill and one of the “suggested” tips was 100%. Not sure which was more off putting, the 100% or the idea that I couldn’t calculate 100% without their help. We haven’t been back and likely won’t be.
Then there are restaurants, here at least, where they only present the bill via a handheld device where you enter the tip while the waiter/waitress stands there. Avoiding those when we remember that they do that.
Yes, seems rather at odds with the sentiment of tipping – hereabouts, at least. I make a point of tipping in cash.
Many can’t these days.
I try to as well. As much as I consider cash a bit of a bother and was initially liking the acceptance of credit/debit cards everywhere, I have lately been moving away from using them for certain things. Cash is very important part of an economy, especially at the service level. I would hate to see everything go to electronic payments for many reasons. I was thinking of this yesterday when picking up some lumber for a shelving project I’m working on. It was pretty rough, weatherwise yesterday and I didn’t want the 8 foot one-bys I picked up at the lumber yard to get wet. Unfortunately their 8 footers kinda sucked so the guy working the yard suggested buying the 16 footers and he would cut them in half to fit in my truck. While he was doing that, I was futzing with a tarp in my truck bed while unbeknownst to me, he had them cut and wrapped in plastic. Not the sort of environment where one would expect service, nor even ask for it, but I was happy to tip him. Good thing I had cash.
[ Checks tomorrow’s Ephemera links one last time, clicks schedule button. ]
[ Wonders whether it’s too early for a snifter, possibly a gin and tonic. ]
I’m terribly sorry, but I’m too old, stupid and digitally incompetent to ping, even if I weren’t too poor. But may I extend thanks and gratitude, for “Honesty Box” will henceforth be my drag queen name. (I had been using “Klaus Barbiedoll”. I think this change may turn things around for me.)
It would appear that Zoot and her sisters are misbehaving. Again.
A firm but loving correction is in order.
.
.
.
I may be late to the Ephemera.
As am I, something I feel strongly about.
That was, by the way, a source of friction back in the day when I socialized with fans. When splitting the bill at a restaurant, many would tip parsimoniously or not tip at all, and I would often throw more cash on the table to make up for the cheapskates. (I forget: Which are the demographic categories most notorious for poor tipping? All I remember is students.)
@David, who quoted and said:
What we observe here is a variety of clinical narcissism. Our Mr. ratlimit, who I fear is projecting considerably there in his choice of appellation, is not at the “limit of rat”, he’s more demonstrating that his mind is filled with them.
And, this sort of person, mouthing this sort of thought? I fear they’re the pestilence of our age, in that they’re people who believe they are profound thinkers without the actual equipage to be conducting such profundities.
Here’s the big difference: Mr. Ratlimit goes into a random supermarket, looks around, and is bewildered and unable to make up his teeny-tiny mind about which specific peanut butter he wants to take home for his din-din. “MOMMY!!! There are too many choices! I can’t make a decision!!!”
So, he decides to solve his problem by taking away choices and options for everyone else, calling it a good idea. Narcissism at its usual best.
Average person walks into that store, looks around, says “Gee, I can get just what I want!!! Marvelous! I love this!”
A person with a bit more self-awareness and an eye towards his or her fellow man, walks into that store, notes the abundance of choice, and marvels at how modern marketing and abundance have combined to satisfy deep psychological needs of the human animal. We crave variety; we glory in the hunt-and-gather of it all. Being able to pick and choose which specific peanut butter jar we’re going to take back home and consume in all our apish glory is both deeply satisfying and profoundly pleasurable.
I think we may assume that our Mr. Ratlimit is both a lower-tier midwit, and very much a non-introspective sort, who never thinks about why his essential immaturity and failure to comprehend the world around him indicates his childish insecurities, while his desire for “things to be different” is precisely the same vice embraced by maddened tyrants everywhere, like Pol Pot and Lenin. Both of whom would have likely aligned themselves with the whole “One Peanut Butter to Rule Them All”, which likely would have taken the form of a Peanut Butter Commission’s five-year plan to produce the Bestest Peanut Butter Ever, via consensus and all the rest of the usual idiocies statist solutions come up with. While the Five-Year Plan was going on, nobody would have made any peanut butter at all, because they were waiting for perfection, and the factories would have been shut down, children would have starved, and then, once the Final Peanut Butter was attained, the machinery to produce would have effectively ceased to exist.
All because Mr. Ratlimit let the rats out of his head, and intervened in a situation that was ticking over quite nicely, already… Satisfying everyone’s individuality and choice in the matter of peanut butter.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again: The modern phenomenon of consumer choice and marketing answers a very basic set of human drives and reflexes. If you were to take it away, that would be very much in the vein of putting lions and tigers into stark steel cages without hints of nature, feeding those predators a diet of tofu.
You look around at the world, you need to actually observe, and try to figure out why people do the things they do. The answer does not lie in between the ears of semi-human approximations of humanity like our Mr. Ratlimit.
[ Returns from supermarket, having survived the sight of several shelves of peanut butters. ]
[ Sips gin and tonic. ]
Hooray for Captain Spaulding…!
I counted 43 to choose from, including differing size jars.
It was glorious.
Since you ask, I opted for a jar of Manilife’s Deep Roast Smooth. I also like Meridian’s Crunchy Cashew Butter, but they didn’t have that one.
Clearly, 43 options isn’t enough.
One more time: wokeness is stupefying.
And stultifying.
The very real threat of 4, 8 more years of this is terrifying – and there’s no escape.
Choosey mothers choose Jif. I’ll bet you didn’t know that.
[ Reports back ]
The nearest Jewel Foods has over 100 varieties of peanut butter, again including different size jars. Plus a few dozen Nutella and suchlike.
My favorite Fresh Market has only 18 varieties of peanut butter and 24 varieties of Nutella etc. On the other hand, they have 178 varieties of honey, many from Germany and Greece. And maybe a dozen varieties of bee pollen.
Truly, we live in an age of jaw-dropping abundance.
And that’s what @ratlimit wants to fix.
Give ratlimit what he wants:
threetwo hots and a cot in a gulag.[ Reports back ]
Addendum: I didn’t even attempt to count the varieties of olive oil at that Fresh Market. There was an entire damned aisle of olive oil plus some avocado oil, grapeseed oil, etc. And a token selection of Wesson Oil clones. [ All are invited to sneer in snobbish derision at the plebes who are so declasse as to buy that. 😉 ] And I didn’t even bother to look in the South Asian section where I know there are some large cans of cooking oil.
Tonight I will raise a glass in thanks to those who made this miraculous culture.
Latest addition to the bar snack selection?
Impossible: It will become Russian army rations.
Someone should send this to @ratlimit.
The modern phenomenon of consumer choice and marketing answers a very basic set of human drives and reflexes
Yes, but there’s another level to it: consumer choice and marketing answers a very basic set of female drives and reflexes. Women control the overwhelming majority of household spending and can be convinced to switch brands through persuasion. They’re the gatherers in the hunter-gatherer duopoly. Men tend to pick specific brands and stick with them unless the quality or features catastrophically nose dive. They’re targeted shoppers – the hunters.
Advertising that targets women tends to convince them to switch brands. Advertising targeting men tends to convince them *not* to.
Someone should send this to @ratlimit.
Wait till he finds out about this…
@Daniel Ream,
I’d submit that the sex differentiation you’re seeing there is an artifact of observational bias.
Consider how many men get caught up in the same marketing rat-maze, and then take some time to observe just how little difference there is between people at the casino. Yes, it’s often expressed differently, but it’s the same basic methodology at work, the intermittent unpredictable reward mechanism, weaponized.
My mother got hooked on slot machines in her older years. I’d have never, ever expected that, based on her earlier life, but here we are. Stepping back from it, I now realize and recognize that she was always primed for this to happen, based on her inveterate shopping habits, wherein she’d always be looking for the next “bargain”, even if she didn’t need the damn product. My stepdad was the same way, only he wouldn’t go into the store for his fix of “bargain”; he waited for it at work, when someone would offer him a “deal” on something. The crap that guy came up with on the daily is still something I marvel at; he was the ultimate operator, constantly on the make.
You go look at the average slot machine lobby in any casino across the country; male and female alike, transfixed as their monkey brains are enslaved to the random reward cycle. There really isn’t a sex-based division; the same drive, the same result, slightly different expression.
Yes, I’d agree that women are somewhat more likely to go for the small victories like finding the perfect deal on the perfect jar of raspberry preserves, but the fact is, the males are just as obsessively in search of that “perfect deal” on the really big-ticket items they’re fond of, like the truck down at the local dealership. Have a look at the next family get-together, and just watch: The womenfolk will be talking about their coup, in terms of the deals they got on Product X down at the store, and the men will be talking about their stalking of the perfect truck, down at the local dealership, and how they outsmarted the cunning sales manager…
You really have to cultivate a sense of amusement at the whole thing, and try not to get depressed that we’ve only actually gotten so far out of the treeline. Our roots are in those trees, seeking sweet-tasting fruit, and hunting the savory game animal. Intrinsically, we haven’t changed or grown all that much, I fear.
How about brand differentiation in the cigarette industry? Marlboro for men who love the cowboy mystique. Numerous other personality and cultural associations for every other brand.
Something similar seems to operate with cars and especially trucks.
I suppose Axe body spray marketing must be successful as I see lots of product on the shelves.
Of course, some marketing campaigns have failed miserably and repeatedly. Remember the (1980’s?) attempt to introduce short sleeve men’s suits? And I vaguely recall other related fashion “trends” getting rejected just as thoroughly.
@pst314,
Didja happen to know that Marlboro was originally marketed as a “Ladies Cigarette”?
https://www.firstversions.com/2015/02/marlboro.html
It’s all just behavioral conditioning, all the way down.
Knew, and completely forgot.
Remember all those TV ads for manly soaps for manly men? And feminine soaps for feminine women?
Beer and liquor advertisements are hilarious, both the ones aimed at men and the ones aimed at women.
@Kirk
Your fears may be somewhat overblown.
Except . . . Marlboro was originally marketed as “Mild as May”.
[ Kirk caught this before I ]
Complete with a fake crest invoking thoughts of the British aristocracy.
@aelfheld
I’d frame that shining city on the hill as an idealized fortress-tree in the depths of the forests surrounding the fruited savannah, filled with all the ape-hierarchy and ape-desires…
We want the shiny, the tasty, the flavorful, and we’ll seek it unconsciously all our lives, unaware that our ape-nature still peeks out at the world through our eyes.
I’ve got no problem with that, either. I’d rather be an honest ape, grasping at the varied fruits and tearing small game limb-from-limb to roast over an open flame, than some deracinated and denatured freak thinking he’s above all that, and so much better than all the other apes out there chewing away at their fruits and nuts…
I’m no better than I am, and while I do aspire to be better. I suspect that those who are like our Mr. Ratlimit are certain in their supposed superiority, confident in their wit, and totally unfit for purpose as actual human beings. As well as just being really miserable creatures all-in-all.
I am certain I need work; they are certain that they are already perfected, nonpareil.
One more time – thanks to all who’ve chipped in, or subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon link, including all those much too shy to say hello. It’s much appreciated and is what keeps this place here.
*Timidly raises hand*
I don’t like peanut butter.
If I do some pretentious victimhood, can I get a grant or a crowdfunder or something?
Come the Revolution you WILL LIKE peanut butter!