Sunday

 It is Sunday, and you know the rest of the story.

Food

At the earlier stages of my working career in this country I worked in construction. Those locations were all over the city, in the outskirts, out of the city or not near any civilization. If the workers did not bring any food with them there were no places nearby where one could go and eat. This situation (I think) created the birth of the coffee truck. These were small trucks very well equipped to carry hot and cold stuff. Coffee, hot water, soup, sandwiches, cakes, cold drinks etc. 

they always knew where these construction sites were because they showed up around 9:30 in the morning and just before 12 noon, every day. I initially brought food from home (I was a poor refugee with no money) but later in the summer months it was not very easy to store the food, so I also started buying it.

The other day I saw such a truck on the road, so they might still be in use today. But what is becoming more and more popular are the food trucks. These trucks are almost as well equipped as a restaurant kitchen and they offer a large variety of food.

Near where we live in one city block, there is a Hispanic (I don't know what kind) truck, there is a Chinese food truck and there are two Halal (that is Muslim kosher) trucks. They seem to be very popular because there are always people lople liined up and they were occupying the same spot for quite a while. I know that in other parts of the city there is a Polish food truck and I'm sure there are Greek food trucks. And, God knows how many different types there are.

In Manhattan around the offices these are pretty popular because they have very low prices and people like that. Restaurants on the other hand are up in arms about these because they claim they take their customers away. I like the Halal food and we buy it occasionally. They have beef, lamb and chicken varieties and they are all good. There used to be a Hungarian truck but I think it evaporated some years ago.

Shortages

The land of "milk and honey" is going sour. Thanks to the "no clue" administration we are even short on toilet paper. It is a sad experience to go to a supermarket in these days where empty shelves are in abundance and merchandise is scarce. This is like wartime supply shortage.

As it turns out it hits us most in the supermarkets where everyday staples are the basic elements of our lives. But looking around a little more closely, there are shortages in every part of our economy. A basic American staple is the car. Every household have at least one car and in the past automobiles were never in short supply.

Now, there is a serious shortage of new cars. In the old socialist ways, in my country, one was able to purchase a new automobile. But the way it was done they put you on a waiting list for a particular brand (there were not too many) that could stretch to six months and when it arrived you had to accept it no matter what your choice of color was.

Here it looks like it is heading that way. The waiting list for certain cars is as long as six months. This is unbelievable. What causes this shortage? Are all new cars floating on those ships off shore waiting to be unloaded? Together with our toiletpapers?

It seems that we are totally dependent on foreign produced items. Nothing seems like being manufactured domestically. It is a crying shame that we got this far!

We have a president who is totally clueless about the goings on in this country. Price of gasoline is going through the roof. Why, if we are not depending on foreign oil? The "mighty" dollar is worth less and less and he is just smiling and trying to tell us how well we are doing. But when he is asked, he refuses to answer.

His second in command is not any better. She just laughs her way through every appearance. Now we have a farter, and a laughing hyena at the helm. No wonder everybody sees America as a joke.

Da prince

 I am not a grouchy old man who does not like anybody and hates everything. I am just very opinionated. That is all. I have rights to my own opinions. And if the bottom line is that I happen gto hate that particular person, item, policy or whatever else, let that be. 

So, without further ado, I hate that little English prince and his uppity black wife. I wrote about them before, and I already expressed my opinion about them, so this will not come as a surprise. They came to New York yesterday to a gala event to celebrate Veterans Day. Both showed up and mingled and played cutsey. Harry served time in the British military and that makes him a military expert. His wife served time in the mattress and that makes her an expert on mattresses not military.

This guy was and is thinking with his eleventh finger and blindly follows his wife. The wife thinks that she is better than the admired, loved and envied Royal Family. With that thinking she convinced her husband to give up his family, give up his unique royal status, give up money, and move away to the US and live like the (wealthy) common folk live. And that idiot followed her. 

He turned his back on his grandmother the Queen, his grandfather, his father, his brother and all his friends and moved to California where he is accepted only because he is (was) the prince. His friends, if he has any are around him only because of his name. And I am sure that will not last forever. 

I would love to see what will happen when his wife will get older, turn unattractive and to resist their temptations and lose whatever charm and hold she had over him. Knowing his celebrity status, he will not lack the attention of attractive young ladies. How long will he be able to resist their temptations? 

I would love to be around and see their future.

Small print

There are people who are in love with their own voices. They are the politicians and TV people. I watch enough TV to criticize this.

I love to watch congressional committee hearings. Those hearings are fairly entertaining. I love when a congressman puts up a question and there is a time limit on it. They have the tendency tu use up about 75% of the allocated time on themselves making useless speeches and then leave the remaining time for the response which is obviously is not enough. But they just love to hear their own voices. Most of the time the questions are so long that I am not able figure out what the particular question is.

The same goes for TV interviewers. They put for forth a question that is so long and convoluted that the meaning is lost in the packaging. And if the response gets too long or complicated, they just cut in and say well, that is all the time we have.

The other thing is the small print. Did you ever watch these questionable commercials where there are multitude of lines of small print on the screen? They make sure the print is there but they also make sure there is no time allowed to read it. Their contents are all legalese to protect themselves. We, the common people are not privy to what they say. It is nothing but just another way to rip off the naive public. 

This is very similar to the presents or freebies that are offered to us with no charge except shipping and handling (s&h) per each item offered. Just another way to gyp the innocent public.

The questions are longer than the answers

Ads

"Where is the beef?", "I don't believe I ate the whole thing!", "He likes it! Hey , Mikey!", "Time to make the donuts", "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" and many, many more.

These are unforgettable commercial slogans for years and years ago. Even though I am not a youngster I do still remember these. They were kind of funny. It didn't mean that I ran to the stores and bought these products it just meant that they were memorable.

It showed that back then there were advertising people with imagination because they created products that stayed with us throughout the years. Unfortunately, today's ads are lame, tasteless and easily forgettable. There is not a single TV ad that I would call memorable. 

While watching TV I see ads that make me wonder who was the idiot who designed it and who was or were the idiots wo approved it. Companies spend big bucks on tv commercials and at the same time they produce such idiotic messages that it is unbelievable. 

I guess working for an ad agency is easy. It does not need any talent, just the know how to sell your work to the client. And if the client, the advertiser, doesn't know any better they would buy and pay for anything as long as they see their name up there. 

And the public, as stupid as it is will buy it!

Spnsorships

Sunday was the traditional New York City Marathon held. This race encompasses all five boroughs of the city, starting on Staten Island and finishing in Manhattan's Central park. Usually there are 30 to 40 thousand participants from every corner of the earth. The various races are divided between the professionals and the amateurs. The pros, obviously are doing it for the glory and the money. That rest just for their own satisfaction.

Thousands and thousands participant come from different countries. I wonder that with today's travel restrictions how were these people able to manage that. Did all the 30 - 40 thousand had the required vaccines? Or at this time the rules did not apply?

What I find peculiar and I know I wrote about this before, but it bugs me, that who were the main sponsors of this race. Tata Consulting Services (TCS) is an Indian company with about a half a million employees, based in Mumbai and offices around the world. Good, god for them to employ all these people.

But why an American event in this country needs to be financed by an Indian company? Are there no American companies willing to pick up the tab? In my eyes this is a shame. Where are Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, the domestic airlines, Facebook, Microsoft and all other corporations that make billions of dollars a year. The sponsorship for such an event would not even show up in their profit list. I think they just don't care. They seem to want to keep their money a lot closer to their chests.

It is not unnoticeable that a multitude of sport events here and abroad are being sponsored by Emirates airline, Etihad  Airways and Qatar Airways. Their names, logos and their slogans are all over most of European soccer games including players uniforms and as well as in US teams. I guess when local businesses are not willing to support these teams the Emirates airline jumps in and help out.

Watching European soccer games I can not help but notice frequent ads by Gazprom, the quasi private Russian gas company. Is this to remind Europe that they are at their mercy as far as the natural gas supply is?