Sunday

 Boy, time flies. It is Sunday again!

Labels

Did you ever buy pillows, bathroom mats, mattresses, blankets and other similar items and saw those large sawn in labels hanging out of them? Why are they so important that they say it is illegal to remove them? It is written on them that "Under penalty of law it is illegal removing this tag..."

I have pillows for years now, but I am scared to cut those labels off because one day the police might knock on my door. I am sure these labels have some kind of microchip embedded in them which would immediately notify the authorities if I do anything unlawful.

So, beside the secret microchip, what is the purpose of these labels? Why they can not just have a label like shirts or other clothing items have. Now, if they are sold in international markets there are notices in about ten languages, this way they are only made once for a worldwide market. 

The other ting is that they are so tightly sewn in that their removal is very difficult. Just to haphazardly cut them off will make the item look ugly. If one wants to have them removed with surgical accuracy one will have to be very careful because, at least I always cut into the material, and always got hell for it. 

Just a thought on something that is present in our everyday lives. ___________________________________________________________________________________

Yesterday, on Friday, Biden was supposed to have a colonoscopy done. Nothing special, it was scheduled. Because of the procedure requires anesthesia, the presidency was transferred to the Kamala woman. I hope she was told not to get used to it because this was temporary. I heard that the doctors who performed the colonoscopy on Biden were sworn to secrecy for not telling if anything they might find. One of the doctors on the team was a brain specialist because they wanted to know if any unrecognizable material they find might that be his brain!

TV Show

On CBS Tv there is a crime series based on the FBI. It has three parts, first is called FBI, the second is called FBI International, and the third is FBI Most Wanted. They are shown right after each other and many times the stories intertwine.

Anyway it is the second, FBI International I want to write about. This is about four agents stationed in Europe to solve crimes there involving Americans. Interestingly, they are stationed in Budapest, Hungary. I like to watch and trying to identify the various neighborhoods. Now, these agent travel to different countries in the area to solve crimes. 

What I noticed, and probably other Hungarians also did that the folmmakers don't pay much attention to background details. For example in one show that was to take place in Paris, we could see the Eiffel Tower in right behind a fairly well known Hungarian bank's storefront. I checked, and that bank does not have Paris branch.

In another story that happened in Warsaw, street scenes were filmed with occasional Polish signs but Hungarian store designations were very visible. In my opinion, aside from far shots of a particular city they film all the stories in Hungary which is ok, but then pay attention to the backgrounds. The American viewers probably never notice these little flubs but Hungarians certainly will.  

If I would have done such shoddy job where I worked I would have gotten kicked out a long time ago. I know that Warsaw is a cosmopolitan city but I doubt that they have stores and streets with Hungarian names.

Chips

I am very disappointed in America. If I would have a written guarantee I would like to ask for my money back.

Yesterday, there was an announcement on one of the business stations that General Motors announced that due to chip shortage they will discontinue offering seat warmers in their cars.

This is a terrible news. A world collapsed in me. All my life hope was kept in me that one day I will have a warm ass in a cold car. And now, that hope went out the window. What kind of world we live in, where a person can not even have his bottom comfortably heated in a cold car?

I wonder if this only applies to the less expensive cars or to the higher priced one also? Hard to imagine that owner of a high priced Cadillac will have his arse just as cold as a Chevrolet Sparks.  

As far as I were buying cars, the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price was always a starting point in car buying. The game was how far one can go below that price and what extras can the dealer give with the car. I always loved this haggling, and at the end I always believed I made a good deal.

Not long ago we went to a Hyundai showroom and noticed that all new cars had an additional fee added to their basic prices. When I asked I was told that was because the chip prices went up. Never heard this kind of explanation before.

How big is a chip? How many chips can they put in a shipping container? Probably enough for all the cars in the world several times over.

Shortage

In the Soviet Union there were regular shortages in baily necessities. That included food and anything that the population needed. Even though they said it was the land of milk and honey, the milk was scarce and the bees left the country. Well, the good old Bolsheviks in order to keep the faithful happy and to keep the policy of equality, set up special stores that never lacked anything. They were fully stocked and even had better quality things than in the ordinary stores. This was very nice of them but the hitch was that these stores were only available to a selected few. To the ones in high position, to the faithful of the faithful. No wonder they were happy and well fed. These stores never had their toilet paper shelves empty!

I have a feeling we will be heading in that direction. They will set up special stores for the wealthy where everything could be found and the rest of us can just deal with the situation. My wife and I went to the supermarket yesterday and what we saw was unbelievable. Empty shelves and high prices. How long can this go on? That senile old man is sitting in his ivory tower, grinning like an idiot and does not realize what goes on in this country?

This is very sad. He thinks that his 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill will compensate for everything? There is still a shortage of toilet paper. 

I wonder if the White House lacks toilet paper. 

Doctors, again

I have some medical issues that need attention. And unfortunately some of these attentions should be given sooner than later. So, I make appointments believing that those appointments will be kept.

On Sunday night, Sunday not weekday, I got a call from one of those doctors' offices telling me that the doctor will not be in on this Wednesday and the earliest appointment I can get is December 1. This really upset me, because I do not want to wait that long.

I can understand that the doctor has other things to do, maybe play golf, but when he has hours only on Wednesdays in that particular office it is irresponsible to cancel all of them. And what is more that it is totally irresponsible for the staff not to try to accommodate the patient when help is needed.

Looks like doctors are doing extremely well. Lately we noticed that in order to get an appointment you have to look far ahead in the calendar because they are all totally booked. At least one business is flourishing.

In the old days it was commonly believed that doctors did not practice on Wednesdays because that was their day off to play golf. Maybe this custom is coming back and Wednesday hours will disappear. 

We'll see.

X-mas

Today is the 15th of November, almost seven weeks from Christmas and I am already fed up with the non-stop Christmas ads and other stuff. An apartment buildingacross the street from us already decorated its front lawn for the holiday. Ridiculous!

That idiotic Hallmark Channel is showing non stop Christmas movies for a few months now. Everybody is constantly grinning and their only preoccupation is how to get the biggest tree and what type of cookies to bake. Hey people, there is a real world outside with other problems. Oh yea, all the homes are decorated so richly that it turns my stomach. A tree in every room and every square inch of the house is hung with decorations. And on Hallmark hot chocolate is the national drink.

Stores are advertising their Christmas deals. The big question was if will there be a Black Friday this year with all the empty shelves and lack of merchandise? Do stores have enough merchandise to sell at attractive prices? Economists think that this year this will not happen, but only time will tell.

Anyway, I am bored with it.                                                                                                                          ___________________________________________________________________________________

Here is something interesting.

I always believed the US postal system was the best in the world. They were prompt and reliable. The emphasis in this WAS. Now, they are totally unreliable and without responsibility. Mail to other cities used to get in 2 or three days the most. Now if it gets there in a week we are lucky. 

It doesn't matter if it is express or certified it still gets lost or sits in a distribution center for days.

We sent an official letter to Hungary using their express service. It cost $64 and we were told it would take about five days. For days it was sitting in a New York distribution center when suddenly it showed up in Doha, Qatar. Then from Qatar it went directly to Hungary. Iy is there now, waiting to be delivered. 

Since that idiot country has no direct air service, it is difficult to send mail there. So I guess Qatar is the solution.

I love to send Christmas cards. I don't know if those will ever get there or Qatar will discard them because we are the infidel.