LizzieMaine
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Pants under a kilt? MacWuss.
That same conversation has been had with all of our boys. The reception has been staticky sometimes, but the signal seems to be getting clearer as they get older (and have to pay their own bills).I am now at a point, for the first time in my life, where I could actually afford such an extravagance, but I got to this point by NOT doing such extravagant things.
$1200 will get you this from Calvin Klein.
That’s just absurd. It is one thing to spend extra money for quality materials and workmanship, but paying big bucks for ratty, worn-out looking clothing makes no sense to me at all. I guess if you’re never going to do any strenuous activity to put honest wear on your clothes, you pay extra to look like you do?
Middle-aged, bored (single?) ladies in "my" smalltown railcar:
Dyin' for Bears coverage, and this dawn at Starbucks only The New York Times had arrived by 05:00;
Cohen's triple got all the play with another indictment over campaign finance violation vis a Playboy playmate
known to the incumbent. The Times is agog over these but inchoate nondisclosure pending financial resolve
ancillary to campaign fails criminal qualification. From my Chicago vantage, where even the dead can vote,
jazzing an investigation is standard procedure.
There are a lot of people in this world who would rather play dumb and have all of their "problems" great and small dealt with for them, but I'm convinced there are also more than a few who simply don't have the mental aptitude to figure out something like this for themselves.Whatever happened to basic problem-solving ability? I don't mean algebra, I mean simple stuff like looking at something and figuring out how it works. We have toilet paper dispensers in our restrooms that hold two big industrial size rolls, but when one runs out, you need to move a lever to access the backup, and then you might need to find the end of the new roll to start using it. I'm so very tired of people accosting me and saying YOU'RE OUT OF PAPER when all they have to do is push the lever and pull out the end of the new roll.
And it's not cossetted millennials who do this. It's people older than me, who would rather hunt me down and complain rather than look at the thing and exercise basic cognitive abilities for a couple of seconds. If human evolution depended on such specimens, we'd still be sitting around anthills waiting for someone to come along and poke a stick in for us.
Not only too stupid to work something out, but too stupid to correct or learn from mistakes. Many years ago, we lived next door to one such sort. He wanted a serving hatch between his kitchen and dining room. No tape measure, no nothing actually, apart from a seven pound hammer. He pointed his finger on the wall where the hatch was to be, then jammed his elbow into his ribs in order to keep his arm straight. He then went down three steps into his kitchen. Touching the wall where his extended digit reached, he marked it with a pencil. Then he smashed his hammer straight through the wall. Returning to the dining room to inspect his new hatch, he saw the biggest mouse hole in the skirting board of his dining room wall.I think that too many people are not at all curious about how anything works and won't even attempt to figure it out.
I think that there are a few who are simply too dense to see how anything works even if it seems self explanatory.
I think that all of this is only going to get worse.
Not only too stupid to work something out, but too stupid to correct or learn from mistakes. Many years ago, we lived next door to one such sort. He wanted a serving hatch between his kitchen and dining room. No tape measure, no nothing actually, apart from a seven pound hammer. He pointed his finger on the wall where the hatch was to be, then jammed his elbow into his ribs in order to keep his arm straight. He then went down three steps into his kitchen. Touching the wall where his extended digit reached, he marked it with a pencil. Then he smashed his hammer straight through the wall. Returning to the dining room to inspect his new hatch, he saw the biggest mouse hole in the skirting board of his dining room wall.
It stayed like that for six months until his missus paid a professional to come and repair it.
Among the many symptoms of decrepitude afflicting me in recent years are foot problems. I see a podiatrist every now and then to whittle away on the soles of my feet. I no longer take for granted pain-free walking.
It might be just coincidental that such difficulties have been much diminished since I stopped wearing shoes from Payless. And it might not be.
These are the expensive trainers.
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That's been going on for quite a while. Do you not read the work-wear threads here on the Lounge?
Everything silly in its time. I am still astounded by the prices people pay for chemically worn out pants full of holes.
Many years ago now I was employed in the bovine chasing business.
I was tipped off that there was a fellow who would buy your worn out Wrangler jeans for a premium if they were stained with cows#@t, the greener the better.
After I quit laughing I gladly sold him a few choice pairs that I would no longer have worn aywhere. I don't know what he was selling them for, but at the time 1 pair sold would buy me 3 new pairs with enough left to eat supper in town.
Pants under a kilt? MacWuss.
My favorite pair of jeans have a big tear around the knee from when I got them caught taking the tractor off of the trailer. I still wear them. Mrs. Hawk hates them. I tell her that people pay hundreds of dollars for jeans that look like these off the rack, and that mine are “authentic”. She says I still look like a hobo.
You know that old saw? The one that says the only stupid question is the one you should have asked?
I've had this conversation many times with different people and I have decided that there are a lot of things that have contributed to the common helplessness.
I think the farther we collectively get from descendants who actually built and repaired things with their hands rather than throwing it away or hiring it done, the ability to see what seems so obvious is being lost.
I think that too many people believe that bothering with figuring something out is below them and their perceived place in the world. That is a service provided by others.
I think that too many people are not at all curious about how anything works and won't even attempt to figure it out.
I think that there are a few who are simply too dense to see how anything works even if it seems self explanatory.
I think that all of this is only going to get worse.
And that is the greatest and most valuable thing being lost.I am actually proud of myself when I do stuff like this.