So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[ChiTownScion]

The sad thing for me is if I had a snow blower I'd have to get rid of my car so I could fit the snow blower in my garage. And then I wouldn't need a snow blower anymore.

You could get a small plastic shed for it.

But... don't you have an unpaved driveway anyway? If so, a snow blower could turn the gravel into flying ordinance.

Personally... I think that the theatre should invest in one for the front sidewalk. Whatever your salary, it isn't worth hand shoveling that area.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
I’d think that the chamber of commerce or downtown business association or even the municipality itself would tend to that. Clearing the walks is pretty much necessary to the functioning of the district.

Around here is many a freelance snow removal guy or gal, ranging from kids going door-to-door with snow shovels to people with 4WD pickups sporting plow blades on the front and light bars on the roof.

 

[MisterCairo]

Non-recyclable recyclable materials. Has the symbol; the town does not accept it. "Too expensive to process".

Garbage it is then...

 

[Zombie_61]

Non-recyclable recyclable materials. Has the symbol; the town does not accept it. "Too expensive to process".

Garbage it is then...

Several years ago a co-worker learned that his city was taking all of the "recyclable" materials and dumping them in the landfill with the "trash" because, as he was told, "We don't have the personnel here to sort through it and separate it all properly." I suspect that's the rule rather than the exception in a lot of cities/counties/states here in the U.S..

 

[Harp]

Super Bowl was not quite the dawgfight I had expected but it was an OK game.

Great commercials this year as always.

But that halftime show spectacular song and dance mindless insanity was just wonderful.

 

[MisterCairo]

Super Bowl was not quite the dawgfight I had expected but it was an OK game.

Great commercials this year as always.

But that halftime show spectacular song and dance mindless insanity was just wonderful.

An episode of the vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows centres on the vampires being thrilled to have been invited by their human neighbours to a Superb Owl party.

Owls, being nocturnal hunters like vampires, are venerated by them. One human accidentally discovers their identities, so they erase his memory. All of it.

Mayhem ensues.

They never do get to see the superb owl...

 

[LizzieMaine]

We loved that movie here at the theatre, and its quotes still resurface.

"Ohhhhhhhh! Piotr got heeem!"

"Google eet! Google eet!"

 

[Edward]

We loved that movie here at the theatre, and its quotes still resurface.

"Ohhhhhhhh! Piotr got heeem!"

"Google eet! Google eet!"

THe TV show resets the action in a Staten Island vampire house; if anything, it's even funnier as the half-hour, episodic format allows it to be an even closer parody of the reality TV genre. Excellent cast, too - especially Matt Berry and the lady who plays Nadia.

 

[Zombie_61]

...But that halftime show spectacular song and dance mindless insanity was just wonderful.

I didn't watch because a) I couldn't care less about sports, and b) there's nothing special about this Weak-End guy. But half of the reviews I read online mentioned his microphone kept cutting in and out, while the others didn't seem to notice. So my questions are, "Were there microphone problems?" and "How could there have been when all of these performers are lip-synching to their own songs during the halftime nonsense?"

 

[Harp]

I didn't watch because a) I couldn't care less about sports, and b) there's nothing special about this Weak-End guy. But half of the reviews I read online mentioned his microphone kept cutting in and out, while the others didn't seem to notice....

I thought the half mindlessness amusing, predictable brain scrabble cultural morass standard fare.
Commercials struck the predictable chord, little over easy, not the same scrambled eggs halftime ham.
Game less than hoped but Mahomes did the best with what opportunity and luck allowed.
Excellent field goal, extra point-cannot recall if any were booted now-kicking.

 

[Harp]

An episode of the vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows centres on the vampires being thrilled to have been invited by their human neighbours to a Superb Owl party.

Owls, being nocturnal hunters like vampires, are venerated by them. One human accidentally discovers their identities, so they erase his memory. All of it.

Mayhem ensues.

They never do get to see the superb owl...

Politik verboten, klar

Excellent post MC, my earlier dawn reply while sipping reveille coffee (bye-the-bye, just now recall an
earlier post of yours...The Canadian Army is the best trained Army in the world and you guys don't have
coffee clerks? No bat boys in the regiment to mind the java jive?) anyway, lapsed promiscuous politico,
my fault entirely, mea culpa mea maxima culpa omnino, so here's another shot.
Love this Harry Potter owl and vamp off ramp... What We Do in the Shadows pitched a thought to
Wall Street and those short Game Stop covering their erroneous ways.
As mentioned above, I found all the half ham brain scrambled predictable tripe.
Commercials also predictable tone, measure.
Love the superb owl fable tale told.

 

[tonyb]

Several years ago a co-worker learned that his city was taking all of the "recyclable" materials and dumping them in the landfill with the "trash" because, as he was told, "We don't have the personnel here to sort through it and separate it all properly." I suspect that's the rule rather than the exception in a lot of cities/counties/states here in the U.S..

Years ago it was the case in my fair burg that aluminum was the only recyclable household material that sold for more than it cost to process. Still, it would cost to send to the landfill all that plastic and paper and steel that might have been recycled, so the economic consideration was which came at a lower net cost — recycling (and selling for at least *some* money), or sending to the landfill? (This disregards the environmental considerations, and the potential longer-term costs.)

Down-and-outters picked through recycling bins for the aluminum, which they of course sold at a private recycling center. This was effectively stealing from the public utility, but if there was enforcement action taken against it, I never saw any evidence of it. I did, however, witness the occasional angry resident confront a picker who didn’t bother with putting back in the bin the recyclables he left without.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I did, however, witness the occasional angry resident confront a picker who didn’t bother with putting back in the bin the recyclables he left without.

I've run into a few pickers while taking some last minute items out to the recyclables bin at the curb on trash night, and they all had pretty much the same demeanor as I approached--an apprehensive "Is this guy going to yell at me?" posture. To the contrary, I told them they were free to take anything from those bins that they wanted/needed/could use, as long as they put everything they didn't want back in the bins and didn't make a mess. So far the trash truck drivers have left more rubbish behind on the street than the pickers.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
Yeah, I, too, hesitate to make villains of people reduced to digging through recycling bins for maybe a few pennies per. If that. A couple of Hefty bags filled with aluminum cans sells for — what? — five bucks? Ten?

 

[LizzieMaine]

We used to have several people in town here who survived in this idyllic tourist Way Life Should Be paradise by picking bottles and cans out of the garbage -- Maine has had a compulsory deposit law since the 70s -- but as the local authorities have become decidedly less hospitable to persons of lower income over the past decade, they've all disappeared. I hope they were able to find someplace to go that's less medieval in its outlook.

 

[Harp]

-- but as the local authorities have become decidedly less hospitable to persons of lower income over the past decade, they've all disappeared. I hope they were able to find someplace to go that's less medieval in its outlook.

Chicago is more Spanish Inquisition than medieval but not all that receptive to those lower strata
or necessarily innovative souls more fortunate. The subway passenger tunnels and public perches outside prominent commercial enclaves such as the Board of Trade once featured delightful troubadours
and musicians-guitar and violin-whom sang ballads, old favorites, and played classical selects but have
since disappeared. A thunderous silence echoes their wake and Chicago's loss.

 

[Trenchfriend]

MAN, why I have no (online) shop for bobble caps, the girls love so much?? I could become a rich man, these days!!

 

[tonyb]

We used to have several people in town here who survived in this idyllic tourist Way Life Should Be paradise by picking bottles and cans out of the garbage -- Maine has had a compulsory deposit law since the 70s -- but as the local authorities have become decidedly less hospitable to persons of lower income over the past decade, they've all disappeared. I hope they were able to find someplace to go that's less medieval in its outlook.

I angered many a neighborhood improver type by editorializing that when you got right down to it, they didn’t really care what became of our scruffier brothers and sisters, so long as they went away.

Diversity? Oh yeah, the newly arrived gentrifiers treasure the diversity of the district, provided all those diverse people believe and behave just as they do. As to the others? Just price ’em out, and then congratulate yourselves on saving the neighborhood.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And that's why whenever I hear somebody complain that this-or-that "spoils their view," I always say "good."

 

[ChiTownScion]

Portland takes a decidedly progressive approach. The homeless set up their tents in empty lots, on the embankments along freeways, sometimes even on downtown sidewalks at night. The fairly moderate climate seems to draw a lot of drifters- but a lot of those folks are holding down jobs and simply can't afford the rents around here.

And yes, some of their camps can be unsightly and untidy. I always tell myself that there but for the grace of whatever Supreme Being may be calling the shots go I- and a whole lot of others.