Hercule
Practically Family
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As I type this, Christmas trees are being erected in the lobby of the building in which I am working.
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So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.
- Thread starter GHT
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I never commence warring on Christmas until after Thanksgiving.
LizzieMaine
Bartender
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Buy Christmas War Bonds and Stamps at your local Starbucks.
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One thing, not ticking me off, just wondering about, all the time:
Since the 2010s, many people are walking with pocket lamps in the dark, even in their familiar surrounding, where they know every stone by name. But why? I have no explanation for that.
In the 90s, we of course had affordable and cheap pocket lamps "en masse", but the people didn't use them in daily life. Why do they, now?
Since the 2010s, many people are walking with pocket lamps in the dark, even in their familiar surrounding, where they know every stone by name. But why? I have no explanation for that.
In the 90s, we of course had affordable and cheap pocket lamps "en masse", but the people didn't use them in daily life. Why do they, now?
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^^^^
Is my suspicion correct that a “pocket lamp” is what we Yanks call a “flashlight,” and what much of the English-speaking world so unfortunate as not to live in North America calls a “torch”?
Is my suspicion correct that a “pocket lamp” is what we Yanks call a “flashlight,” and what much of the English-speaking world so unfortunate as not to live in North America calls a “torch”?
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Fifty150
Call Me a Cab
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Why Louis Vuitton? Is there something that's more special about their overpriced rubbish than anyone else's overpriced rubbish?
Fifty150
Call Me a Cab
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This is what happens when you get bad customer service. You have to climb the display rack yourself, to get a purse off the top shelf.
Fifty150
Call Me a Cab
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It was an hours long shopping spree. The only stores which did not sell out were located on Maiden Lane. Maiden Lane employs a Patrol Special Police Officer. Over the years, I've known several of those guys whose job it was to sit in that little alley, bored out of their minds. I guess last night, those guys earned their paycheck.
The San Francisco Patrol Special Police are privately hired. They wear uniforms that look like regular police, they are armed, they are peace officers, they drive cars which look like regular police cars, and they use the regular police radio channel which enables to be in communication with the regular police officers. It goes back to The Gold Rush, when The City did not have money to hire police officers. Merchants had to pay for their own police.
The Special Police are not unique to San Francisco. Around the country, there are other cities which have special police.
Today, The San Francisco Police Department has a program which charges merchants, or anyone with enough money, for police officers to work specifically for them. So if you can afford it, like the many extremely wealthy people who live in San Francisco, you can have a police officer at your front door or driving in circles around your block. The SFPD also rehires retired polices officers for the private security program. The Sheriff's Department is also trying to enact such a program so that they can charge for a Deputy Sheriff to stand at your front door. This is the safest city you can live in if you have the money to afford to hire the police.
GHT
I'll Lock Up
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One thing that the internet, and internet forums, have done is to share language usage and sometimes it can be hilariously funny. Someone I know thought a thong was underwear of the cheese cutting variety but in Australia thongs are a sandal type of shoe wear.
Getting back to the torch, before the advent of electricity lighting came from the naked flame and a torch was simply a bundle of sticks woven together, dipped into some combustible and lit. From the Old French, torche, meaning twisted thing, hence, torch formed of twisted tow dipped in wax. At least we don't use the name given to that bundle of sticks, anymore. It was known as a faggot.
Bartender Edit: Please be reminded, folks, that the 'no politics' rule includes discussion of the 2nd Amendment. There are appropriate places for that, none of which are this joint. Thank-you!
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I can’t help but think, rightly or wrongly, that vastly increased surveillance and other newfangled technologies have more than a little to do with it. I’d wager that many a person is alive today in no small part because his would-be assassin was at least smart enough to know how difficult it would be to get away with the dastardly deed.
Most murder is hot-blooded — the killer knows his victim, and is therefore likely to be identified as a possible suspect. Who really had it in for the victim? Start with that and then find the supporting evidence, of which there is likely to be quite a bit.
And even in the cases with the killer and victim are unfamiliar with each other, it’s darned nigh impossible these days for a person and/or his means of transport not to have its image captured several times along its route. A case in Seattle from many years back, wherein a killer pulled up alongside a cop car during the wee hours and opened fire with a rifle, killing one of the officers, was solved by poring over video surveillance from commercial establishments along every route in and out of the murder scene. Identifying the make and model (and model year) of the killer’s car gave law enforcement a solid jumping-off point. Many an hour was devoted to cracking that case (cops take quite seriously the murder of one of their own), but what was doable with the technology available back then is much more doable now.
Most murder is hot-blooded — the killer knows his victim, and is therefore likely to be identified as a possible suspect. Who really had it in for the victim? Start with that and then find the supporting evidence, of which there is likely to be quite a bit.
And even in the cases with the killer and victim are unfamiliar with each other, it’s darned nigh impossible these days for a person and/or his means of transport not to have its image captured several times along its route. A case in Seattle from many years back, wherein a killer pulled up alongside a cop car during the wee hours and opened fire with a rifle, killing one of the officers, was solved by poring over video surveillance from commercial establishments along every route in and out of the murder scene. Identifying the make and model (and model year) of the killer’s car gave law enforcement a solid jumping-off point. Many an hour was devoted to cracking that case (cops take quite seriously the murder of one of their own), but what was doable with the technology available back then is much more doable now.
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Fifty150
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A killer is not of sound mind. They do not plot a homicide because they are concerned about "getting away with it". Behind every homicide with malice aforethought, is a motive which is so motivating, that the taking of that person's life is the the ultimate goal. Getting away with the crime is not a part of the plan. The plan is to kill the person that is being targeted - at all cost.
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^^^^*
I accept that killers are, by most people’s way of seeing things, not of sound mental health. But it doesn’t follow that they are irrational. They typically bolt the scene, attempt to destroy evidence, and craft alibis, before and after the fact. So yes, “getting away with it” is a consideration.
I’ve known two murderers (could be more, but I don’t have enough good evidence to suggest it’s true of one person I kinda suspect).
One is a guy I worked alongside. He shot dead a fellow he felt had done him a gross injustice such that it left this former coworker thinking that his life was as good as over anyway. He didn’t expect to get away with it. He went to prison for a long stretch. I haven’t seen or heard from him in decades, and it would be just as well that that string continue uninterrupted.
The other is an old drinking buddy who beat a hooker to death with a lug wrench. He denied doing it, and I wanted to believe him even though I never really did. Besides his alcoholism (he could drink me under the table, and I was at least a AAA-level lush myself back then), he had a daily cocaine habit. I doubt he was truly sober for more than an hour or so in any 24 hour period, which very likely impaired his ability to control his impulses. He was acquainted with the woman he killed. The case couldn’t be made that he set out to kill her that day. But once he’d done it he sure hoped to get away with it.
I accept that killers are, by most people’s way of seeing things, not of sound mental health. But it doesn’t follow that they are irrational. They typically bolt the scene, attempt to destroy evidence, and craft alibis, before and after the fact. So yes, “getting away with it” is a consideration.
I’ve known two murderers (could be more, but I don’t have enough good evidence to suggest it’s true of one person I kinda suspect).
One is a guy I worked alongside. He shot dead a fellow he felt had done him a gross injustice such that it left this former coworker thinking that his life was as good as over anyway. He didn’t expect to get away with it. He went to prison for a long stretch. I haven’t seen or heard from him in decades, and it would be just as well that that string continue uninterrupted.
The other is an old drinking buddy who beat a hooker to death with a lug wrench. He denied doing it, and I wanted to believe him even though I never really did. Besides his alcoholism (he could drink me under the table, and I was at least a AAA-level lush myself back then), he had a daily cocaine habit. I doubt he was truly sober for more than an hour or so in any 24 hour period, which very likely impaired his ability to control his impulses. He was acquainted with the woman he killed. The case couldn’t be made that he set out to kill her that day. But once he’d done it he sure hoped to get away with it.
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I really don’t know what to make of the decline in homicide “clearance” rates. Half a century ago 90 percent of murder cases were solved. Now the percentage is in the low 60s.
So homicides had been in decline over that period yet more murderers have gotten away with it. So what’s the story? Is it the fear of retribution for “snitching” among the more homicidal segments of the population? Is it that law enforcement resources in some of our more murder-ridden locales are stretched too thin?
So homicides had been in decline over that period yet more murderers have gotten away with it. So what’s the story? Is it the fear of retribution for “snitching” among the more homicidal segments of the population? Is it that law enforcement resources in some of our more murder-ridden locales are stretched too thin?
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Fifty150
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In every criminal instance, whether you are killing someone or stealing, the modern world is full of surveillance. Most law enforcement agencies have a technical unit. They go to a crime scene, then look for where surveillance cameras are. The hard part is getting cooperation from the people who own those cameras. Not everyone wants to allow the police to take their recorded video surveillance. In some situations, you can almost backtrack the crime to before it occurred. You can see the suspects going to the crime scene, and get images of them before they donned their mask or disguise. Or you an image of the vehicle before they obscure the license plate. Then there is the timeline after the crime. The direction of travel as they fled the crime scene. If they stopped to remove whatever was covering the license plate. If they change vehicles. If they change their personal appearance.
In very rare circumstances, the investigator is able to gather great video surveillance. You may be able to piece together a timeline of events.
In very rare circumstances, the investigator is able to gather great video surveillance. You may be able to piece together a timeline of events.
LizzieMaine
Bartender
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Christmas, as in "let's all grovel hard before the the Chamber of Commercemas," has just descended in all its plastic-garlanded LED twinkle lighted glory upon our Main Street. Time once again to sing along with Mr. Freberg.
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Yes, it is the Most Holy of Retail Seasons.
Still, some of us are freer than others (those with kids, for instance, bless their mercenary hearts) to ignore it.
Which is what I attempt to do. Mostly.
I don’t object so much to the holiday bling in commercial districts. Among my most distant memories are of long car trips, before the Interstates were built out, when we motored through the “downtown” districts of all those small towns along the route. In those long ago Decembers, when nighttime was upon us by 5 p.m., those garish lights and sparkly whatnots seemed in some way made for me.
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Why Louis Vuitton? Is there something that's more special about their overpriced rubbish than anyone else's overpriced rubbish?
You tell me.
I have a small assortment of vintage suitcases and trunks. Didn’t pay much for any of them, and don’t expect they’d sell for much more than I paid.
But none are Louis Vuitton. Those things sell for crazy money. Perhaps they are a superior product in some practical ways, and maybe they aren’t. My old Hartmann trunk, one of two in my possession, surely would still function as well AS A TRUNK as a Louis Vuitton (instead of as a coffee table, which is its current occupation), but not as well as a status symbol. LV’s are kinda timelessly stylish; I’ll give ’em that. But my Hartmann, with its exposed rivets and hinges and corner protectors and hotel decals and a past owner’s initials stenciled on it and all, has more honest character. And you could probably buy a hundred of ’em for what you’d pay for one LV of the same vintage.
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