So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Harp]

So were the Bosox in 2004. Miracles do happen.

After leaving the office I intend to light a candle at St Peter's and rally the Franciscans for an all night novena. [angel]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Two words -- Billy Goat.

 

[Harp]

Two words -- Billy Goat.

...the goat has been walked around Wrigley Field and souflaki roasted at the Parthenon Restaurant; while the curse
may yet be stayed:eeek:hope still lingers.

 

[sheeplady]

There should be 'parental discretion advised' disclaimers for commercials these days. I was watching the Saturday night scary movie ("The Cat and the Canary" - with Bob Hope, for crying out loud) with my 7 year old daughter and every other ad was for some libido enhancing drug. I don't think she needs to know so much about e.d. at this point in life. Nor how sexy a pair of genie slim jeggings will make her feel. It's a sad state of affairs when the content of the advertising is more objectionable than the content of the movie.

Jeez.......I sound old.

We still own a tv, but when we moved into this apartment we never set up the rabbit ears.

I am so thankful we don't have to monitor what our daughter watches. She can watch a movie out of the dvd basket. There's no one trying to sell her plastic crap or sugar candy.

Thanks to school, she knows who a few characters are other than what she watches (like Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Train) but I've noticed that when we go to the store she's not spoiled asking for stuff like a lot of two year olds I know. The only things she's asked for in the past 6 months are a puzzle, a new bike helmet (hers is too tight), and Frozen sheets for her bed. I told her she can ask Santa for the puzzle and helmet and he might bring her one of them. The Frozen sheets are a prompt from me, as she will be moving to a big girl bed and I asked her what sorts of sheets she'd like. But she's never gone into a store and asked for anything (except food items like cheese). I credit that to her not seeing constant ads that make her think she needs to want want want.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

How everything is so cheaply made, including my glasses. Last night I took off my glasses and the frame snapped like a twig. This pair isn't even that old, I've only had it a few months. In stark contrast I remember my very first pair of glasses I had when I was a kid. I must have beat hell out of it and it still lasted for years.

 

[tonyb]

How everything is so cheaply made, including my glasses. Last night I took off my glasses and the frame snapped like a twig. This pair isn't even that old, I've only had it a few months. In stark contrast I remember my very first pair of glasses I had when I was a kid. I must have beat hell out of it and it still lasted for years.

I've found high quality frames these days, easily the equal of the glasses I had as a kid, but the prices are OUTRAGEOUS! A couple-three hundred bucks or more for maybe an ounce (do they even weigh that much?) of plastic and a couple of itty-bitty hinges?

The industry gets away with it for a few reasons, not the least of which is that glasses-wearers are no less vain than the population at large, and because often a substantial piece of the cost is picked up by the insurance company, so the patient isn't out of pocket all that much.

What I don't miss about the eyeglasses of my youth are the glass lenses. Yes, they were generally more scratch-resistant than the plastics used these days, but they were a helluva lot more heavy. Aviator styles were fashionable in my high school years. Big ol' lenses. Big ol' heavy lenses. The nose pads dug divots into my schnoz.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've been wearing the same style of glasses for years -- the American Optical Rimway -- and I get about five years out of a pair before metal fatigue sets in at the nosepiece. It always happens in the same spot, on the left-hand side of the bridge, and I've gotten to where I can see it coming and order the replacement frame in time. The advantage of these specs is that the lenses are mounted by screws, so I can interchange them myself without a trip to the optician.

Prior to this style, I used to wear American Optical Ful-Vue P3s, and my last pair of those, from 1988, is still intact. Well, the bows got replaced several times, and most of the gold plating is worn off, but the frames themselves are intact. I don't know if they used a better grade of metal, or I'm just rougher on glasses now, but that's the deal. These were also the last glasses I got with glass lenses, and they were, because my eyes are crap, brutally heavy to wear.

I had plastic-framed specs as a kid, and they were constantly falling apart. One pair split in half right down the middle when I walked into the school after walking to school on a below-zero morning -- thermal shock. They split and fell right off my face before I could even get my coat off.

The only pair of plastic frames that survived my childhood is in my desk drawer at home -- it was Tenite plastic, and like all Tenite, it has long since decomposed and warped into something unrecognizable as a pair of glasses.

 

[Hercule]

re: American Optical Rimway

Though I've worn contacts since the late 80's and continue to do so, I had a pair of AO rimways that I wore as backup/alternative about ten years ago. They're almost identical to ones my dad wore in the 40s - 60s. I've always wanted to get a replacement set but their fragility keeps putting me off. Mine split in half right where yours did.

 

[2jakes]

How everything is so cheaply made, including my glasses. Last night I took off my glasses and the frame snapped like a twig. This pair isn't even that old, I've only had it a few months. In stark contrast I remember my very first pair of glasses I had when I was a kid. I must have beat hell out of it and it still lasted for years.

I’m very hard on eyeglasses & would break them all the time.
I found a pair of frames at an antique shop really cheap.
I replaced the lenses.

They have lasted many years . They are light & easy on the nose area.
Unlike my Ray-Bans, which I like but wear only when playing tennis.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^

I'm guessing the original owner paid quite a bit for those frames. Either that, or his insurance company did. Calvin Klein. The name alone adds at least a hundred bucks.

They're nice, though. I'd wear 'em.

 

[tonyb]

Oh yeah. Buy outdoor stuff in October, when they're about to put that stuff away and turn its section of the store into the Christmas department.

I enjoy the hunt for bargains. It takes time others might spend in ways more to their liking, which is fine by me. Somebody has to pay retail, after all.

 

[2jakes]

When you go to the grocer, do you buy “name-brand $$$” or the other
"X-brand” for less with the same ingredients ?

 

[Fading Fast]

...btw:
when you go to the grocer, do you buy “name-brand $$$” or the other
"X-brand” for less with the same ingredients ?...

Not only do we - 90+% of the time - by the generic, but if you look closely at the label (or check on line), you will find that the name brand and generic are made by the same company. In most cases, we haven't noticed a taste or quality difference. That said, made by the same company or not, sometimes there is a difference and we have blind taste tested the stuff to make sure we weren't just making it up in our heads and we have found a difference.

While in most cases (based on web research), the name-brand and generic product is the same, just labeled differently (if made by the same company), sometimes they do reduce the quality in some fashion - use inferior ingredients or alter the manufacturing process. And, of course, if the product is made by another company, it can be about the same, worse or better (we've found some generics over the years that we like better).

It's all about putting some thought and effort into your purchases, which for us is second nature now as it is the only way we do it. That said, some high-priced, premium products are fantastic - they don't have a generic alternative - and, as a treat, are well worth the premium (for us on occasion).

 

[LizzieMaine]

I buy as little as I possibly can -- if I can find it at the dump or the side of the road for free, so much the better. When I do buy I go for the generics with only one exception. I won't buy cheap toilet paper.

 

[tonyb]

I've found that some off-brand cleaning products -- dish detergent in particular -- can be false economy.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've found that some off-brand cleaning products -- dish detergent in particular -- can be false economy.

Agreed - After trying everything, we've landed back at Bounty (and my optometrist says that Bounty is the only brand to clean your glasses as they don't use something or other that is cheap and scratches). It's a case-by-case choice, but in many cases, we've found the generic wins. That said, I've tried most of the others, but Oreos are better than all those imitators.

 

[2jakes]

I buy as little as I possibly can -- if I can find it at the dump or the side of the road for free, so much the better. When I do buy I go for the generics with only one exception. I won't buy cheap toilet paper.

I buy the Sunday paper .

 

[LizzieMaine]

Too many inserts in the Sunday paper -- coupons, rotogravure magazine, funnies. False economy. Old phone books are the way to go.

 

[dh66]

Back to eyeglasses....I've been wearing a pair of Criss Optical govt. spec BCGs for years now. They're made of the same unbreakable nylon that pocket combs are made of, and you can score a brand new pair for about $30, so in the unlikely event that they do break, you aren't out much.

Oh yeah, and they still make 'em in Wichita, Kansas, right here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

 

[2jakes]

Too many inserts in the Sunday paper -- coupons, rotogravure magazine, funnies. False economy. Old phone books are the way to go.

I never thought about that -- great idea. Thanks for the suggestion.