So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Stearmen]

If you can get a high quality cut of steak for $7.50, you live a charmed life indeed. Even here in cattle country, that steak is $20, minimum.

Wow! I can get a T-Bone for around $10.00, a little more if I go for extra thick. Ribeye, is the same price as Lizzie quoted. I notice, BBQ or grilling makes even a less then perfect cut taste a lot better, and better then most restaurants!

 

[HudsonHawk]

Wow! I can get a T-Bone for around $10.00, a little more if I go for extra thick. Ribeye, is the same price as Lizzie quoted. I notice, BBQ or grilling makes even a less then perfect cut taste a lot better, and better then most restaurants!

I can get a piece of meat for $7.50 too, but not the same cut and quality that I paid $48 for in a high end steak restaurant. My point was that you're getting much higher quality at the restaurant than you get on the cheap at the local mega mart, not that you can't get a serving of cow part for less than $20.

 

[sheeplady]

Roundabouts, traffic circles, circles from the devil... whatever you call them.

In upstate NY they have never been as common as they are in some New England states. Hence a very small portion of the population here knows how to use them.* But NY seems to have lately gotten a penchant for installing the things to confuse our drivers. I know of about 5 that have been built in the past 5 years or so, tearing out even traffic lights to put in a roundabout. There's even two on one of the most rural main roads I know of in this area.

And yes, by "knows how to use them" I simply mean that knowing that traffic already in the circle has the right of way. Which is annoying in itself that people see these things and end up in such a panic that they forget how to read road signs, like the big "YIELD" sign posted at each of the entranceways.

 

[2jakes]

Roundabouts, traffic circles, circles from the devil... whatever you call them.

In upstate NY they have never been as common as they are in some New England states. Hence a very small portion of the population here knows how to use them.* But NY seems to have lately gotten a penchant for installing the things to confuse our drivers. I know of about 5 that have been built in the past 5 years or so, tearing out even traffic lights to put in a roundabout. There's even two on one of the most rural main roads I know of in this area.

And yes, by "knows how to use them" I simply mean that knowing that traffic already in the circle has the right of way. Which is annoying in itself that people see these things and end up in such a panic that they forget how to read road signs, like the big "YIELD" sign posted at each of the entranceways.

Yield, right-of-way & 4-way stop signs.

The moment it starts to rain.
Logic, common sense & safety
scatters like so many ants
whose travel path-line has been
disturbed & panic sets in.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Augusta Rotary in our state capital is well known for confusing and confounding even the people who use it regularly, all of whom seem to forget that such a petty thing as right-of-way exists.

There have been over the years several businesses around that area which have adopted the word "Rotary" as part of their names -- the Rotary Cleaners has been a landmark since the fifties. When I was a kid there was a place alongside the rotary called "Duke's Rotary Barber Shop," which always amazed me -- I envisioned a barber standing in the middle of a circular floor with eight or ten chairs mounted around him, and as they rotated he'd cut their hair. I don't, however, think that was actually the deal.

As for rotaries themselves, none I've ever seen up here approach the horror that is Dupont Circle in Washington D. C., which seems to be the nearest thing to infinity that there is -- around and around and around and around....

 

[Trenchfriend]

2010, as the circle was brandnew:

A new circle, without the usual developing inside...

And the reason for building the circle was unknown.

 

[Fading Fast]

I know the rotary rules and abide them, but still think they are kinda crazy as there isn't always a good separation between cars coming in and going out (depending on how close the ingress and egress roads are and how many there are) so you have to keep spinning your head around when entering or existing and, as noted above, many people don't know the rules which only makes them worse. Since I have yet to meet the person who likes them, why do they seem to be growing in (if not popularity) adoption by cities? Are they somehow cheaper to build, maintain or do they really solve a traffic problem the best way?

 

[ChiTownScion]

Roundabouts, traffic circles, circles from the devil... whatever you call them.

In upstate NY they have never been as common as they are in some New England states. Hence a very small portion of the population here knows how to use them.* But NY seems to have lately gotten a penchant for installing the things to confuse our drivers. I know of about 5 that have been built in the past 5 years or so, tearing out even traffic lights to put in a roundabout. There's even two on one of the most rural main roads I know of in this area.

And yes, by "knows how to use them" I simply mean that knowing that traffic already in the circle has the right of way. Which is annoying in itself that people see these things and end up in such a panic that they forget how to read road signs, like the big "YIELD" sign posted at each of the entranceways.

It's one of those concepts that'll work well, if everyone knows the rules and plays by 'em. As Boris said to Natasha, "Foolproof, yes. Idiot- proof, no."

 

[JimWagner]

I don't mind the single lane circles too much, but the dual land circles are something else again. Try to get out of one of those traps when traffic is heavy.

 

[dh66]

The few circles around here were put in as a safety feature. Not so much with preventing accidents, which they don't seem that good about, but preventing fatalities. There's still plenty of fender benders, but the big landscaped median (or whatever it is) in the middle generally keeps people from running through it full tear, so when they do get in a wreck it's at a much slower speed and there's less odds of someone being killed.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the main point of the one in Augusta is that it was designed to bypass the downtown. That was all the rage in the fifties, when superhighways were supposed to change the world for the benefit of all humanity and General Motors. The Augusta rotary allows all incoming northbound, eastbound, or westbound traffic to avoid the downtown area entirely. It does, however, require all motorists looking for connections to I-95, in whichever direction, to pass thru not just a rotary but also a "miracle mile" of shopping plazas, gas stations, and fast-food joints with stoplights every fifty yards or so. Meanwhile, the downtown is as dead as vaudeville. In keppitalist America, bypass takes you.

 

[Fading Fast]

... In keppitalist America, bypass takes you.

A large or a few large companies legally through campaign contributions (and other favors) or illegally by bribing politicians (from both parties) to pass legislation (highway redesign, zoning codes, tariffs, etc.) to gain an advantage is no more about capitalism or keppitalism than it is about communism or socialism; what it is about is, at best (and poorly named), crony capitalism (big business in bed with politicians) and, at worse, outright corruption. But in either case, there is nothing about influencing politicians to tilt the playing field in your direction that is capitalistic (it's quite the opposite, it's trying to cheat at capitalism because competition is hard, cheating is easier), but it is quite human as all countries - capitalist, socialist and communist - seem unable to prevent political corruption.

 

[LizzieMaine]

But in either case, there is nothing about influencing politicians to tilt the playing field in your direction that is capitalistic .

"When I make a word do a lot of work like that, I always pay it extra." -- Humpty Dumpty

Be that as it may, there aren't too many homey little mom and pop operations along the Miracle Mile, such as used to exist downtown, in any town, and it's pretty clear the bypass didn't do them any good at all.

 

[2jakes]

What I miss the most are the small local books shops that were everywhere in the city.
This was about 10-15 years ago. The small local grocery stores were gone about 25 years ago,
at least in my area.

5 years ago, I drove from California to St. Louis. And at every freeway exit for food.
It was the same fast food franchise. I’m sure there were local places inside the city.
But not familiar, I stayed mostly on the outskirts near the freeways.
This was the first time I traveled cross-states by automobile.
I had to go to the mall in St. Louis & except for the name of the shops, I could have
been at the shopping mall at home.

I miss the old roads where every stop was at a local diner & the food was great.
It took longer to get to where I was going but it wasn’t as hectic as today with
the fast speeds & modern contraptions.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We lost a book store about a year ago that just cut my heart out, it was the place I stopped in every morning to buy my newspaper. Good local people running it, but they couldn't compete with the internet.

There's one bookstore left here, kind of a hybrid used book/new book operation that hangs on by the skin of its teeth, but they don't carry newspapers or magazines. So I have no choice, if I want to read the Boston Globe, to buy it from Rite Aid, the only newsdealer downtown. I swore I'd never do business with Rite Aid again after they evicted me from my apartment and tore it down in 1997, but I also swore I'd support print journalism till I was the last one standing. Very frustrating.

 

[2jakes]

We lost a book store about a year ago that just cut my heart out, it was the place I stopped in every morning to buy my newspaper. Good local people running it, but they couldn't compete with the internet.

There's one bookstore left here, kind of a hybrid used book/new book operation that hangs on by the skin of its teeth, but they don't carry newspapers or magazines. So I have no choice, if I want to read the Boston Globe, to buy it from Rite Aid, the only newsdealer downtown. I swore I'd never do business with Rite Aid again after they evicted me from my apartment and tore it down in 1997, but I also swore I'd support print journalism till I was the last one standing. Very frustrating.

We’re down to one newspaper in the city. But I stopped my subscription when the majority of the contents inside consisted of mostly ads with news on
the outside were merely covers. I get enough ads in the mail already to wallpaper Polo’s bedroom.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I often read three newspapers front to back a day -- the Boston Globe, the Portland Press Herald, and the Bangor Daily News. And then our local weekly when it comes out Wednesday night. The internet just doesn't cut it for me.

 

[2jakes]

I often read three newspapers front to back a day -- the Boston Globe, the Portland Press Herald, and the Bangor Daily News. And then our local weekly when it comes out Wednesday night. The internet just doesn't cut it for me.

I have yet to go to the internet for news. Not for any reason. I just haven’t.
I used to watch TV news.
But that was only on certain things that I had covered as photo news-journalist.

For the most part it was mostly depressing & don’t watch television on a regular basis.

I must check the papers you mentioned.

 

[Fading Fast]

The loss of the small bookstore ended one of my favorite pastimes. In NYC, twenty five years ago when I first moved here, there were so many of them - staffed by book lovers - that many of my reading choices came from the "staff's selections." It might be silly, but I loved the physical nature of those places - most where old, dusty, stuffed to the gills with shelves of books (books on piles on the floor, etc.), marginally organized and great places to browse and chat with fellow book lovers. Within almost any few blocks, you could walk into several very good ones.

What amazed me is that after grumbling, but finally "learning" how to shop at Borders and Barnes and Noble (I hung in with the old book stores as long as I could, but by the mid-to-late '90s, they kept closing to the point that I needed another source for books) - and never really liking it - they started going away too and, now, I buy and shop for almost all my books on-line. I've "learned" how to find interesting books, where to look to get ideas for new books to read etc. on-line, but it isn't the same at all. It truly tok away one of my favor hobbies.

I do still frequent used bookstores that don't really carry new books and only sell used books. They are fun in their own way, but they are not at all like what small bookstores were.

I also gave up reading the physical paper as more stores not only stopped carrying them, but more importantly for me, they stopped getting them in early. I read my papers at +/- 5am and, in NYC, I used to be able to get them that early - now that I can't, I've been forced on-line. That was a very, very hard transition, and I still miss both the physicalness of the print edition and the closed-content reality of a physical paper (on-line, you just keep reading as stories get published throughout the day and are linked to other related items, so there's is no beginning or end, just a constantly changing stream of information).

 

[GHT]

The few circles around here were put in as a safety feature. Not so much with preventing accidents, which they don't seem that good about, but preventing fatalities.

We've had traffic roundabouts since 1909.That's why we find them so easy, grown up with them, encountered them on the driving test. Now if you want complicated.