So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[LizzieMaine]

Stealing gates was a very popular Halloween trick a hundred years ago, among other acts of vandalism, but it's a bit early yet for that...

 

[TimeWarpWife]

As the old adage goes, "some people will steal anything that's not nailed down."

 

[Fading Fast]

The city is a bit better today, but even in the "good" areas, if you put something down in public and don't have your eyes on it all the time or have it wedged next to you, it's not unreasonable to expect it to be gone shortly. It's funny when people come from out of town where this isn't the norm, you - as their guide - are always warning them and watching their stuff for them.

Years ago, I had a manager who worked out of Austin, who - literally - was going to leave his overnight bag at an empty table when we went to the counter to order coffee in a Starbucks. He didn't really believe me that it was a risk (IMO, there was no risk as it was a fact) that it would be gone by the time we got back. This was a near-Times-Square-area Starbucks which made my call an all-but certainty.

Being alert for stealing is just part of living in NYC, but it's funny as you only realize how acclimated you've become to it when you see it from an "out of towner's" point of view.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And that's why whenever I'm in NYC I never bring along anything I can't afford to lose.

My introduction to City Ways came when I was living in California. Someone had given me a rattly old second-hand bicycle, since I didn't drive at the time, and I parked it behind my building while I went down to Thrifty Drug to buy a lock. When I got back -- not ten minutes later -- it was already gone.

But, again, this is nothing new. Light-Fingered Larry and Danny the Dip were even more rampant in the Era than they are today. A feature of every lunchroom, diner, and cheap cafe was the sign on the wall near the coatrack: WATCH YOUR HAT AND COAT, and women knew better than to leave their handbags untended for even a moment. As the old Berle gag went, "...and while I was watching my hat and coat, somebody stole my dinner!"

Of course, Berle stole that gag from Richy Craig Jr, which just goes to prove the point.

 

[Fading Fast]

And that's why whenever I'm in NYC I never bring along anything I can't afford to lose.

My introduction to City Ways came when I was living in California. Someone had given me a rattly old second-hand bicycle, since I didn't drive at the time, and I parked it behind my building while I went down to Thrifty Drug to buy a lock. When I got back -- not ten minutes later -- it was already gone.

But, again, this is nothing new. Light-Fingered Larry and Danny the Dip were even more rampant in the Era than they are today. A feature of every lunchroom, diner, and cheap cafe was the sign on the wall near the coatrack: WATCH YOUR HAT AND COAT, and women knew better than to leave their handbags untended for even a moment. As the old Berle gag went, "...and while I was watching my hat and coat, somebody stole my dinner!"

Of course, Berle stole that gag from Richy Craig Jr, which just goes to prove the point.

It's funny that you mention bikes as stealing bikes - and this includes bikes in the worst condition ever - is still a bloodsport in NYC. You will see bikes that look as if they were dropped from a ten-story building, set on fire and, then, driven over by a trackor tailor secured to a rack or tree with a very substantial-looking lock.

Apparently, there is so much demand - owing to the variety of bike-delivery usage in the city and replacement-parts need - that even the most dilapidated bike has value. Almost every friend of mine who uses a bike has had one stolen and these have all been locked. It is quite common to walk by a rack or tree and see either just a bike wheel attached to a lock or a very substantial lock (think ridiculously thick and big - not your little-kid bike lock) laying broken open or cut through on the ground. Life is amped up here.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile, why do I have to see these stupid little plastic dental-floss things all over the sidewalk and parking lots the ground and the shore and every other place where I happen to look down. Who is so fastidious that they have to floss their teeth when they're walking down the street and yet such an insufferable ass that they have to throw the floss-thing down on the ground when they're done with it? The world is not your personal wastebasket, whoever you are. How bout you keep your dirty bathroom crap in your bathroom.

 

[3fingers]

I was at the store this morning and found that Kraft has cut the number of cheese slices in a package from 24 to 22. With the same pre-printed price on the package. Now instead of a pound you get 14.7 ounces for the same price. I wonder how many strategy meetings it took to hammer that one out.

 

[3fingers]

I work in a town of around 20,000, half of which are university students. Bicycle theft is rampant here though many are found abandoned across town from where they were stolen. Why walk if you can steal a bike I guess. Another thing we have a lot of is grocery cart theft. People push the buggy from the store with their stuff in it either home or to a bus stop and leave it along the street. At a former job I would load carts a couple of times a week and drive around town returning them to their owners.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@LizzieMaine
In Germany, it's more the lipcare stick husks in corners, gaps or puddles.

 

[Fading Fast]

Meanwhile, why do I have to see these stupid little plastic dental-floss things all over the sidewalk and parking lots the ground and the shore and every other place where I happen to look down. Who is so fastidious that they have to floss their teeth when they're walking down the street and yet such an insufferable ass that they have to throw the floss-thing down on the ground when they're done with it? The world is not your personal wastebasket, whoever you are. How bout you keep your dirty bathroom crap in your bathroom.

I've notice that too - what the heck, people, throw them in the garbage for God's sake.

I was at the store this morning and found that Kraft has cut the number of cheese slices in a package from 24 to 22. With the same pre-printed price on the package. Now instead of a pound you get 14.7 ounces for the same price. I wonder how many strategy meetings it took to hammer that one out.

As I know you know, we've discuss a version of this many times in this thread. Just this weekend, I bought a Entenmann's Louisiana Crunch cake which looks stupid small when you pull it out of the box and its current weight of 1lb 4oz, I'll bet, was 1-1/2 lbs when I was growing up.

I guess it works as some won't notice the change, so this way the company "sneaks" in a price increase, but it does two things: (1) it really pisses off the people like us who see the sneakiness of it (spend millions in advertising building up your brand only to undo it this way) and (2) it leaves us with all these undersized products with weird weights (no human brain ever first arrived at a cake 1lb 4oz. for mass production).

I say the same thing each time: treat your customers with respect and your brand will benefit / treat your customers as people to be tricked and your brand will suffer even if - in the mass swirl of the market - you don't see it. Growing up, I loved Entenmann's and had a "good" feel toward the company. Now I don't and am willing to pass up a purchase that I'm on the fence about just to say - see, screw you and your lilliputian-sized cake nonsense; ditto, Oreos.

 

[Touchofevil]

It's funny that you mention bikes as stealing bikes - and this includes bikes in the worst condition ever - is still a bloodsport in NYC. You will see bikes that look as if they were dropped from a ten-story building, set on fire and, then, driven over by a trackor tailor , sec to a rack or tree with a very substantial-looking lock.

Apparently, there is so much demand - owing to the variety of bike-delivery usage in the city and replacement-parts need - that even the most dilapidated bike has value. Almost every friend of mine who uses a bike has had one stolen and these have all been locked. It is quite common to walk by a rack or tree and see either just a bike wheel attached to a lock or a very substantial lock (think ridiculously thick and big - not your little-kid bike lock) laying broken open or cut through on the ground. Life is amped up here.

Theft is why people would buy used bikes for as cheap as $3.00 when I was in college. The price of the bike was based on its condition. I am sure that many of those bikes were themselves stolen. A neighbor would lose his bike weekly (through theft or drunken forgetfullness), but figured he was saving money by buying a $3.00 bike.

 

[tonyb]

Meanwhile, why do I have to see these stupid little plastic dental-floss things all over the sidewalk and parking lots the ground and the shore and every other place where I happen to look down. Who is so fastidious that they have to floss their teeth when they're walking down the street and yet such an insufferable ass that they have to throw the floss-thing down on the ground when they're done with it? The world is not your personal wastebasket, whoever you are. How bout you keep your dirty bathroom crap in your bathroom.

I once travelled two days in the cab of a rental truck with an almost compulsive tooth flosser. He used those green plastic things to which you allude.

I didn’t object to the sight of his tending to his personal hygiene so much as my potential exposure to droplets of his blood, seeing how he had Hep C.

The risk might be small, but not small enough for my comfort. I would advise against coming into direct contact with those things.

 

[Zombie_61]

...The travellers trespass and the farmer is threatened with prosecution. The world's gone mad.

It's no different on this side of the pond. When Arnold Schwarzenegger first came to America he started his own small construction company. When a client hired Arnold and his crew to build a brick wall around his property, he asked if Arnold had any suggestions regarding placing something on top of the wall to keep trespassers out. Arnold explained that in his native country of Austria it was common for people to place bits of broken glass in a layer of mortar on the tops of their walls as a deterrent. The client agreed, and the wall was built. A short time later the client contacted Arnold and requested he and his crew return and remove the broken glass because he (the client) was being sued by a trespasser who had been badly injured while attempting to climb over the client's wall. The article that related this story ended with, "In Austria, if you get injured climbing over a wall where you don't belong you go to jail. In America, you sue the owner of the wall. Arnold still has difficulty understanding this." So do I.

Meanwhile, why do I have to see these stupid little plastic dental-floss things all over the sidewalk and parking lots the ground and the shore and every other place where I happen to look down. Who is so fastidious that they have to floss their teeth when they're walking down the street and yet such an insufferable ass that they have to throw the floss-thing down on the ground when they're done with it? The world is not your personal wastebasket, whoever you are. How bout you keep your dirty bathroom crap in your bathroom.

After Union Pacific Railroad stopped using a rail line that runs through my hometown in the mid-1990s the city bought the land and converted it to a paved pedestrian/bicyclist path now known as the Greenway Trail. It ends almost directly across the street from our house, so my wife and I regularly take our dog for his evening walks on this trail. While cleaning up after our dog had "taken care of business" in the mulch alongside the paved part of the trail one afternoon I found a discarded used hypodermic needle less than a foot away. Yeah, the addicts around here aren't particularly conscientious. I did what I thought was best with what I had on-hand--used our dog's waste bag to pick up the hypodermic, found a soda can in a nearby trash can, placed the needle end into the can, placed the can in the waste bag, tied it off, and put the bag in the trash can--and I hope that was enough to prevent someone from subsequently being pricked by that needle. But it made me angry because a lot of families use that trail and someone's child or dog could have found that needle, been injured, and who knows what might have happened?

 

[Touchofevil]

Raccoons messing with my ponds. The enjoy tearing the pumps apart and taking a part that which I enjoy being left as it is. They gave me some reprieve for the past couple of years, but they have returned. It isn' t as if I live in the country and should expect this kind of harassment. Actually, I never had this problem living in the country.

 

[tonyb]

What kinda ponds you got? I assume no koi, as the raccoons who are messing with your pump would have dined on them already.

A friend lost her pond fish to blue herons.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In-town wildlife is getting out of control around here, due mostly to a rabies epidemic. Last month a dim-witted tourist tried to pat a rampaging rabid otter and got bit. Enjoy shots in the belly for the rest of the summer. Her quote in the paper was a real winner: "But I always thought otters were friendly!"

 

[3fingers]

We live on the corner of our little village. Last house in town. Dead end street just past our house. Farm fields and a small woods on two sides, so there has always been plenty of larger wildlife around. Recently found one of our neighbors is feeding anybody who wants to come up. It's nice to see them out in the pasture, but we don't need them hanging around the back steps Skillethead.

 

[Touchofevil]

What kinda ponds you got? I assume no koi, as the raccoons who are messing with your pump would have dined on them already.

A friend lost her pond fish to blue herons.

No fish of any sort. They ate the fish one night eight or so years back. They seem to enjoy dredging up the big rocks from rhe bottom an swapping them with smaller rocks. They seem to be after the pumps whether it is because ofcthe noise or motion in the water they cause or both, I do not know. Maybe they are expecting to one day find a fish or two. Fortunately, at the moment, they are leaving the lawn be.

 

[Formeruser012523]

No fish of any sort. They ate the fish one night eight or so years back. They seem to enjoy dredging up the big rocks from rhe bottom an swapping them with smaller rocks. They seem to be after the pumps whether it is because ofcthe noise or motion in the water they cause or both, I do not know. Maybe they are expecting to one day find a fish or two. Fortunately, at the moment, they are leaving the lawn be.

You could always set traps. My dad did this some years ago trying to catch foxes that he was afraid would kill the cats (that had adopted us). He never caught them, but instead caught many a possum, raccoon, and other neighborhood cat.

 

[Touchofevil]

You could always set traps. My dad did this some years ago trying to catch foxes that he was afraid would kill the cats (that had adopted us). He never caught them, but instead caught many a possum, raccoon, and other neighborhood cat.

I have a few cages of varying sizes. I have been thinking of using them again, but did not have much luck the last time around. I caught one of the four and a lot of the neighbors' cats. The last time I put one in an area in the front yard that they were destroying (30 separate areas of peeled lawn) someone ran off with cage. The raccoons were big but not that big. Although, they are pretty smart. The last two nights, I turned off the water features. If that does not do it, out come the traps.