So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Harp]

I had hoped that the smiley might have lent a clue that I was jesting somewhat. Understood.

For the record, the polling today is largely on local issues; police and crime commissioners, local councils, and some directly elected mayors. There are also Welsh and Scottish national elections, and at least one by-election for Member of Parliament. It's been a mixed bag of stuff that was already scheduled for this year, plus electoral matters postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic. Not something I'd expect to significantly influence financial markets.

Nasdaq's Forex featured a piece this morning by Marshall Gittler: Why Thursday's local UK Elections Are a Risk for GBP.
Scottish Nationalist tendencies reflective of result and the Forex market is sensitive.

 

[tonyb]

More on “distressed” clothing ...

Went to JCPenney this afternoon to pick up a couple-three summer shirts. Saw these jeans and took a couple pictures. Got home and took a picture of my self-distressed pants du jour.

Call me an accidental fashionista.

 

[MisterCairo]

I did not own a pair of jeans until I was 18, and have not owned any for the last five. Certain garment styles are just "not me". Part style, part age appropriateness.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
I don’t know the age at which blue jeans might be inappropriate.

If there’s anything that isn’t a political or class signifier in this culture it is blue jeans. Maybe in times past a person might have gotten “too old” for blue jeans, but that time is indeed in the past. Elderly politicians left, right, and center often see to it they are photographed in blue jeans.

At worst it’s just a nod toward democracy. And at best it actually is democratizing.

 

[Hercule]

Recent sources of aggravation: shipping carriers (because they make it so easy)

I recently published a book and in the end stages of approving proofs I was at the mercy of Fedex and the USPS. As you can imagine their usual lethargy stretched my timetable by weeks, even with VERY expensive expedited shipping. But what was maddening was their respective tracking. Fedex just moved my packages from one city to another at a snail's pace. Then, when all indications were that it was still severaql states away, the status changed to "out for delivery." USPS on the other hand didn't even try to provide tracking information. Once my package was checked into the system it reverted to simply "on it's way to destination," then after a couple days it switched to the delivery is running late and basically said it will get there when it gets there.

The icing on the cake with regard to delivery aggravations came today when we got a notice from Fedex saying nobody was home to sign for delivery (my wife got me a wine of the month club that needs to be signed for). Quite uncharacteristic for my wife, having quickly achieved a simmer she got on the phone to them and explained that not only was she home all day, but that we have a security camera and that there absolutely was NOT an attempted delivery at the indicated time. Now the delivery is rescheduled for tomorrow. We can understand if things get to be too much and a delivery can't be made, just don't lie and say you attempted to deliver it and try to make it our fault that we didn't get the package.

 

[Harp]

I did not own a pair of jeans until I was 18, and have not owned any for the last five. Certain garment styles are just "not me". Part style, part age appropriateness.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

 

[GHT]

The icing on the cake with regard to delivery aggravations came today when we got a notice from Fedex saying nobody was home to sign for delivery (my wife got me a wine of the month club that needs to be signed for). Quite uncharacteristic for my wife, having quickly achieved a simmer she got on the phone to them and explained that not only was she home all day, but that we have a security camera and that there absolutely was NOT an attempted delivery at the indicated time. Now the delivery is rescheduled for tomorrow. We can understand if things get to be too much and a delivery can't be made, just don't lie and say you attempted to deliver it and try to make it our fault that we didn't get the package.

Oh come on, you are not being reasonable. Firstly, you didn't look in the garden and secondly, you looked at the wrong security camera. Go check again.

You may have to click the link to YouTube to see where your package landed.

 

[tonyb]

...

The icing on the cake with regard to delivery aggravations came today when we got a notice from Fedex saying nobody was home to sign for delivery (my wife got me a wine of the month club that needs to be signed for). Quite uncharacteristic for my wife, having quickly achieved a simmer she got on the phone to them and explained that not only was she home all day, but that we have a security camera and that there absolutely was NOT an attempted delivery at the indicated time. Now the delivery is rescheduled for tomorrow. We can understand if things get to be too much and a delivery can't be made, just don't lie and say you attempted to deliver it and try to make it our fault that we didn't get the package.

FedEx farms out a lot of their work. Even the vehicles carrying FedEx colors are often operated by independent contractors.

Of course, the more you farm stuff out, the less control you have. I once worked for a fly-by-night outfit that contracted with FedEx. I have little doubt that some of the people we hired (not technically “hired”; they were contracting with us, too) would lie about the deliveries they didn’t complete.

That’s been a long time ago. Newer technologies make it more difficult to get away with that sort of thing.

If I were contracting, I would make clear a zero-tolerance for lying. You can be a lot of things and maintain employment in that biz, but you can’t be a thief, and you can’t lie about what you did with the goods entrusted to you.

 

[tonyb]

Marketing ...

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's like the reverse of that sign they have as you go into Trenton, New Jersey -- "THE WORLD MAKES, AMERICA TAKES."

 

[Trenchfriend]

@tonyb

I don't no really, but I got the feeling since a while, that this could be a big part of Turkey's crisis. Clothing "Made in Turkey" is rarely seen, today, so I think, some manufacturing must have migrated from Turkey to Bangladesh.

 

[ChrisB]

I have been tracking a package (USPS) coming to me from the UK. On Thursday it was in Newark NJ, a mere 30 miles from my home. It said it was on the way to its final destination. On Friday it was in San Juan PR!

 

[Harp]

Went to Starbucks downstairs for coffee before grabbing the elevator upstairs. The cashier had cash register/computer
sign in difficulty, so I offered two dollars for a small black coffee. No dice, she didn't want to get in trouble just
because I wanted a cup of coffee. I apologized, told her that I certainly did not wish to lead her down that path,
folded the bills and left. Considering a second attempt later. Reviewing the overall situation overall, I am forced to
conclude that me Irish charm unsuccessful that it obviously was is due to the fact that the young lady is also Irish,
a fair colleen but endowed by Celtic genetic inheritance to be impervious to The Charm. Shouldaknown.
I attribute my mistaken assumption to the fact that I did not have any coffee and so was not fully awake.
This factual analysis of all salient facts therein lead me to conclude that verdict cast should be for another go.
That and this, I am dying for a cup of coffee.

 

[Harp]

Ahhh. In-like-Flynn, she was all sweet & smiles this second attempt.

 

[MisterCairo]

^^^^^
I don’t know the age at which blue jeans might be inappropriate.

If there’s anything that isn’t a political or class signifier in this culture it is blue jeans. Maybe in times past a person might have gotten “too old” for blue jeans, but that time is indeed in the past. Elderly politicians left, right, and center often see to it they are photographed in blue jeans.

At worst it’s just a nod toward democracy. And at best it actually is democratizing.

We are talking about pants, right?

 

[tonyb]

We are talking about pants, right?

Yes. You thought otherwise?

 

[Harp]

We are talking about pants, right?

Coffee & colleen. And an indecent past or vintage colloquial preface to Errol Flynn, which I should not have used.
Black coffee, and, by coincidence a lovely Irish colleen of Celtic and Iberian ancestry; or black Irish
as we say on Chicago's south side. Ancient Ireland migratory settle from Galicia, Basque, Iberian peninsula,
traced by DNA, and known late 16th Century Spanish Armada wreckage off Ireland. Which she claimed she hadn't
known much about until this morning when I regaled her for her beauty, wit, and charm. So overjoyed was I to
finally get a cup of coffee at 8.30 am or so.

 

[tonyb]

 

[Zombie_61]

...So overjoyed was I to finally get a cup of coffee at 8.30 am or so.

That's one of the problems with Starbucks--all of that espresso makes them want to talk about coffee instead of drink it. Lousy college students...

 

[Hercule]

View attachment 334637

Being in academia and an academic writer myself, I can honestly say that truer words were never written. I love it.