Are we in the Major Leagues-YET?

2011/07/08 Leave a comment

/…if there’s a more pathetic group of professional athletes than the Blue Jays bullpen, I can’t think of one!

In Cleveland, another incredibly inept performance.  Leading 4-nothing in the bottom of the 9th, two of the pathetic

bullpen crew managed to give up four hits and a walk, including a grand slam.  Final score Indians 5, Blue Jays 4!!!!!!

Feel sorry for the starting pitchers, and point some fingers at the New General Manager.

/…Regular gas holding at 128.7 at Shell, PetroCan, Esso, Husky and Sunoco.  The gas companies have found a way

to take away the headache that goes with trying to figure out where to buy your gas.  This morning the hosing intensifies.

Gas will be up to 131.8, at Shell, Esso, Husky, PetroCan and Sunoco.  Prix Fixe has become part of the Oil company lexicon, too!!!!

And where’s the Competition Bureau looking??..at the Toronto Real Estate Board… of course if your chauffeur always fills up, how do you know from gas? Huh?

/…somebody asked about my Air Miles mis-adventure.  Did I manage to book the routes I was looking for on the dates I wanted to go?

Yes but NOT on the Air Miles plan…As I said “you can’t get there from here.”-if you’re depending on Air Miles!!!

/…down at City Hall station it looks like the Gravy Train is still operating only the conductor has changed!  Taxpayers money continues to fly out the door

faster than it’s coming in.  The latest Major offender is Councillor Karen Stintz.  She is no match for Gary Webster the TTC General Manager, who is on a spending spree.

She thinks she’s in charge, she’s not! Why isn’t she in charge?….. Because she’s dealing with the TTC>…………………

The TTC is to Rob Ford,  what Ontario Hydro is to Flinty Mcguinty– a symbol of excess, profligate in every way, with a nasty culture

that goes with that kind of  arrogance and assumed entitlement!!*******************

/…hoohohold the phone.  The Competition Bureau has stirred!!!  Of course it’s taken the Bureau, three years to flesh out the problem.

But the  fact is, it  has fined Bell Canada, slightly more than 10-million dollars

for what the Bureau calls Bell’s misleading pricing for its wireless, broadband, phone, and satellite TV services–and that’s the ringer….

misleading the public with not just one product but everything it sells.  Another FATCAT with excess and entitlement problems.

…………never thought I’d see the day ROGER’S would be relegated to second among companies consumers love to hate.  Roger’s by the way is also looking at a 10-million dollar fine

just hasn’t happened yet.

/…Is this anyway to do business?  Misleading is lying!  Do you really have to be a liar to become BIG and SUCCESSFUL?

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You can’t get there from here!

2011/07/07 Leave a comment

/…You don’t get many air miles at one time so it takes a longtime to accumulate enough to get from  here(Toronto) to say….Chicago.

A few years ago when it was hard to find merchants who had a deal with Air Miles, I think it took me a year to

compile sufficient Air Miles to get me to Pickering,……. well maybe Ajax but not Oshawa!

Given that backdrop you can appreciate how wildly enthusiastic I was when Air Miles reported I had amassed more

4 thousand!

Because two members of our household are heading west in a few weeks it was the obvious moment to tap into the

Air Miles vault and  fly away to Calgary YYC.  So I googled Air Miles.Ca….and what followed was several hours of unsolicited frustration.

I didn’t know some organizations actually work hard to create an endless parade of  poppycock and phiffle.  My first impression was the Air Miles people

actually wanted me to be successful in  my quest.  They sent me an e-mail saying they were “glad that I was interested

in redeeming my AIR MILES reward miles for booking a flight.”   The e-mail names a roster of airlines that were at my service, some of which I’d never heard of…

Central Mountain Air,  Canadian North, Calm Air,  Horizon Air–and the biggies, Air Canada, West Jet etc…all I was assured would give me,  personal service voluntarily,

after all this is a service industry!!!!! “If you want to book right away, gushed the e-mail simply click on  “continue to flight results.”  Of course that doesn’t get

you anywhere–fool, that’s me!!   There are no other tabs or widgets or prompts to get you to “booking-a-flight,”  so we went  back to Air Miles.ca.

At this stage I wanted to ask Teresa-that helpful person from whom I received the e-mail, a couple of questions but she was beyond my growing frustration.  I wanted to call her because

near the end of the email she wrote “feel free to let me know  if I can be of  “additional assistance to you.”

That of course its poppycock because it says quite plainly in another part of the air miles website …”we assure you  that we will reply to your questions within 3 to 5 business days!!!!

OK so Teresa is not going to be of any help!!

Let’s go book something. Here we go,  from travel assistance to a place to type in flying from YYC to YXE, but it will not let you enter the date on which you want to fly.

OK, I’ll just punch find flight info–uh oh, here’s a flag–it says: “oops, there is an error in your flight search please check the highlighted fields and try your search again.”

OK, so now if you punch in the to and fro(again) they will also allow you to punch in the date you want to fly!!  Search..search..search–uh oh, another message:

“there’s no availability on the dates you have selected.”  And then they let you know there’s a cash option.  KAZAM.  Magically there’s a flight for me.  Cost $273.28!

Thanks for nothing Air Miles.  Let me try something else.  So I checked in with the FLIGHT NETWORK— YYC to YXE:  cost $188.00.

I booked that flight for two,  saved almost $200 dollars and spent no AIR Miles just so I can drive myself nuts in the future, (some rainy Wednesday afternoon) trying to book another flight to somewhere

with the assistance of  the Air Miles network!!!

Given the short supply of “available flights on the dates I wish to fly” Air Miles ought to add the GRACE L. FERGUSON STORM DOOR and FLYING COMPANY to their roster of airlines.

Bob Newhart would have understood and appreciated the falldara, gobbledygook and poppycock(or is that poopycock) of trying to book a ticket when there are” no available flights on the dates

you wish to fly.”  Pick another option!  How about another website!!!!!!

 BECAUSE You can’t get there from here!!

/…gasoline at the pumps: 126.1 at Sunoco, Shell, Esso, Husky and Petrocan.

Funny how they all picked the SAME number on the SAME day!  What do we need five major oil companies when they all charge the same price?

Why not have just one ?   Of course then you wouldn’t have all those different loyalty rewards programs, would you and that would be a shame.

?…the Competition bureau has stirred—it’s going after Bell, for not playing fair with us, consumers!!!!  More tomorrow.

/…For whom the Bell tolls, the Bell tolls for thee, English!!!

Beginning this year Sweden will be teaching Mandarin in all elementary schools!

Holy Toledo!!!

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It’s not in the mail!

2011/07/05 1 Comment

Today Priority Post was an oxymoron!

/… I arrived at the suburban hole-in-the-wall post office not far from our house fully intending to send via Priority Post,

two important envelopes that had been gathering lint while the posties and their union battled it out with

Canada Post–a name suggesting solidity but in reality another Canadian under-achiever.

The very pleasant woman behind the counter was not sure if the backlog had been cleared but was nevertheless ready to take

some big coin for a Priority Post stamp!

Me: “Are you sure these letters will get there tomorrow?”

Lady behind the counter: “well, we haven’t had a real update about the status of the backlog today.”

Me: “..so what does that mean?”

Lady behind the counter: “..it probably isn’t a good idea to go Priority because I don’t think they’re picking up today and we have nothing

today on the backlog.  But let me call someone.  Thirty second call to  some other person in another hole-in-the-wall post office:…no

she hasn’t heard anything definitive about the backlog anything either.  (This must be one of those Canadian things–no matter who you call, they won’t know!!!)

Me: “..do I have any options?” LBTC: “..well you could just mail it.  It would get there in a couple of days, probably just as quick as Priority Post.,”

Me: “..considering there is no Priority Post you’re probably right.  How about registered would that be quicker?”

LBTC:..”not really,  registered isn’t fast, it’s only for signatures and tracking.  But we could send it registered and that way you can track it.”

Thank you very much ! !!  I don’t know why I didn’t blow a gasket at this point .  Probably because I was heading for Staples home of the

Purolater pickup!  Stamped before five, delivered the next day-private enterprise moving the mail etc.,etc.,

Lady Behind the Counter at Staples:…”I’m sorry sir, but Purolater doesn’t deliver to mail boxes!! ”  What? What!

So Sandy and Missy there is no Priority Post today and the two important letters stranded by a strike, a backlog and the inability to deliver to post office box numbers

means they are back home immobilized by that oxymoron Priority Post!!!>>!!!

/…the moronic part of today’s frustration, of course lies with the failure of the managers(that may be an oxymoron too)at Canada Post to recognize the huge potential

of getting Priority Post up and running the minute the strike was over.  As they cleared away the millions of pieces of mail,  Priority Post would be setting the

return to business pace, delivering urgent letters and parcels by the next day and racking up big dollars at the same time.

Instead they idled their best weapon and instead concentrated on “clearing the backlog.”  Brilliant.

Lord, I hope the people running Canada Post are never asked to lead us through a major challenge!

/…Shopping for groceries is another exercise in frustration.  Product distribution and availability forces many shoppers into

multiple grocery stores. For instance you can be sure that quite often Loblaws won’t have it.  The other day, a day made for barbecuing

the nearby Loblaws store had no briquettes.  Are you serious?  Absolutely!  Loblaws bakery isn’t as good as Metro’s but the prices at Metro

are stratospheric.  And over at Highland farms the produce is fresh and the choices are double those at Metro but the staff doesn’t look very happy.

I often wondered whether this was a requirement of working there-not smiling.  The other day I was at Loblaws to buy buttermilk. “won ‘t have any

until tomorrow.”  Right.  No so long ago a Metro didn’t have clove of garlic in the entire store.  I kid you not!!  When I shop for groceries

I plan to visit at least two to four different stores.

/…is there anyone in the vast reaches of the web who has noticed all the gasoline prices at all the different gas stations move up and down

in unison?  Anyone notice that everyday, the price at the pumps is the same at Shell, as it is at Esso, as it is at Petrocan, as it is at Husky, as it is at Sunoco?

What would we call this in a country driven by private enterprise and the spirit of competition?  Would we call it freedom from having to choose?

Would we call it coincidence?  Would we call it a force for good riddance to competition in the gasoline business?  Would we call on the

Competition Bureau to investigate?  Of course not!!

What have you done to magnify this blatant disregard of competitive pricing?  Have you called on the people who represent you politically

to do something ABOUT FIXED GASOLINE PRICES????

Not yet?  Let’s get ‘arountoit.’

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The Road Back

2011/07/03 2 Comments

/…Michael Vick,  disgraced,  convicted as a felon,  excoriated by his former boosters,  booted from the NFL and sent to jail for five years is back.

Dropped four years ago by NIKE, the world’s largest sporting goods company, Vick has been re-signed by Nike to a multi-year contract.

Terms not disclosed….but the circle has been joined and the Philadelphia quarterback can say it, “the road’s been rough but I’m back………….

/…It was a stunning reversal of fortune moving DSK(Dominque Straus-Kahn) from  5 to 20 in Sing Sing to release

on his own recognizance and back on the road to the Elysee-Palace.  Before his strange encounter in a New York hotel suite he was being

given better than 2 to 1 odds of winning the French Presidency.  The encounter cost him his job at the IMF but he was preparing to leave that anyway

for the move on the Palace.  It will be some time before the image of the “perv” walk is erased and before that’s erased there will be some messy days in a New York courtroom.

But in France, DSK’s tangle with the New York police is looked upon as a badge of honour!  Make way for the DSK motorcade!!  Maybe?

/…Conrad Black was whiplashed in a Chicago court by Judge Amy St. Eve  and he’s going back to jail but there’s a silver lining….a couple of days after that shock, Black got some goods news!

Prosecutors told his lawyers they will be returning the 5 and a half million dollars they confiscated from the sale of his Manhattan apartment.

They have been holding the money for almost six years so he gets it back plus interest.  Lord Black is on his way back BUT not before the prison detour.  Nevertheless

the light on the other side of this tunnel is freedom road.

/…In Thailand, another stunner!  That country has elected its first female Prime Minister.

Yingluck Shinawatra, is the 44-year-old sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister who was ousted in a military coup five years ago.

His sister has never held political office but she leads her Pheu Thai party to a majority in the Thai House of Representatives.  The hope is with this majority

she can calm the nation that was wracked by deadly riots just last year.  Her victory is impressive when you consider the numbers…

Forty parties looking to fill 500 seats.  Her party wins over 300.  She’s earned substantial political capital which Thais are hoping will be spent wisely.

/…Now consider how easy it is to squander, political capital!   Rob Ford arrived at Toronto City Hall with immeasurable political capital  and even after

making some silly statements about blowing up work already done on solving transit problems, and sticking to that nonsense about Subways to Nowhere

he still had plenty.  So as he was about to embark on his seventh month into the job,  his approval rating  high and his political capital account flush,

(Political capital-never easy to attain and even harder to retain-look at Flinty Mc Guinty) why would he squander his largesse on such a stupid decision.

“If invited I will not come to the Pride Parade.” NO NO NO!  Substitute FATHEAD Ford  for MAYOR FORD!

…don’t take my word, that his Political Capital account has diminished  exponentially–check out Sue Ann Levy in today’s Sun.

She has been one of Mayor Ford’s major media boosters.  She writes, “in their six months in office, I have never seen the mayor and his advisers

screw up something so simple as recognizing an important community in this city and attending just one(only one) of a signature series of events.”

…  Sue-Ann Levy..The Sun July 3, 2011!

The Ford Political Capital account will not be replenished anytime soon and although there are supporters of his “hell no, I won’t go” mantra

you have to be seriously without political moxy or common sense to see Ford’s decision as anything but goofy!!!

His road back is uphill!!!

/…Others who are finding the road back difficult include Federer, the Williams sisters and Sharapova in tennis and

of course Tiger Woods.  His ride continues on a muddy road.  Lost his wife, his children, his home, his stroke and his health with no prospect

of finding the Road Back, at least in the foreseeable future!!!

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Krokodil

2011/06/29 Leave a comment

Wednesday already!?

/Life is tough en’uf without having to worry about-Krokodil.

It’s a new designer drug that can turn an addict’s skin greenish, scaly and cause it to rot!!!!

A derivative of morphine, Krokodil, (also called desomorphine) is something new from Russia but U.S.

drug administration officials expect it in the States sooner than later!  If the past holds Canadian

health officials won’t know anything about Krokodil until the Americans tell them!

Russian police say they seized  65 million doses in the first three months of 2011.  Guesstimates,

also  by the Russians, suggest more than a million people in that country, known for its love affair with vodka, are users of KROLODFIL………main attraction:  cheap!

Mix codeine with gasoline, paint thinner, hydochloric acid and red phosphorus.  And that gives you Russian heroin!

Take some and say “Dobra vacher, Boris.”   Krokodil-another of life’s sink-holes./

/Pass me the soda pop–yes!!! no, no,no??  How about this:  diet soft drink drinkers, as a group, experienced ” 70% greater increases in  waist circumference” compared with those

who drink no diet soda!!!  Abdominal fat is a major risk factor for diabetes, cardio problems, cancer and other chronic health worrisomes.

That was the result of  studies using humans.  They did a mouse study feeding them aspartame—but we all know nobody takes just aspartame. And neither would the mice

but they were conscripted after refusing to submit voluntarily.  The researchers claim after forcing the aspartame into the mice, the mice showed elevated blood sugar levels!!!!

Remember when eggs and butter were no-no’s and after telling us to use only margarine, we were told get back to butter…..?  As I recall they started that rollercoaster with mice too……..

/The Dodgers may be bankrupt, BUT  when you consider pitching so are the Blue Jays!!!

Last night Jo Jo Reyes left his mojo in the clubhouse.  Gave up 9 hits and 6 earned runs in 3 and a half innings!

The announcer said 17-thousand paid for the game, but I don’t think 17 thousand attended.  This year’s edition has expansion written all over it…

Last night it was no pitching, poor fielding and  squandered hitting.  Night before in Detroit it was the Bullpen that missed the game.

As Casey Stengel once said about his useless New York Mets, “, can’t anybody here play this game?”

/The people of Illinois can put together a streak!  They have now elected two Governors in a row who have gone to jail.

The latest is Rodney Blagojevich(Blago) for short.  In today’s Wall street journal Roger Simon details the hilarious Blago Saga, including

a quote about the convicted Governor from a Chicago political insider–“you could cut off his head and he wouldn’t be any dumber.”

/And here’s another.  This one an observation by Paul Sullivan writing about women’s shoes in today’s freebie paper-Metro:

“wherever I look,  women’s shoes have morphed into something Darth Vader would wear if he were into cross-dressing >”

Lord ain’t that th truth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/

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It’s monday!

2011/06/27 Leave a comment

Is this real…the International court has an arrest warrant out for

Qaddafi, the butcher of Libyia?  OK it’s real but where are the warrants

for Zimbabwe’s Mugabe and Syria’s Assad?

How about one for Henry Kissinger, architect of the brutality inflicted

on Laos and Cambodia!!!……………./quiet the Senators are sleeping late!

They were pressed into service yesterday, sunday(if you can imagine)

to pass legislation that gets the posties back to work…………..

/the NDP does not know how to pick its fights, I’ll bet more of their

constituency was affected by the strike than voters who support the

others/…………Does the decision by Minnesota’s Michelle Backmann to

try for the GOP nomination sewer Sarah Palin’s thinking on declaring ?

/The truth  is out–the bums from Brooklyn really were bums—

what happened to the Dodgers? The question is on the lips of all longtime, long-suffering Dodger fans–did ya hear?..the Los Angeles Dodgers have filed for bankruptcy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/Bankruptcy, a word that is striking fear in the boardrooms of some of the largest banks in Europe….most people have never heard of Italy’s UNICREDIT bank but financial expert/analyst/researcher Porter Stansberry predicts disaster for Unicredit.  And sees “the next stage in the ongoing global financial crisis will feature the collapse of the Spanish and italian economies.”  that’s a quote from PS!

Is it true that Unicredit has borrowed $300 billion from other European banks?….  is this a problem?  Standby, someone will get back to us on that! ../the hacker group, Lulz is calling it quits.  No more hacks from it apparently–giving the political hacks, a breather.

/And how great is that first amendment in those United States?

The US supreme court has struck down California’s law banning sale or rental of violent video games to children. T he Court opts for the gaming industry’s self imposed voluntary rating system…. yea the industry will protect you, oh yea.

In Canada we have an industry-wide self-imposed, voluntary rating system that fixes the prices at gas pumps, taking the guesswork out of which gas company you wish to buy gas from today??

Are we sheep or what?

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flogging the blog

2011/06/26 Leave a comment

It began as a serious project and became even more serious as the days wore on.

This blog happened only because the Old fool has a 23 year old granddaughter who knows how to do these things!!!!

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