QUESTIONS

2012/04/15 Leave a comment

(same old story)

Gasoline in the Greater Toronto Area today is, 6 dollars and twenty six cents a gallon. $6.26.

And it’s $6.26 at every major gasoline station in the GTA.  Esso, Petrocan, Shell, Husky, Sunoco!

Do we expect this blatant example of price fixing will ever come to the attention of the

toothless Competition bureau in Ottawa?  If it’s not price fixing, than what is it?

Are we to believe that the operating costs of each gasoline company, Esso, PetroCan, Shell, Husky and Sunoco

are identical, therefore each must charge exactly the same price for gas?  Is this what they’re telling us?

Do we believe this makes sense?

(Statistics Canada)

On April 7, 2012 Stats Can reported that during March, Ontario added 46-thousand jobs!

Did anybody in the Main Stream media challenge those numbers?

There were 22 hiring days in March.  That means 2-thousand and ninety-one jobs(2 ,091) were created in Ontario

every hiring day.  And the entire media bought this?

Did anybody look at the 46-thousand and calculate the obvious-

that 460 companies in Ontario each needed to add 100 people to their payroll in March?  Do we believe this happened?

But what if the figure is true?  Does that mean that every the reporter, editor and columnist missed the biggest story of 2012?

Wouldn’t the hiring of 46-thousand people in one province in one month create a dramatic, one of a kind good news story?

Can you keep that kind of story(if it’s real), a secret?

Could one thousand companies in ontario hire 46 people(that would be 2.09 people) a month and nobody notice?

So do you think stats coming from Statistics Canada are reliable?  Unassailable?  Goofy?

If you think reliable, by July Ontario’s unemployment rate should be down to 5%!

And  if unassailable that boast by Flinty Mcguinty that the HST will create 500-thousand jobs will come to fruition.

And if goofy , PIGS WILL FLY?

(Baseball)

What’s wrong with this picture, the Blue Jays are batting and although there are two outs, the bases are loaded and

the batter is Jose Bautista, one of the most feared hitters in baseball and all of a sudden Brett Lawrie, our guy

on third base makes a dash for home–a decision doomed about the time of conception, therefore a dramatic failure

in execution.  Third out.  The bat falls from the hands of Jose Bautista and with it the prospect of  possible success!

Is Lawrie humbled by his brain cramp? Is he apologetic for trying to be a showboat ?  He is not!

Was his dash to home plate with no hope of success a team building effort? HARDLY!

There is a difference between irrational exuberance and stupidity, isn’t there?

All is forgiven.  The Jays win the last game of the series with Baltimore, and Lawrie hits a home run!

So everything is HOKAY?

__________________________________

The journey to Dire Straits continues.

__________________________________

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Failure makes a comeback!!!

2012/02/23 Leave a comment

(WE are the  HOSEES)

Our per gallon price of gas in the City of Toronto today is:  $5.82

The price in Buffalo per Imperial gallon, if you could buy gas that way in Buffalo,

is: $4.41.  The fact is the Americans are paying 25% less for gasoline than we are!

And of course, in the Greater Toronto area, all the pumps owned by the majors(Shell, Esso, Petrocan, Sunoco and

Husky) show the SAME price:  it’s the gasoline sellers’ salute to Toronto’s Winterlicous prix fixe restaurant event that just concluded.

And it comes to us courtesy of the Federal Competition Act, or is that Anti-Competition.

Toronto per litre price: 1.28.  Buffalo per litre price: .97!!!!  Imperial gallon: 4.546 litres; U.S. Gallon: 3.785 litres.

So, if we are being hosed by them–that makes us the hosees!

(Travelling and Contemplating)

Some days it feels like you’re stranded between Penury and Dire Straits with a handful of

“not a winning number” lottery stubs and dog-eared coffee lids saying “please play again” while waiting for a bus

that will come by flashing “Not in Service.”  Ever? EVER!

This situation is not a good situation but it’s the ideal place from which to cogitate about life on THIS planet!

(City Hall)

Somebody call the coroner because I’m sure someone has died there.

So much hand-wringing, so many tears, such anger.  Why?  Because, to hear these mourners tell it,  the greatest,

most wonderful and talented civil servant that ever walked God’s green earth has been cashiered.

“Did he die”, you ask. NO, he was sent home.  Fired.  Driven from his office by that big bully the mayor of Toronto:

Fat, but getting thinner–Robbie Ford.  In fact, Ford didn’t send him home – a majority of members on the

Transit Committee, to whom this poor, humble, fired Civil Servant reported on his day to day accomplishments, did the

deed.  With the ‘goodbye, nice to have known you’ note they tucked in $500,000 plus.

Usually when you tell a person to go home and not come back–that’s it.  But this is a story for another time.

(Maria Augimeri loves Gary Webster)

I don’t know what her normal temperment is but yesterday she was ‘white hot’ decrying what she called “the abuse of power.”

Maria you should know is a member of the Transit Commission.  She loves the work of the guy (Webster) who was fired.

She thinks he was the most hard working, dedicated and talented Chief General Manager that ever lived.

“So,” Ms.  Augimeri demanded to know, “what message are you (other committee members) sending to our employees,

that professionalism gets kicked out the door and toadyism wins?”

Frankly, yes.  It certainly worked when David Miller was mayor.  All the toads got a place at his toadstool and the non-toads

were unceremoniously tossed.  (Write for names.  The list is too long for this time.)

MARIA of course has forgotten about the toadies that attended to Mayor Miller’s every wish because she was one of them.

Did she ever challenge Dapper David when he sent home dedicated, loyal, hard-working civil servants who weren’t

TOADIES, she DID NOT!  She suffers from ‘politicized amnesia’ that has been exacerbated by the fact that she no longer

sits in the INNER circle.

(term limits)

Maria Augimeri has been in politics for 30 years.   She’s long past her’ best before’ designation.

Maria is a poster child for the institution of term limits.  She is one of the reasons politics to many is a dirty word.

Hazel McCallion, Mississauga’s 7% solution, is another prime poster child for TERM LIMITS.  Eight years and out!!

Give others a chance to familiarize themselves with the political process.  Everybody will benefit.

Too long at the political trough blurs the landscape and deadens the senses.

Maria has been a Toronto Councillor since 1997 and judging by her comments yesterday relative to the firing of

Gary Webster she needs to understand that there are others who can do the Councillor thing just as well as she.

They would be the ones with perspective.  The ones that would avoid making goofy statements.

After eight years you really start to believe you cannot be replaced.

Unfortunately all politicians are afraid to consider term limits.  But that doesn’t mean it should remain off the table.

(OXYCONTIN)

Who put that on the table?

This drug is devastating lives from coast to coast and we hear nothing from those people in Ottawa who are supposedly

in charge of our health and welfare.

The braintrust at the Food and Drug Directorate are busy banning vitamin use based on flawed research but have nothing to

say about a drug they approved that is twice as deadly as morphine.  Why did it take a provincial initiative(Ontario’s) before

anybody bothered with what is already a soul destroying drug!

And even this provincial initiative is off centre.  Oxycontin  is not just a threat on the reservation it has invaded

thousands of households in Canada and somebody better pay attention to the thousands who are addicted to what

we frivolously call “hillbilly heroin.”  Talk to the addicted.  See their pain.  Sympathize and then do something.

We need to find out how this destructive pill was allowed into the country?  Whose hand is in whose pocket?

And when will the provincial initiative move Ottawa into doing something meaningful(nationally) besides regulating the

amount  of Vitamin D3 in a single pill?

We should know how many highly  placed people working in the Food and Drug Directorate have conflicting

ties with Big Pharma.

Next:

Is Santorum  the man to dethrone Obama?  Stay tuned.

We might as well camp here because we’ll never make Dire Straits before nightfall.

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There’s the Gravy Train!!!!!!

2011/10/05 Leave a comment

/.The Gravy Train that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been looking for EXISTS!!!

It’s as real as he claims but it exists behind impenetrable walls of self-interest and entitlement.

These walls are as real as if they had been constructed of mortar and steel.

And if they could be breached,  inside, “on Guard”, watching for intruders hard by the GRAVY TRAIN are the Sacred Cows that have

driven this  city’s budget into the red and have every intention of keeping it there.

Independent auditors didn’t find it and because auditors by nature help protect Gravy Trains!

The Gravy Train isn’t about the few million dollars council recently cut from the Budget and Council knows it!

The Gravy Train is the vehicle of the unelected, of the elite.

Self-interest and entitlement bind together the objectives of various city units like:

the fire and police departments, their unions and other city unions  that need to maintain their numbers, because Unions have only one

objective-get numbers, increase numbers, maintain numbers.  Others who fuel the GRAVY TRAIN are the boards–Zoo, Library and some

City departments-like the out-of-control Water department.  When these departments are asked to cut budgets, they ignore the request and

deliver a bigger one.

This year the police department was asked to deliver a 10% decrease, year over year, and delivered a budget showing

a 1.5% increase!

Self Interest and Entitlement also live outside the Units we associate with City departments.

The lobbying for tax dollars to support every conceivable kind of Arts-related endeavour is intense!

The list probably isn’t endless, it just looks like it.   So that brings us to the obvious conclusion.

Mayor Rob knows he has not reached the controls of the Gravy Train and he is probably cognizant of this fact–he will not reach

them even if he spent the next forty years in the Mayor’s Chair.  There is no one in the city with the political jam, let alone Council support,

who can breach the walls.   Furthermore, there is no support among the Media to get to the Gravy Train.

Among the media, the leading excoriator of Mayor Rob’s contention is the Toronto Star.

Almost daily the Star finds some way to ridicule, belittle, denigrate his Worship’s contention that a Gravy Train exists! !

Well we know it exists and now we know where it is–the question is how much money is it carrying—

my guess:  between 500 and 700 million dollars.

/…Here’s a quick example.  Among the recent decisions of Council looking for those elusive, loose tax dollars was to sell, privatize or come

up  with another operating model for the Toronto Zoo.  The Zoo loses 11-million dollars a year.  One Zoo board member is

Councillor Glenn De Baermaeker.  He voted against finding ways to save money and save the Zoo.

He said it was “a desperate and pathetic move.”

The only thing “desperate and pathetic” was De Baermaeker’s solution: keep the Zoo and continue to send the annual 11-million dollar bill

to the TAXPAYER.

He, along with other members of Council, helped build the walls that protect the Gravy Train.

They subscribe to the Neo-Grecian Formula of Collective Penury.

It is real!  It is a contagion!  And it’s catching!

/…Not offered as issues in this provincial election campaign:

Hey Dalton, where are the 600-thousand jobs that the introduction of the HST was going to bring Ontario?

Hey Horvath, what about your poor, bedraggled Union people who have been fighting the savagery of US Steel?

Hey Hudak, what about Caledonia?  This is still a land of Law and Order is it not?

And what about insurance rates and the huge profits churned out by that group of free enterprizers?

And, I almost forgot, what about the Prix Fixe that has been imposed by the even richer oil companies on gas prices

in all the major Ontario cities? Today Toronto residents pay: $5.573396 for a gallon of gas!!

Stateside, the gasoline just dropped again today–next time you’re in Buffalo help yourself to the smaller gallon

for $3.25!!  You don’t think we are being jobbed by the Oil Companies–well the politicians didn’t even remember

to bring it up!! They do care!  But not for us!

The GRAVY TRAIN is real–

/…AJ/KO

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Failure is an orphan

2011/08/21 Leave a comment

/…These days it`s hard to figure out whether anybody knows anything!

Last week, Toronto weather forecasters were wrong five of six days and not just slightly wrong,  huge.

Rain was predicted all five days and the rain did not come, nor did the thunderstorms they predicted.

Those of us who plan weekends based on the predictions of the forecasters were told the weekend would be a drencher, so, many hopeful campers, picnickers, motorcycle enthusiasts, etc., made other plans.

The weekend weather was everything you hope for if you`re a camper etc,  sunny, hot, in a word summerlicious.

Many believe the accuracy of weather forecasters has deteriorated markedly since they started using computer models!!

/…Headline in the Toronto Star, Saturday July 16th, “HOUSING DOWNTURN  AHEAD,”–leading economists were quoted, along with

Canada’s five major banks.

Headline in  the Toronto Star, Wednesday, August 17th, “EAGER BUYERS KEEP HOUSING HOT,” real estate experts gave their reasons.

Most readers would have preferred to hear from the economists and the pooh-bahs from the five major banks-were they misquoted

mis-informed, missing their weegee boards or just plain mistaken about the ‘housing downturn.”  One of our problems as consumers is having to

decide what is fact and what is fiction because media keep passing off speculation as fact.

Sometimes the messenger should be drawn and quartered.

/…This month we were hailing another potential cancer breakthru!  By genetically reprogramming immune systems, three men were said to have

been cured of late stage leukemia.  According to a pair of studies  published at the same time in two prominent journals, the technique transforms

blood-borne T-Cells into “serial killers that hunt down and obliterate cancer cells leaving healthy tissue unharmed.

A day earlier the Wall Street Journal darkly reported that “mistakes in scientific studies surge.”   The WSJ noted that since 2001 the number

of papers published in research journals has risen 44%, while their number retracted has escalated more than 15 fold.

For instance,there were 87 retractions relating to medicine between 2001 and 2005.  Between 2006 and 2010-436.

Even worse the time lag between published studies and retractions is growing.  From slightly more than 5 months in 2000 to almost 32 months

in 2009.  The problem goes even deeper.  As the WSJ put it there was a ‘wow’ reaction to a published paper in 2003 announcing that

two popular high blood pressure drugs were found to be much better in combination than either alone!  Based on that study doctors changed

their prescriptions and patients were put on the touted combination.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t true!

Six and a half years later, the prestigious medical journal LANCET retracted the paper citing “serious concerns,” about the findings.

Too late!!  The damage was more than collateral, it was direct.  By the time the retraction found daylight 100-thousand patients had been

given the combination.  Today, according the Wall Street Journal “tens of thousands” are still on the discredited dual therapy leaving them

more vulnerable to life-threatening side effects.  Why the surge in papers and retractions?  In many cases plain ordinary fraud.

The stakes are high–“a single paper in Lancet and you get your chair and you get your money.  It’s your passport to success………………..So,

the next time you read a story or hear about about a major medical breakthrough, take it with a grain of salt-it could be subject to recall.

It’s worrisome because this dramatic increase in retractions covers many different disciplines, not just medicine.   Biology, chemistry, engineering,

physics etc…  Read all about it in the August 11th WSJ.  It’s shocking!

/…To this point in the CFL season the Green Riders of Saskatchewan have won only one game in eight and so the coach and his offensive

co-ordinator are gone.  In fact both were offensive to the devoted fans of that historic franchise. So are many of the players(offensive) but you can’t

fire the whole team.  Many of that teams ardent fans are farmers and they are the first to recognize incompetence and laziness and they know

that if they ran their farms as sloppily as the Riders have been running many of their plays, the farm as a viable unit would be history.

/…whither the stock markets?  Will the incredibly incompetent managers of our economic systems find a light of deliverance at the end of the tunnel,

or will it be the proverbial freight train??  Should the hoy-puloy(that’s us) hope for the best and plan for the worst.  Probably!

How close are we to sackcloth and ashes?  Will someone restart the engines of commerce?  Will we have to start over again and actually focus

on the difference between what we think we need and what we must have to survive?  So many questions, very few answers?

/…Toronto’s roly-poly mayor must be thinking, the “job is NOT QUITE AS SIMPLE as I figured .”  A year ago,

Fatty Ford focused the electorate on three basic concepts, stop the gravy train, reduce the budget shortfall but not services and build subways.

Almost a year into his mandate, the Gravy train has a new conductor, the budget shortfall continues to hover between half a billion and three-quarters

of a billion with services on the endangered species list and there is no money for ill-advised subway tunnels.

Who will be asked to take the fall?  The outcome remains as confusing as Who’s on first, What’s on second and I don’t know’s on third!

At least Abbott and Costello got us a laugh!  A couple of days after the Mayor told one of the City Unions not to threaten him, he turns around

and threatens us with a 35% tax increase.  Who in their right mind would threaten us, the taxpayers, with a 35% tax hike.

There’s more than a passing resemblance between today’s political landscape and mythology.

/…And so it would seem many of those we have talked about today are drive by the truism–

“success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan.”

TA from AJ

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The Golden West

2011/08/07 1 Comment

/…The vast fruited plain was our home for the past two weeks and it is a site to behold………..

golden fields of Canola waiting in the sunshine before losing that glorious glow and declaring themselves ready for the harvest!!!

/…but there are many pockets of land left barren, and unseeded because of too much moisture, especially in Southern Saskatchewan.

Huge acreages where grain usually grows are covered by water the result of  more rain than many old-timers ever remember.

/…Our travels took us to Nanton, a small but thriving town on highway 2 south of Calgary.  It’s the gateway to what some call the

finest ranch country in the nation.  It is also where you will find the Bomber Command Museum and the FOXeS.  These Foxes(four brothers and

Lady Fox-mama bear to some, comprise one of the areas best known families.  There’s Dan, he’s a museum Board member and one of the charter

members , then Gary who is the area’s mechanic to go to, motorcycle wild-man and antic car aficionado, Mark is the farmer

looking after vast fields of grain and hay–his cattle herds dot the fabulous hills west of Nanton, the ones that fold into the foothills that

work their way into the mountains that seem to look different everyday. Lee is the family golfer and lately has again displayed a major talent for painting

pictures of the land that time forgot.  Lady Foxe, better know as Joan is the family matriarch living on her downsized ranch, from time to time holding court with  the ‘Boys’ and their wives, keeping track of the grand-kids and reminding the great-grand-kids of the traditions of the family into which they have been born.

/…we left Nanton reluctantly because of the beauty of the foothills and the mountains, less than hour away…. And the Elk, and the Buffalo and the

mountain sheep and the bears………………………….and of course the BIG SKY!

/…Saskatoon is one of the most beautiful cities on that fruited plain.  It was there, actually 45 minutes northwest in Borden  that we renewed our

longstanding friendship with Cousins Ron and Julia, Gail and Bob.  The Bezugly’s(Ron and Julia) farm some 6-thousand acres were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

Who would miss that?!!! Gail and Bob Young flew into tranquil Saskatoon from that most troubled world capital, Washington DC!

The 50th was a hoot.  Lots of people, fondued 10 ounce steaks, new and fondued potatoes, salad, Saskatoon berries, wine, beer and coolers and the Satellite Kid–one of the funniest of the many Elvis Impersonators I’ve ever seen.  And he’s from Borden, population  200, maybe 215!!!???

Borden where twilight lasts about an hour and a half, where the Borden Bridge is an icon–that’s the one you see on the blog page.

Borden where people smile and say hello and live a life of simple sophistication,  complicated only by the vagaries of weather that determines what the

land will be allowed to yield–this year.  That’s the great thing about sports and farming–there’s always next year.  But so far this year is shaping up to

be a 60 goal season.  The crops are getting ready to produce megatons and the Bezugly clan is wishin’ and hopin’……………….. and so are we!

/…The return home was accompanied by the abruptness of reality.  That August is here and the CNE is just around the corner and we all know what that

means, the final long weekend of summer.  Time and tide wait for no one.  Funny how time slips away.  Welcome to the Dog Days of summer

The heat wave was over but the markets were in heat and the population was being screwed over again by the genius architects in the financial capitals of the world.

Do we really believe these people in charge are any smarter than we are???  I’ll bet anyone of us could run a deficit of a couple of billion?

You just need to remember three KEY words———-“not my money.”

/…Naturally the Blue Jays were winning one and losing two,  every three games–even tho’ they added Rasmus and Lawrie while were gone!

11 and a half games behind when we left,  12 games when we returned.

/…Toronto’s political landscape remains the same.  Fatso Ford and brother Doug are still running the Fort having just concluded a running-off-at-the

mouth battle with Margaret Atwood, a world-famous Canadian author that Doug Ford had never heard of…….you know that means every library

in the City is in danger.

/…the world financial crisis is still a crisis, undoubtedly the result of that deadly combination–bureaucracy and politics— they are successfully

overwhelming economics in every G-8 country.  Maybe the Return of the Apes is a harbinger??!

/…A review of two articles written about the trial of former Toronto Maple leaf Rick Vaive captain gives emphasis to the importance that communities

have at least two dailies.   The two stories make you wonder whether both reporters were in the same courtroom?

Vaive, charged the impaired driving was in court friday, the 5th(august) and that’s about all the two reports agree on;

Star staff reporter Peter Edwards and Toronto Sun columnist Michele Mandel offer their versions of what happened.  Frankly, my reading of

Mandel’s version in the Sun suggests she is in much less awe of  Vaive then Peter Edwards and that would suggest she takes DUI’s more seriously than

Edwards.  The trial will resume, incredibly on February 16, next year!  Flinty McGuinty has failed miserably to solve the overloaded court dockets

across the province even though his Attorney General keeps promising a more streamlined vehicle.  There never was much of a styling difference

between the model T and the Model A.

/…Conan O’ Brien who used to write jokes for his late night rivals continues to scribe the funniest lines, this time for his own show.

From the Sun’s line-up of the week’s best late-night laughs-O’Brien: “A man  jumped the White House fence, but after a brief chase.

the Secret Service was able to talk President Obama into coming back and finishing his term.”

Until next time, TA from AJ.

 

economics

 

 

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By the Numbers-a sequel

2011/07/20 Leave a comment

/…5 major players have now been added to the casualty list that has enveloped The-News-of-the-World scandal:

Rebekah Brooks, former International News CEO-resigned. detained and questioned;

Chief of Scotland Yard, Paul Stephenson resigned; Paul Yates the Yard’s counterterrorism chief-quits

Sean Hoare, former news-of-the-world reporter and whistle-blower,  one of the first

to accuse the paper of hacking and pinging-dead.  Police call the death unusual but don’t think he was murdered!

Piers Morgan, arrogant TV host , the replacement for Larry King live is linked to, scandal tainted types like Brooks.

And today “Jonnie Marbles” enters the scandal as a foot-note.  His claim to fleeting fame-throwing a shaving cream pie into the face of Rupert Murdoch.

/…17 the number of U-S states suffering under a heat dome that is pushing temperatures in usually cooler cities like Minneapolis into the 100 plus range.

It ‘s same kind of heat we were feeling monday across the Ontario South and the same kind of oppressive tropical heat we will be feeling thursday.  37 celcius-Oh Yeah.

/…The City budget committee is looking at a 774 Million dollar deficit but the Toronto Star and the Mayor’s critics claim–that can’t be right. it’s only

443 million!!!  The Star which is still trying to come to grips with Ford’s victory last year, has become a pathetic critic of the Mayor and his efforts(some of which are silly)

to rein in spending.  Like all deficit situations the problem isn’t a lack of revenue, it’s a lack of discipline.

Despite his lack of finesse in handling the deficit, he is the only Mayor since amalgamation making any effort to find those the economies of scale

that the Harris twits said would materialize for the taxpayers of Toronto, Etobicoke, York, East York, Scarborough and North York, if we would only submit to their ‘common sense’ plan.

Lies, lies and damn lies and we bought them!

And of course there’s fat in the operating budget of this city!  In the late 90’s a Committee of Concerned Citizens in the Town of Caledon, tiny by comparison to Toronto

took just fifteen minutes with the Mayor and his staff to find 100-thousand dollars in savings without affecting services.  Savings that the Mayor swore were not there.

Of course there’s fat in the Toronto budget.  Probably about 200 million dollars.  Those numbers and the re-allocation of resources would give us a balanced budget.

If you want a good look at how badly managed the city’s finances are check out the Sue-Ann Levy column(Sun-June 21st).

/…Does that mean we would need a 3% tax increase in 2012?  maybe!  especially if a tax increases means a budget surplus.  But Mayor Ford’s suggestion that a tax increase next year would be fine

because we didn’t have one this year is the kind of foolish observation he needs to stop making!

/…one of the reasons for budgetary missteps is the failure to change spending plans; for instance Applefield drive in Scarborough is designated for a major refit– they plan to tear up the street, the sidewalks.

the curbs etc and make everything new.  The fact is there is no reason to destroy what is perfectly functional and in need of some repairs!

Why is this being done–a city official told me,” it’s part of the five-year plan and it went into the hopper a long time ago.”  If you’re short of money change it.  “No, we can’t do that, it’s all part

of the plan.”  The fact that the Councillor lives on this street wouldn’t have anything to do with the decision not to change the plan, would it?

/…Is it possible that at least one of the Wards in Scarborough has descended into the kind of blatant influence peddling so familiar in Louisiana, or is that Mississippi?

More on that in later editions of HolidayatLarge.

/…July 19, ten years ago the U-S national debt was 5-trillion, 705 billion, 50 million, 480 thousand, two hundred , 67 dollars and 56 cents: 5, 705, 050, 480, 267.56>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Gold on this day(july 19, ten years ago) was trading for $266 US dollars.  This morning gold hit $1602!

/…Since filling the screens world-wide a week ago Wednesday, Harry Potter-deathly hallows(2) banked an estimated $307 millions dollars U-S.

/…The number ONE deli in  Toronto is Zane Caplansky’s smoked meat emporium on College street and now those smoked meat sandwiches are coming to a place near you.

Caplansky has TWO trucks ready this week for lunch hour service and private events.  Good luck to Zane Caplansky.

/…It’s a rare thing to see a Toronto Sports writer offer an opinion that is critical of fans and teams in this loser’s paradise, but that’s exactly what we got today

from Steve Simmons.  Are Toronto sports fan suckers or just the most loyal dummies in all of Sportsdom?  Read all about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/…And did the First lady of France, Carla Bruni really tell the French newspaper Nice-matin, the baby she is expecting, the Sarkozy’s first

is “unexpected and unhoped for.”  Tough luck kid, life is problematic enough if they want you…can you imagine…….

/…And finally a 20 foot Animatronic Triceratops is available from Hammacher Schlemmer.   This motion-sensing animatronic giant is just the thing

to give those neighbourhood kids a Halloween fright.  Cost:  $350,000 U-S!

 

/…”

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By the Numbers

2011/07/10 Leave a comment

/…Our world is a parade of numbers!

It’s one way we determine accomplishments in politics, in business, in sports, in our lives….It’s one way we measure success and failure—

#…Derek Jeter of the Yankees…3004 hits, the only Yankee among the great Yankees to reach and surpass that plateau..

#…Oddsmakers placed 1 to 4 odds Jeter’s 3,000th would be a single.  It was a home run!

#…The Blue Jays bullpen, has blown 14 of 32 saves, second last in the American League…

#…Zero the number of goals scored by TFC in the last two games………….

#… At 34, Yoshikazu Tanaka is Japan’s youngest billionaire.  He owns Gree Inc. his country’s second largest networking company.

#…The unemployment rate in Greece is 16%, but the rate for those under 24 is 42.5%.  In  Spain 44.4% of those under 24 are not employed.

#…21-thousand is the number of part time jobs canadians found in May,  7-thousand the number of fulltime jobs!!

#…The people of Greece owe their government almost 60 billion dollars in unpaid taxes!!!

#…The 60 billion dollars is owed by 900,000 individuals and companies.

#…In the United States, for the first time,  married couples make up less than half(45%) of all households.

#…This weekend in Toronto, the forecasters got the weather 50% right, that may be above their average!

#… Comedian Craig Ferguson observed “The Royal couple will be visiting 8 major cities during their 9 days in Canada.

That’s amazing to me, he continued, Canada has eight major cities???”

So now the narrative extruded from all those numbers in summation:

Derek Jeter has reached one of the loftiest plateaus in baseball that will be duplicated by very few because you need both skill and longevity to walk on it.

This time the oddsmakers got it wrong but normally they are right far more often than weather forecasters.

A baseball team can’t be thinking about a post season with a bullpen as bad as the one the Blue Jays management has put together. And we don’t expect

TFC(Toronto’s soccer team) to be in the playoffs either.

We are impressed, with the abilities, talent and good luck of one Yoshikazu Tanaka,  now with a fortune of a billion dollars.

If there’s going to be major trouble in Greece and Spain you can expect it from those under 24.  You cannot continue to expect law and good order in countries where

that large a segment of young people have no work!

I don’t know what we our business reporters are excited about.  Many would not see the creation of that many part-time  jobs as a good thing, when compared to the

pathetic number of fulltime jobs reported in May.

Now if the people of Greece came clean and paid the back taxes they owe the government…..the bankers in Germany and France would be smiling,  but you can’t get blood from a stone.

In the United States what God has ordained, man has put asunder and the number of  married couples continues well into the minority.

And one thing more:

Craig Ferguson is a mean man with mean jokes about our great country, the one NOT saddled with a debt of 14 trillion dollars!!!!

And so it goes:

“Although he may not always recognize his bondage, modern man lives under a tyranny of numbers.”

Nicholas Eberstadt

The Tyranny of Numbers:  mismeasurement and misrule.

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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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