tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post1546413302268031754..comments2024-03-28T22:15:17.067-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/29/24: Gas pump strikes fear in heart of modern manNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-41267962223857656572018-09-02T22:18:54.501-05:002018-09-02T22:18:54.501-05:00I have toured industrial sites and know first-hand...I have toured industrial sites and know first-hand how huge and heavy those coils of sheet steel really are. As a youngster, my eye was always drawn to what my mother called the "squibs" in the Daily News...those tiny two-sentence "blurbs" about far-away disasters: "32 Die in Leftbackistan Bus Plunge." I definitely remember one a couple of graphs long, headlined "Coils Of Steel Kill 8 In Cars"...it happened near the Ohio-PA border. Probably early or mid-Sixties. Seeing those behemoths on long-haul trucks has always bothered me ever since. <br /><br />Yes, technology is grand...trucks can go to all the places the railroads can't or won't or don't. But shit still happens. Should those coils ever break loose while in transit, disaster will follow. Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-4768695401930260292018-09-02T18:50:24.591-05:002018-09-02T18:50:24.591-05:00Good recycle from 1997. I smiled reading this. Tec...Good recycle from 1997. I smiled reading this. Technology has continued to grow especially in areas like the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. These advancements have made our lives easier-if you want to use them. I started my first engineering job with my slide rule and a drafting table and there’s been a lot of productivity advances since then. Now that I’m retired, I don’t follow the advances very closely, but I’m impressed by how efficient we can be in areas such as energy usage and communication. I still use a drafting table to design my woodworking projects and stay away from Facebook and Twitter. StanPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04565931744701836873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-67307286077108339692018-09-02T17:04:39.431-05:002018-09-02T17:04:39.431-05:00One of life's imponderables is the frequent im...One of life's imponderables is the frequent impossibility of explaining just why a Thurber cartoon is funny. Blindness evidently didn't hamper his technique too much. Famous story about a cartoonist rejected by Harold Ross who companied that he still printed a second rate artist like Thurber. Ross' reply: "Third rate."<br /><br />TomTomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09641357239788323783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-19711594826305903712018-09-02T15:42:29.245-05:002018-09-02T15:42:29.245-05:00In the late-19th and early-20th century, as electr...In the late-19th and early-20th century, as electricity became the norm, people were afraid to use electric lights on Christmas trees for fear of fire. Of course, these were the same people who put lighted candles on their trees. Go figure.<br /><br />I wouldn't use ATMs for cash withdrawals at the beginning because I heard of people who didn't get their cash, got too little or too much. I had to be dragged into the 1980s technology. I just lost my ATM card and am waiting for the replacement. Oh crap, I may actually have to walk into the bank to make a manual withdrawal and I'm not sure I remember how to do that.Shari P.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02844720465680592417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-84924567423635738012018-09-02T15:29:33.081-05:002018-09-02T15:29:33.081-05:00That's the most bizarre crap of whataboutism I...That's the most bizarre crap of whataboutism I've ever read!<br /><br />And if you read my comment, you can just give $100 [or anyamount above that] to anyone you know with a Costco Card & they will get you a cash card that anyone can use to buy gas at Costco. You can also use that card to shop at Costco without being a member. Many people give them as gifts. The same for Sam's Club.Clark St.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09634234069783123180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-63080258085607606852018-09-02T13:48:47.112-05:002018-09-02T13:48:47.112-05:00"A round of gas for some 200 grinning custome..."A round of gas for some 200 grinning customers -- at a cost to himself of nearly $ 4,000" -- that works out to maybe twenty bucks a customer. That would be $1.33 a gallon if they each filled up, but some probably already had quite a bit in the tank, so it had to be more. Wasn't a gallon of gas already over two bucks by the late Nineties? Four grand might be getting off easy.Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-76806067368809446072018-09-02T13:47:38.887-05:002018-09-02T13:47:38.887-05:00Thanks for that! There was, in fact, a paywall, bu...Thanks for that! There was, in fact, a paywall, but I was able to find a bootleg PDF. Coeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06130250489695215525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-39998332306066061312018-09-02T12:23:25.903-05:002018-09-02T12:23:25.903-05:00Clark St.: So you're opposed to card hackers, ...Clark St.: So you're opposed to card hackers, yet OK with using the discounted gas prices provided to those of us who pay an annual Costco membership for such privelilge..? Just checking.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17713296201159001788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-13354830399015263182018-09-02T12:22:06.431-05:002018-09-02T12:22:06.431-05:00Coey--Thurber wrote a charming little essay, "...Coey--Thurber wrote a charming little essay, "The Admiral on the Wheel," about what it was like to have to go without his glasses for a few days after the maid broke them. Here's a link, although I'm not sure if there's a paywall:<br /><br />http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1936-02-01#folio=016Bitter Scribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04645909858616987997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-26737277280973066102018-09-02T11:15:44.490-05:002018-09-02T11:15:44.490-05:00Your fear of technology has blinded your sense of ...Your fear of technology has blinded your sense of economics. Living in the suburbs, why would you ever gas up in the city and pay the extra tax. I know it's small potatoes in the long run, but since I go to Lake county regularly, why wouldn't I buy my gas there? Also, beeping your horn will not set off the airbag, but using it to get the attention of the attendant checking your oil will set him off.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08613528527379198505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-5101460101066627602018-09-02T09:11:52.203-05:002018-09-02T09:11:52.203-05:00Hardly the point of the article, I realize, but I ...Hardly the point of the article, I realize, but I never knew before about James Thurber's vision problems. "[P]laying a game of William Tell" at the age of seven, according to Wikipedia. Ouch. Interesting how he drew his cartoons later in life. <br /><br />I appreciate how your columns can send me off on a sideways quest. Coeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06130250489695215525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-66363174708265477672018-09-02T00:22:57.335-05:002018-09-02T00:22:57.335-05:00I'd be more scared of the card getting hacked,...I'd be more scared of the card getting hacked, as gas pumps are the preferred way credit card thieves do it.<br />Most times they manage to get inside the pump housing & put a card reader in the wiring, but I read a couple of weeks ago, now there are wireless units for that!<br />My family goes to Costco & gets cash cards inside the store & then pays with that at the gas pumps. You don't even need to be a Costco member if you have a member buy the cash cards for you. Clark St.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09634234069783123180noreply@blogger.com