So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

Bushman said:

the only one with an in-house butcher is the only one that consistently has the best meat.

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An actual butcher makes the difference. In my local area, Albertsons operates a store named Andronico's. They bought the store from the Andronico family. Real live butchers. A real meat counter. Actual animals on hooks, and butcher stations where they cut and process. This grocery store does not sell any prepackaged meat. It's like the difference between a Trader Joe's where all meat is prepacked, to Whole Foods which dry ages their own cuts of beef. You know that shopping at Whole Foods will cost triple what you pay for meat at Wal*Mart.

For years, I've been shopping at "cash & carry" type stores. Restaurants and small stores shop at those type of stores. Meat comes from the processing plant in primal & subprimal cuts, all in cryovac bags. It allows me to take a large piece of meat, and craft it to my own needs. Which means purchasing an entire loin, and creating my own selection of bone-in NY steaks, thin cuts for cheesesteak, boneless strip steaks for breakfast. cubes for kebab, strips for stir fry, etc. I can get a whole brisket, separate the tip from the flat, cut the flat into 2 pieces, and share it with 2 other families. The savings really add up when you can cut your own meat.

Bushman said:

…
I've actually found the opposite to be true. I'm constantly amazed by how much my local Ace can pack into that little store. It also often has items (such as succulent soil) that my Lowe's doesn't carry. My Lowe's has a lot of stock, but not a lot of variety. If you want a shovel, you get a choice between a 4ft round head, or a 6ft round head. No spades, coal shovels, or anything like that. Couldn't even find electric clippers when I was in there last.
…

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The big box stores’ garden departments often have very good prices on plants but little if any expertise. I’ve found they carry a wide variety of gardening tools and lawn furniture and sprinklers and tomato cages and barbecues and lawnmowers and all that, but only in season. It’s now mid-August so they aren’t replenishing any of that. Soon most of that space will be given over to snowblowers and snow shovels and Halloween decorations and then Christmas stuff.

The local Lowe’s sells plants that won’t survive in this climate. Meyer lemons? Really? Windmill palms? If they were placed with the houseplants I wouldn’t find it so objectionable, but they aren’t. A plant that won’t survive is no bargain even if it’s given away.

tonyb said:

The big box stores’ garden departments often have very good prices on plants but little if any expertise.

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At the store level, those plants aren't really cared for. Those plants are grown in 4" X 4" square pots so that they can be packed into boxes for shipping. They don't get repotted into larger containers once they are unpaced. Most of the time, they are not watered, pruned, or otherwise cared for. And most of those plants come from corporate nurseries which force fed a lot of man-made fertilizers. The got 18 hours of grow lights a day, then packed into a dark cardboard box for a few weeks of being transported from warehouse to warehouse. Once you get them home into your soil, they just aren't going to be that great.......or so says the local garden center lady who showed me how they start all of their own plants in a climate controlled greenhouse, outdoors getting real sun, with the plants only grown in natural organic worm castings......her plants are never packed in a dark cardboard box to be trucked around for weeks.......and that's why she charges double what Home Depot charges.

tonyb said:

that space will be given over to snowblowers and snow shovels

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I live in a zero snow area. Yet, they sell the same stuff. Corporate decision.

tonyb said:

The local Lowe’s sells plants that won’t survive in this climate. Meyer lemons? Really? Windmill palms?

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I was just at Home Depot. The display in the front of the store featured dragon fruit plants. Nobody questions how you could transplant a sub-tropical plant into any other zone, and expect it to grow to produce fruit. If that were possible, I would grow my own pineapple, banana, coffee beans, and cacao. Or grow a rubber tree forest and put Indonesia out of business.

I got a note to "go to the principal's office". The boss wanted "a moment of my time". In my mind, I knew it wasn't going to be a commendation for above and beyond the call of service.

"5150, this memo has been circulating. It made it's way up the chain of command at Social Services, then to Community Liaison, over to Human Resources, and now the tihs has rolled downhill from The Mayor, to The Chief, to me looking stupid.

It's dated from 2 years back. You'll need to read it to refresh your memory. The problem is, nobody can figure out what to do with it. You, personally, have made everybody nervous, embarrassed, and look stupid. Only, nobody, not Legal, not HR, not even The Commission can figure out a way to fire you."

I'm baffled and bewildered. I do a lot of unorthodox things. Mostly on purpose. But what could The Lieu be talking about?

"Allright, tell me about 2 years ago. Did you pickup on some social worker in a 'leather bar'?"

With all due respect, when I'm on my own time, my personal choice of lifestyle cannot be dictated to me by my employer. You can't tell me where to eat, drink, what to wear, what not to wear, or who I have a personal relationship with. Do I need my lawyer and union rep to proceed with this conversation?

"No. Of course not. This is not an official reprimand. It's just me, talking to you. This social worker girl sent a memorandum of advisement to her supervisor. In it, she vividly described all of your sexual activity. Allegedly, while she felt safe in your arms, she discussed one of her cases, and she breached her client's expectation of confidentiality."

So? I didn't do anything wrong. She should be fired. Not me. Why's everyone mad it me?

"According to the memo, she was advocating at sentencing for a convicted felon. She gave testimony that her convicted felon client should be spared incarceration because he has a childhood fear of doors. So of course, for 2 years, this memo went all over City Hall, and everyone got a good laugh out of this social worker's naivety, and it made the entire system look stupid that she went into court to say something like that. They're all mad at you. Because if you didn't didn't sleep with her, and then laughed at her when she whispered it into your pillow, she wouldn't have drafted the memo. So yes, it's your fault. You know why? Because the memo leaked. And in this weekend's paper, there will be a big article about convicts manipulate the system. We all look like morons because a convicted felon doesn't have to serve time, because he is scared of doors."

What's really wrong here, and what ticks me off, is that we have social services advocates for criminals. After you commit a crime, and you are convicted, a social worker comes to give you milk & cookies. That's actually what they do. Social workers that bring taxpayer dollars into the jail commissary, to buy snack food for convicts. The convict gets to leave his cell, and hang out in a visiting room with the social worker, who brings milk & cookies and asks how he is feeling. He's feeling better than the guy he shot.

I’ve been separated from my turnip truck.

Zombie_61 said:

My problem with equations like this (aside from the fact that I've never had to use one in real life) is that I can never remember if we're supposed to perform the multiplication and division first, or the addition and subtraction.

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PEDMAS/PEMDAS/BODMAS/Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally...whatever mnemonic you learned, I'm certain you learned order of operations somewhere down the line. But you highlight the main issue with a lot of math (and a lot of everything else you learned in the 4th grade): you simply don't use it on an every day basis, so you forgot. Don't get me wrong, people use far more algebra and geometry every day of their lives than they realize, but rarely is it on the form of a written equation. You just figure it out in your head, even if you use the same principles.

But it's human nature to rather than say "oh yeah...boy it's been a long time, I'd completely forgotten that..." people stomp their feet and claim "that's not the way I learned it..." I'm not sure why we get defensive that way, but we do.

Bushman said:

I've actually found the opposite to be true. I'm constantly amazed by how much my local Ace can pack into that little store. It also often has items (such as succulent soil) that my Lowe's doesn't carry. My Lowe's has a lot of stock, but not a lot of variety. If you want a shovel, you get a choice between a 4ft round head, or a 6ft round head. No spades, coal shovels, or anything like that. Couldn't even find electric clippers when I was in there last.

Click to expand...

This is often my experience, as well. The local hardware store will have one of 1,000 things, while Big Box will 1,000 of one thing. Both have their advantages and drawbacks, I guess, depending on what you want at the time.

HudsonHawk said:

PEDMAS/PEMDAS/BODMAS/Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally...whatever mnemonic you learned, I'm certain you learned order of operations somewhere down the line...

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That's the other thing--mnemonics don't work for me, because it's just as easy for me to remember (and/or forget, obviously) the "order of operations"; phrases like "My Dear Aunt Sally" are meaningless because I then have to remember what those words/letters stand for. For me it's just as easy (or difficult) to remember multiply, divide, add, subtract.

Of course, it would be easier if mathematicians wrote the equation properly in the first place. If you want me to multiply, then divide, then add, then subtract, write the equation in that order. "5 + 2 x 10 = ?" should read "10 x 2 + 5 = ?" Unless, of course, you're in a country in which the language is read right to left--if that's the case, the equation is fine as it's written.

Zombie_61 said:

That's the other thing--mnemonics don't work for me, because it's just as easy for me to remember (and/or forget, obviously) the "order of operations"; phrases like "My Dear Aunt Sally" are meaningless because I then have to remember what those words/letters stand for. For me it's just as easy (or difficult) to remember multiply, divide, add, subtract.

Of course, it would be easier if mathematicians wrote the equation properly in the first place. If you want me to multiply, then divide, then add, then subtract, write the equation in that order. "5 + 2 x 10 = ?" should read "10 x 2 + 5 = ?" Unless, of course, you're in a country in which the language is read right to left--if that's the case, the equation is fine as it's written.

Click to expand...

Agreed that such an equation is poorly written. But the order of operations exists to remove ambiguity in such a situation. Which, ironically, it creates when people don't follow the rules. I suppose that's true for any rule or convention.

Zombie_61 said:

That's the other thing--mnemonics don't work for me, because it's just as easy for me to remember (and/or forget, obviously) the "order of operations"; phrases like "My Dear Aunt Sally" are meaningless because I then have to remember what those words/letters stand for. For me it's just as easy (or difficult) to remember multiply, divide, add, subtract.

Of course, it would be easier if mathematicians wrote the equation properly in the first place. If you want me to multiply, then divide, then add, then subtract, write the equation in that order. "5 + 2 x 10 = ?" should read "10 x 2 + 5 = ?" Unless, of course, you're in a country in which the language is read right to left--if that's the case, the equation is fine as it's written.

Click to expand...

Isn't that why parentheses were invented?

You know these curious people, beeing totally disoriented for whatever reason at a main railstation with a up to dozent platforms??

It happens so often, that they ask me on the platform or in the train, if this IS the train to there or there. And I friendy answer with "yes, it is."
And I'm not talking about blind people.

We have:
1. many good old paper timetables on multipe places
2. a big main screen in the station hall, where you see the next ten train departures
3. a small screen in the waiting room
4. the screens on every plaform
5. the announcements in the train for the next connecting trains in the station

So WTH is going on with some people? People on every age, including school-kids, which you thought beeing smarter.
And that doesn't happen only on main stations!

"Pardon me, boy -- is this the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?"

LizzieMaine said:

"Pardon me, boy -- is this the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?"

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Trenchfriend said:

We have:
1. many good old paper timetables on multipe places
2. a big main screen in the station hall, where you see the next ten train departures
3. a small screen in the waiting room
4. the screens on every plaform
5. the announcements in the train for the next connecting trains in the station

Click to expand...

Some transit agencies have a cell phone app for you to track the arrival times of the bus or train. But that doesn't help. People still end up on the wrong platform, boarding the wrong train or bus.

Trenchfriend said:

You know these curious people, beeing totally disoriented for whatever reason at a main railstation with a up to dozent platforms??

It happens so often, that they ask me on the platform or in the train, if this IS the train to there or there. And I friendy answer with "yes, it is."
And I'm not talking about blind people.

We have:
1. many good old paper timetables on multipe places
2. a big main screen in the station hall, where you see the next ten train departures
3. a small screen in the waiting room
4. the screens on every plaform
5. the announcements in the train for the next connecting trains in the station

So WTH is going on with some people? People on every age, including school-kids, which you thought beeing smarter.
And that doesn't happen only on main stations!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I’m sometimes taken aback by how people make things more difficult for themselves by not expending what little effort it would take the learn a system and not have to give it much thought anymore.

I have on occasion been one of those people, as have most of us, I’m sure. In my own case, I attribute it usually to either not caring much about the matter or resentment at having to deal with it at all.

I am acquainted with a person who has to dial in (from a landline) daily to an automated system to verify that person’s presence in a particular place at a particular time (don’t ask). It’s been going on for a year or so now, and yet this person still refers to a “cheat sheet” to know which keys to press when. How it’s not memorized at this point will forever be a mystery to me. This is not an unintelligent person, after all, so I’m left shaking my head.

LizzieMaine said:

"Pardon me, boy -- is this the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?"

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That song mentions "Track 29" and Pennsylvania Station. Penn Station in New York had 21 tracks.

No wonder the poor slob was lost.

Fifty150 said:

Some transit agencies have a cell phone app for you to track the arrival times of the bus or train. But that doesn't help. People still end up on the wrong platform, boarding the wrong train or bus.

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I think part of this is because there are people out there who have little or no sense of direction; I know this, because my wife is one of them, even when there are clear indications pointing to the direction she should go if only she was paying attention. Years ago, out of the blue she decided she wanted to drive up to the semi-local mountains to see the snow. And she wanted to drive. Okay, sure. So we're driving along on the freeway for several miles with the mountains we're driving to clearly visible a few miles to our left. We reach our exit, she turns onto the ramp, and we come to a stop to wait for the traffic light to change. She asks me which way to turn.

ChiTownScion said:

That song mentions "Track 29" and Pennsylvania Station. Penn Station in New York had 21 tracks.

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Last nite boarded the Blue Island Express out of LaSalle Street Station 'Track 6.' I think.

Took today off. And now totally out of focus and unprepared for The Queen's Plate; Pacific Classic and all
the other big races this weekend.

LizzieMaine said:

No wonder the poor slob was lost.

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Pointing out rail related inaccuracies has gotten me into trouble. While viewing "The Color Purple" in a theater with my wife, I merely pointed out that the Panama Limited:

1. Did not run through the state of Georgia:

2. Was dieselized at the time purportedly depicted on screen with a steam locomotive;

3. Could not have been pulled by that engine as steam locomotive shown was actually used in freight service; and

4. Ran on the Illinois Central. Not the Southern Railway.

And while watching "Public Enemies, " I noted that the locomotive used to haul an allegedly 1934 train had not been delivered to the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (Milwaukee Road) until 1944.

You'd have thought that she would have welcomed the corrections. <shrug>