If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
This week’s book:
Discourses and Selected Writings
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Epictetus was born a slave around 50 ad. His owner was Epaphroditus, a rich freedman who was once a slave of Nero. Though he was a slave Epictetus was sent to study philosophy under Musonius Rufus.
Epictetus was lame and there are some stories it was caused by his master and others that it was caused by disease.
He was a freedman when all philosophers were banished from Rome in 89 by the Emperor Domitian. He then started his school in Greece, and had many students. He did not leave any writings from his lessons, but one of his students, Flavius Arrian, took notes and wrote the Discourses.
Epictetus did not marry, had no children, and lived to be around 80-85. In retirement, he adopted a child that would have been abandoned and raised him with a woman.
He died sometime around AD 135.
He might be my favorite Stoic teacher. I love his bare bones and very straight forward approach.
Following is a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of one of his lessons. Epictetus’s text appears in bold, my replies are in normal text.
That we do not practice the application of our judgements about things good and evil Pt. II
What, then, are the things that weigh upon us and drive us out of our senses? Why, what else but our judgements? For when a man goes hence abandoning the comrades, the places, and the social relations to which he is accustomed, what else is the burden that is weighing him down but a judgement?
Judgments shape our decisions. External troubles can effect our daily lives if we wrongly judge them to be something we can control and spend time and energy worrying about them. There is no need to let things outside our control affect our actions or demeanor.
25Children, indeed, when they cry a little because their nurse has left, forget their troubles as soon as they get a cookie. Would you, therefore, have us resemble children? No, by Zeus! For I claim that we should be influenced in this way, not by a cookie, but by true judgements. And what are these? The things which a man ought to practice all day long, without being devoted to what is not his own, either comrade, or place, or gymnasium, nay, not even to his own body; but he should remember the law and keep that before his eyes.
If I can forget my troubles like a child that gets a cookie, then they weren’t that significant and shouldn’t have bothered me in the first place. I can work out in an effort to keep my body in shape, but the ultimate result is out of my control. I could fall down tomorrow and not be able to walk, but if I have kept true judgements about the world, then I would be able to deal with whatever fate throws my way.
And what is the law of God? To guard what is his own, not to lay claim to what is not his own, but to make use of what is given him, and not to yearn for what has not been given; when something is taken away, to give it up readily and without delay, being grateful for the time in which he had the use of it—all this if you do not wish to be crying for your nurse and your mammy!
If an debilitating accident should befall me, I should be able to go forward and be happy for all of the healthy times I have enjoyed prior. This attitude helped me when my dog died. It was a struggle, but reminding myself of how much joy we got from each other was much more helpful than my natural reaction to be bitter because it felt unfair.
For what difference does it make what object a man has a weakness for and depends upon? In what respect are you superior to the man who weeps for a maid, if you grieve for a trivial gymnasium, a paltry colonnade, a group of youngsters, and that way of spending your time?
We are all struggling with something and it doesn’t help to look down on those whose struggles are more obvious than my own.
30Someone else comes and grieves because he is no longer going to drink the water of Dirce.[3] What, is the water of the Marcian aqueduct inferior to that of Dirce? “Nay, but I was accustomed to that water.” And you will get accustomed to this in turn. And then, if you become addicted to something of this kind, weep for this too in turn, and try to write a line after the pattern of that of Euripides:
To Nero’s baths and Marcian founts once more.[4]
Behold how tragedy arises, when everyday events befall fools!
“When, then, shall I see Athens once more and the Acropolis?” Poor man, are you not satisfied with what you are seeing every day? Have you anything finer or greater to look at than the sun, the moon, the stars, the whole earth, the sea? And if you really understand Him that governs the universe, and bear Him about within you, do you yet yearn for bits of stone and a pretty rock?[5]
It is easy to get spoiled with the good things in my life now that are real luxuries compared to how I lived when I was a Lance Corporal (E-3) in the Marine Corps with a stay at home wife and 3 kids. I catch myself sometimes taking my current standard of living for granted and remind myself that there was a time when going to Subway as a family felt like a big deal.
When, therefore, you are about to leave the sun and the moon, what will you do? Will you sit and cry as little children cry? What was it you did at school? What was it you heard and learned? Why did you record yourself as a philosopher when you might have recorded the truth in these words: “I studied a few introductions, and did some reading in Chrysippus, but I did not even get past the door of a philosopher?[6]
If I truly study Stoicism, then I should live the principles it espouses.If I don’t then have I really studied? What would the point of doing all of this reading and writing if I didn’t change my outlook and how I live day to day? I do it because it works for me, and I sincerely hope that my amateur attempt to understand it deeply and explain it here has helped some of you.
There is still a ways to go in this one, so I will finish it next week.
It seems like my brother will make a full recovery after being slightly crushed by his tow truck. He wife said the Dr. told him he couldn’t lift more than 5 pounds, so he made the obligatory “You’ll have to help me pee” joke. She said she laughed and told him that she knew better than that.
Right now he is sore and weak, but there doesn’t seem to be a need for surgery, so he just has to take it easy, something neither he or I do very well.
Music this week is Judas Priest.
While I am not a huge fan, they do have some good songs.
Hellion/Electric Eye– Probably my favorite song by them. Halford has a hell of a voice.
Hammer and the Anvil– off of Painkiller
Trial by Fire– New song and Halford looks like Merlin, but listening to it, he doesn’t sound like he’s 72. I like this one a lot.
what is the law of God?
but I did not even get past the door of a philosopher?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
For now we see through a glass, darkly.
So I’m pretty much the worst Christian ever: I’ll be over here in the dark counting my coins on my way to hell.
My first reaction is “Dont tell me how to feel.”
No, as a Christian you are far from the worst. You certainly don’t preach your hypocrisy. Those are the worst. Even The Bee thinks so (every time it rips on Joel Osteen).
My wife watched an Osteen sermon once.
It was some of the most vapid preaching I have ever heard.
I think his main message was the God wants you to be happy.
Not a good person, not a strong person, just happy.
I could be wrong, that was many years ago.
Reminds me of the church from Stranger in a Strange Land.
My buddy Wegner, a former Hitler Youth and Wehrmacht veteran of WWII, went to a free concert not realizing he had to listen to Osteen first.
I asked him what he thought of Osteen. He stiffened up his whole body and through clamped jaws said: “I haf heard zat kind uff speech before”
Isn’t he a “get yours on Earth” kind of guy?
Not even. The health and wealth preachers will at least pretend that you have to sacrifice something. Osteen is Oprah style self-help diluted with a couple drops of artificial Jesus flavoring.
“I think his main message was the God wants you to be happy.”
And rich, most likely. Isn’t he one of those “prosperity gospel” (or whatever they call it) preachers?
Father Guido Sarducci’s Five Minute University
God wants you to be happy, because he likes you.
got the quote wrong
I don’t consider him one, mainly because he’s too fluffy to even try to link giving to receiving. IMO, the hallmark of the prosperity gospel movement is “if you give [to us], you’ll receive back in abundance”.
He’s more “you go, person! Jesus is your biggest cheerleader as you achieve your goals!”
When he moved his 3 ring circus into the Summit/Compaq center, a friends dad dubbed his church ‘Six Flags Over Jesus’. I have referred to it as that ever since.
“I could fall down tomorrow and not be able to walk, but if I have kept true judgements about the world, then I would be able to deal with whatever fate throws my way”
Thanks Ron. I can attest to that life changing event. Though I can walk, sort of, life is much different than it was in the before days. I am grateful for having the memories of the before days and try to do some of the same things but it’s rather limited.
I’m looking forward to Spring and being outside in the garden, watching things grow. The Glibs have been especially helpful and reinforcing.
“Spring and being outside in the garden, watching things grow.”
Funny, when I read that a very visceral memory, or set of memories, popped in my head. The smell of fresh tilled soil. The smell of tomato plants when you brush against them. The deep green of fresh leaves. The bright yellow of ripe squash. The taste of sweet peas picked and eaten raw standing in the garden. The smooth, round weight of carrying a fresh picked watermelon back to the house. Coolish air and warm sunshine.
Odd that. I suppose I must be ready for spring as well.
Poetry, Suthen. Poetry.
I think most, if not all, of us are.
One of the harder lessons to learn, at least for me, is the enjoyment of here-and-now. Granted, sometimes the present can be pretty unpleasant or downright difficult; but there’s the consolation of knowing you’ll get over it. Meantime, there are so many good things in life (if you have the wit to recognize them) that the troublesome moments lose their importance. An apple may have blemishes, but it still tastes sweet. And the memories of the good things stay with you, so there’s a bonus.
Agreed. Mother Nature is one mean ass bitch and can throw some curve balls at you. In the end it is the little, simple things that make it worthwhile, none more so than the love of a good woman.
Amen, Brother.
Losing abilities I had in my younger days is a hard pill to swallow.
You continue to inspire me.
Anyone familiar with the shopping cart rule?
If you leave the shopping cart in the parking lot after you load your groceries there is no penalty. If you bring the shopping cart back after using it there is no reward.
The people that bring the cart back do so because they know it is the right thing to do. They do not need an incentive or a punishment to do the right thing, they just know what it is and do it.
*I think the US is the only country where you dont have to put a deposit down to use a shopping cart. Also, this is the only country in the world where our shopping model works. In any other country the store would be robbed blind in a day if someone tried our model. What does that say about the US and the rest of the world?
There are baskets full of philosophers that argue good and evil are entirely subjective. Bullshit. People seek out the good and avoid the evil. Just watch their behavior and it is easy to see. Poverty is bad, wealth is good. Comfort is good, misery is bad. Happiness is good, sorrow is bad. Sound health is good, illness is bad. Peace is good, strife is bad. Solving problems rationally is good, using violence to solve problems is bad. The list goes on and on. Telling the difference between good and evil is not exactly a brain-buster.
Can you expound a bit?
Here you walk in a store with a complimentary cart, wander about and choose what you want unescorted. We even have self checkout. Sometimes there is an elderly employee at the exit only half assed watching what goes out the door. What it means is that Americans are basically honest people. Not so in the rest of the world. If you spend much time out of the country you will be shocked how many people, even whole cultures , are grifters and thieves.
In most countries, not all, but most, you go to a counter and tell the attendee what you want. They go in the back warehouse and fill your list. You get your stuff after you pay.
We are beginning to have similar here with stores encasing and locking up items. You have to get an attendee to unlock the case for you. This is a direct result of the left’s efforts to destroy the moral fibre of the country with the riots nd encouraged looting.
Ex. – England: 5lb deposit and the cart corral will release a cart. When you are finished with it you put it back in the corral and kerplunk! you get your 5lb back. Before you get out of the door you and your stuff are closely scrutinized. As far as I know that is every European country. The people there dont trust each other and vendors dont trust the public. The reason is….they aren’t trustworthy.
We used to have the system whereby shopping carts wouldn’t be available unless you gave up a coin first, which you got back later.
Most of those schemes are gone now, at least where I live. Turns out that the big loss problem with carts are the homeless etc. They don’t care if they get their loonie back.
£5?
Well, it has to be enough to provide an effective incentive.
Huh. I didn’t know that. When we went to the grocery stores around Europe and England (granted, this was in 1988), we got a complimentary cart (unless it was Aldi), wandered the store, went to a line where we were checked out. The only real difference was that the number on the package was the same as the money we paid.
I just watched two videos about grocery stores in England and France, where it’s just like ours. Cart (complementary or not), browsing aisles, checkout lanes with a human (or not, as is one’s preference), swipe/tap/insert to pay, bagged for you. There are vids all over YouTube about ex-pats’ shopping trips.
In Japan, they have whole stores that are unmanned, with just self-checkout and insert/swipe/tap to pay. I think Straff has even frequented these on his Zoom adventures when he joins us.
Granted, these are first-world countries with high trust societies.
When I lived in Germany as a kid, mothers would leave their babies outside the store in their carriages while they shopped. Though that was a small town, so I’m not sure how common it was in most of the country.
I bet they dont do it today
Common in Scandinavian countries. Let’s see what happens when they get overrun with third-world migrants.
I think the Swedes are getting it through their thick heads now.
Yes, that did occur to me.
Australian grocery stores still operate as you describe for the US. Have since I was a kid.
All that you listed is covered by the Stoic saying “Live in accordance with nature.”
Not returning the carts is a microcosm of someone that puts their laziness ahead of others.
To quote George Castanza, “We are living in a society!”
Aldi in the US rents out carts for a quarter. Return the cart to get your quarter back (there seems like a Nickleback + inflation joke in there).
Even then, not all of them get put back.
The few times I’ve been to Aldi’s, I’ve just given the cart to somebody going into the store.
Do they give you the quarter?
No, the quarter is in the cart, to get it back you have to chain the cart back up. I just give it to another customer going in.
My understanding of the etiquette is if you offer someone the cart with the quarter, the person you’re offering it to should at least make a perfunctory offer of the quarter they were going to use to get a cart. I just wave it off (it’s a quarter).
I have begun to prefer to bring my own totes. They’re strong and hold a lot more than the plastic bags. Also, I’ve got plastic bags running out my ears and overflowing the trash cans they fit. Also, some stores are cheapening out on their plastic bags and they puncture and tear and it’s just a mess.
Hey, I like quarters. I have about 50lbs of them in coffee cans. They are better than a babysitter. When young children visit I dump them out. Kids love sorting and counting them. Really, they can spend and hour or more unattended like that.
Mojeaux: Mrs. Suthenboy does crochet. She took our zillion plastic bags and cut them into strips. She then crocheted a freakin rug out of them. It is very cool.
None offered, but like you I would have just waved it off.
@Suthen: I’ve thought about doing that, but I have no use for any end product. Isn’t a plastic bag rug slippery?
I need the plastic bags for scooping the cats’ litter boxes, and with the clumping litter, I don’t dare use a bag with even tiny holes.
Mojeaux: No, not slippery. She knotted it tightly so it is very similar to those rubber mats you buy for long standing spots like in front to the kitchen sink. It’s kinda pebbly knobbly so it grips well.
I hate plastic bags, but hate even more that you now have to buy them for 10 cents each in Colorado.
We keep our totes in the car, but I forget them half the time and either load from cart to tote at the car or go out and get some while wife waits in line.
I refuse to pay for bags I hate anyway. Paper, on the other hand, I like, but they are charged too.
Agreed, but it’s easy to get lured by the siren song of “easy”. In many cases it’s easier in the short term to not do the right thing. I can save a few seconds not putting that cart away, and it’s a lot easier to sit on the couch eating fast food and watching TV than getting up and going to the gym.
Mrs F and I are just the opposite, we pick up a cart outside and use it as a walker. If I see someone bringing a cart back I’ll bring it back for them, as I can use one inside as well. We do put our carts in the outside bins though.
People who don’t return their shopping carts should be summarily executed.
^ This guy gets it ^
That’s a liitle harsh. A simple tarring and feathering should be enough.
Meet in the middle with shopping cart scaphism?
I don’t see any meaningful difference between “good” v. “desirable/enjoyable” and “evil” v. “unpleasant/icky”. Just because a lot of people find the same things desirable and the same things icky doesn’t elevate those things to some higher level. They’re still just gussied up hedonism.
For almost all of human history until the 90s, it was self-evident that lifelong monogamous straight marriage was good and everything else outside of that was bad, just by observing people. Nowadays, it has flipped 180 degrees. Which is the objective good? You’re going to have to appeal to something outside of what “everybody” does/believes, because that changed.
Well, you could point to the observable effects of doing X. Take marriage, for example. People who do the get a job, get married, have kids in that order are pretty demonstrably better off than those that don’t. That requires a broader and more long-term view, though. Which most people suck at. Morality, conventions, institutions, should be a kind of collective memory of what works in the long term/for the community. When hedonism gets the upper hand, you can generally expect different kinds of decline. *looks around* Huh. Waddayaknow.
I agree that long-term thinking generally better aligns with what is good/better versus what is bad/worse, but there’s something deeper that’s gnawing at me. “good” and “bad” just seem to be inapplicable in an atheistic worldview. It’s like using “high caste” and “low caste” in a free market capitalist system or using “bright” and “dark” to describe music. You sort of get what is meant, but it’s not really the same. Something important is lost in translation.
You can do all the right things and never achieve the goals of that long term thinking. If somebody saves for retirement and sacrifices their lifestyle to contribute to their future and then keels over at their desk 5 minutes before their retirement party, did they do good, or was what they did bad? From a purely utilitarian point of view, it seems quite wasteful. From a risk analysis point of view it seems that they did everything right. From a life enjoyment perspective, it was catastrophic. However, most of these are “ends justify the means” analyses. If they made it to retirement, all their sacrifice paid off.
Sorry to get of on a ramble, but I have a hard time accepting morality as some pursuit of an algorithmic maximum on the lifetime happiness curve. Were I to take that view, I’d be a wrecking ball to everybody around me. You can’t take goodwill or good credit with you when you die, so may as well burn through as much of it as you can get away with to get your jollies. Hunter Biden seems to be winning at morality if the goal is to be as rich, happy, stimulated and carefree as possible.
One of the heaters in the hangar ceiling caught on fire today. We got to spend 20 minutes in the parking lot at -1 degF/10-15 mph winds until Facilities could shut off the gas to it.
It was impressive the amount of artillery the fire departments brought: 3 ladder trucks, 2 pumper trucks, 3 fire chief pickup trucks, 20-25 decked out fire
menpersons. It was nice that the fire detection system is pointed down at the floor. If the sprinklers had gone off, it would have been a wet mess.With no heat are you able to stay warm and work? Go home for a paid holiday, it is Friday?
It was just one of several heaters. Apparently there were flames outside the furnace cabinet. That is not correct – the flames should stay within the burn chamber.
That furnace was isolated. Everyone is back to work.
hangar ceiling heaters. Yeah.
Our house had those ceiling heaters in the bathrooms when we bought the place. One of the first things I did was remove them and replace them with a simple LED light.
Also, the fluorescent lights I replaced with LEDs.
One of my jobs with the state was to do fire inspections etc. We had several fires get started while I was there. All of them but one were started by fluorescent ballasts. The anomaly was an air conditioning compressor.
When I finally traded my florescent light in the laundry room for an LED panel,I had to repaint the ceiling because the old light had left a brown smolder mark on the ceiling. Never again.
Now you’re scaring me.
My garage has 6 pairs of 8 foot fluorescent lights.
I put new ballasts in each one when we bought the place 6 years ago because they all started dying around the same time.
I never heard of fluorescent ballasts being fire starters.
As they age the resistance increases. When they get to the point the light is dim or won’t come on, if you leave the switch on you cant see anything happening but that fucker is heating up.
I hate fluorescents. You should be scared. Replace them with the brightest LEDs you can find. They won’t start a fire, they are bright and the light color is far superior.
I swapped out the four foot fluorescents in our garage for LED lights that just dropped right in. You can get different color temperatures with LEDs, too. Much recommended.
I’m looking at around $900 for 12 8′ LED’s.
The ballasts are newer ones, but I will be keeping an eye on them for now.
Aldi in the US rents out carts for a quarter. Return the cart to get your quarter back
I went to Aldi once. As I was attempting to dislodge a cart, some guy came by and helpfully pointed out the thing about the quarter. I said, “That’s fucking stupid.”
Then I went to Kroger.
*ties onion to P Brooks’ belt*
We keep a quarter in each of our cars. It is the Sacred Aldi Quarter™.
Ditto. My daughters always want to bring it into Walmart to use on the claw game, but I have to remind them that mommy will tear their heads off and drink their spinal fluid if they take the Aldi quarter.
(okay, I’m not so graphic when describing to them what will happen, so sue me)
They don’t give you bags, either. You have to bring your own, or just throw the stuff straight into the car.
They give away boxes like Costco, no?
Haven’t seen that at the ones I’ve been to.
They will, but they’re mostly useless because the front is a cutout to display the merch. If you’re buying canned goods, you just buy the whole flat leave them in it.
I am wondering why I would go to an Aldi’s.
Deposit for the cart? Bring your own bags?
Fuck Aldi’s.
Cheap as fuck. Stock up on canned goods, spices, and baking goods. The labor involved is absolutely worth it because it’s not that much more than you would expend at a regular grocery store. So you pay a deposit for your cart and bring your own bags. I have zero problems with this.
My wife goes to Aldi’s and Lidl all the time.
From my rare visits, they look like the same store.
Lidl has more consistency as to what’s on the shelves. Aldi is cheaper.
Especially now that most of the other grocery stores are requiring people to bring in their own bags already (at least around here).
Locally it’s the main town/city that has banned plastic bags. It’s nice going to the Walmart just outside the limits for a nice functional plastic bag.
Locally some counties and cities started banning plastic bags, that got postponed due to lockdowns, and then the state passed a law forbidding localities from banning single use plastic bags. However, several chains (looking at you Giant Eagle) decided to pull them anyways. The local organic/locally owned grocery store (Heinen’s) was one of the ones fighting against the bag bans.
I heard that enough people complained that Giant Eagle went back to using bags. I don’t know if that was just the store my mom works at or all of them, though.
trshmnstr:
Giant Eagle changed some policies, but they didn’t bring back the single use plastic bags. Instead, they stopped charging for paper bags (from memory they were charging $0.10/bag) and tweaked their perks program to give rewards for using bags.
It could also be different based on locations.
Now that you say that, I recall that’s right. Paper bags, not plastic.
Paper bags…one problem with them. Roach eggs in the folds imported into your house.
*Mix 1 part boric acid with one part flour. Dampen and stir with water until you have a rollable dough.
roll out about 1/4″ thick. Use a pizza knife to cut into 1/2×1/2″ squares. Leave overnight to dry.
Toss the pellets on top of window sills, door sills, water heater closet, under kitchen and bath sinks…anywhere there is water or an entrance way. If a kid or dog eats one they will get a belly ache at worst.
Over the course of about two months your house will become completely roach-free and stay that way. The pellets last for about 20 years. Forget the bug guy spraying stinky poison all over your house. This is cheap, easy and very effective.
There was some of that bag ban nonsense in Tucson. We have dogs, and the plastic bags get reused. One nice thing about self-checkout is if you are running low at home you just grab a fistful.
And odd finds too: clothing, toys, small household furnishings (like these shelves I’m looking at), German groceries… Even riding boots, I once heard.
There are a few reasons. It’s cheap, quick, they have good produce, and most of the basics.
Ok then. I will take y’all’s word for it. We dont have one around here.
My daughter loves Aldi. She’s a diagnosed Celiac Disease. She says Aldi has wonderful selection of gluten free products.
Yes. Good produce and meat for cheap. Since the pandemic they’ve gone all in and they offer a lot more name brand stuff. (In my youth it used to be all generic). We usually start there, buy everything we can, then finish off at another store.
This is what we do, too.
The jalapeno kettle chips. IYKYK.
I was snacking on the salt & vinegar ones yesterday. 👌
Uncle Clancy knows a thing. Except for the Pringle and Cheez It clones. Those are awful.
Wow, this whole paragraph resonates with me.
Also a big fan of Electric Eye–glad you are, too, Ron!
Did you like their new song?
I did. Thanks for that, too; I’d probably have never run across it.
That’s my kind of metal, right there
Another AI Art article written. I have at least two more sub topics I could go into.
More mini painting and airbrushing pieces, pls
I got into airbrushing a couple years back and havent had the nerve to bring it to bear on any minis yet, just cars and gundams. gundams? gundam? gundamii? And a shitload of plastic spoons…
I have photographs for a paintbrush review… in which I apply them to a mini in a technique different from my typical.
I’m assuming those horse pics are yours.
You mean This thing? The machine spat that out and I figured the featured image should be … off
Rebel Scum on January 19, 2024 at 9:27 am
… the “far-right” (which is anything
insignificantlyinsufficiently left) …ftfy
What we have learned today is that the question of good and evil can be summed up by whether you return your cart to the corral or not.
And if your grocery has both small and large carts, with separate sections for each in the cart corrals, PUT YOUR CART ON THE CORRECT SIDE!!!!
Cart return adjacent: Every new mother strives not to park closest to the store entrance, but closest to a cart corral.
I generally park close to a cart corral as well, and if I’m making a big purchase at a store, I’ll park by the exit instead of the entrance. This confused the girlfriend at first.
Now you are catching on
What about those of us who sort the carts already in the corral out of some sort of compulsion for orderliness?
My man. Keep up the good work.
The poor grunt who has to herd the carts back into the store should bless your name (especially in winter.)
gimme an O
gimme a C
gimme a D
O C D
My son does that.
He also organizes the bargain DVD bin.
No, he doesn’t work there.
But his room was always a mess.
Sounds familiar.
I should probably sort this room, stuff is just wherever I last put it down.
My other grocery pet peeve: when the stockers shuffle merchandise around on the shelves trying to hide the fact that they’re woefully understocked. I will move items back to their proper shelf spot to expose their inventory ineptitude.
Kroger calls that “blocking”. Started during the pandemic for just the reason you cited.
They wanted to reassure everyone that the store was full (it wasnt). So the directive was “fill holes”.
I have actually done that when I couldn’t put my cart in the coral because the idiots ahead of me were so sloppy.
Yeah. That drives me up the wall.
You do use your cart sorting gloves for that task, don’t you?
What we have learned today is that the question of good and evil can be summed up by whether you return your cart to the corral or not.
There is a parable bout a lost cart in there somewhere.
Glad your brother is going to recover. I also hate holding still. People are made to move about and achieve goals. Sitting still is something teenagers do.
What about those of us who sort the carts already in the corral out of some sort of compulsion for orderliness?
*backs away*
Don’t worry, he wears gloves when he does it.
Don’t stand there, that’s a traffic lane.
And if your grocery has both small and large carts, with separate sections for each in the cart corrals, PUT YOUR CART ON THE CORRECT SIDE!!!!
And this is why Winco only has one size (big) of cart.
Also- Winco (the Pocatello store, anyway) looks suspiciously like a re-named Cub Foods store. Exactly like, actually. Same style, color and fonts on all the interior painted signage.
I love the smaller carts! You can get around the slowpoke shoppers more easily, and it forces you to show some restraint in your purchases.
Yep and they removed from all the stores in Vegas…at least where we shopped. I have them back now here in Kentucky.
I do miss Winco for one reason…bulk goods. Walk up with a bag, get what you need..nothing more, nothing less. Great for when the kids were young.
Yeah but the ones at Kroger really only comfortably hold 2 30-packs
I love the smaller carts! You can get around the slowpoke shoppers more easily, and it forces you to show some restraint in your purchases.
I do too, but it’s a trade-off. I switched from Fred Meyer to Winco when Meyer rearranged their whole store(not that the prior layout made any sense whatsoever) and dropped the whole bean coffee i liked. I figured if I had to re-learn a store…
“He was a freedman when all philosophers were banished from Rome in 89 by the Emperor Domitian. “
If they were anything like our professoriate, they needed banishing. This Domitian guy may have been on to something.
All you guys and your Aldi love…
The one in Indianapolis I went to that one time reminded me of a Goodwill store. Not impressed.
Agreed. I have Krogers and Sprouts. Aldi turns me off.
We used to do Sprouts all the time, but they got really pricey a few years ago. Their sausages and brats are top notch.
Oh yea. I use then mostly for veg now. Meat prices are high, I agree.
I slightly prefer Grocery Outlet (also odd non-edible finds).
Aldi’s near me always have a selection of various nice berries that are a buck or two less per package than at the traditional supermarkets
Kinda apropos of the shopping cart thing, and the observation therein that in some places/culture, any store like that would just get robbed blind: For about the last 2 weeks one of my trucks has been at a shop in town. The shop’s along the main road between town and the interstate, with other service places, gas, fast-food, bank, drug store, etc. along there. It’s a busy shop, so there’s 15-20 cars and trucks across their front lot, either waiting to get worked on or already done.
All of them are sitting there unlocked 24/7, with a key in them.
Is there an old coot in a rocking chair with a shotgun across his lap out front?
You do that in Tucson, and every one of those vehicles is in Mexico within a day.
Nowadays there’s probably a camera on the front of the building, but that’s about it. Just doesn’t happen there.
I’ve worked in parts of the world where every yard, no matter how modest, had a wall and gate around it, with the explanation from locals that casual thievery is the base assumption. Anything not locked down (a chair on the porch or a soccer ball in the yard) is basically “considered abandoned”. Snark quotes are because while that may be what they say, I know they know they’re stealing, and have just learned to rationalize it.
In a civilized culture people create wealth. In uncivilized cultures people’s base assumption is that to have something you must take it from someone else by hook or by crook*.
Anyone know where that comes from?
A shepherd’s crook has a hook.
It’s like that in South Africa. When you’re flying over the suburbs, you can look down and see there are walls around all the houses. There are security measures everywhere, bars on windows/doors, broken glass on top of walls, barbed wire, electric fences around parking lots, and so on. When you park your car on a public street, you need to pay a local “car guard” to watch your car so it won’t be broken into or stolen.
When I worked in China, I was warned to bring my own toilet paper and soap.
Why? Because the factory bathrooms had no T.P. or soap.
Why? Because the workers would steal them.
/also no doors on the toilet stalls. I had a whole gaggle of Chinese dudes watch drop bombs into the squatty potty.
I slightly prefer Grocery Outlet (also odd non-edible finds).
We have one of those here, too (I think)- sort of like a grocery store Big Lots. I go there once in while. That’s where I found the crab cakes I liked.
All of them are sitting there unlocked 24/7, with a key in them.
Nice.
It was just last summer when the internet had the shopping cart wars, or the most recent battle at least. There was an argument that people with kids can’t leave their kids alone in the car while they walk the cart back. I was very unpersuaded by this, but a lot of people seemed to buy into it.
Make the kid take the cart back. If they’re too young, plop in the cart while you take it back.
Yeah, color me unconvinced. And way to set a bad example for your kids, too.
Lazy rationalizing fucks…
There was an argument that people with kids can’t leave their kids alone in the car while they walk the cart back.
*sigh*
I have a little twinge of sadness whenever I tell the 6 year old that it’s illegal for her to pump the gas. I loved doing that when I was her age.
My daughter was about 10 or 11 when she wanted to sit in the front seat and move the stick shift when I was driving. We started with me saying “now” and finished with her moving it exactly where it needed to go, when it needed to go, without any inputs from me.
Yeah, I think it was framed around someone having 3 young kids under 5 and what if they get back out of the car while you are pushing the cart back? Very disheartening to see how many saw that as a good reason.
That’s because most people these days are incapable of teaching their children to behave.
people with kids can’t leave their kids alone in the car while they walk the cart back.
White slavers will steal them.
All those people are in the Ukraine now I’d imagine.
I had an office mate with a new-ish born, and she was very worried about leaving it asleep in the car seat for even a moment. I told her, “Hey…. I have a secret. No one wants your kid.”
daily dose of sunshine
Alec Baldwin indicted by grand jury for involuntary manslaughter over deadly ‘Rust’ shooting
A grand jury has indicted Alec Baldwin on an involuntary manslaughter charge in the deadly shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of “Rust,” months after prosecutors dropped their case against the actor over her death.
The indictment charges Baldwin, 65, with involuntary manslaughter (negligent use of a firearm) or, in the alternative, involuntary manslaughter (without due caution or circumspection), both fourth-degree felonies.
Coffee is for closers.
The way I was raised in a strong gun culture: When you have a gun in your hand you are responsible for EVERYTHING that happens after that. No exceptions. No excuses. “oops”, “I am sorry”, “It was an accident” doesnt count. If a meteor falls out of the sky, strikes the gun and causes it to go off, YOU are responsible.
Baldwin belongs in prison for what he did.
My theory is that he was having an affair with the cinematographer, she got pregnant, and he had to handle things before his wife found out.
Baldwin walks, Penny does hard time. What a country!
Coffee is for closers
“Watch where you’re pointing that thing.”
If you have to tell someone that they have no business having the thing.