What a Deal!

I got some junk mail today from a magazine that I subscribe to.  It was to tell me about a great deal (which they underlined) to renew my subscription.  Here is the best part (taken straight from their letter -- once again their underlines):

For a limited time, you can extend your subscription for another year (12 issues) for the low rate of just: $20.00--you save 0.59% off the regular rate.

Wow!  I can save a few pennies.  I don't know how they can stay in business when they are offering discounts like that.

-- Andy

I Don't Get It

OK, I admit there is a lot that I don't get.  But can someone please tell me what is so wrong with a TLA (three letter abbreviation)?

People spend tens of thousands of dollars to append TLAs to their names.  We live in a world where people use www even when it isn't really needed.  I (and maybe this adds to my bias) live inside the beltway where nothing would ever get done if people had to spell everything out (yes, I know people already think nothing gets done here, but trust me it would waste even more time if we could no longer just type FBI or EPA).

Corporations want to have web domains that match their abbreviations, but all the short web addresses are already claimed, and fight for the short stock symbol.

So why go and ruin a good thing?  If you have a good TLA -- don't hide it.

Quote of the Day

"The ethanol craze means that we're going to burn up the Midwest's last six inches of topsoil in our gas-tanks."

From a farmer who organized the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture's annual meeting

First seem on James Howard Kunstler's blog, but starting to make the rounds.

Walking in the Streets

I had to go out to Northern Virginia late this afternoon. 

For some foolish reason I thought they would have done well in shoveling sidewalks.

I was wrong.  They are even worse than here in DC.  (I will be fair, some people did a very good job at clearing their sidewalks, but percentage wise, it still seemed worse than DC)

I don't get it.  It seems fairly straightforward to me that part of community, part of hospitality is clearing your sidewalk.  It is one of those things that is law, but shouldn't really have to be, it should just be part of being civilized.

I of course was most disgusted in the cases where the sidewalk had not been cleared but the driveway had been perfectly cleared -- but you probably don't want yet another rant against a car do you?

Horridscope Advice for All for Everyday

Today's Horridscope:

Think twice before you get into a vehicle.  Not because anything bad will happen, but because a walk outdoors will do wonders for your soul.  You solve problems as you pound the pavement.

So why is this posted just for today and just for us Sagittari? 

Shouldn't everyone think twice before using personalized motor transport?  A walk outdoors would do wonders for the soul regardless of what time of year you were born.

I have always been better able to solve problems by walking.  OK there was that one time that I tried to use driving as a way to solve my problems.  But that was back in those days of college, when I was young and foolish.  And I am not sure it worked all that well.  Of course it did get me out to a graveyard before sunrise (which anyone who has been to Maine can assure you is a very early hour) where I was able to shoot photos for my photography class.

Living Your Tagline

As many of you probably know, I don't believe much in taglines, and brands, and logos, and all that other worthless junk.

So imagine my surprise when a car company  (of all things) has an advertisement that positively reflects their tagline.

Getting off Metro at Union station tonight, I saw a new set of advertisements for Toyota.  They gave a number, and then two things that people could easily associate with, followed with a piece of trivial material about their own company. (e.g. 7: Number of white stripes on the flag, number of Harry Potter Books (Yea! by the way -- very exciting newsday), mpg for our stupendously ugly vehicles (in case you didn't know what SUV stood for))

One of the ads had a fairly large number.  And one of the two pieces of information associated with it was number of kilometers to the moon (I will forgive them that the distance to the moon is actually variable).

No US car company would do that.  They all are stuck on some illogical  measurement system.

Moving Forward -- take us with you.  Maybe someday we really can catch up to the rest of the world.