Saturday, November 27, 2004
A brand new washing machine arrived this morning at 7AM, delivered by the fine folks at Atomic Appliance Company (a great place to deal with, by the way). My old Kenmore, which was already in the house when I purchased it 15 years ago, groaned to a halt midway through its last load on Thanksgiving day, leaving my son to deal with a load of wet and partially-washed clothes. A repairman pronounced it fully dead the next day (not mostly dead, which is somewhat fixable, as I had hoped) so I grudgingly bought a new one. AND, I am proud to say that for once I resisted my urge toward high-tech for its own sake by purchasing a traditional top-loader rather than anything fancy.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Thanksgiving is almost here. It’s time to do what is one of my favorite activities: grocery shopping. Seriously, I love grocery shopping. Unfortunately, living alone means that each week finds me buying some goods to replace the ones I purchased the week before and had not had chance to use up. Two weeks ago I went through my cupboard in search of expired items, and had to assume that anything on which the ink of the “best by” date had faded completely were probably past their prime.
Today’s New York Times Style Section has a cover story about the price of super-premium haircuts in the city. Recently, the top price reached $800 from its previous high of $600. No comment on this is necessary. I say Godspeed to the salon owners who can, with a straight face, collect this sum. I am considering raising my rate for consulting services to one million dollars per hour.
Speaking of haircuts, I recently mentioned a few local businesses that are a pleasure to deal with and neglected to include the Garden City Barber Shop in Cranston, RI. A fine place indeed, and a real oasis from poofy salons and chain haircut outlets. A first-rate $11 haircut (a $789 savings over the same haircut in NYC), and two very nice barbers. No one who goes there ever regrets it.
Sunday, November 14, 2004
I know I said that I wouldn’t complain as much, but I just have to comment on what has to be one of the stupidest product designs I have ever seen. Pull a credit card (preferably an American Express card) out of your wallet, and turn it over. Now, try to read the customer service telephone number printed on the back of the card. If yours is like mine, the number is printed (in about 2 point type, but that’s another matter) on the back of the card in the exact location where the card numbers are embossed through. In the case of my Amex card and this new bastardized MBNA/Amex love child I just received, the phone number is rendered completely unreadable by the embossing. There are several locations on the back of the card where the number could be printed without it being obliterated when the card is stamped out, but obviously this simple design issue has escaped one of the country’s largest financial services organizations. And this is not a one-time problem; they have been doing this on their cards for years. They could move the printing down about 1/8 of an inch and be fine, but nooooooo. Isn’t there anyone at American Express with oversight of BOTH sides of the card? Or perhaps, this is a way of discouraging calls to customer support.
