Tele-professions #1

I share an office suite with a recruiter. She was having a problem with a special program on her computer so she called customer support. She waited on “hold” for thirty minutes before someone finally picked up the phone. But then they immediately hung up on her before she could even speak. She called again, was on [...]

Bad economy: attitude or reality?

You can’t make up stories like this one: The Bagel Bin, the place I just mentioned in my last post where I frequently enjoy fresh bagels and can blend my own cup of coffee, was shut down last week by the State of New York for failure to pay $47,000 in state sales taxes. They re-opened just this morning, Tuesday, December 23, at [...]

Where does the money come from?

I am in the Bagel Bin, a sort of independent Starbucks located near my office. I’ve been stopping here for bagels (made from scratch on site) for fifteen years. In the beginning there were three workers: a bagel maker and two counter people. Now they’ve expanded their space and there are a dozen workers at any [...]

Print versus electronic media

Rochester’s daily newspaper, the Democrat & Chronicle,  recently announced it was laying off fifty staff. These aren’t the first folks to leave and likely won’t be the last. Downsizing at newspapers is a national trend. The D&C attributed the work force cut to a dwindling advertising base and a loss of younger readers to competitive electronic media.
Art, a once-a-week diner patron, is a part-time professor [...]

Caroline Kennedy – not!

There is talk of New York Governor Patterson appointing Caroline Kennedy to the US Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, who was named Secretary of State by President-elect Barack Obama.
The idea of this person from out of nowhere representing New Yorkers in the Senate is preposterous. What does the heiress of Camelot bring to the table? [...]

Big Oil – Big Three

Ralph, the tea-drinking car wholesaler at the end of the counter has one more idea to add: “Let the automakers borrow the billions they need from the big oil companies. The oil companies have made their fortunes powering these obsolete monsters for almost a century. Let Oil partner with Auto; the Oil-Big Three Synergy.”
He continues, [...]

Can you live on $40 an hour?

That’s $1,600 a week, or $83,200 a year. How about adding in full benefits worth another $34.00 per hour? Benefits and wages, then, total $153,920. Can you live on that?
A bigger question is: Can a company who pays its employees this much stay in business in today’s global economy? And the big question: Can US citizens afford to bail out companies [...]

Big Three Omelet

Ralph, way down there at the end of the counter by the cash register, reads newspapers from all over the U.S. This morning he looks up from his copy of Prime Time Cape Cod and his steaming hot tea, and continues his monologue on the Big Three’s quest for a government bailout:
“To add to the [...]

Bail out or jump ship?

I don’t think there are enough buckets in America to bail out a sinking ship the size of the country’s automobile industry.
If you know someone who works in a car dealership, ask them what business is like. You’ll likely get a sobering answer. For example, this past September, the largest Buick dealership here in Rochester sold only eight Buicks; about [...]

fcuk Charm School!

Visiting Montreal recently, I was taken aback by a sign on the front of a clothing store that said, simply, “fcuk.” It was a large sign with bold lettering and it faced up and down the street, visible in both directions. “fcuk” stands for French Connection United Kingdom, a British retailer, who has deliberately capitalized on the similarity between [...]