The Modern Economy

Don’t Surprise the Maniac

Don't trifle with the damage:

Police in Ohio are trying to track down a man who allegedly pulled a gun on a Burger King employee over the weekend because he was mad about receiving a discount. The incident took place in the Cleveland suburb of Willowick on Easter morning, when, according to the employee, the customer flipped out after learning his order was cheaper than he expected it to be. “He was like, ‘My order can’t be right, it should be like $11,’ and I’m like trying to explain to him that we had a promotion going on, and like it’s cheaper, and he started cussing and getting all loud, and I was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t know why you want to pay more money.’”

Beethoven's Secret Code

I like stories about discovering secret codes:

"Then, one evening in 2013, the violinist Nicholas Kitchen was in New Mexico coaching a quartet through Opus 132. Kitchen is a man of obsessions; one of them is playing from a composer’s original handwritten manuscripts, rather than printed music, so he had a facsimile edition on hand. The errant “ffmo” caught the eye of the quartet’s cellist. “What’s this?” she asked. 

As soon as Kitchen saw Beethoven’s mark, something in his brain shifted; later, he would tell people that it was as if someone had turned over a deck of cards to reveal the hidden faces behind the plain backs. Suddenly, he had a new obsession. Over the next several years, he would come to believe he had discovered Beethoven’s secret code."

So You Say

Changes at Amazon Fresh

I've never shopped at Amazon Fresh stores, but I'm disturbed reading about the experience. It's like discovering that hamsters power your car. Apparently the "Just Walk Out" technology worked through intense surveillance. All sorts of people in India carefully watched exactly what you put in your shopping cart. And now Amazon Dash Carts will do the job instead. Powered by hamsters, perhaps? And what are the motives of these hamsters?:

Just over half of Amazon Fresh stores are equipped with Just Walk Out. The technology allows customers to skip checkout altogether by scanning a QR code when they enter the store. Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

My Supermarket Has Rough Edges

I like the comments over at Reddit.

Do You Have a Light?

I’ve chosen my late-night dog-walking path in order to avoid people, but sometimes you meet them anyway.  Tonight (March 31st), Jasper and I encountered a man pulling a roller bag down a dark residential street and randomly-dropping some kind of metal bar on the pavement. It was hard to tell in the dark, but he seemed to have a goatee. 

“Do you have a light?” he asked. When I said no, he persisted with the question. I explained I didn’t smoke. That annoyed him. “I have to walk a long way; without nicotine! There was a time when everyone had a light, but these days everyone steals my lighters, and now no one can start a fire. I hate Sacramento! I hate this f***ing world!” 

Yes, there was a time when everyone wore a smile and could instantly start conflagrations, but the world has since grown cold and dark. All we can do these days is stare at our phones. 

(I may have seen the guy again this morning. He was standing at the street corner, frozen stiff like a statue, staring at the roof of a Porsche auto repair business, where a homeless guy named Grant had had a standoff with the cops several years ago. I hope he’s not thinking similar thoughts.)

Snow Globe: A Breaking Bad Short - El Camino

I had somehow missed this "Breaking Bad" gem, from "El Camino." Just love it!

 

Canada's Got Talent 2023 - Cydnee Abbott

This girl is going places! (h/t Kelly)

 

"The Man With Icy Eyes" Music Video (Based on the 1971 Movie) - Albuquerque< NM

This Italian "giallo" (yellow) movie was filmed for some eccentric reason in Albuquerque in 1970. Giallo films tend to have a film-noir/supernatural edge to them - that's why they are called "yellow." 

I love this film because it captures Central Avenue when it was still in its Route 66 neon heyday. Plus, the bad guy is named Valdez, and he tries to hide at the house that became Charles McGill's house in "Better Call Saul." And all the Spanish-speaking bad guys have Italian accents. And Barbara Bouchet is pretty (but with a heart of ice). And Victor Buono (King Tut from the Batman series) is a newspaper editor. It's just so - eccentric! Who does stuff like this?

 

Morning After the Colossal Fire, 19th and X Streets, March 26, 2024

Morning-after pictures from Tuesday night’s fire at 19th and X Streets in Sacramento. The structure at 19th and Broadway looks undamaged, and I overheard a boss telling gathered workers “we still have a building to finish.” 

I’m wondering if they’ll have to replace the concrete structure upon which the burned higher floors sit? 

The fire jumped X Street and burned some weeds there. I found 85 cents in coins on the newly-exposed ground, so it’s not a complete disaster.