The news should have made the bus stop; instead, it was the usual road construction. After an absence of three decades, the real dollar (dollard?) has come back to daze and confuse us all. To the chagrin of industrial barons and closet economists alike, our currency was (for a brief moment) today at par with the almighty dollar. But, as a famous Peggy once sang, “If that’s all there is, my friend, then let’s keep dancing”.
For the second time in the last three years, one of those college dormitory fantasies has been realized. Someone has managed to do a David Copperfield on two trucks full of a particular brand of Canadian beer. Quite apart from the warning given by the corporation to loyal clients, “Stock up, because there may be a shortage until the middle of next week”, this cries out for a cheap summer movie treatment.
posted in economy | Comments Off on When the suds go missing | 313 words
This morning the newspaper box fell off the wall. After two decades of service, I came outside and found it hanging from a single nail, looking like a storm had gone through. Everything has a reason, though. The poor box had been invaded by the journalistic equivalent of a cuckoo’s egg.
posted in economy, media | Comments Off on An invasive species | 356 words
The verdict was in. After a careful analysis, son #2 announced that the intermittent state of our home entertainment centre had nothing to do with his earlier “re-cabling” efforts, where wires are randomly plugged into sockets in the hope of miracles. Instead, we really did have a faulty composite cable that should be replaced at the earliest occasion. It’s the weekend, and the box stores are waiting for me to balance their bottom line. Off to the shops we go.
posted in economy, technology | Comments Off on A wire is still a wire | 356 words
It’s funny. Even though I don’t intend to do so, I collect computer hardware. Since my budget is limited, I’m not a leader in acquiring new technology. In fact, I’m more the opposite. Sort of like the bird that brings up the tail end of the queue heading for the south. Lots of hardware that used to be expensive, until the laws of economics come into play, allowing me to also own what once was valuable.
posted in economy, technology | Comments Off on Cool gear for the cheap set | 291 words
When I was very young, we lived under the economic umbrella of the general store. Not that different from one seen in any of the various Green Gable movies and television productions. Also not too surprising, as we were within buggy distance of Avonlea, if such a community had existed and if we’d had a buggy. My grandfather had one, but my father had opted for the more modern pickup truck that was well-suited to clay roads. Where was I? Oh yes, shopping.
posted in economy, history | Comments Off on Shopping in the new world | 326 words
People love flowers. We’re in full “go to the garden centre and buy” season locally, with the weekend lawn farmers busy sowing and hoeing and doing all those busy as a bee things that follow the fallow of winter. I’m a minimalist, but at an earlier stage in my job history (when I was but a seedling) I was the industrious slave of a greenhouse operator in central Ontario. I loved the work. Even if I was too early in the season to actually see the blooms, I knew what awaited the buyers from having planted thousands of those informative plastic tags in the flats of plants. I was a walking horticultural encyclopedia.
posted in economy | Comments Off on Flowers instead of gold | 482 words
Since the risk of a seasonal relapse is now very low, I decided to roll out of bed on a weekend at my regular time and head off in search of the elusive tire changer. One of those Canadian things, where we change the rubber feet on all of our cars at precise moments each year, in search of even inflation.
posted in economy | Comments Off on Chance to buy some expensive air | 518 words
In the world of the blog, we sometimes get so self-absorbed in our writing that we forget that we are simply emulators of a model that the world calls the “newspaper”. Especially since we don’t always have to present news, and our editorial direction is ours. But in the real world, newspapers do exist, do have to fight for readership and do have to live in a world where the dollar rules supreme.
posted in economy | Comments Off on It depends who is doing the name-calling | 313 words
In one week the traps will be on the bottom, filling up with those expensive little buggies that make the tourists all weak at the knees. At least, that’s the hope. You see, in certain coastal areas the annual lobster season will begin at dawn on the first of May, and hundreds, nay thousands of fisher people will again pray for healthy harvests and high prices. Think of a very wet gold rush, with no gold but lots of wet. There you are, lobster fishing.
posted in economy, environment | Comments Off on One week to go | 319 words
