Archive for category I never saw THAT coming
Irony rides again
Posted by redlinedoc in I never saw THAT coming on August 13th, 2009
I’ve had a catbird seat for the construction of a new facility in the poor end of town where I work. Its a marvel of glass and concrete and steel and glass – oh I DID say glass. Indeed the glass rises nearly spire like to the roof at the front of this building. Wing like, the roof soars. It is a beauty to behold. One of the many problems, probably not foreseen on this ancient floodplain of a building site, is that water needs to go somewhere. Build a soaring roof and you have roaring drainage water.
The water comes off the roof so fast that it needs a cistern to slow the flow of the water. Cisterns were installed, thermos bottle looking affairs on concrete pads around the building. Voila, problem solved. Not so fast. The waters, not seen since the times of Noah, overwhelmed even this system digging up the ground. Solution: Riprap, stones to break up the water spilling from the cisterns from the roof. Ahh, architecture.
It is indeed a pretty solution, 4 to 4 1/2 inch traprock. Traprock has an irregular shape with sharp edges and pointy parts. It doesn’t move much. However, it is also about softball sized and easy to fit in the hand. About now there should be a D’oh much like Homer Simpson. Rocks. Windows. I believe the building will soon be in the glass business.
It has been something which when I point this out to people, step by step, they say “OH WOW”. Yea. Tinkle tinkle. Irony rides again!….
Last you a lifetime!
Posted by redlinedoc in I never saw THAT coming on July 14th, 2009
I found myself unaccountably angry at statements from the auto manufacturers the other day. The mouth of Sauron from Chrysler tells us that to save money and jobs (and get a handout from Uncle Sam), that they’re dropping several lines, among them the PT Cruiser. Not much new. One of the reasons they’re dropping the cruiser is that they put a bad engine in the thing; but it sold. So what!?
So what? So I’m one of the poor schleps that bought a PT Cruiser but had some misgivings about the power train. I put a lot of miles on a car, somewhere around 36000. I bought their extended warranty because it came with ‘lifetime’ oil changes. I figured at 30-40$ a clip and I change oil monthly. Dutifully I took the car in for changes. Once day I heard a horrible racket from the engine. It was the power steering pump, I later found out. My mechanic looked at the car and realized (he called me under the car) to see the broken front motor mount, the torn highpressure power steering link and the torn oil line. Hmmmm.
Cars are for me rather like black boxes. These even -=I=- with my untrammeled vision could easily see. The oil had been changed a mere 3 days before! The dealer never did get back to me. I stopped using the oil change service.
The car will last until it dies. I keep it oiled and well fed but I know that time is not on my side. Now that its been orphaned things will only get worse. The fat cats at Chrysler will dine well and sleep without ethics. What saddens me most is that the country I love, the country I fought for, the country I raised my children in is eating itself, or rather being eaten alive by the corporations who made it.
There was a time when things were built to last. There was always a wink and a smile when some things had built in obsolesence. Where are the buggy whip manufacturers, the boom box makers, the 8 track fabricators .. but things were built with an eye toward building customers.
My next door neighbor when I was a kid used to tell stories of his dad who ran a general store in Coventry CT. One of the customers (in the late 1800’s) came in complaining about the axe he had. ‘Best axe I ever bought’ said he ‘ six new heads, seven new handles. Last me a lifetime’.
Dead chickens. No eggs.
Posted by redlinedoc in Commentary, I never saw THAT coming on June 2nd, 2009
I was recently reminded that leaving weasels in the hen house gives you a result. Alas, its dead chickens and no eggs. Why chickens?
Our economic (heaven forfend czars) have been running in and out of the hen house. I had proposed, and I’m not a gory fellow, that perhaps a few heads-on-pikes outside Lehman Brothers might have curtailed the mad stealing that goes on. Yes, I’m a victim too.
Each day I read of the glorious rounds of in the front out the back door dealing at the SEC with Larry Summers or the folks at Chrysler or GM who revel in the bailout, glory in bankruptcy. A few days ago the VP of Chrysler said in effect sorry folks we made some lousy cars, like the PT Crusier, it had a lousy engine but they sold!…. and I an owner of one of those lumps of clay! There is some chutzpah in the GM folks managing NOT to take any responsibility for anything. Its the fault of unions, economy, dealers, stockholders, manufacturers of parts but no no no not GM. They didn’t make cars that didn’t run, engines that failed for obvious reasons, cars that fell apart nearly on the lots, no no no not them. Its someone else’s fault. Those same donkeys are going to be rebuilding the same cars but with our monies. What a way to go. Take a risk. Do a lousy job. Get a bailout! Hmmm is there a DD-285/7448 that -=I=- can get to fill in for my share?
Indeed all the folks are all white-washed now. Not to worry. Stole a few million in pension funds from old folks to gamble away with 100:1 odds? Didn’t see it coming? Naah not to worry Mr Weasel, here are the keys.
So what. They’re old. They didn’t need the eggs anyway.
Bonuses for bettors
Posted by redlinedoc in I never saw THAT coming on March 1st, 2010
I’ve been quiet again. Probably feeling a deep recession myself, much more moral than fiscal but none the less, staying away from vocalizing what should be said.
I awoke to a story this morning about Jeffrey Skilling. His lawyers want to revisit the case so poor Jeffrey, who ruined the lives not only of stockholders, but his fellow employees by lying and taking their monies would be set free. But I digress.
I work in Hartford, now ranked the third poorest city of its size in the nation. Once it had a thriving downtown and people worked at department stores, in the pre-mall days, with names like G Fox and Company or Brown-Thompson and more. They probably never made much more than minimum wage but worked hard, many of them for 30 years or more and retired with small social security benefits but with a retirement plan that allowed them some leeway to visit grandchildren, keep an apartment or house and generally live a decent retired lifestyle. No high rollers here, just decent hardworking folks.
I spoke to one the other day, now on the verge of losing her house because she can’t make the tax payments. How? Well Jeffrey Skilling’s friends at Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers (and many others) took her monies to the racetrack, bet the monies on derrivatives (a fancy name for casino in the stock world). So long as everyone was making 100% returns (you do see where this is going) everyone was happy. Then the day came when someone looked and (((GASP!!!))) the emperor was naked. The whole house of cards fell and with it the retirements and savings of the folks in the North End of Hartford and elsewhere. Oh well. Not to despair. We’re so good (the Skilling-ites replied) that we need bonuses to make sure that we retain all these fine young minds. And so they did. We the people bonused the bettors. If they’d done this at a OTB window they could not have done a better job.
What of my lady in the North End. She, who worked all her life gets to go on assistance. She spoke with me with tears in her eyes. She’d never taken anything from anyone and now she was forced to accept this.
I’m not the blood thirsty sort; however, I have visions of letting Jeffrey or his ilk, loose in a field with some of the folks they fleeced. Heads on pikes. It might slow the cascade of betting other peoples monies. It might bring some cold comfort to those without heat or shelter because they lent trust and were returned fiduciary irresponsibility.
I spoke with a 401K counselor recently about all this stealing. He of course in his snow-cones-salesman’s way assured me that this could never happen to mutual funds? Huh?
Somewhere out there I recall that fiduciary meant fiscally responsible. If we bonus these people perhaps they should pay (directly) some of those millions to those they fleeced. An idea but hardly likely to fly. Nope. Heads on pikes I think.
bankrupt, banks, business+ethics, executive+compensation, fairness, fiduciary, other+peoples+money, poor+insurance, poverty, risk, vulnerable
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