Pot

November 15, 2014 Joe AuBuchon

Pot

This morning’s issue of the LA Times contained a commentary by Sandy Banks entitled “Clear thinking needed on pot.” In the article she offers her thoughts about its legalization, including the problems and pitfalls.

Personally I see a few added dangers: for everyone who travels by car, motorcycle, bicycle, skateboard or walking. When I first started driving in the 1960s, we worried about drunk drivers, drivers fooling around with radio buttons and parents paying too much attention to children in cars without seatbelts (including one who took off the front end of my car as she ran a stop sign).

Kids are belted in today, but they still distract parents. In addition we also have cell phones, texting and in-car navigation systems adding to the list of distractions facing users of our roads.

While bicycling to the beach for lunch yesterday I passed an accident involving a motor vehicle and a bicyclist. It was on Pacific Coast Highway approaching Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach. There is a left turn lane, two traffic lanes, an increasing in size separation divider and a right turn lane. I don’t know exactly what happened but I can guess that the driver of the motor vehicle and the bicycle rider collided in the right turn lane while the bicyclist was moving across the lane to get into the separator in order to be in the right spot for crossing Beach Boulevard.

This was in the middle of the day. Do we really need to add alcohol or legal pot to the mix? Isn’t life out there dangerous enough as it is?

I don’t believe we need to add another legal and widespread drug to the list of things distracting drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Legalize the recreational use of marijuana and you, I believe, will see, maybe slowly, a real rise in accidents caused, at least in part, by marijuana.

Marijuana may, indeed, have a documented and valid use as an analgesic. Regulate it. Standardize dosages and prescribe it through our system of pharmacies so those who need it can obtain it legally and be sure of the efficacy of what they are purchasing.

But making a socially acceptable, mind-altering drug legally available on a widespread basis is, in my opinion really, really stupid. Kids in junior high already have access to alcohol and tobacco through friends, acquaintances and family members who can legally purchase them. And we now want to add marijuana to the list?

Containers

Yesterday, on Facebook, I posted the following:

Had about 0.01 inches of rain last night. Almost perfect day today, rode my bike to the beach for lunch – Attention Walmart shoppers and other looking for cheap foreign goods – counted seven (7) container ships off L.A. / L.B. coast – their goods were not being unloaded.

Here are the images to go with that post:

Oh, Yeah, we also need a cat picture.

Newspapers – A Love-Hate Relationship

November 8, 2014 Joe AuBuchon

Newspapers

When my wife and I left on vacation last summer, I was forced to cancel my subscriptions to the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times. Neither of them would allow an indefinite suspension of delivery so I canceled my subscriptions. I did not re-activate my subscriptions when we returned several weeks later.

The Los Angeles Times

Both newspapers called, repeatedly, asking if I’d like to renew my subscription. Well, yes I would, but not at the full rates they were offering. Eventually the Times offered an introductory rate for a full year—good enough until our next vacation. Which may go longer than our last one because my wife is retiring from teaching at the end of this school year (June 2015).

The Times has been delivered on-time (before 6 am) every single day since, although a couple of copies have been wet/damp because they were thrown into areas covered by our sprinklers.

The Orange County Register

The OC Register kept calling but not offering a rate as low as the Times‘ rate. I told one of their salesmen this and he told me about their bankruptcy. I told him that he would not sell me his newspaper by telling me bad things about his competitor and, then, I hung up. I ignored the Register‘s calls for the next couple of weeks until one evening I was in a “different” mood.

I actually behaved in a polite manner to a sales caller who called during the dinner hour. (I had already eaten.) She offered a “special” rate even lower than that offered by the Times, but she could only guarantee that rate until the end of the year. I said that was OK; I could cancel my subscription at that time. She went on to tell me that she would see what she could do and call again in December. I even got two $5 Target gift cards for signing up for automatic bill pay. Chuckle, Chuckle, Chuckle.

. . . and so it goes

Since signing up to get the Register in the second week of October, I’ve actually gotten both Target gift cards and six copies of the newspaper. Yes, that is right—six (6) copies of the newspaper.

Speaking with a woman in Customer Service one weekend I found that my subscription was supposed to have started on October 9th, 2014. She also said that since I hadn’t gotten my copy that morning she would see to it that I got my copy later that day. (Promises, promises, promises—didn’t happen.)

Dates and times of Register delivery:

Tuesday, October 28 – after 12 noon,
Thursday, October 30 – between 8 and 10.30,
Monday, November 3 – after 6 am but before 7 am.
Thursday, November 6 – between 8 and 12 noon,
Friday, November 7 – after 6 am but before 7 am,
Saturday, November 8 (today) – after 8.45 am and before 11.15 am.

Great record, huh?

From the OCR FAQs:

Home delivery subscribers can expect to receive their newspaper no later than:
Monday-Friday – 5:45am
Saturday-Sunday – 7:00am
Holidays – 7:00am

Not a single newspaper has been delivered on time. Not one.

I sure hope they don’t expect me to pay for this.

The Times is a good general interest newspaper for the Los Angeles area but ignores Orange County. Several years ago they closed their OC bureau and don’t even give lip service to covering the county. I’ve lived in Orange County, except for a one year stint in Riverside, since 1972. The Register does a very good job of covering events in Orange County, especially high school sports. Politically they seem to be to the right of Attila the Hun but that is OK—they’re consistent and I just vote for a candidate/proposition they did not endorse.

I just wish they’d get their act together—I do so miss the NYT Crossword Puzzle.

Wet Paper

May 28, 2014 Joe AuBuchon

I cannot remember a time when my family did not get a daily paper but I can remember how ticked off we would be when what we got was a wet paper. And, here in the 21st century, we’re still getting them.

I do not know when newspapers were first delivered to a person’s home on a subscription basis but I remember the Los Angeles Examiner and later the Herald-Examiner, and still later the Los Angeles Times being delivered to our home in the San Gabriel Valley. My little brother had a paper route for the Her-Ex (an afternoon delivery). I’d help him fold and wrap the papers on a rainy day and did the Sunday morning delivery, as he was a “late” riser. We made sure that the papers were delivered in the middle of the driveway or on the front porch of the subscriber – dry. If something went wrong (wet paper) you either got a phone call from the subscriber or an earful when you went door to door to collect the month’s subscription fee.

You’d think, or at least I would, that in the intervening half century publishers would have figured out how to get newspapers delivered to their subscribers dry – especially considering their ongoing fight with digital media. But this does not seem to be the case.

OC Register 5.28.14 wet paper — OC Register 5.28.14 – Wet Paper

Today my paper was thrown in my wife’s rose bushes and our automatic sprinklers (M-W-F) soaked it through. Perhaps I should clarify things – I subscribe to two papers the LA Times and the Orange County Register (both are delivered by the same person). The OC Register was soaked through and the LA Times was thrown in the middle of the driveway and was dry.

On previous occasions when I’ve contacted the Register or the Times I’ve gotten a polite reply and another paper was delivered later that morning. Not today. Today I was chided for not reporting small problems previously and no replacement paper was delivered – it is now almost 11 am.

Email to OC Register at 6.12 am: “Over the last several weeks the delivery person has several times thrown my papers into areas reached by my sprinklers – today my copy of the OC Register was soaked through. To dry it out would take a week.”

Reply from OC Register at 7.16 am: “Thank you for contacting The Orange County Register. We do apologize for the wet papers you have experienced. I have contacted your carrier to request that he deliver your paper to the middle of the driveway and to bag it daily to make sure you have a dry paper to read daily. Please contact us each time you have a delivery issue so we can work to get the issues corrected for you.”

The issue was – today my paper was wet and unreadable.

The proper reply was – “We’re sorry; a replacement will be delivered as soon as possible.” Or even better – “We’re sorry; a replacement will be delivered as soon as possible and you will not be charged for today’s newspaper. Thank you for your long-standing and continuing subscription to the Orange County Register.”

And I still don’t have a copy of today’s Register – ah well, what can you expect for $40/month?

Hey, I think I’ll send Customer Service a copy of this post and a link to this blog. Hmmmm – and a copy to the Publisher/Editor too.