Sometimes come with mesmerizing sideshows. The high pitched wail and whooshing scream changes with the flame. Composite memory, they're all the rage these days.
I think it was not too long ago we were talking about Icepick cutting people's lawns or something like that.
I had a recent (kind of depressing) experience that gave me some insight into the emerging lawn care economy. (That's ELCE, baby!!!).
Even though I'm on the no-call list, I got multiple hard-sell solicitations for a weed-and-feed service.
The short version is this: There is at least one national franchise that sells its name and a generic sales package (pamphlets in a plastic bag to hang from a mailbox) to teeny, tiny businessmen, who then hire a phone service to do cold calls.
The price per application is so low it's slightly higher than what's you'd pay at Home Depot or Lowe's for the chemicals. The guy who bought the franchise has to be using illegals to do the applications.
If that's what the American Dream of owning your own business looks like, up close and personal, I'm going to have to reconsider my whole take on all this capitalism stuff.
Well, perhaps that's taking things a bit too far. Nobody ever claimed it was pretty.
Wait a minute. I kind of got my facts wrong. The guy who cold called said he was "touching base" to see what I thought about the materials they dropped off, that I'd requested. (I hadn't.) He gave prices based on my lot size he got from the internet.
When I said I was interested, but someone has to come out here and actually look at teh property, that's when I got the hanger sales package and a subliterate price quotation.
Whatever. I've spent too much time on this comment already. My point is the whole thing smacked of desperation wrapped up in total sleaze.
If the wail and scream are as described, that's a J-79-15 engine. The -17s didn't scream. A flight of F-4Ds flying over a field and falling into landing formation, in trail, sounded like Godzilla. They were sometimes used to empress the Barbarians, just by flying over.
I want to add that the guy on the phone made it look like he worked for the weed-and-feed company. I caught him in several lies (and ignorances) and I pieced it together that he was just a pushy salesman. Why couldn't he be upfront about that?
A lawncare outfit was working across the street from my Mom's. All white, 20s to 30s, or so. I took note of the name because I wanted to price out a single application of mulch on all her beds. When I looked at the website they said they worked by scheduled contract only. NE Ohio.
Reminds me of Althouse where every third post featured a photo of the inside of a cafe, a coffee shop or restaurant and/or a view out the window of said cafe/coffee shop/restaurant.
Eric, you can always try selling financial services to your friends on a straight commission basis. You can actually make good scratch doing that if you have a lot of gullible friends. Or Mary Kay. I'm not sure if they still do Tupperware parties or not.
That's too weird. My wife and I were discussing Blade Runner just this morning.
And yes, it was in the context of dealing with that salesman, an unsetling experience.
Let's see . . . we touched on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Borg on Star Trek TNG, and a whole lot more but the thing we were getting at was: What does it mean to survive in this world by selling your soul? Was I justified in getting mad at the guy and reading him the riot act when he wasn't evil, just probably trying to put food on the table for his kids and not doing a very good job of it, either
Oh, the Blade Runner reference was, "She doesn't know she's a replicant."
I mean . . . come on . . . even as I type this out there are thousands and thousands of very smart people all over the globe who are trying to figure out how to replace that low-skill guy with a robot, and to be perfectly frank, I'm not so very sure I'd be sorry to see him go.
In classical Greek tragedy the object was catharsis which was the outpouring of emotion, a combination of pity and fear.
Well, you don't always have to sit in the audience to experience it.
[A]nd to be perfectly frank, I'm not so very sure I'd be sorry to see him go.
Yes you would because if they replace him with a bot, that bot will be improved upon year after year until you find that you're spending most of your annual income on lawn maintenance chemicals. Better the obviously desperate salesman with the touch of sleaze about him.
16 comments:
Beautiful. I can hear that turbine spooling up and screaming.
The robot did a nice job on the burgers.
Chip, are you getting up early or going to bed late?
Machine... Just like MH said.
I think it was not too long ago we were talking about Icepick cutting people's lawns or something like that.
I had a recent (kind of depressing) experience that gave me some insight into the emerging lawn care economy. (That's ELCE, baby!!!).
Even though I'm on the no-call list, I got multiple hard-sell solicitations for a weed-and-feed service.
The short version is this: There is at least one national franchise that sells its name and a generic sales package (pamphlets in a plastic bag to hang from a mailbox) to teeny, tiny businessmen, who then hire a phone service to do cold calls.
The price per application is so low it's slightly higher than what's you'd pay at Home Depot or Lowe's for the chemicals. The guy who bought the franchise has to be using illegals to do the applications.
If that's what the American Dream of owning your own business looks like, up close and personal, I'm going to have to reconsider my whole take on all this capitalism stuff.
Well, perhaps that's taking things a bit too far. Nobody ever claimed it was pretty.
Wait a minute. I kind of got my facts wrong. The guy who cold called said he was "touching base" to see what I thought about the materials they dropped off, that I'd requested. (I hadn't.) He gave prices based on my lot size he got from the internet.
When I said I was interested, but someone has to come out here and actually look at teh property, that's when I got the hanger sales package and a subliterate price quotation.
Whatever. I've spent too much time on this comment already. My point is the whole thing smacked of desperation wrapped up in total sleaze.
Enjoy the decline, motherfuckers!!!!
If the wail and scream are as described, that's a J-79-15 engine. The -17s didn't scream. A flight of F-4Ds flying over a field and falling into landing formation, in trail, sounded like Godzilla. They were sometimes used to empress the Barbarians, just by flying over.
I want to add that the guy on the phone made it look like he worked for the weed-and-feed company. I caught him in several lies (and ignorances) and I pieced it together that he was just a pushy salesman. Why couldn't he be upfront about that?
A lawncare outfit was working across the street from my Mom's. All white, 20s to 30s, or so. I took note of the name because I wanted to price out a single application of mulch on all her beds. When I looked at the website they said they worked by scheduled contract only. NE Ohio.
Reminds me of Althouse where every third post featured a photo of the inside of a cafe, a coffee shop or restaurant and/or a view out the window of said cafe/coffee shop/restaurant.
Eric, you can always try selling financial services to your friends on a straight commission basis. You can actually make good scratch doing that if you have a lot of gullible friends. Or Mary Kay. I'm not sure if they still do Tupperware parties or not.
Whatever. I've spent too much time on this comment already. My point is the whole thing smacked of desperation wrapped up in total sleaze.
Enjoy the decline, motherfuckers!!!!
That's the spirit!
Man, having to sit through the ad totally kills the timing on my link. Fucking intertubez.
That's too weird. My wife and I were discussing Blade Runner just this morning.
And yes, it was in the context of dealing with that salesman, an unsetling experience.
Let's see . . . we touched on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Borg on Star Trek TNG, and a whole lot more but the thing we were getting at was: What does it mean to survive in this world by selling your soul? Was I justified in getting mad at the guy and reading him the riot act when he wasn't evil, just probably trying to put food on the table for his kids and not doing a very good job of it, either
Oh, the Blade Runner reference was, "She doesn't know she's a replicant."
I mean . . . come on . . . even as I type this out there are thousands and thousands of very smart people all over the globe who are trying to figure out how to replace that low-skill guy with a robot, and to be perfectly frank, I'm not so very sure I'd be sorry to see him go.
In classical Greek tragedy the object was catharsis which was the outpouring of emotion, a combination of pity and fear.
Well, you don't always have to sit in the audience to experience it.
That's too weird. My wife and I were discussing Blade Runner just this morning.
[Insert standard joke about being inside his head here]
[Insert follow up quip about the size of accommodations here]
[Insert overly loud laughter here]
[A]nd to be perfectly frank, I'm not so very sure I'd be sorry to see him go.
Yes you would because if they replace him with a bot, that bot will be improved upon year after year until you find that you're spending most of your annual income on lawn maintenance chemicals. Better the obviously desperate salesman with the touch of sleaze about him.
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