News Roundup


(Ad may have been slightly edited to bring it up to date, because nobody wants a Buick anymore…)

Some news you may not have been aware of:


...not to mention that 75,000-mile “new battery” cost.



...wait, what?



...okay, that’s more like it.

From the Global Warming Climate Cooling Change© Dept.:


...you know, there are times when I think we can learn a lot from the French.

In Entertainment News:


...007(a) and 007(b)?

From the Glueball Jewhate News Desk:


...but if I were to do the same outside some mosque shouting “Drown Gaza City!” the response would be a lot swifter, and more severe.

And a “new” development in the Great Cultural Assimilation Program:


...no doubt, on his third or fourth illegal entry into the U.S. via our “secure” border.

In Election News:


...”and that’s only if she campaigns topless from now on”.

And in International News:


...”because we terrorists have to stick together, right?”

In Animal News:


...is it too much to hope that it was a Birkenstock?

And in INSIGNIFICA:

    ...the ducal dildo?
 

Finally, in somewhat-more-palatable Showbiz News:


...just so you all know what the poor man had to deal with, here she is:

Looking a little more perverse, so to speak:

And still not bad, even though a (fake) blonde:

The line to be her next co-star forms over here, behind me.

Proper Attire

Oh FFS, this just takes the cake:

British Airways bosses have apologized for telling cabin crew members what bras to wear under new ‘transparent’ uniforms which led to comments from passengers.
The see-through blouses were issued as part of a new uniform, unveiled earlier this year, designed to ‘take the airline into the next chapter’ and for a non-binary crew.
Last year BA relaxed the rules around its strict uniform policy and went gender-neutral to allow male pilots and crew to wear make-up and carry handbags.

Lemme just deal with the low-hanging fruit first.

  • Companies have every right to create a “uniform” policy, and to dictate what does and does not constitute “proper” clothing under that policy
  • the corollary is that if the uniform consists of “transparent” clothing, they also have the right to set policy for “proper” undergarments
  • but if they do specify transparent clothing, they deserve everything that comes to them.

Now for the ugly stuff.

I’m sick and fucking tired of companies feeling that they have to apologize to their employees for bullshit like this.  Were the topic that of terrible salaries, foul working conditions and in short things that deserve corporate groveling, okay;  but for causing hurt feeewings?  Screw that.

But in to the topic at hand.

Nothing would make me question the capabilities of an airline’s crew faster than the whole thing turning into some kind of costume party, with the “men” wearing clown makeup and the “women” wearing no bra under a transparent blouse (although at first glance the latter wouldn’t seem too bad, please consider that the average age of trolley-dollies now appears to be 50, and all seem to have been recruited from branches of the Ugly Tree).

And frankly, I’m not sure I want to see any of the flight crew wearing transparent clothing, given that said crew will likely include girlymen and butchygirls, all of indeterminate gender.

I don’t know why I bother fulminating about this stuff anymore, considering that my chances of flying at all are minuscule, and on any British airline even less than that.

I’d give this one a try, though.

Always Upwards

Upon reading this cheerful little note:

The economy sustained above-trend growth in the third quarter of 2023, with gross domestic product rising 5.2% year-over-year, greater than the 2.1% that was seen in the second quarter of this year. Analysts are mixed on recession predictions for 2024, with strong growth but persistent inflation leaving mixed signals of the U.S. economy’s strength.

Since Biden took office, costs have risen over 17%, while average hourly wages have only risen 13.6% as of November. The resulting price increases mean that families have to pay more than $11,000 in additional costs to maintain the same standard of living.

…I have only this to say:  with the exception of commodities-based products like gasoline where raw material costs are closely tied to the retail price, once prices go up, they never come down.

Seriously:  when last did you see the everyday retail price of grocery store products — to give the best example — get reduced?

Forget it.  Ain’t gonna happen.  And as for those products which keep prices stable simply by shrinking their size (e.g. chocolate), if you’re expecting the products to go back to their original size once inflation comes down, I have an Arizona rainforest to sell you.

And as for “average hourly wages have only risen 13.6% as of November“, people on fixed income (like me) haven’t seen anything close to that — 4.5% for us, and that was well over a year ago.

And then there’s this:

About two-thirds of households at the bottom 20 percent of the income bracket pay over half their income in rent and utilities.

In my case, without New Wife’s salary it would be 78%.

Ask me how I feel about all this.

Option A:

Option B:

Option C:

Too Much (Hot) Air

Apparently, we’ve been drinking champagne All Wrong:

A wine expert has revealed why you shouldn’t drink Champagne out of a flute [glass, not musical instrument — K]. Master Sommelier Olivier Krug, from Krug Champagne, was a guest on the ‘Got Somme’ podcast hosted by Angus O’Loughlin and Carlos Santos, and suggested using ‘proper’ glassware — such as a pinot noir or chardonnay glass — to taste all the elements of the champagne.

Whatever.

I’ve never cared for champagne:  too gassy, mostly crap-tasting inferior wine, it’s a triumph of marketing over quality.

“Ah but Kim, you’ve just never tried the really good stuff!”

LOL.  I remember once going to a brand promotion party at some mansion in Newport RI and being given a glass (or two) of their “premium” plonk — from memory, it retailed for $420 a bottle, in the 1980s — and thinking that it tasted like inferior fizzy apple juice.  I’ve forgotten the brand;  Dom Perignon?  Moët et Chandon?  Taittinger?  Bollinger?  But it wasn’t Veuve Clicquot, which really does taste like inferior fizzy apple juice.

Frankly, I find that champagne / sparkling wine works best as a component of the brunch staple, Mimosa (or Buck’s Fizz, as the Brits call it), as long as the drink contains much more orange juice than champers.
[Side note:  don’t bother using freshly-squeezed OJ in a Mimosa:  ordinary pasteurized crap works just fine, in fact Tropicana may be even better fit for purpose than the pricier-than-gold squeezed.]
And if you’re going to mix champagne with anything, you may as well save your money and use Korbel or the like, rather than the aforementioned overpriced Frog Appellation Controlée* stuff.

Okay, I’m just a Bloody Peasant and you’ve bought into the whole Champagne thing:  here are a couple of places to get a “best of” list:  18 Best Sparkling Wines to Drink in 2023 and 12 Best Sparkling Wines From All Over the World.

All that said, one of my favorite apéritifs is called a Golden Dream:  peach-flavored schnapps and (any) sparkling wine 50-50%, with a tiny drizzle of brandy (poured gently over an inverted teaspoon so as to lie on the surface of the drink).  Be warned:  drink this lovely stuff in moderation, or extreme shit-facery will soon follow.  Cheers.


*For the non-cognoscenti, only sparkling wine produced in France’s Champagne area may be called “champagne”;  all others must be labeled as “sparkling wine”, regardless of quality.  It’s all part of the marketing.

JHC.

Reminder Of Earlier Predictions

Of course, this is about the Coming Ice Age Of 1970.

Then there’s this one, more trenchantly stated:

Five hundred years ago, no one was driving, flying, using plastic bags or gas stoves. Electric vehicles were not a thing yet. The only vehicle was a horse, possibly pulling a carriage. There was even less CO2 activity 5000 years ago or 5 million years ago. Yet the climate was changing back then. How does science explain that? Or are they making things up now?

I’ll take that last one for $400, Alex.

Fucking charlatans.