Why do you get so much more for your money for basically the same service depending on only where you are?

A hotel room in Tokyo is three times what you pay in Atlanta, a steak in Detroit is half the same cut you may get in New York. Going to a movie in Los Angeles is double what it would cost in Charlotte.
Maybe you argue that you get more for your money than just the item but honestly that can't be enough.

What is the most outrageous though is that a bottle of Miller Lite at the Ava Lounge overlooking Tomes Square in NYC costs $8 while the exact same bottle in Columbus Ohio would cost me $2.50.  

There is no difference in the beer quality you are paying for the setting and the view.    I guess we pay a premium because arguably there is better eye-candy in NYC might be better than Columbus.  My problem is that the chicks probably aren't hotter than the chicks in Columbus so it's really only the setting which although cool is probably not 3 times as much fun as the Columbus bar.

You pay for atmosphere, location and hot chicks to stand in the same room as you.

This seems to be standard practice regardless of industry but there is one industry which doesn't seem to take setting or eye-candy in mind when setting their prices, the strip-club industry.

Have you ever noticed that regardless if you are at the Spearmint Rhino or Crazy Horse in Vegas, FD's or the Penthouse club in NYC where the girls are all A's with D's or you go to Franks Chicken House outside of New Brunswick where they are D's with C's you almost always pay $20 to walk through the door and $20 per song.
In other words you get either a girl who can pass for Roller Girl or you get a girl who looks like she went through the roller derby and you pay the same buck. This is the one industry which is all about looks yet their product all costs the same. All lapdances cost the same regardless of where you go and I can't figure out why because you wouldn't pay the same money for a Armani sweater as you would one from the GAP.

There is an old adage in strip-clubbing which states that you never get the hottest chick because she will not work as hard for her money. You obviously don't get the one with the stretch marks and ugly tattoos either but you scout to find one who needs to work for her money.

Maybe that means that all of the ones working in Queens are the equivalent of a street-cart vendor when it comes to effort
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Vets

What I’ve never understood about national holidays in the US is how exactly they think they are honoring anybody.


Today is Veterans Day and TOR would like to send out or heartfelt gratitude for the men and women in uniform around this world who are fighting for our country (however misguided some of the reasons we are there may be.)

All week I’ve seen NFL pregame shows held in Afghanistan, Mike & Mike broadcasting from a battleship in the NY Harbor or Lebron James sending out his well wishes to the troops which are all fine displays of support but honestly not nearly enough considering we have asked an all volunteer army to go back for tour-after-tour in Iraq or Afghanistan with very little support from anybody when they return.

The shooting in Fort Hood this week was horrible but what is worse is that these types of crimes on bases are far from scarce they happened way too often. Violent acts committed by service men and women are greater than what happens to normal civilians. Service men-and-women suffer higher levels of depression, have higher divorce rates and are more likely to fall into homelessness than me or you and a lot of it can be directly correlated to tours of duty in war-zones.

The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that these men and women suffer from is devastating for their families and themselves but the fact we ‘honor’ our men and women by giving them a day which most people use to go shopping or relax is embarrassing.


As a nation who covets its freedom, I ask

Why don’t we compensate these people better?

Why not offer them better psychological help when they return?

Why don’t we stop sending them for tour after devastating tour?

What always sits in the pit of my stomach is the fact that there are so many holiday’s which have become reason’s for car-dealers or electronics stores to have sales.

Look at Memorial Day or Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday; they are celebrated on Monday’s so that people can go away for a long weekend. These should be the kinds of holidays where kid’s are in schools learning about great people and great sacrifice not days to sit at the beach or hit the ski-slopes

It's not a library

I don't leave any magazine or books in my bathroom because I am a firm believer of getting in-and-out when it comes to somebody else's shit-house and don't want to give anybody any incentive to stick around.


Secondly there is the contamination issue. I have friends who won't touch the handles in the subway but would happily pick up a MAXIM magazine in somebody's bathroom. I'm not squeamish but the last thing in the world I want to do is get my hands I already know is covered in human excrement. What kind of civilized person wants to touch any page of a magazine which somebody may have used as toilet tissue 20 minutes earlier.

My old roommate told me he couldn't go unless he was reading something but when I refused to leave anything worth reading he took to reading the ingredients in the toothpaste. I would purposely leave crappy magazines in the can so he wouldn't rummage into my room for my stash. Poor kid read the same shitty copy of US Weekly for 2 years.



So people please.

 No reading in the shithouse: sit, squeeze, wipe and leave

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At least you’ll only need one meal per day

Watching a show on the Travel Channel the other day where they were going around the country trying for find the most fattening, greasy, highest calorie meals. They went high and low and finally came to some place called the Heart Attack Grill in Arizona which featured a sandwich called the Quadruple Bypass. This bad boy has Four Half-Pound burgers, soaked in lard with all the fixin’s and is paired with unlimited fries fried in lard.

They pride themselves on wheeling customers out of the restaurant in a wheelchair and any customer who weighs in over 350lbs eats free EVERY day. This is exactly what this country needs, the slobs who now have a weight goal so they can get fatter and more disgusting.

My buddy OCZed makes the following comment

I feel better now knowing that I will now be paying for the health care of the mouthbreathers that eat this stuff.

Going onto the Heart Attack website, I have to say that at least they are consistent.  In addition to their vaunted Quadruple Bypass burger their menu features Jolt Cola and Unfiltered cigarettes. So not only do they fatten you up, they ease your demise by burning your lungs and then getting your heart to race at 1000 beats per minute which can only lead to a 350lb slob keeling over.  Maybe it's their way of avoiding too many of these fatty's from eating them out of house and home with their Eat Free deal.

I know there are arguments against health-care with preexisting conditions but having cholesterol over 200 should not be treated in the same way as having cancer in your family-lines. There are some things you have no control over and there are some things you do.

I actually feel for (gulp) the insurance companies who have to insure somebody with a cholesterol level higher than the total hits Ichiro averages in a season. Seems to me that if you are not going to give a crap about your own body then why should anybody else? We should go to each of these households and rig up a stationary bike to the TV so that the energy needed to power the TV must come from some slob riding the bike.

Discusing this entire thing with a group of friends one of them mentioned that even Burger King now offers a triple Whopper meal which comes in at 2000 calories. At least the Heart Attack Grill is a novelty, this is a major chain restaurant with locations in every town of this country. 
What does this say about our populatin when they are the same amount of calories in a single meal  what is recommended as a daily diet.  

A single meal of 2000 fucking calories, if you have this as a regular part of your diet you deserve to die.

Health Care 101

Early this morning the House of Representatives past their version of health-care which regardless of how you feel about the thought of universal care was historic. TOR had a few observations

- CNN reported at about 11pm that they had learned of 39 democrats who would be voting against the health-bill.. They described them "not as typical' democrats in the sense they were pro gun, anti abortion, anti-deficit and obviously anti universal care. I guess they are considered Blue Dog Democrats although in my world those would be called 'republicans'.
It seems a bit strange to be against the main four platforms of the entire party but still be considered a member. This is like claiming you're a porn star but refusing to give BJ's or do anal.. The Democrats will take anybody apparently: from liberals to conservatives, from god hating to god fearing, from blue dogs to blue cross and from the most corrupt to batman.

- I don't think there was much Republican support for the bill so it proved again Obama's ability to bring people together.. Too bad for him he brought those BlueDogs together with their Republican brethren.

- immediately Obama sent out a 'personal' email thanking his email-rolls for their support. Maybe he didn't realize that TOR philosophically disagrees with having health-care tied to your employment so not sure how personal that personal message was after all.

- I also noticed the email asked for a donation of $25 or whatever you could afford to continue the fight as the Senate votes on their bill. Wouldn't that $25 be better spent (or saved) to pay for increased copays? Especially for the 10% of people who are now unemployed.




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Why waste my airtime and more importantly my real time

There isn't a more meaningless costly energy-wasting irritant in this world than the cell-phone voicemail. I know there are probably people who disagree but I cannot think of a single reason to spend cell-phone minutes to call my voicemail to only get a message like. "Hey dude, call me back"

1- it's a cell-phone which shows a missed call as soon as you pick it up. I don't need a second reminder to call you back. If I don't call you back it's not that I forgot but more likely that I don't want to. ..

2-there is already a superior method of communication through a cell-phone and it's called a "text message". Checking a text message is quicker and easier and unless you can't yet email or MAYBE if you still have an email address which ends in @aol.com you should be almost exclusively using text

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Netiquette

As the regular TOR reader knows, the editorial board has two hard and fast rules

1- We hate everybody and everything
2- We invite everybody and everything to use the platform to pitch and bitch


We got an entry for our regular 'Relief Bitcher' section yesterday from TOR reader (and soon to be groom) as the starting bitcher has gotten a bit gassed late in the game it's time for the manager to call in his big-guns.

The stereo-system blasts U2's "Beautiful Day' as righty Philphy Ryan jogs in from the dugout.   Ryan's got a 2-5 record, a 4.13 ERA, a crappy haircut, a hot fiance, 6 holds, three blown saves and a 1.29 WHIP but it's a 1-10 blowout game and the fans are looking for some excitement so here it goes:

I’ve got quite a few serious pet peeves when it comes to netiquette but there are two that drive me insane:

Evite and two things within Evite. People who look at the evite and don’t respond. Why look at it multiple times and say not even say maybe? You know the organizer can see that you’re looking at it every day right? It’s like the young teenager who goes into the magazine store and loiters near the porn mags pretending to read fly fishing monthly! That’s why I never open an evite if I’m not ready to respond. The other thing I hate in evite is when people make changes (picking the actual location or changing the time or whatnot) and send out an ‘I made changes’ email. Why can’t you make a note of the changes in the email so we don’t have to click on the bloody link? Seriously!


BCC – Staying on the party scene, why do people send out invitations to meet up and BCC everyone? I make a point of not replying if I don’t know who else has been invited. Is it an intimate affair or a blow out party? What if there’s some idiot I want to avoid? Probably the one sending the damn email to begin with. You see, the distribution list is critical in making an informed decision about attendance. This is especially true in NY where there always seem to be conflicting parties and dinners. It’s somewhat similar to sending a text message and saying ‘hi everyone, wanna meet up?’ This gives me no details and doesn’t even get a response. Also, I’ve noticed the BCC crew (I’d use an acronym for BCC but the first C rhymes with runt and the second one rhymes with hunt), do this BCC thing for everything! Articles, requests for info, filling in a survey, etc. Is there some secret BCC society where nobody knows who else is a member cos for obvious reasons?!?!?

Musical Chairs!!!

Opposite Side of the Street parking in New York is like a giant game of musical chairs expect in this case there is only one chair and about 30 people looking to plant their oversized ass on it. I have spent so many hours looking for a parking spot due to all the street-sweeping regulations that I’m ready to rip my hair out as I drive around the same block for the 10th time. I know I drive a hybrid so in theory I’m not burning that many gallons of Saudi bought oil but the aggravation of not finding a spot isn’t offset by that fact.

The problem with these parking situations in these yuppie neighborhoods is that there are easily 100 more cars than spots so you can’t ever just drive up and find a spot. My neighborhood continues to build huge 100 unit condominiums which comes with 100 new yuppie couples with 100 new puppies or strollers but most importantly usually comes with maybe 20 new cars. This is where the city of NYC has it all wrong. We pride ourselves with the fact that so many people use public transportation so I’m sure we use less petroleum per capita than the rest of the country in our commutes to work but then there aren’t nearly enough spots so we burn our petroleum not on an 8AM commute but instead an 8PM game of Duck-Duck-Goose.

I refuse to go to a parking lot because like George Costanza said ‘You don't understand. A garage... I can't even pull in there. It's like going to a prostitute. Why should I pay, when if I apply myself, maybe I could get it for free?’ What I have considered the Seinfeld-esque idea of paying somebody to find a move my car during street-sweeping days but I’m not sure about giving my keys to some nut-job.

So although I feel dirty about using a parking lot, I have come to the point where I would pay somebody for their spot on the street. I’ve spent a good two hours of my life in the last few weeks circling around my block and have really considered pulling up to somebody who just pulled into a spot and offering them $10 for it.

one last thought, which genius the the NYC parking spot department decided that all the streets cleaned on Monday's and Tuesday's are the same sides as the fire hydrants which means that on the days there are two or three less total spots per block

Don't trust a Bodega

Sometimes life hands you lemons and sometimes it hands you a bad egg and cheese. Walking to work yesterday, something felt wrong when I got there and the only thing I could point to was an egg and cheese on roll from a Bodega. I'm sure this was my own fault because by trusting anything not in a can with preservatives at a Bodega is taking your life into your hands. It wasn't that I didn't feel good but something wasn't sitting right. Egg and cheese is a great combo and honestly it shouldn't be the kind of thing somebody could mess up, especially this badly.
Well it went from not feeling right to not being right when I was sitting at a meeting the other day. I think we've all been there when you think you can sneak a fart by but instead find yourself sitting in a puddle..
The looks on everybody's faces as they started to sniff around was probably funny but the look of fear on my own face was probably worse.. I excuse myself before anybody realized what went wrong, run into the can, strip and throw my old pair of drawers into the toilet and flush.

Of course then the toilet overflows and now my shoes match the seat of my pants.

MLIA
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term limits

For those not in NYC you may not realize it but Mike Bloomberg is running for a third term as NYC mayor today. He will win by 20 percentage points after having spent almost $250 million dollars in three campaigns for mayor which dwarfs anything his opponents have been able to put together. The bigger issue is that Bloomberg in one of his back-door deals with the New York City Council extended term limits from two terms to three which overturned the will of the people who voted to put term limits in place in 1993 and reconfirmed them via referendum three years later.


The funny thing about term limits is that you know this is generally not an issue people have really strong philosophical opinions about, people believe in term limits when they hate the incumbent and disagree with them when they love the incumbent .

I believe these referendums are really a referendum on the incumbent, see I am convinced If George W. Bush had been able to run for a third term a group of people would be spending all their time fighting for term limits it I’m sure the same people who would have supported term-limits in this case would have been against them for Abraham Lincoln had he been (a) alive for a third term and (b) term limits been an issue then.

I believe the referendum’s past by the NYC voters were votes against the incumbent (Rudy Guiliani) at that time from running again not a philosophical decision that a mayor should only be able to run the city for only eight years.

But what I am always annoyed though that term-limit decisions are so haphazard, certain positions like the criminal state senators up in Albany have no term-limits while NYC mayor can only run for two years. There is way more harm that Bruno did or Silver has done in the Statehouse by their vice-grips on the legislation there than any harm Bloomberg can ever do. This happens and is especially dangerous because the average voter has no idea what is happening in Albany and the backroom deals being brokered there while they probably have a decent sense of what the mayor of NY is doing. The office they know something about they have less say in than the office they know almost nothing about.

At the end of the day, Bloomberg bought off the city board to reverse the will of the people and then tried to buy the votes of NYC by bombarding us with his mailings.

I have many friends sitting this election out for this specific reason but I’ll vote for Bloomberg because although I hate the way he strong-armed his way onto the ballot when it comes to the choices presented I do believe he is the best choice for mayor this year.

The reason I wouldn’t vote for Bloomberg is because I'm annoyed and appalled at the amount of trees he killed with his god-damn mailings

Recovery?

Manufacturing at a 3-1/2 year high



Purchasing managers' index of manufacturing activity shows growth for the third straight month, indicating a 'sustainable recovery.'

Ford reports a nearly $1 billion profit


The only U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy posts an unexpected profit thanks to a big lift from Cash for Clunkers sales.

Home sales contracts rise for 8th straight month


Real estate rally attributed to first-time homebuyer tax credit that expires at the end of November

Stimulus creates 640,000 jobs


White House releases first broad look at stimulus-funded employment, focusing on $150 billion in spending. But skeptics question the number and quality of the jobs.

Reading the above headlines on CNN.com would give you the impression that apparently the country is emerging from a deep recession which would be a positive sign for the country if it could truly be considered a sustainable recovery. But as corporations are showing profits (although still trailing the profits that Goldman Sachs has shown) the average Americans haven’t quite seen this recovery hit their own pocket-books. Another running theme seems to be that a lot of these turn-around seem to be tied to government intervention including ‘cash for clunkers’ and ‘homebuyers credit’ so to call this sustainable may imply that they would have to remain partially funded by government programs. It all points to the Stimulus money, which may show its merit but if it’s just a propped up recovery than what happens when the stimulus money runs out?   I think calling any of this recovery sustainable without considering the government funding is premature

But this is where I’m always a bit confused in terms of capitalism. People will scream that the government intervening but so often those are the same people who themselves benefit from the crutch. If you have a guy screaming about public options because they will raise the national dept but not mention that the only reason they have been so successful is because of the pay-roll tax credit given for them offering health care. The manufacturing sector which is comprised of a bunch of Harley driving, tattoo having, Obama hating but when their jobs are sustained by government intervention nobody is bitching. Take the banking industry who will tell you that government involvement can’t understand their complexity and should not regulate them but then take handouts left and right.

See everybody complains except when they are getting hand-jobs under the table.


So where are we really? I think most American’s feel sick when they see Goldman Sachs show big earnings because they received TARP money both directly and also indirectly through AIG but the bigger picture is that they got a global confidence boost because it’s well established that our government has decided that this is the kind of company Too Big to Fail.

The only way to avoid this is to not allow any big companies (in any industry) to become Too Big to Fail and also by letting bad companies to die

In a NY state of Mind

Having been part of the great spectacular NYC marathon the last two years, waking up on a cool marathon morning knowing I wouldn't have a chance to run it was a bittersweet moment. Obviously running this year went out the window when our daughter was born 5 weeks early but standing on the sidelines cheering on the runners still gave me chills.
The thing that gets me as I watch the runners pass me at mile 7 (when they still have a lot of energy) it always puts a smile on my face when you see guys running the entire 26.2 in a full suit or dribbling a basketball. I know people this even running this thing is lunacy but to power yourself through this race while dressed in a tutu or being pulling a huge helium balloon is pure nuts.

But at the end it's a great NY event; the city embraces the almost 40 thousand people who will finish this race somewhere between 2 hours and 8 hours but for each person it's a duel with themselves. The race is especially tough because of the hills and the bumpercar like track but the energy the NY fans bring helps cary many a r runner through the distance

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Presidential platform

If I were to run for president I would do it on these platforms

- take the burden of health-care off the backs of businesses. The health of a nation should not be funded by it's business sector

- get a playoff system going in the BCS.. If the NFL, MLB, Hockey, Soccer and the NCAA basketball can manage a playoff, there is no reason why NCAA Division 1 football can't

-pull back 90% of aid to countries not pushing democracy. I'm done paying off bullies and thugs

- change the Halloween celebration to the last Friday in October. TOR has taken this on in the past, so it's not a surprise but for what is supposed to be a kid's holiday we aren't doing it any favors by keeping it tied to a date instead of a relative day. For a holiday where kid's are supposed to go out and revel in childhood innocence there seems to be a major disconnect. Why we would ever hold this holiday on a Tuesday night is beyond me, I you celebrated it on a Friday it would allow schools to have their kid's parades and with it not being a school night allowing kids to trick or treat worry free.
Plus Friday Night is a perfect bar night to gawk at hot horny chicks.
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Carrots and Sticks have to include some sticks

I’m a terrible poker player because I can’t seem to bluff anybody, when I have big money on the line my hand shakes, I have a hard time making eye contact and my gut forces me to be conservative when I should be looking to bully people out of pots. I like the game, I love the statistical part of it and if I’m not playing with my own money and felt no repercussions I probably would be able to do OK at it. My issues with the game especially on a low-stakes level is that too many people take themselves too seriously, too afraid to show their hand by even making small talk. . The biggest issue I have with Poker is that I can’t seem to get out when I’m pot committed which is the same reason I can’t seem to drop Reggie Bush in my fantasy football league. He cost me a first round pick, has shown some glimmer but keeps banging me in the ass.

This is what I feel like in Afghanistan at this point, we feel like we are pot-committed and like the jackass who shows up at some garden apartment in Brooklyn for a tournament wearing ray-bands and a headset, you feel like they aren’t playing the same game you are. Look at Pakistan we have showered them with more money in Military aid to stop the Taliban from regrouping and the only thing that has happened is that the Taliban has regrouped and are essentially setting up an Al Qaida Disney World in the tribal regions. We keep throwing money at hoping things will change, at some point you have to realize that giving your bratty kid money you are just paying him off and his behavior will not change. The way you get his attention is by withholding his allowance. Carrots and Sticks have to include some sticks.

Just like I believe it’s completely justified for Ray-Bands Head-set guy to get physically pummeled the second he walks into the guy’s house whose throwing the poker party, I think Obama is completely justified to walk away from Karzai and his group of Soprano type thugs running the show in Kabul. They steal elections, get paid off by everybody, allow a flourishing heroin market to blossom and are still at the mercy of warlords, I’m not exactly sure why we would consider these the people we want to help bring democracy with. I don’t’ want to double-down just because we are pot-committed, I think it’s time to spend some time and money rebuilding our infrastructure, school systems and health-care’s which have all been treated like Guantanamo prisoners.

Neither Pakistan or Afghanistan has shown any stomach for being a real partner in bring down the safe havens because of the corruption which runs through them like alcohol runs through me on a good Friday Night. I say we bring home the troops one brigade per week from Afghanistan and cut our financial aid $1 million dollars per day to Pakistan until we see some progress.

And if that doesn’t work send over the sunglasses-head-phones poker guy to try to negotiate peace with the Taliban.

what's next Mr. December?

I’ve often argued that although not nearly as athletic as others baseball, unlike the other major sports, is the perfect game because there is no chance to Run-out-the-Clock. You must get through 27 batters in order to win a game, no matter how many mound trips, shake-offs or throw-overs to first base that a pitcher may take. Baseball is the perfect combination because of the symmetry: every major point of the game has the aura of three (three strikes, three outs, nine innings), the strategy: righty-righty matchups, double-switches, leaving a pitcher in and the pace which sometimes painfully slow leads to so much drama because there is so much involved.


Baseball allows for the only true home-field advantage which is based on rules not stadium acoustics, baseball has real strategy and being able to confine the adrenaline and being able channel it into concentration remains the best weapon for any player. Baseball has its downfalls too, it can be boring as all hell, it is too easily influenced by bad calls but most importantly it’s a kid’s game meant to be played on fields in the afternoons and instead has become manipulated by the dollar in every way.

In the mid and late 70’s, Reggie Jackson cemented his image in the hearts and minds of the fans of the New York Yankees and Oakland A’s for his heroics in the baseball postseason and earned him the nickname ‘Mr. October’. Two and a half decades later in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Derek Jeter was dubbed ‘Mr. November’ as the Fall Classic was moved into November only after a 10 day hiatus in the regular season as the country dealt with the blow of the attacks. It was the only time that the world-series had been played in November and Jeter’s nickname seemed like it could not be overtaken for the sole reason that baseball wouldn’t purposely play the game of summer in a potential nor’easter. Well this is 2009 and we have a black president, a more stable Iraq than Pakistan and a porn industry which is bleeding money because of sites like YouPorn and XNXX and Bud Selig and his cronies decided that they can’t make enough money from April till October and now need to include another month to an already marathon season.

What disturbs me is not the fact that baseball extends for a few weeks but that playing into the middle of November is like having Hockey played in July, the feel is all wrong. Baseball of course has betrayed its fans over and over again by looking the other way as it became the ‘legitimate’ version of the WWE during the raging years in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and has spent itself into oblivion like a coked-out Wall Street executive of the mid 2000’s, so why should we expect anything different.

Last night I watched the first game of the World Series which started at 8pm which ensured that virtually no child under 14 saw the 5th inning. Which drips of irony as you still hear players refer to it as a ‘kid’s game’ while they are getting paid like those Wall Street execs who themselves have been accused of confusing their profession with a game.

taking it up the (hybrid) five hole

There aren’t many times when I feel like I’ve been ass-banged as hard as badly as when I recently left the place I bought the Hybrid Mobile. I’m not referring to the fact that the entire theory behind a hybrid to save gas kind of goes out the window when the first time I put a buddy in the car the hybrid engine never kicked in and it ran on gas the entire time but the fact that even the most seemingly honest car-dealers are still complete shysters when it comes down to it.
The good news is that in Park Slope where it takes 30 minutes of circling the block to find a parking spot I'm running on that free battery gas.


Now I feel like I got a good deal on the car (which hopefully includes that $1500 tax credit for buying a Hybrid), got a good warranty and was very happy with the delivery of the car when I picked it up a few weeks ago. What I wasn’t thrilled with was the fact that I show up and the last person you deal with is the finance manager who takes all the good feelings you have and shove it down the toilet.

First of all during the entire negotiation I discussed a car-loan rate of about 4.9% with the salesman who made that APR very realistic but when I got to the closing the finance manager started talking about 5.9% but guaranteed that they have done all the research and that bar-none the best rate would be offered through CHASE and that if my credit was good he would do his absolute best to get me the best rate.

I show up two days later to hand the $10,000 and pick up the car and as I’m signing the contract I noticed that the CHASE loan is at 6.37% but the finance manager told me that I was in good shape because if I would be willing to open a checking account at CHASE that they would drop my rate by 0.5%. Not knowing shit from shit, I was a bit annoyed with the last minute switch but as with the excitement of the first new car I’ve ever owned I signed away because the finance manager assured me that it was a great rate.

Fast forward a week when I’m telling the story to a buddy who says surprisingly that he got 4.5% for a used car and that he was shocked at the rate. I call Bank of America and they offer me 4.4% on the spot and after running a credit-report they say high 3’s is a possibility, even the CHASE website offers 4.5% all over the place.
I will obviously refinance but the cost is $300 which is like taking alcohol to my groin after getting stabbed there with an ice-pick.

So these criminals over at Manhattan Ford never shopped my loan to get my best rate but instead funneled it to their bank who probably gives them a healthy kick-back. They wait until the last possible second to introduce their special rate for their customers.  next time you are going to ass-rape me, at least buy me dinner



MLIA

179

It's been almost 20 years but finally after years of working out 5 to 6 days a week, after having avoided carbs, after 2 marathons and many weeks of 40 miles on the streets of NY City have I finally come below 180 pounds.
What is surprising is that I have finally hit this goal not through diet and exercise so I am a bit perplexed. How does a guy who six weeks ago ran 40 miles in a week on the hard NY pavement who hasn't ran 40 miles combined since actually manage to lose weight.
I can't give Þhge credit to my diet which is as bad as it's ever been and with the baby on board I can't say I've been sleeping particularly well and I spend most nights crashed on the couch not out getting shit-faced at bars since the baby was born.

So the way I see it, I've eliminated about 25 beers per week from my diet at 150 calories per bottle -> 3750 less calories per week..

I guess this was all it took.
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Why Steve Why??

Steve Philip the ESPN analyst and former NY Mets general manager pulled a Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky and got caught tagging some 22 year old subordinate.


Like Clinton, Steve Phillips has a history of extra-marital affairs when he accused of sexual misconduct while working for the Mets about 10 years ago and admitted to consensual sex with a Mets employee. Having dinner with a bunch of buddies last night the question came up to why a guy like Steve Philips would break his marital vows by banging the kind of chick who looks like a total hose-bag.

Then you look at the filthy slob that Letterman cheated with, another chick who looks like she’s been smoking cigars, playing poker and getting n gang-banged by Rickey Henderson, Roberto Alomar and Bobby Bonilla.    Look Bill Clinton- on his way to the most powerful Man in the world- tagged Paula Jones who looks like Bobby Jones and Paul La Duca

What is the craziest thing about it is that Phillip’s wife is a much hotter piece of ass than this slob and honestly why would you risk everything for that. The only excuse you can think of for Phillips sticking his baseball-bat in this bat would be that she’s 22 and she’s got that “I love giving BJ’s” look in her eyes but at the end of the day you know that this is all about the power a guy like this feels when tagging a subordinate.

Steve Phillips has that ‘Roger Sterling with a goatee” look to him, and if the fact he’s got lipstick on every one of his shirt-collars you got to know that a dude with a silver goatee is cheating on his wife.

Humidifier

So with a sniffling 5 week old, I was advised to buy a humidifier which I happily did and unwrapped as soon as I got home and now my entire house feels like a swamp. I am convinced that these things to minimize the effects of the flu but instead help to spread the flu. A room at 85 degrees and completely humid sounds like the ideal place for viruses and bacteria to thrive. This is what my jock area feels like after a long run and I know there is crap growing there.
This is like walking into a NYSC sauna and being convinced that if you bend over you'll be OK.. Use a little common sense and you"ll realize that the dudes aren't smuggling hot sausages into the locker rooms...
At the same time Obama declares a state of emergency around the VH1N1 and I'm sure the crowded hospitals will now start to look like those public buses in India with people pouring out of every corner.. Maybe he's trying to stir up support to overhaul the healthcare system by showing it's failure to handle a crisis...
Why is it that our healthcare system acts like a funnel when it comes to the uninsured but what I don't get about the argument against a public option is that people will say there is already an option for the poor which is emergency rooms... Who pays for these visits geniuses? Go ahead and send a guy who makes $6 an hour at a Bodega a bill for $20,00 and see how much of it he'll pay..
You have a better chance not getting your pipes cleaned in that NYSC sauna.
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There are some people who will match their sweater to their socks or their hat to their sneakers but as I am not exactly a slave to fashion these are not things that concern me.

What I do try to match is my beer to the season. As the weather moves from the almost non existent summer to the cool fall air I resist the Summer Ales and move to the Octoberfest which seems like such an obvious choice. Now I am sure that 90% of this is marketing but having a Corona at a ski lodge doesn't feel right nor does an IPA feel right sitting on a beach.
Now there were a couple of beers which can span the seasons (Rheingold RIP) and a few which just aren't seasonal (Coors Lite, Heineken) but aren't usually not your first choice at a bar. I'm sure somebody will mention Guinness but I am not convinced that works in Cancun.
Now obviously the beer companies are all doing spring and summer ales as well as Octoberfests and winter lagers but I am talking about the straight run-of-the-mill beer and I cannot think of one which is great paired with every season.
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