Mrs. 1ott needed to see the Elton John farewell to N. America (residencies, town halls, and county fairs excepted) so I signed on for a month of Disney+, which means I finally saw The Rise of Skywalker. It played like every other Star Wars movie, with a borrow from every other science fiction series. Hunting for the spice planet? C'mon, man! Death is very low stakes, at least for the charismatic leads, when you can talk to ghosts. There appear to be two categories: 1. real ghosts who can interact with our world with some effort and 2. mind ghosts (scene between Han Solo and Kylo Ren). There's mumbo-jumbo to explain this, but esthetically this is very jarring. It's like a character on stage pouring water from a pitcher, taking a drink, then leaving thru a doorway. Then another character mimes pouring water, mimes drinking from the invisible glass, and mimes opening a door. You wonder what the heck is going on?
Monday, November 28, 2022
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Jumping the metaphorical turnstile
The story below from the NYT 11/13/22 is the definition of entitlement:
Dear Diary:
Caro and I spent that college summer back home in Hoboken, traveling to our internships via Port Authority each day.
My internship was unpaid, but it came with the stellar consolation prize of an unlimited monthly MetroCard. I got a monthly bus pass, too, and bounced happily around the boroughs to see friends on weekends. Some days, I crossed the Hudson four times since all the rides had already been paid for.
I planned to spend the last weekend of that July out of town, and I promised Caro my MetroCard before I left so that no free ride would go unused.
But while waiting at Port Authority for a bus to take me upstate, I realized I had forgotten to make the handoff. I decided to hide the MetroCard somewhere at the terminal.
I went to Duane Reade, found the cheesiest greeting card in the racks there and stashed the MetroCard between the third and fourth envelopes behind it. I texted Caro the details of the hiding spot (sending a picture would have been too easy).
On the way home from the city two hours later, Caro found my gift: three days’ worth of free subway rides.
Total bliss.
— (name withheld)
Somebody should tell this sprited young lady that she may have committed petit larceny, as my father taught us about the use of his pass. His unlimited train/bus pass, given to MTA employees and retirees, was for his use only. He said that a lot of people thought that transit workers abused this privilege by letting family members use it, but I know we didn't. Pay your fare!
And to explain the concept of "free" rides, or "free" anything for that matter, take the total budget and divide by the number of rides. Studies show that the subway fare is subsidized by sources outside the rider's cost of a MetroCard for $1.05 per ride. In other words, your fare does not pay for the entire ride. So when you abuse a "free" card, you steal $2.75 (your cost) + $1.05 (subsidy) in theft of service. But in a city that won't prosecute chronic fare beaters, I guess it's all moot.
Dear Diary:
Caro and I spent that college summer back home in Hoboken, traveling to our internships via Port Authority each day.
My internship was unpaid, but it came with the stellar consolation prize of an unlimited monthly MetroCard. I got a monthly bus pass, too, and bounced happily around the boroughs to see friends on weekends. Some days, I crossed the Hudson four times since all the rides had already been paid for.
I planned to spend the last weekend of that July out of town, and I promised Caro my MetroCard before I left so that no free ride would go unused.
But while waiting at Port Authority for a bus to take me upstate, I realized I had forgotten to make the handoff. I decided to hide the MetroCard somewhere at the terminal.
I went to Duane Reade, found the cheesiest greeting card in the racks there and stashed the MetroCard between the third and fourth envelopes behind it. I texted Caro the details of the hiding spot (sending a picture would have been too easy).
On the way home from the city two hours later, Caro found my gift: three days’ worth of free subway rides.
Total bliss.
— (name withheld)
Somebody should tell this sprited young lady that she may have committed petit larceny, as my father taught us about the use of his pass. His unlimited train/bus pass, given to MTA employees and retirees, was for his use only. He said that a lot of people thought that transit workers abused this privilege by letting family members use it, but I know we didn't. Pay your fare!
And to explain the concept of "free" rides, or "free" anything for that matter, take the total budget and divide by the number of rides. Studies show that the subway fare is subsidized by sources outside the rider's cost of a MetroCard for $1.05 per ride. In other words, your fare does not pay for the entire ride. So when you abuse a "free" card, you steal $2.75 (your cost) + $1.05 (subsidy) in theft of service. But in a city that won't prosecute chronic fare beaters, I guess it's all moot.
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