Lookin

I've often thought a lot of true family history gets lost between the generations and understandings of the loves, teen years, etc of parents and parents of them etc. I've told friends and with my family, given the easy access to making recordings (with today's consumer technologies assisting), to have those great conversations between generational adults perhaps around the dinner table after holidays to go "deeper" and perhaps record. Charlie Rose, Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt in this wonderful open family interview which I watched tonight on PBS (and can be played back here):
https://charlierose.com/videos/26747
 
I look forward to watching the HBO film documentary that came from their book too. A link about the film (on my to do list) on HBO now then again on CNN at the end of this month:
http://www.hbo.com/…/nothing-left-unsaid-gloria-…/index.html
 
Doug
 
 
PS: And wow, Gloria still looks GREAT and good physically esp given her age of 92+ and even more impressive mentally and that she's an email queen....
 
 
 
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à la Wand Erection.
 

Per my father - (and to my mother's disgust)
A burp is but a gust of wind
That cometh from the heart.
But when it takes a downward course,
It then becomes a f...!

Thanks, AVG, for the notice. I salute all of you g&ters.

A Drink With Something In It
 
There is something about a Martini,
A tingle remarkably pleasant;
A yellow, a mellow Martini;
I wish I had one at present.
There is something about a Martini,
Ere the dining and dancing begin,
And to tell you the truth,
It is not the vermouth—
I think that perhaps it's the gin.
 
There is something about an old-fashioned
That kindles a cardiac glow;
It is soothing and soft and impassioned
As a lyric by Swinburne or Poe.
There is something about an old-fashioned
When dusk has enveloped the sky,
And it may be the ice,
Or the pineapple slice,
But I strongly suspect it’s the rye.
 
There is something about a mint julep.
It is nectar imbibed in a dream,
As fresh as the bud of the tulip,
As cool as the bed of the stream.
There is something about a mint julep,
A fragrance beloved by the lucky.
And perhaps it’s the tint
Of the frost and the mint,
But I think it was born in Kentucky.
 
There is something they put in a highball
That awakens the torpidest brain,
That kindles a spark in the eyeball,
Gliding singing through vein after vein.
There is something they put in a highball
Which you’ll notice one day, if you watch;
And it may be the soda,
But judged by the odor,
I rather believe it’s the Scotch.
 
Then here’s to the heartening wassail,
Wherever good fellows are found;
Be its master instead of its vassal,
And order the glasses around.
For there’s something they put in the wassail
That prevents it from tasting like wicker;
Since it’s not tapioca,
Or mustard, or mocha,
I’m forced to conclude it’s the liquor.
 
Ogden Nash

"The book you've just started reading is titled The Best Short Stories of Isaac Asimov. Now, you and I both know that in truth I ought to have called it The Pretty Good and Pretty Representative Short Stories of Isaac Asimov. But then you'd have been a lot less inclined to buy it. Right?" -- Isaac Asimov

Where are our Uber fanatics on this one?
Jimboi?

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber agreed pay up to $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by San Francisco and Los Angeles alleging the ride-hailing service engaged in unfair business practices.
 
The settlement sends a clear message to businesses, especially start-ups, that "in the quest to quickly obtain market share, laws designed to protect consumers cannot be ignored. If a business acts like it is above the law, it will pay a heavy price,” said San Francisco district attorney George Gascón.
 
As part of the settlement, San Francisco-based Uber will cease claiming that its background checks are the toughest in the industry and will no longer use phrases such as “safest ride on the road” or describe its background checks as “the gold standard," the company said in a statement.
 
The suit was brought by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey.
 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/04/07/uber-pay-up-25-million-fine/82769030/

thanks, True.....that means I gotta trot out this classic......
 

There is no butch way to act when a cockroach decides to climb up your leg...
 
http://gifstop.com/images/animals/cockroach3.gif

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_18XkaPdQZu4/TPHH6Qh_HcI/AAAAAAAAUws/FB4qMOjFdSs/s1600/divorce-lawyer.gif

Just storing this here for future reference...
 

My greatest regret is not making more of the time I had with my partner of 22 years, before his sudden death in 2000. You never realize how much time you really have, and tend to put things off for LATER....
 
Often, Later never comes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AVOpNR2PIs

http://oi58.tinypic.com/sfijb8.jpg

http://oi58.tinypic.com/sfijb8.jpg

Once you alight from that Private Jet and might be a wee bit too tipsy, here's what your Uber driver is supposed give you:
 
 
 
http://cnet4.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2016/01/26/28388953-9e6b-4e83-89b9-1b30706f8ff1/resize/970x546/b1a4d7cc528c4dc9401fb61281649d1a/ec0a3ac950569047f56c87c9b104e27d.jpg
 
Bop the toy, not the Uber driver.
 
Hasbro
 
 
 
 

Uber is using the classic tactic of misdirection to keep drunken passengers from abusing drivers.
 
The ride-hailing service is providing the tipsy in the North Carolina city of Charlotte with the children's toy Bop It to keep them occupied so that their sober drivers don't have to put up with any high jinks, nonsense or abuse.
 
"Folks there have found it's a great way to keep drunk riders entertained so they don't distract their driver," Joe Sullivan, Uber's chief security officer, said in a blog post.

http://www.cnet.com/news/ubers-trick-for-taming-drunks-a-childrens-toy/

http://observer.com/2016/01/why-uber-faces-a-rough-road-ahead/
 
This was an interesting perspective...
 
The Next Big Thing 2016
Why Uber Faces a Rough Road Ahead
Uber’s hostility to any regulation has backfired, and now it must engage in city-by-city combat
 
 
By Lawrence Meyers • 01/13/16 9:00am

Illustration by Carlos Zamora.
Uber is nothing more than a dispatcher for gypsy cabs. That’s all it is.

The company’s business model only works in a Wild West bereft of regulation and relies on a financially naïve workforce. However, regulators are catching up to Uber and drivers are slowly realizing that they’ve been played for fools.
Investors’ only hope is to escape Uber via an IPO, praying that investors support the stock until its sell-by date.
Low Pay Equals High Attrition
A slam-dunk Uber recruitment campaign would center on data showing driver earnings, but the company refuses to release such information. It curiously stopped advertising drivers could make as much as $90,000 per year. Why? Because UberX pay, at best, is equivalent to a taxi driver’s.
Consider the math: For the same trip, an UberX fare will be slightly less than that of a taxi. However, the cab driver will routinely also earn a 15 percent tip, while the UberX driver will lose 36 percent in Uber commission, NYC sales tax and the black car fee. Surge fees don’t make up the difference. Not only does Uber itself report that only 10 percent of fares are surged, but a Northwestern University study concluded that surges actually stifle demand.
Driver expenses deliver the killing blow. My independent firm published a white paper, “Towards a Cost Estimate for a NYC UberX Driver,” which concluded that UberX drivers bear costs of $7.43 per hour, resulting in net hourly pre-tax income equivalent to that of taxis. For those who lease cabs, the leasing fees gobble up an equivalent amount of revenue. Owner-operators, however, still enjoy higher net income, as they do not bear either the Uber commission or lease fees.
This may explain the whopping 45 percent attrition rate for Uber drivers who worked 12 months, a conclusion reached by a study Uber commissioned from the company’s head of research Jonathan Hall and Princeton economist Alan B. Krueger.
It’s possible that attrition rate will only increase, given that Uber just cut fares in more than 100 cities, allegedly only for the “slower month of January.” Like any retailer, markdowns are intended to attract more demand, in the hope that higher volume will make up for the lower prices. However, lower consumer prices also means lower driver income, with no guarantee of increased volume on a per-driver basis.
Uber is now so desperate to recruit drivers that it partnered with shady subprime lender Westlake Financial, offering a lease escape clause if earnings aren’t sufficient.
Clearly, Uber counts on financial naïveté among its workforce. However, the line of marks waiting to see the cheesecake behind the curtain will likely find another attraction.
The Taxi Comeback
Uber faces a more challenging problem in New York City: equilibrium. Most of the 13,587 taxi medallions are on the road 24 hours a day. Uber has 20,448 cars, but only 16 percent of them are rolling at any given time. Why, after four years in New York, with 100 percent market awareness, are so few cars in service? The only explanation is that demand for Uber has been met.
This fact is filtering into the taxi medallion market, which has been moribund for 18 months. Last November, prices began to rise after 13 months of declines.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, there has been an extraordinary turnaround in the number of taxi license applications. The Wall Street Journal reported applications fell by half between 2010 and 2012, as Uber poached cabbies. However, applications for taxi licenses have since doubled, far exceeding the 2010 high.
One logical conclusion: Uber drivers are running back to taxis because of the disappointing pay and poor treatment. Another factor may be the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority’s move to loosen taxi medallion purchase rules, resulting in a waiting list of 250 potential buyers. This undercuts the assertion that Uber is making taxi medallions worthless.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority also just passed restrictions on transportation network companies (TNCs) using main thoroughfares after it found a 20 percent decrease in city speeds.
Urban Warfare
Uber’s hostility to any regulation has backfired, and now it must engage in city-by-city combat. Shannon Liss-Riordan, the acclaimed class action attorney, is suing Uber in California to have the company’s drivers classified as employees rather than independent contractors. She keeps winning battles in the case, and an Uber loss could cost billions in driver recompense. Even if it prevails, Uber will likely face more such cases, and it would only take a handful of wins to gut its coffers.
Meanwhile, Seattle’s city council unanimously permitted drivers to unionize, which could force Uber to offer minimum wage or to exit the market. In the era of the $15 minimum wage, how many more cities will follow?
Uber’s disdain for its “driver-partners” and regulatory authority will only lead to one result: a crash.

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