“Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” – Thor Heyerdahl Looking through the email inbox today I ran across a post from Matt Labash’s Substack, in which he took note that today, the last remaining Blockbuster store on the planet (It’s in
How often to you read a nice story about something you care about, too? It doesn't sound earth shattering, but in fact it is about your daily life and about some of the simple things in life that you miss. This story by TC, PROGRESS, is that kind of story. I've had great relationships with some of the shopkeepers in my neighborhood and still do, but there are fewer of them as Amazon, chain stores and rents drove them out. Americans have become more isolated by PROGRESS/TECHNOLOGY/MONOPOLIES. We don't have the associations with which we got things done together, socialized and made friends. PROGRESS is a bombshell that went off years ago, and we didn't realize what was happening to us.
…or call them 'retrogrades' pushing human life backward and putting planet earth on fire. They, Reagan and the Republicans, were Anti-Life, and they are still at it... more than ever!
The past 40 years is as Lewis Lehrman in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Mar 17, 1985) said it would be. “Conservative Revolution will alter all Policies. Our economic, our social, and our international policies are going to be altered in every significant respect. The president hasn’t even begun the program of constitutional reform and the change in social policy.” Not a long article but lays it all out. Lehrman was handpicked by Reagan to head the Citizens for America grass-roots conservative lobby. Last time I googled Lehrman, he was still alive. Wonder what he thinks of their efforts to “improve” America today….
I'm occupied with work this afternoon, believe it or not, but I have no interest in the Super Bowl except that it means that pitchers and catchers report in the next week, so we can get down to business with an actual sport.
So I quote this statement to my classes: "Sometimes you make progress in the wrong direction." Huh? I point out that it is now possible to telephone people from airplanes. That's a technological advance, but is it really progress?
I also tell them the quote comes from a great philosopher named Robert McKimson, and they look even more puzzled. Then I explain that he was a legendary Warner Bros. animator who, as a director, created the Tasmanian Devil as well as the kangaroo, and a very loud chicken named Foghorn Leghorn. Interestingly, what he referred to when he made that statement was how he loved the kind of animation with big sweeping gestures and action at a time that his colleague Chuck Jones's approach became more dominant--Bugs getting a laugh by just raising an eyebrow.
Both those guys were good. A good friend of mine was once directing an episode of "Home Improvement" over at Mauschwitz, and he and his 1st AD spent one lunch hour in the studio cafeteria arguing over whether Bugs Bunny was better than Mickey Mouse (he took Bugs). By the time he finished lunch and went back to his office, there was a personally signed memo from Michael Eisner, telling him how much they liked working with him and looked forward to doing so in the future, but he should keep his "non-work-related" artistic opinions to himself. (And now you know why we called it "Mauschwitz") After that, he brought lunch from home and ate in his office. No need to tempt the Staatspolizei.
no contest. there was NEVER a contest. Mickey is a shill and always was (although I always thought he looked a little like Tyrone Power). bland, bland, bland. Bugs is the coolest guy in the room, whatever the room happens to be. and, of course, Bugs is Jewish. I maintain that ALL characters voiced by Mel Blanc are Jewish BY INTENTION.
Tom, you've told that story before, and I thought it was outrageous. I was so unnerved by it that I told two of my showbiz friends (one of them being a longtime Disney orchestrator who HATES everything about Disney). what amazed me is that they had absolutely no problem getting that the Disney people were pissed off, although neither one of them attempted to deny that Bugs is WAY better.
of course, they're both also Jewish. and Warner Bros. was a VERY Jewish studio. for these purposes, I am capitalizing "Jewish," which I pointedly never do.
The story is that the producer at Warner Bros. cartoons wangled a lunch invitation with the Warners for McKimson, Friz Freleng, and Chuck Jones. When they sat down, Harry Warner said, "All I know about cartoons is that we have Mickey Mouse." The three thought it might be a joke and finally Friz said, "We'll do our best to make sure he remains the most popular animated character." Jack Warner pointed at them and said, "If you want to keep your jobs, you will." Several years later, Jack closed down the unit and Friz supposedly said to Chuck, "They found out!"
I never cared all that much for Disney’s cartoons. The quality of the animation was first-rate but the humor didn’t get to me except for Jack Kinney’s Goofy cartoons. Bugs Bunny was much funnier and Warner Brothers cartoons were much more appealing to adult tastes, I think. The best cartoon directors were Tex Avery and Bob Clampett…lots of action, gags, so much life compared to the animated garbage that passes for cartoons today.
the ONLY selling point in Disney cartoons is the animation. that's it. I tend to think Walk wanted it that way. minimize controversy.
and the older Disney features had some fabulous songs. what's a better song than "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah (yeah, I know, the movie sucks, but the tune is great). and what movie has a stronger opening than 'When You Wish Upon a Star?"
okay, maybe "The Wild Bunch" with those freeze-framed Kodaliths (I THINK that's the correct term) as the guys ride into town, obviously up to no good, intercut with the kids watching the red ants devour the scorpion (foreshadowing the famous ending, perhaps?)
Ha!! Gotta' love it... I'd just finished reading Labash's Blockbuster piece at Slack Tide when I saw and read yours here. So, I'll just drop the comment I left there...
I think Heyerdahl's take on progress to be pretty spot on. Of course, if I were a Progressive or progressive, I'd probably say that was an oversimplification, which of course it is in some ways. But I'm not a Progressive / progressive, any more than I'm a Liberal / liberal or Conservative / conservative or R or D or any number of other things we seem so compelled to label ourselves so that people will know who we are, even though they don't know a dad-blamed thing about us personally.
Personally, I like to think of myself as sort of a simple guy who likes the directness of simplicity, which would sort of label me as conservative in some circles, I guess. But as it turns out, I'm actually a communist (thanks for clarifying this for me, Matt), since I (again) won't be watching the Salad Bowl of Mixed Spectacle the Super Bowl has become over the past half century+. Which of course is progress of the distinctly American kind: start with a pretty good idea, then over-do the living hell out of it. But maybe I'll tape it, just in case I get a little desperate for entertainment somewhere down the line.
I'm pretty sure there's still a VCR moldering away down in my basement, and maybe even a delinquent Blockbuster tape. Or two. I should probably do the right thing, take a look, and if there are, send them to those guys out in Oregon along with the late fee. Should pay for that party they're throwing today with enough left over to open a new store in some other little-heard-of spot where lost worlds are apparently still appreciated.
I should add that since a recent large scale medical report has stated that 92% of the brains of former football players examined suffered from CTE damage, and that many NFL players do not reach 65, watching football is pretty much like watching gladiatorial games, with usually less blood on the field.
Not being a fan of "commercial" sports - any of them - I agree. The idea that we now know for a fact what damage can be & is being done in these "games" and yet we still have pee-wee football, college football and pro football. But I guess its all ok because look at the financial rewards if these kids get to play pro-ball. They dont all get to live long enough to enjoy them but oh well.
I acknowledge that I will be "watching"-while-reading the Super Bowl today because that's the only way I can get a good foot rub around here,
And I hasten to point out that the public library is still a great place to go for the kind of human two-way contact that rewards both. Yes, libraries are now loaded up with "media", but by and large they are still repositories of books, those things that have to be returned so their recycling can continue until demand drops off and they are withdrawn and sold at the monthly book sales, where people mill around grumbling, asking questions of the aides, and chatting with the checkout people, the Friends of the Library. And I even encountered our very young mayor in the library once. All good. Libraries have been and will continue to be our most democratic institutions.
“Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” Thank you for this - definitely something to ponder. I may sound like an old geezer but I too remember when there were stores where the merchandise was well-selected and the people who worked there knew about what they were selling. Shopping these days is so soulless-dreary-uninspiring, both online and most brick and mortar. I avoid shopping as much as I can!
I despise shopping. I have always been an outcast in my group of female friends and acquaintances. I do precision shopping for clothes. Get in get out. Unless it’s a book store then I will browse for hours.
I've known we were kindred spirits for some time now.
my bookstore habits were so notorious that if I was with a group of friends and we passed a bookstore, I'd see their eyes darting around in panic as they whispered "oh fuck no...Levine wants to go into the bookstore...we're NEVER getting out."
I miss being able to go to the local hobby shop and looking at what’s new and shooting the breeze with the owner and other modelers. It’s true you can get most of what you need from online sources, but there’s no personal contact, no human touch. The best local shop on the island closed a long time ago, but I still have fond memories of that place and the owner. Progress is inevitable but it’s not necessarily for the better, sad to say.
that reminds me of the climax of that 1936 H.G. Wells-inspired British movie "The Shape of Things to Come," when everybody rebels against the leadership shouting "down with Progress!"
I can understand being "on the side" of the Soviet Union until, say, the mid-'30s because there was a lot involved...
and a lot of Party members knew to leave after the non-aggression pact.
then a lot more in 1956 (these were ALREADY pretty hard core) but I'll tell you a story: my girlfriend in college (the Marxist-Zionist one) had parents who were very important NYC labor leaders (her father has a school of labor relations in Haifa named after him). in 1967, she was reading Isaac Deutscher's big biography of Trotsky. her parents (who hadn't been actual Party members in many years) saw the book and her mother was really disappointed. she said stuff like "how can you read about That Man...do you have any idea what terrible things he said about Stalin?"
Rochelle became close friends with the widow of a successful musical comedy composer (Rochelle had become a sort of unofficially adopted daughter of Georgia Gibbs and Frank Gervasi, whose WWII journalism you certainly know). this widow, a very nice older lady (I'm avoiding using her name, although she's been gone a while now) was once at a party and, after a few drinks, actually got LOUD about Stalin being "one of most badly underrated men of the century." this was about 1980.
Because of my age (almost 68), I lament the loss of the human interaction in brick and mortar stores, and I go to Barnes & Noble often, because I can "browse" and research and ask questions, and there are actually a few [older] clerks int there who can point me in the right direction. Having said that, I have to admit I appreciate the quickness and ease of online shopping, if it is for things I do not need help with or discussions for. So here's my thought for the day...I have asked myself more than once if the increased use and non-human interaction of the internet has exacerbated some of the anger and inability to deal with each other. Maybe I'm actually bemoaning the loss of familiarity with the past, but I don't think so. I do miss many things, but I embrace as much as I find tolerable about the present (you know, the only thing that is constant is change)...take this for example. I can read a brilliant piece (thanks, TC) and I can respond to it almost instantly. That's a good thing, in some ways. And it keeps a pile of letters from being shoved in an already-overfull mailbox for TC. Though I suspect you wouldn't mind that, would you sir? Neither would I. And here's why. Someone takes the time to sit down and write to another person, seal it (with their own spit usually), stamp it and In my case, add a wax seal to the back, take it to the pitiful organization we still call the post office, and mail it. That is interaction that cannot be replaced by an emoji. No matter how instant the emoji is. And I know this rambled, but I have to get away from my personal laptop and go to my work laptop now, and I just want to say thanks for another great piece. Happy Monday!
One thing I hate is that the stores that have survived are all The Worst Ones. Instead of Borders surviving, it was Barnes & Noble. They finance their operation on the financial backs of the writers whose books they carry - they order too many, then send them back as "returns for credit" to finance the next books they order - and that "return for credit" is charged against the author's royalties! They were supposedly doing a 'cooperative release" on one of my books. I went to the local outlet and let them know who I was and what the book was, and offered to do a signing, and they said "sure - give us the email of all your friends and we'll invite them here for your signing." Personally I wish B&N would disappear.
I had no idea...so I have to agree with you. Damn it...now my view of B&N has been seriously compromised...but thank you for that. We have a bookstore downtown here that carries mostly used books but does carry some new ones. and always carries the ones that a local county school board is "banning". I am in there often because it is closer and more "friendly". Do you have other suggestions?
Local non-chains. But as an author I personally prefer Amazon because whatever else you want to say about them, they're honest. They sell everything they order and they make their payments to the publisher on time (many independents don't because they're under-capitalized "labors of love") which means I get my twice a year royalty checks at their proper amount. Yes, writers do have to worry about keeping the roof over the writing office and the lights on and getting proper nutrition, which ain't free. :-)
After reading through the comments I have another two cents to add. After wasting more time than I intended today "shopping"online for a very basic thing - a sweater for my granddaughter, I gave up and drove over to Grocery Outlet. I immediately found a suitable sweater and the guy at the checkout stand took the time to carefully fold the sweater for me. That's not gonna happen with online shopping.
We used to have used book shops all over Louisville. Some of them would trade two books for one. The shops in my neighborhood disappeared a long time ago, before Amazon, before Kindle. I eventually discovered a Thrift Store that was apparently the dumping ground for hard back books. Now it is a Goodwill Store.
Back until the mid-80s, when "Beautiful downtown Burbank" (which really was a dump) got renewed into "beautiful downtown Burbank" with all kinds of trendy stores I never shopped at, there was a two block section of 1st street (now officially known as "Ikea Avenue") that had four big old used book stores. You could spend all day Saturday in them, and come out with good stuff. Then in 1990 the rents got raised as the area got urban overdeveloped, and they went out. They'd been there 20 years I knew of. The stores that replaced them? Trendy crap that went out of business every other year - after the buildings were vacant for 2 years. I wonder how much money the real estate morons actually made with their rent increases.
We used to have a Paperback Book Store that was just wonderful! Prices were low - if you had an account you could trade in books & they had everything I loved to read. Used to pick up many Dick Francis books that I still have & go back & re-read every now & then, or Sue Grafton. Wish it was still around.
How often to you read a nice story about something you care about, too? It doesn't sound earth shattering, but in fact it is about your daily life and about some of the simple things in life that you miss. This story by TC, PROGRESS, is that kind of story. I've had great relationships with some of the shopkeepers in my neighborhood and still do, but there are fewer of them as Amazon, chain stores and rents drove them out. Americans have become more isolated by PROGRESS/TECHNOLOGY/MONOPOLIES. We don't have the associations with which we got things done together, socialized and made friends. PROGRESS is a bombshell that went off years ago, and we didn't realize what was happening to us.
Or as I say, I don't think the past 40 years of progress have been all that progressive.
…or call them 'retrogrades' pushing human life backward and putting planet earth on fire. They, Reagan and the Republicans, were Anti-Life, and they are still at it... more than ever!
The past 40 years is as Lewis Lehrman in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Mar 17, 1985) said it would be. “Conservative Revolution will alter all Policies. Our economic, our social, and our international policies are going to be altered in every significant respect. The president hasn’t even begun the program of constitutional reform and the change in social policy.” Not a long article but lays it all out. Lehrman was handpicked by Reagan to head the Citizens for America grass-roots conservative lobby. Last time I googled Lehrman, he was still alive. Wonder what he thinks of their efforts to “improve” America today….
right on.
Local music stores (both for instruments and for listening) suffered the same demise.
absolutely true, Fern. every word. I resent having to carry a Smartphone because I think they're evil.
I'm occupied with work this afternoon, believe it or not, but I have no interest in the Super Bowl except that it means that pitchers and catchers report in the next week, so we can get down to business with an actual sport.
So I quote this statement to my classes: "Sometimes you make progress in the wrong direction." Huh? I point out that it is now possible to telephone people from airplanes. That's a technological advance, but is it really progress?
I also tell them the quote comes from a great philosopher named Robert McKimson, and they look even more puzzled. Then I explain that he was a legendary Warner Bros. animator who, as a director, created the Tasmanian Devil as well as the kangaroo, and a very loud chicken named Foghorn Leghorn. Interestingly, what he referred to when he made that statement was how he loved the kind of animation with big sweeping gestures and action at a time that his colleague Chuck Jones's approach became more dominant--Bugs getting a laugh by just raising an eyebrow.
Both those guys were good. A good friend of mine was once directing an episode of "Home Improvement" over at Mauschwitz, and he and his 1st AD spent one lunch hour in the studio cafeteria arguing over whether Bugs Bunny was better than Mickey Mouse (he took Bugs). By the time he finished lunch and went back to his office, there was a personally signed memo from Michael Eisner, telling him how much they liked working with him and looked forward to doing so in the future, but he should keep his "non-work-related" artistic opinions to himself. (And now you know why we called it "Mauschwitz") After that, he brought lunch from home and ate in his office. No need to tempt the Staatspolizei.
Bugs was MUCH better......:-)
no contest. there was NEVER a contest. Mickey is a shill and always was (although I always thought he looked a little like Tyrone Power). bland, bland, bland. Bugs is the coolest guy in the room, whatever the room happens to be. and, of course, Bugs is Jewish. I maintain that ALL characters voiced by Mel Blanc are Jewish BY INTENTION.
Tom, you've told that story before, and I thought it was outrageous. I was so unnerved by it that I told two of my showbiz friends (one of them being a longtime Disney orchestrator who HATES everything about Disney). what amazed me is that they had absolutely no problem getting that the Disney people were pissed off, although neither one of them attempted to deny that Bugs is WAY better.
of course, they're both also Jewish. and Warner Bros. was a VERY Jewish studio. for these purposes, I am capitalizing "Jewish," which I pointedly never do.
The story is that the producer at Warner Bros. cartoons wangled a lunch invitation with the Warners for McKimson, Friz Freleng, and Chuck Jones. When they sat down, Harry Warner said, "All I know about cartoons is that we have Mickey Mouse." The three thought it might be a joke and finally Friz said, "We'll do our best to make sure he remains the most popular animated character." Jack Warner pointed at them and said, "If you want to keep your jobs, you will." Several years later, Jack closed down the unit and Friz supposedly said to Chuck, "They found out!"
I'm confused...was it Jack or Harry?
when I want to amuse myself, I think about all these sedentary jewish guys actually trying to play Polo. the dumbest fucking thing that ever happened.
One of the things I liked about Chas Bukowski is that he hated Mickey Mouse. That’s explained by his wife Linda in the doc “Born Into This”
I never cared all that much for Disney’s cartoons. The quality of the animation was first-rate but the humor didn’t get to me except for Jack Kinney’s Goofy cartoons. Bugs Bunny was much funnier and Warner Brothers cartoons were much more appealing to adult tastes, I think. The best cartoon directors were Tex Avery and Bob Clampett…lots of action, gags, so much life compared to the animated garbage that passes for cartoons today.
the ONLY selling point in Disney cartoons is the animation. that's it. I tend to think Walk wanted it that way. minimize controversy.
and the older Disney features had some fabulous songs. what's a better song than "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah (yeah, I know, the movie sucks, but the tune is great). and what movie has a stronger opening than 'When You Wish Upon a Star?"
okay, maybe "The Wild Bunch" with those freeze-framed Kodaliths (I THINK that's the correct term) as the guys ride into town, obviously up to no good, intercut with the kids watching the red ants devour the scorpion (foreshadowing the famous ending, perhaps?)
Play Ball!
Eddie Brandt’s 😢 How can anyone watch super bowl when there’s Puppy Bowl?!? With kittens for halftime 🤗
Yes!
did I actually miss Puppy Bowl?
if so, I shall hate myself.
Ha!! Gotta' love it... I'd just finished reading Labash's Blockbuster piece at Slack Tide when I saw and read yours here. So, I'll just drop the comment I left there...
I think Heyerdahl's take on progress to be pretty spot on. Of course, if I were a Progressive or progressive, I'd probably say that was an oversimplification, which of course it is in some ways. But I'm not a Progressive / progressive, any more than I'm a Liberal / liberal or Conservative / conservative or R or D or any number of other things we seem so compelled to label ourselves so that people will know who we are, even though they don't know a dad-blamed thing about us personally.
Personally, I like to think of myself as sort of a simple guy who likes the directness of simplicity, which would sort of label me as conservative in some circles, I guess. But as it turns out, I'm actually a communist (thanks for clarifying this for me, Matt), since I (again) won't be watching the Salad Bowl of Mixed Spectacle the Super Bowl has become over the past half century+. Which of course is progress of the distinctly American kind: start with a pretty good idea, then over-do the living hell out of it. But maybe I'll tape it, just in case I get a little desperate for entertainment somewhere down the line.
I'm pretty sure there's still a VCR moldering away down in my basement, and maybe even a delinquent Blockbuster tape. Or two. I should probably do the right thing, take a look, and if there are, send them to those guys out in Oregon along with the late fee. Should pay for that party they're throwing today with enough left over to open a new store in some other little-heard-of spot where lost worlds are apparently still appreciated.
When ads become the main attraction rather than time for a pee break… enough said!
I still have some expensive VHS tapes. god knows why.
I have the soul of a hoarder is probably why.
I should add that since a recent large scale medical report has stated that 92% of the brains of former football players examined suffered from CTE damage, and that many NFL players do not reach 65, watching football is pretty much like watching gladiatorial games, with usually less blood on the field.
Not being a fan of "commercial" sports - any of them - I agree. The idea that we now know for a fact what damage can be & is being done in these "games" and yet we still have pee-wee football, college football and pro football. But I guess its all ok because look at the financial rewards if these kids get to play pro-ball. They dont all get to live long enough to enjoy them but oh well.
I acknowledge that I will be "watching"-while-reading the Super Bowl today because that's the only way I can get a good foot rub around here,
And I hasten to point out that the public library is still a great place to go for the kind of human two-way contact that rewards both. Yes, libraries are now loaded up with "media", but by and large they are still repositories of books, those things that have to be returned so their recycling can continue until demand drops off and they are withdrawn and sold at the monthly book sales, where people mill around grumbling, asking questions of the aides, and chatting with the checkout people, the Friends of the Library. And I even encountered our very young mayor in the library once. All good. Libraries have been and will continue to be our most democratic institutions.
“Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” Thank you for this - definitely something to ponder. I may sound like an old geezer but I too remember when there were stores where the merchandise was well-selected and the people who worked there knew about what they were selling. Shopping these days is so soulless-dreary-uninspiring, both online and most brick and mortar. I avoid shopping as much as I can!
Thank god for home delivery!
Haha, yes. I consider it the lesser of evils (maybe an overstatement!)
right on again!
was shopping (except for books and records) EVER fun?
And models.
the worst thing is shopping for clothes.
and worse than that, going with my mother when I was little while SHE bought clothes.
I despise shopping. I have always been an outcast in my group of female friends and acquaintances. I do precision shopping for clothes. Get in get out. Unless it’s a book store then I will browse for hours.
I've known we were kindred spirits for some time now.
my bookstore habits were so notorious that if I was with a group of friends and we passed a bookstore, I'd see their eyes darting around in panic as they whispered "oh fuck no...Levine wants to go into the bookstore...we're NEVER getting out."
You would love Powells Bookstore in Portland. I can spend all day in there and wish I’d brought my toothbrush and sleeping bag
And kindred spirits we are David
gotcha.
I miss being able to go to the local hobby shop and looking at what’s new and shooting the breeze with the owner and other modelers. It’s true you can get most of what you need from online sources, but there’s no personal contact, no human touch. The best local shop on the island closed a long time ago, but I still have fond memories of that place and the owner. Progress is inevitable but it’s not necessarily for the better, sad to say.
that reminds me of the climax of that 1936 H.G. Wells-inspired British movie "The Shape of Things to Come," when everybody rebels against the leadership shouting "down with Progress!"
There's a football game today? Who knew?
Another communist. Shall we sing The Internationale together? :-)
I like Woody's idea better. This land truly is your land and mine. We just need to remember that and never give up.
What’s football?
I can't, Tom. it always makes me cry.
I Laughed Out Loud.
actually, it does. it makes me think of my deluded friends who only wanted to make things better for everyone.
but it's also funny.
Unfortunately they chose the wrong solution. But they weren't alone.
not at all, which is why it feels so sad.
I can understand being "on the side" of the Soviet Union until, say, the mid-'30s because there was a lot involved...
and a lot of Party members knew to leave after the non-aggression pact.
then a lot more in 1956 (these were ALREADY pretty hard core) but I'll tell you a story: my girlfriend in college (the Marxist-Zionist one) had parents who were very important NYC labor leaders (her father has a school of labor relations in Haifa named after him). in 1967, she was reading Isaac Deutscher's big biography of Trotsky. her parents (who hadn't been actual Party members in many years) saw the book and her mother was really disappointed. she said stuff like "how can you read about That Man...do you have any idea what terrible things he said about Stalin?"
Rochelle became close friends with the widow of a successful musical comedy composer (Rochelle had become a sort of unofficially adopted daughter of Georgia Gibbs and Frank Gervasi, whose WWII journalism you certainly know). this widow, a very nice older lady (I'm avoiding using her name, although she's been gone a while now) was once at a party and, after a few drinks, actually got LOUD about Stalin being "one of most badly underrated men of the century." this was about 1980.
so no, they weren't alone.
You've never heard me sing, I'll just hum along so we can both keep our sanity.
Can't be worse than me.
Reason may thunder in its crater, but it's clear that the epicenter of the crater is elsewhere than Washington, D.C.
Arise, the damned of the earth.
trust me, I'm worse.
No Super Bowl here either, although I did watch, for the first time, a bit of the Puppy Bowl!
I also won't be watching the superbowl. I don't get it--I mean I don't feel whatever other people do that makes it so interesting to them.
Because of my age (almost 68), I lament the loss of the human interaction in brick and mortar stores, and I go to Barnes & Noble often, because I can "browse" and research and ask questions, and there are actually a few [older] clerks int there who can point me in the right direction. Having said that, I have to admit I appreciate the quickness and ease of online shopping, if it is for things I do not need help with or discussions for. So here's my thought for the day...I have asked myself more than once if the increased use and non-human interaction of the internet has exacerbated some of the anger and inability to deal with each other. Maybe I'm actually bemoaning the loss of familiarity with the past, but I don't think so. I do miss many things, but I embrace as much as I find tolerable about the present (you know, the only thing that is constant is change)...take this for example. I can read a brilliant piece (thanks, TC) and I can respond to it almost instantly. That's a good thing, in some ways. And it keeps a pile of letters from being shoved in an already-overfull mailbox for TC. Though I suspect you wouldn't mind that, would you sir? Neither would I. And here's why. Someone takes the time to sit down and write to another person, seal it (with their own spit usually), stamp it and In my case, add a wax seal to the back, take it to the pitiful organization we still call the post office, and mail it. That is interaction that cannot be replaced by an emoji. No matter how instant the emoji is. And I know this rambled, but I have to get away from my personal laptop and go to my work laptop now, and I just want to say thanks for another great piece. Happy Monday!
Thank you - yeah, you're right.
One thing I hate is that the stores that have survived are all The Worst Ones. Instead of Borders surviving, it was Barnes & Noble. They finance their operation on the financial backs of the writers whose books they carry - they order too many, then send them back as "returns for credit" to finance the next books they order - and that "return for credit" is charged against the author's royalties! They were supposedly doing a 'cooperative release" on one of my books. I went to the local outlet and let them know who I was and what the book was, and offered to do a signing, and they said "sure - give us the email of all your friends and we'll invite them here for your signing." Personally I wish B&N would disappear.
I had no idea...so I have to agree with you. Damn it...now my view of B&N has been seriously compromised...but thank you for that. We have a bookstore downtown here that carries mostly used books but does carry some new ones. and always carries the ones that a local county school board is "banning". I am in there often because it is closer and more "friendly". Do you have other suggestions?
Local non-chains. But as an author I personally prefer Amazon because whatever else you want to say about them, they're honest. They sell everything they order and they make their payments to the publisher on time (many independents don't because they're under-capitalized "labors of love") which means I get my twice a year royalty checks at their proper amount. Yes, writers do have to worry about keeping the roof over the writing office and the lights on and getting proper nutrition, which ain't free. :-)
Oh is the super dooper blow half time show today? Nothing like cramming a one jour game into 4 hours of Bullshit
After reading through the comments I have another two cents to add. After wasting more time than I intended today "shopping"online for a very basic thing - a sweater for my granddaughter, I gave up and drove over to Grocery Outlet. I immediately found a suitable sweater and the guy at the checkout stand took the time to carefully fold the sweater for me. That's not gonna happen with online shopping.
We used to have used book shops all over Louisville. Some of them would trade two books for one. The shops in my neighborhood disappeared a long time ago, before Amazon, before Kindle. I eventually discovered a Thrift Store that was apparently the dumping ground for hard back books. Now it is a Goodwill Store.
Back until the mid-80s, when "Beautiful downtown Burbank" (which really was a dump) got renewed into "beautiful downtown Burbank" with all kinds of trendy stores I never shopped at, there was a two block section of 1st street (now officially known as "Ikea Avenue") that had four big old used book stores. You could spend all day Saturday in them, and come out with good stuff. Then in 1990 the rents got raised as the area got urban overdeveloped, and they went out. They'd been there 20 years I knew of. The stores that replaced them? Trendy crap that went out of business every other year - after the buildings were vacant for 2 years. I wonder how much money the real estate morons actually made with their rent increases.
Turning a quick buck, and then, maybe they could use the loss of revenue as a tax write off?
We used to have a Paperback Book Store that was just wonderful! Prices were low - if you had an account you could trade in books & they had everything I loved to read. Used to pick up many Dick Francis books that I still have & go back & re-read every now & then, or Sue Grafton. Wish it was still around.
This is the best thing I’ve read in a while, and I read a lot!
Well done, TC.