I just spent a gut-wrenchingly unpleasant three-hour swath of life. I’m hoping that maybe pouring it all into a blog posting I’m sure no one will read might be at least a little cathartic and might perhaps loosen the angry fist that has been painfully gripping my stomach for the last hour and a half or so.
Archive for the ‘Ramblings’ Category
Trip to Revere from hell
Friday, July 30th, 2010![[Digg]](http://blog.kamens.us/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
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PayFlex complaint letter
Friday, July 23rd, 2010July 23, 2010
PayFlex Systems USA, Inc.
10802 Farnam Drive, Suite 100
Omaha, NE 68154
To whom it may concern:
I am very pleased with your administration of my medical FSA for my employer, Advent Software, Inc. Your Web site works well, I love being able to upload receipts as PDF files, and your debit-card system seems to work quite well. My PayFlex FSA is the best administered of any I’ve had.
However, one recent experience with it was not positive. I am writing to you in the hope that you can improve your processes to make similar experiences less unpleasant for me and others in the future.
At least Delta handled it better than Continental did
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010http://news.yahoo.com/s/y_clevelan/y_clevelan_ts2493
“WOIO TV reports that Delta Airlines accidentally put a girl bound for Cleveland on a Boston flight last night, and stuck a boy bound for Boston on a Cleveland plane.”
“The situation is a very serious one,” said Delta Airlines spokesman Paul Skrbec. Yes! Somebody actually gets that what parents want when something like this happens is for someone from the airline to at least pretend that the situation is serious!
Ignorance on parade in today’s Herald
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010In a letter to the editor in today’s Boston Herald, Harry Shuris of Winchester mocked the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission for forcing a recall of a novelty chair decorated with lead paint. His letter ended as follows:
Message to the USCPSC: Pencils contain “excessive amounts of lead.” I would venture to say that at any given time there are more kids chewing on pencils than on basketball-shaped chairs.
Everybody who knows what’s wrong with this picture, raise your hands.
Here’s the letter I sent to the Herald in response:
Lead poisoning is a serious problem for children in our country. Any household items with exposed lead paint increase the risk of poisoning, not necessarily because kids chew on them (although they do), but also because the paint flakes off, and the flakes are eaten by babies or even inhaled into the lungs.
Recalling such items is not useless make-work as Harry Shuris suggests (“Agency’s ‘busy’ work”, June 1), but rather is critical to consumer safety.
I’m sure Mr. Shuris thought he was being particularly clever when he asked why the Consumer Products Safety Commission hasn’t recalled lead pencils as well. That would be a reasonable question to ask were it not for the fact that lead pencils don’t actually contain any lead.
Recalling such items is not useless make-work as Harry Shuris suggests (“Agency’s ‘busy’ work”, June 1), but rather is critical to consumer safety.
I’m sure Mr. Shuris thought he was being particularly clever when he asked why the Consumer Products Safety Commission hasn’t recalled lead pencils as well. That would be a reasonable question to ask were it not for the fact that lead pencils don’t actually contain any lead.
Banning the burka
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Movements are underway all over the world to ban the wearing in public of the burqa, the niqab, and other garments worn by some Muslim women. Most recently, the lower house of Belgium’s parliament has just passed a burqa ban, although it will not become law unless / until it is also passed by the upper house.
Well-intentioned or not, these efforts are misguided and extremely dangerous, and Jews should be especially concerned about them.
Lindsay Lohan is an egotistical, boozed-up tart
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Milka-what?
By now, most of you have probably seen the new E*Trade commercial in their talking baby series, “Baby – Girlfriend”. If not, go watch it now and then keep reading.
I watched the ad when it first came out, and I’ve watched it several times since then, and it makes me laugh every time. It’s definitely one of the best ads in the series.
Apparently, not everyone thinks so. The Boston Herald reported today that Lindsay Lohan has filed a $100 million suit against E*Trade, alleging that “a ditzy toddler appearing in [the ad] is modeled after her and improperly invokes her ‘likeness, name, characterization and personality without permission.’”
When asked for comment, the company that produced the ad said they “just used a popular baby name that happened to be the name of someone on the account team.”
Hey, Lindsay: How about we go back ten years or so to when you were cute and lovable, and just pretend that the intervening years of drug and alcohol abuse, humiliating public behavior, promiscuity, and unbelievable narcissism never happened, eh?
I’m hoping that this is all just some sort of misguided publicity stunt. The alternative, that Lohan actually believes that she has exclusive rights to the use of the name “Lindsay” in entertainment, is just too painful too contemplate.
*sigh*
Review of My First Big Book: Jack and the Beanstalk
Sunday, February 14th, 2010My First Big Book: Jack and the Beanstalk
By Jeff Macon, Michelle Macon, and Monica Chang
23 pp. Allen Chao/Innovage $20
ISBN 1-58805-807-7
One cannot help but admire the courage of any author who strives to follow in the footsteps of Tabart and Jacobs by reinterpreting this timeless classic. Jeff Macon, Michelle Macon, and Monica Chang apparently could each muster up only a third of the requisite fortitude. Although their combined courage may be admirable, the fruit of their efforts is not.
The newest additions to the Kamens family
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
As if today weren’t already bad enough…
Monday, February 23rd, 2009… I just discovered a dead rat in our kitchen.
Granted, a dead rat is better than a live rat (nice to see the cat doing her job), but still…
*sigh*
On sugar bowls and psychology
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
We have a ceramic sugar bowl with a loop on the side which holds a small sugar spoon.
When the spoon is inserted with the open side of the spoon facing the bowl, it fits properly, all the way into the loop.
When the spoon is inserted with the rounded bottom fo the spoon facing the bowl, it does not fit all the way into the loop.
When the sugar bowl is passed to a guest, the spoon is usually in the loop, facing the correct direction.
Some guests return the spoon to the loop correctly; others put it the wrong way. Some notice that the spoon didn’t go in all the way and turn it around; others leave it facing the wrong way.
Those of you who know me personally or have read my blog for a while no doubt realize that seeing the spoon facing the wrong way and sticking precariously out of the loop is, to me, like nails on a chalkboard. It is, quite simply, something that is Not Right, and what’s worse, something that is Not Right for No Good Reason.
But aside from my personal fascination (probably bordering on OCD) with trivial little things like this, I find myself wondering if anyone has ever studied it. It seems to me that you can divide people into three categories: people who simply don’t notice things like this; people who notice but don’t care; and people who notice and care. Do these categories have greater significance? Do they speak to people’s work habits, intelligence, happiness, etc.?
