Just a chime....or??

[westgrandboulevard]

Buyer beware - and seller [[cellar?) also beware.....

[Jerry Oz]

I think you should be aware if your room mate had it because you're probably going to be stepping over him in order to use the bathroom [[loo?). Otherwise, you might trip and bang your head and you'll both be knocked out. I'm just sayin'...

[westgrandboulevard]

If that sample from arr&bee ever arrives, it won't be my partner [['room mate' sounds too young and glamorous, as it's been 35 years, and we're aged 64 & 71 this year...) flat out on the floor, it will be me - in complete shock.....LOL

The longer the legend of arr&bee's hooch lives on - the longer the list becomes of potential court cases for distress caused...

[Jerry Oz]

Find out how he shipped it and check the routing information on-line. I'm hoping you saved your receipt in case he has to send it again.

[westgrandboulevard]

Not that I [[ahem) doubt arr&bee's word about shipping, of course......and anyway, some of those courier drivers can get really thirsty......

[Jerry Oz]

I would normally worry that they not drink and drive. However, in this case, I'm pretty sure that they would drink and pass out. It's hard to drive drunk when you're comatose.

[arr&bee]

UM GOOD POINT JERRY,BUT REMEMBER THIS COMPANY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY COMATOSE,CONFUSION,DILLIRIUM,HULLUCINATIONS,BRAINC ELL DEGENERATION,BOWEL EXPLOSION,BLUE EYE[it's like pinkeye only worst],HAIRGROWTH,TROLLS,DEMAGNIFICATION OF THE EARTH'S CORE OR ANY OTHER SUCH SYMPTOMS THAT MAY AND MOST LIKELY WILL HAPPEN DURING THE FIRST LUNAR CYCLE...[or five minutes after you drink it]WHICHEVER COMES FIRST...ENJOY!!

[westgrandboulevard]

If required, I'd certainly sign for the goods as received dead on time, in good condition - and driver damaged in transit, and dead drunk.

[Jerry Oz]

"DEMAGNIFICATION OF THE EARTH'S CORE"? I'm sorry, but I LOL'd on that one in particular...

[westgrandboulevard]

Arr&bee is a master in the art of hyperbole.

Should have been a showman - and most probably is....

[Jerry Oz]

Only the Shadow knows. And he's passed out from drinking too much hooch...

[westgrandboulevard]

Very worrying to discover that your shadow isn't following you.

Another 'Tale from the Crypt'.......

[arr&bee]

And speaking of shadows,have you ever had to carry a drunk shadow home[and up three flights of stairs]they may look like lightweights but they're heavy...i dated a shadowette once but she had a dark side,and she always walked behind me.

[Jerry Oz]

Me too. Mine never seemed to be in good mood, either. She always looked like she was feeling a little flat.

[westgrandboulevard]

Serves you right for dating inner tubes.

[Jerry Oz]

I tried to blow up her ego but she said she did not care for how I was pressuring her...

[westgrandboulevard]

Especially when you drew attention to her spare tyre......

[Jerry Oz]

I thought she could handle honesty but it sort of rolled downhill after that. Pneumata what I tried, she blew up.

[westgrandboulevard]

And so you limped to the nearest garage, and asked the attendant " Do you have an air line here?"

He said "No, but there's usually a bus every hour..."

[Jerry Oz]

But did you also know that she always seemed to be tired?

[westgrandboulevard]

As in cross-ply?

[Jerry Oz]

Yes. And I should have known that she would roll away when the rubber hit the road...

[westgrandboulevard]

I must say our latest comments on this thread seem quite appropriate on a Detroit forum.

I guess automobiles [[or cars, as we usually call them here in UK) are still made in Detroit - just in nowhere near the same numbers as in the Big D's heyday?

[Jerry Oz]

The Big Three are like every other car company and they make cars where the labor is cheapest and the tax breaks are highest. Economics have all but destroyed the notion of centrally locating any industry. There will not be a return to Detroit's era of greatness in the auto industry.

[westgrandboulevard]

I guess places with great reputations all have their day but, as with we human beings, their days do not last forever.

Easier to look back on a notable past, than to a future we cannot yet see.

[Jerry Oz]

I would have liked to see the city leaders attract business based upon the specific skill set that they cultivated over decades of mass production. I guess the companies that they would have to attract find that it is easier to keep costs low by going to China than to deal with organized labor, which is something of an American fact of life.

[westgrandboulevard]

I guess people will always congregate the most where there is money to be made.

The rare, flexible ones, the entrepreneurs with talent, foresight and perhaps less caution in their natures than many, are often the ones to make the most money [[when they're not losing it) and become the leaders.

The fixed ones [[almost all of us, to varying degrees) settle with what they know, and are the followers.

What worked once, may well have completed its natural cycle, and never return?

[Jerry Oz]

There is an interesting documentary called "The Big One" by Michael Moore. In the film, he explores why companies that made record profits locked up their U.S. operations the following year to ship the jobs overseas. Of course, nobody took the time to tell him, but I suppose it's not that important to the rest of us, who eagerly by the product - which is no cheaper on the market - even though we complain that it's a shame that the American worker has no corporate champions.

I understand the basis of globalization and the logic that supports it. But if the people who ship the jobs away really are "only looking out for the shareholder", then I suppose they should either take a cut in their own pay or groom a lower-paid replacement. It would seem to be their corporate duty, after all.

[westgrandboulevard]

I know exactly what you mean.

It's along the lines of someone saying to you "Now, this is being done for your own best interests", to which you or I might disagree, at least in part.

Or someone who is paid to do a job, but responds with "I'm afraid my boss would not permit me to do that for you".

I wonder how many of the companies, who do ship the jobs away, actually ask their shareholders before they do so, if they have any objection to that stategy.

[Jerry Oz]

Unless the cameras are on the shareholders, 97% of them would absolutely suggest that they ship the jobs away.

I recall a couple of years ago when a hot new toy was on the shelves by Christmas time. The evening news made a big point to tell us that it was a story of a local company that did well; they couldn't keep them on the shelves. They went to Iowa to talk to the proprietors and it turned out that only seven people worked there.

"Our sales are beyond what we imagined!" said the CEO. "In addition to the two factories that were producing them originally, we had to contract with three new Chinese factories to keep up with demand."

Am I wrong to wonder why they couldn't have produced them here? Maybe even in Iowa? Their margins would not have been as large, but they could have blessed somebody domestically with their good fortune. I didn't take the warm and fuzzy feeling from watching the story that the reporter was suggesting.

[westgrandboulevard]

I've seen it reported that when manufactured goods, which were previously produced domestically, are subsequently sourced from overseas, the quality always suffers.

I'd say that having the items made abroad needn't necessarily be the cause of a reduction in quality.

It seems more likely a direct result simply of producing the items more cheaply, in an effort to maintain or increase profit margins.

[Jerry Oz]

Labor costs are only one reason for the lower price of goods and services produced abroad. Companies can avoid paying taxes, for example. And do not think that regulations that keep the air and water clean [[to say nothing about rules governing the fair treatment of employees), which everyone agrees are socially responsible, are not a thorn in the heel of corporations. After centuries of laying the groundwork for fairness, the jobs disappeared and reappeared in places that have no concept of fair labor standards.

[144man]

Workers' rights in the UK have been eroded to enable us to be more competitive with the rest of the EU, but conversely this same lack of rights has made it easier and cheaper to close down a British business than a European one.

[Jerry Oz]

American companies are opening new operations in China and India all the time, which is their right. However, the one that I work for has constant issues with product being constrained because it takes over a month to order and have shipped overseas via ocean liner. The upshot? We find out three months after manufacture that we have quality issues and we do constant reworks on the thousands of items that were produced before the problem was discovered. This results in higher costs for overtime at my facility and constant threats that if we cannot reduce costs, they're going to shut us down.

It never ceases to amaze me that they want to cut the pay of the rank and file, but I've never heard one of them take a drop themselves. If they make $10 million per year, it's kind of disingenuous to suggest that taking a $1,000 from 2,000 people should be considered before taking $2 million less [[or hiring someone to do it for the lower pay).

[westgrandboulevard]

Disingenuous is a polite way of putting it, when money and a job title are more important to management than upholding responsibility for their actions and position.

[Jerry Oz]

Here in the states, there are some who believe that collective bargaining is bad. Unfortunately, they control many state legislatures and have enacted many laws that have eliminated the right to organize into a union as well as dissolve the power and influence that unions have in contract negotiations.

[arr&bee]

Why do i get the feeling that the theme from[perry mason]is gonna start any minute now.

[westgrandboulevard]

I wish it would!!

IMO, 'Park Avenue Beat', by Fred Steiner, is one of the best TV themes ever.....

[Jerry Oz]

Put me down for "Hill Street Blues". And I can only imagine Perry Mason in one of today's ambulance chasing adverts... "Injured in a car accident and the insurance company won't pay? Let Perry cross-examine them and he'll get you what you deserve... Your own privately-owned insurance company! As ever, we don't get paid unless Perry breaks them down into shrivelling pathetic wretches on the stand."

[arr&bee]

If you two legal beagles keep up this legalese i'll shrilvel up and start confessing...i did it i did it.

[Jerry Oz]

I didn't, but I may do it. Can I post-date a confession? I hate confrontation...

[144man]

No you don't...

[westgrandboulevard]

A murmur ran round the court - and out the door......

[144man]

I hate confrontation so much I never eat anything that disagrees with me.

[westgrandboulevard]

I need some time to digest that. Perhaps you will bring it up later?

[144man]

It's alimentary, my dear Westgrand.

[westgrandboulevard]

If, like me, you had attended alimentary school, you would pay more attention to your vowels.

[144man]

I'll have you know I open my vowels regularly.

[westgrandboulevard]

You'll have the dates, of course.

[144man]

Yes, I was palmed off with them.