Earl, how long is it taking to spoil? Around here it lasts at least a week in the fridge, unless it gets used up first (the only person who drinks it is my dad; hubby is lactose-intolerant and uses soymilk, and I just prefer the soymilk). We still manage to go through a gallon or more per week, though, since Dad drinks a lot of milk.
Caffeine, #95: Thrift-store clothing is a different game altogether. If you're a nonstandard or plus size, good luck finding clothes.
I'm a plus size right now, and non-standard when I wasn't. Maybe it's a function of there being a lot of plus size women in my area (this is Cleveland, after all) who donate stuff, but I can actually find a lot of things at our local thrift stores that fit me as well as anything I'd find at, say, Target. There's a chain here called Unique Thrift that has an entire section in each store dedicated to plus size clothing, and its not just a rack or two - it's about a third of the women's section. Pants, tops, suits, dresses, even formal gowns, and most of it decent quality, for pennies on the dollar compared to what a similar item would cost new.
Of course, it may be in my blood... despite being an only child, I often wore hand me downs from neighbor families as a child. Mom taught me to pinch my pennies, and as a result I always have a hard time justifying to myself a purchase of brand-new clothing unless I've exhausted the possibilities of finding it used. Some of that may also come right now from the fact that I'm losing weight and hate the idea of spending money on something brand-new if it's (hopefully) only going to fit me for a month.
Abi, #86: I'm going to disagree with you on this, and do so rather strongly, because the only sanctimony I see in our exchange is coming from you. Accusing me of painting WM shoppers as "Stupid? Shiftless? Lazy?" when in fact I offered no description of them whatsoever is a telling point, I think.
Now, let's address the realities of shopping choices. First, we'll tackle time and money, and the intersection of both:
Using the multiple stores I mentioned takes me no more time on a weekly basis than using one big-box one-stop store did back when I lived in an area that had Meijer stores. Meijer is a chain of stores which function the same as WM in that they carry everything from soup to snow tires. I was a Meijer shopper in those days, until I figured out that Meijer was often so crowded and took so much time to go through that I was better off hitting up Cub Foods or Kroger for my weekly groceries and saving Meijer for times when I actually needed something else. It also relieved me of the tendency to run in for groceries and then see something else that looked tempting but was non-essential. I worked two jobs back then, totaling 60+ hours per week (so I know a little bit about time issues, I think). I was still poor - poor enough to have my car repossessed at one point and have to get by with the help of non-automotively-challenged friends until I cut a deal with my boss at my day job to buy an old car he wanted to sell, making weekly payments directly to him. One thing most poor people do is make groceries their only weekly recurring purchase. For those weeks, you really do only need a grocery store; there's little point in going to a place that has more than groceries unless you plan to buy non-grocery items while you're there. Considering that I have been some variation on poor or near-poor for well over two-thirds of my 45 years (thankfully, it's been broken up some by years that were merely sort of lean) starting in childhood and running right up to the present day, I'd like to think I know a thing or two about it. One thing I can tell you with certainty is that buying clothing, shoes, or entertainment items like toys or electronics has never been a weekly or near-weekly occurrence in any configuration of my household and its finances. As my mother always taught me, if you can afford to buy stuff like that every other week, you really aren't poor.
Granted, my model does rely on living in an area where WM isn't the only store in town, and also upon having access to a vehicle, but unless you're way out in the middle of nowhere (I've lived there, too, and there fortunately my corner of it still had a couple of inexpensive places to shop other than WM, within the same distance from home) you still have choices. And from what I've seen, the majority of WM shoppers do arrive in private vehicles, except possibly - and ironically - in the very type of urban area where I live currently and which you so graciously admitted constitutes a Place With Other Options.
For the record: anyone who DOES live someplace where WM is the only game in town has my utter sympathy, and I don't fault them at all for shopping there. I'd do the same in that circumstance. The blame in those situations lies squarely and solely with WM itself, for creating that situation in the first place. And really, I'd have thought that so obvious as to require no mention on my part. But there, I've mentioned it.
Now, let's look at information:
I don't know of anyplace where the only ads on television are ALL for WM. If you're watching TV, or reading magazines or the internet, you pretty much have to at least be aware that other stores exist, and of what they have on sale at any given time. If the place where you live has its own paper but is sufficiently removed from other retail outlets that WM is all you've got, then granted the WM circular may well be the only one you get, but if that's the case, you fall into that category of people whom I already hold completely faultless for going to WM. Everybody else, however, has at least access to information about other stores and other sales, so the only information gap I see at work there operates on the fact that WM has gone to great lengths to smother the stories about how awful its policies are, and how it treats both employees and customers, as well as suppliers. But again, if you have the internet, you have at least a reasonable chance of being exposed to this information; it's a matter of choosing to actually read it and then act on that knowledge. If you can't read, or you truly don't have time to read, then again, you get a pass. Otherwise, though, why the hell would you shop there, if you know the ugly truth about WM?
So what it boils down to, for me, is this:
1. If you live in a place that only has WM, of course you'd shop there. Not your fault.
2. If you live in a place that only has WM and a bunch of overpriced boutiques you can't afford, see #1.
3. If you for whatever reason are only exposed to WM ads and you cannot - for whatever reason - seek out information about other options, see #1 and #2.
4. If you live in an area where there are affordable alternatives to WM, and you don't fall into Category 3 but you'd rather just go to WM anyway, you need to wake up and pay attention. Do a little research.
5. If you are in Category 4 and have been paying attention, and you know what WM is about but you shop there anyway, then you are choosing to support the evil that is WM. Period, full stop.
Oh, and Aldi? Of course, they're not local; when did I claim they were? I've known they were a German company (actually, they're owned by the same company as Trader Joe's) for quite some time. But from what I understand, they operate in a fairly aboveboard manner - if you can tell me otherwise, I'll stop shopping there too.
Caffeine, #74: I just think it's important to keep in mind that if you can afford to have never stepped foot in a Wal-Mart, you may not be grasping why people who shop there, do.
Erm, no. I have not set foot in Wal-Mart in several years, and I'm unemployed, with a husband who makes very little. We make a conscious choice to not shop WM. Granted, we have other choices, since we are in a large urban area, but it isn't that difficult to stay out of Wal-Mart unless you live in a town that ONLY has WM.
Groceries? Giant Eagle, a perfectly respectable regional chain. Or Aldi, which is cheaper for many items but has less variety. We frequent both.
Clothing? Goodwill, Salvation Army, other similar thrift stores, all of which are far cheaper than Wal-Mart, and you can get things that are both high-quality and nearly new in many cases. Oh, you meant new clothing? Target, K-Mart, hit up the fabric store and sew your own. (I do all of the above.)
Shoes? Payless, or the aforementioned Target and K-Mart. Heck, I've even bought shoes at thrift stores. Got an almost brand-new pair of Birkenstock oxfords there a couple of years ago, and some Rockport walking shoes, also in nearly pristine condition.
Toys? See above. I don't have much need to buy those, as we don't have kids.
Electronics, music, videos? Again, K-Mart, Target. Also Best Buy.
Books, music, videos? Half-Price, Amazon, the local library.
Around here we also have Discount Drug Mart, which stocks everything from typical drugstore merchandise to groceries, clothing, hardware and small appliances, all for prices comparable to those at Wally World. I'm in there at least once a week for some small item or other, usually milk or paper towels.
So really, unless WM is really the only retailer in or near your community, it isn't all THAT difficult to avoid them, and it isn't any more expensive to do so, either.
Paula @ 874: Here's the solution to at least get that crap out of your own computer (won't change the internet, but at least it will improve YOUR experience of it)...
1. Download and install Mozilla's Firefox browser (it's free and open-source, with no spyware, adware, or other nasty stuff; I've used it for years instead of Internet Explorer and it rocks.)
2. Once you've installed that, then surf on over to the Adblock Plus site and download and install Wladimir Palant's wonderful extension for Firefox that will get rid of ALL those irritating ads you see online. Once you have it installed, choose your filter subscriptions and you're all set. The ads will be gone and you will have a much more pleasant time online. You can even tweak it so that it WILL show you ads on sites that you may wish to see them on - you can personalize this quite heavily. Again, I've used this for years, and wouldn't surf the Web without it.
To protect against spyware, etc. I recommend either AVG Free or Avast Free.
I'm another who's never met either of them, but praying here as well.
At least, I think that's what it is.
Michael, happy (somewhat belated) birthday. I've got a couple of years on you, but I know what you mean.
Heresiarch, #582: Interesting. NPR said (on today's Morning Edition) that he was "a devout Muslim".
Elliott Mason @ 434 regarding Gabaldon: Actually the first book involves the 1940's and the pre-Culloden period. For those interested: The protagonist, a recently-discharged Army nurse on holiday with her professor husband, finds herself suddenly transported from 1945 to 1743, sans husband. The 1960's show up in the second book, in a parallel (and very related) storyline framing more of the 18th-century saga.
I found it quite useful to have read the first book in order to really grasp and enjoy the second.
I agree with you, however, on enjoying the books after #4 less than the others.
SPOILER ALERT: this link carries a reasonably good overview of the first four books.
Albatross, that would be interesting!
From the Sidelight about the "Chat room/Forum problem": In reading the entry linked, it appears on first glance that the author conflates chat room and forum completely, when in fact they are IME quite different both in form and in function.
So if I write a novel about cat vacuuming, it counts, right?
Of course, the cats may feel differently about it.
Soon Lee, #344: The "thus-and-such.exe" items are HTML-Kit plugins, installed to it after I installed HTML-Kit itself. I finally found the solution here, I think. Choosing "Run as Administrator" appears to clear up the problem. Odd, as the Vista account from which I am running it has Administrator privileges to begin with.
Soon Lee, #276: Just tried that; same problems, no change. Thanks, though.
Apropos of nothing seen here: has anyone tried using HTML-Kit on a system running 32-bit Vista Home Basic? I could run it on my old XP laptop just fine, but that laptop is currently sitting in the repair shop with a nonfunctional motherboard, and I'm stuck using my husband's Vista laptop. I need to do a bit of work on a website I made back when my computer was working, but every time I try to start up HTML-Kit, I get error messages from Windows stating that "thus-and-such.exe has stopped working" and offering "close program: as my only option. After about five of these, the screen dims and I am asked whether or not I mean for a program to continue. Answering "Yes" does get HTML-Kit open, but with what appears to be reduced functionality. The programs that stop working appear to be some of the plugins I am used to using in HTML-Kit.
Anybody have experience with this?
DanR, #390: I don't see it as a "skill"; for me it's something that just is. The letters and numbers have always been colored, and so are some musical tones. It's just how I perceive the world. It wasn't until fairly recently that I even realized that other people don't all have the same sort of perception.
Mark, #179: Wouldn't he have to have gonads before they could be stripped?
DanR, #355: Visual in my case, definitely. And in Technicolor. (Yes, I've got a bit of synesthesia.)
WRT singing voice vs. speaking voice: My singing range runs from second (low) alto to first soprano - I could hit high G in high school, nowadays my upper limit is more like high C or D - but my usual speaking voice is in the low part of my range. This is partly due to having trained myself to speak in the low range, as a result of my years of doing college radio. Early on, I'd listened to one of my own air-check tapes and been chagrined to discover that I sounded about twelve years old on tape, so from that point on I made a conscious effort to lower my voice when speaking on the air. It carried over into everyday life, and I think I began to be taken more seriously as a result.
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