Easter is almost upon us and that means a couple of things: spring is coming (no, really, it is, promise!), Geoff and I will be *really* busy this weekend, people will be doing stupid and ill advised things like getting their kids bunnies, chicks, and ducklings for their baskets on Sunday morning, and the annual seal skin kill is going on in Canada.
Tag: boycott
Upper Crust and the political divide
The source of overpriced pizza for a vast swath of yuppies across Massachusetts has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I suppose it was just a matter of time. Now, for those of you with memory as good as mine*, that means that the company Kelly and I don’t like much anyway because of the way they treat their employees** is having yet more problems.
*That is code for my memory is actually pretty bad. Awful, in fact.
**And their prices. And their terrible tomato sauce.
Hobby Lobby and Women as 2nd class citizens
I have to admit that I’d never heard of Hobby Lobby until the first time I went to Alabama with Geoff. The first time I actually laid eyes on one I started laughing. I couldn’t believe that someone would actually name their store something that utterly ridiculous. It turns out that’s not the limit to their ridiculousness.
Continue reading “Hobby Lobby and Women as 2nd class citizens”
Oh, Internets, where art thou?
Still posting from my phone. Still no internet connectivity. Still no word from Verizon. We’re about to start a petition, or a fire, not sure which.
If you need us you know how to find us.
-Kelly
Dear Verizon-
We get it. We’re stuck with you. You’re like the abusive spouse that’s got us stuck in a relationship we can’t get out of. You’ve isolated us from our friends, and the only people we know who might be able to help us out are Comcast, who’s WAY worse, and satellite internet, which we can’t afford.
Oh, and speaking of dumb
A restaurant here in Massachusetts decided to turn away a group of diners because some of them had service dogs. At a restaurant called Bamboo in Dedham, staff decided that a group that included several people with service dogs could be refused service. The police were called in, and unfortunately, the police sided with the restaurant. How this is remotely compliant with the ADA is beyond me, but these days, businesses seem to be getting the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a lot of things. It will be interesting to see where something like this will go in the courts.
At any rate, this little local chain, like Upper Crust, will be one that Kelly and I avoid and encourage others to avoid.
-Geoff
Never liked their pizza anyway
Upper Crust, a well-known local pizza chain here in Massachusetts, has had all sorts of legal problems in the last year or so. I have never been a fan of their pizza anyway, since I think their sauce sucks and their pizza is shockingly overpriced, costing more than twice as much as pizza you might get from a local mom and pop place (where the pizza is better anyway). So why anyone continues to eat there is beyond me.
Now one of their franchises has been slapped with an $80,000 fine for committing the same kind of employee abuse that got the company in trouble. I guess that apple didn’t fall far from the corporate tree.
-Geoff
Of pet food and creationism
Ok, stick with me. This one gets a little weird.
So, today I discovered that the place that I usually order our expensive and highly specialized cat food from is run by a bunch of right wing creationist wackjobs. You must understand, Geoff and I are firm believers in voting with our feet, our wallets, and, you know, at the actual voting booth. (Interestingly, I discovered the complete wackiness of the pet food vendor from the vendor themselves, Google just confirmed it.) Anyway, I called Geoff at work and explained the dilemma. The food is really good for our cats. They love it, it’s been easy on their kidneys and bladders as they age, but I really, really, can’t abide lining the pockets of a company run by someone who describes himself as a “New Earth Creationist” or who holds that everything modern medical science has told us about “cholesterol and the human body” is a “myth”.
Right. Um, this guy is a Veterinarian, not an M.D. I wonder if anyone has pointed that out to him?
Anyway, we feed our dogs this stuff and they scarf it down. They LOVE it. Thumbelina’s skin has improved 200% since she started eating it. She’s almost 10 and still has a waist which is a minor miracle for a dachshund. Rerun? He looks more like a sausage, but I think that has more to do with the fact that he is patently lazy than anything else. Anyway, as Royal Canin was one of the few pet foods only marginally involved in the major 2007 pet food recall as most of their food did not at the time use wheat gluten, (none of it does now, as far as I know, or if it does, it is all domestic) naturally, I looked there first for a new cat food.
I found a perfect substitute, only it required a prescription. This was absolutely fine by me and, turns out, fine by my vet as well. (I love my vets, they’re awesome.) So after checking out our vet’s affiliated order and ship website I also checked out PetFlow.com. I had received an email or two a while back from Dogster about this new service from PetFlow and had filed it away thinking that if I ever needed to have cat food shipped I’d check it out. Well, there’s no time like today while running screaming away from creationists. I was able to sign up for regular shipments of the new prescription food, the price is better than the vet’s affiliate site, and with the coupon code “Dogster” the shipping is free. As in, free always. And it ships automatically every 6 weeks. I have not yet discovered if the people who run PetFlow.com are in bed with the Koch brothers or anything, but for the moment the Liberal science teacher in me can rest easy.
Pretty cool, huh?
~Kelly
The Books are Taking Over... 