Weather,
Facebook, Insurance and Murray Paris
by
Robert LaFrance
With all the snowstorms and other
bad weather we’ve had since about last August (it seems), this column should
probably be discussing the weather, so I’ll be talking about everything but.
The lost flight 370, probably in the
Indian Ocean: While we all care about the 239 people on board, it’s not helping
them that an hour of every television news day is devoted to the search for the
plane. Each headline notes that the search area has either been expanded or
moved or both. CBC-TV sent a reporter – and crew of course – to Perth,
Australia to report each day that nothing has been found. Surely they could
have phoned BBC or CBS or CNN and left it at that, spent the money on covering
events in Canada. I am hoping that the plane will be found intact on the ground
somewhere, with the passengers partying, but it doesn’t help them that 3,922
reporters are on TV and radio each day to say they’ve found nothing.
I miss my late cousin and friend
Murray Paris, who was a good guy and an entertaining singer. Last week I was at
an event where I had to line up for a supper plate and quickly remembered
Murray, who was over 90 when he died last year. At potluck suppers and
suchlike, he and I always competed to see who would get his food first.
Overall, it probably was about even. At the supper last week I turned around to
see where Murray was, and my wife sneaked by on my left. I felt like kicking
her, but didn’t dare to (hint: rolling pin); it reminded me of one of Murray’s
favourite jokes. He couldn’t kick very well with one foot after he had it half
cut off in a trucking accident. After that he used to say: “I’m the only man in
Tilley with a foot and a half.”
If you don’t connect to Facebook
occasionally you don’t know what you’re missing. In some cases you do know what
you’re missing and don’t miss it, but in others you are not hearing much
information. I’m not referring to hearing about Shirley or Dawn washing their hair
before they go to bed, but to real information. For example, Joe Gee of
Carlingford posted a photo of the ‘weed’ called Lamb’s Quarter and noted that,
cooked, it was a dandy and nutritious green. “The added bonus
is the GMO-free (not genetically modified) vegetable green you're left with.
Just wash them, throw them in a pot and steam them for a few minutes or sauté
them with a little olive oil and garlic. A lot less work and something to enjoy
for dinner!” I must say, Joe is a lot smarter than he looks.
It’s
garden seed time, and also time for another crop that just keeps on coming. I’m
talking about emails from gardening companies. A couple of years ago I emailed
several seed companies to receive their paper and online catalogues, but they
weren’t satisfied at that level of service. On the average, I get one email
letter a week from each company, which totals about 35 emails a month. Each of
these companies’ letters has a line that says something like this: “If you want
to stop receiving these email letters, just go to www.gardennuisance.com to let us
know.” Of course I wrote to each of them and called the phone numbers in their
catalogues, but that just seemed to encourage them. Some even started
telemarketing phonecalls after our personal contact. Did I need any more proof
that computers now run all our lives? But don’t get me started on insurance
companies.
Okay,
now you’ve got me started on insurance companies. Why is it that an insurance
company is the only entity that can decide on how much insurance you must have
on your house? My friend Flug, figuring that $2000 a year was too much of an
annual insurance payment on his bungalow, called his company to get it reduced
– in other words to insure his house for less. He was told that his house was
insured for $180,000 and that was that because of the building’s area. He said
that $90,000 was plenty – more than enough to rebuild – and would like to halve
his payments. Not a chance, said the individual on the phone; it goes by area,
period. Does the term ‘price-fixing’ come to mind? Since all the companies said
the same thing, does the term ‘collusion’ also seem to fit?
-end-
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