I find this strange. I stopped at Circle K today on the way home from work and I noticed a new Mustang convertible car parked in front of the store. It caught my eye because it was identical to our oldest son's new car.
The owner turned out to be a well-dressed young woman, who appeared to be going to or from work. She was at the checkout trying in vain to get her debit card to work for the purchase of an energy drink. Who in the world debits a buck and a half and what kind of a straight-thinking merchant would accept it? The transaction cost alone wipes out the store's profit on the drink.
The poor thing was telling the totally disinterested clerk that she was sure that she had at least two dollars in her account. Who would debit a dollar and a half of their remaining two dollars to get a drink? She finally left, saying she would be back. It's the age-old story, new car, no cash.
This is another thing that has been bugging me lately. I like to watch the People's Court, with the Honorable Marilyn Milian, The Hottest Judge on Television. The show appears on our local Fox affiliate and is on when I get home from work. I don't know whether our local station or the network is responsible for selecting the commercials that air during the show, but someone clearly believes it is mostly watched by the old, the infirmed and the stupid, an assumption I resent since I am not infirmed.
The program features commercials that hawk drunken-driving defense lawyers, technical schools, quickie loan places, furniture rental stores and lots of medical ads, including several about how you can get Medicare to buy you stuff, like free scooters. As an aside, the medical scooter business survives on payments from Medicare and the chief beneficiaries are people who ate themselves to enormous size. Another reason the program is going broke fast.
For my money, one of the greatest movie scenes ever is in a movie named Absence of Malice, which starred Paul Newman, Sally Field and included Wilford Brimley. It may seem as if I have veered off my point, but bear with me.
Wilford Brimley is a terrific character actor who is most recognizable as the spokesman for Quaker Oats but in this movie Brimley gives a riveting performance, especially in the scene I am thinking of, as an Assistant US Attorney named Mike Welles. I think this was the best performance I have ever seen Brimley give.
Lately though, Brimley has become the spokesman for some creepy outfit that has carved out a piece of the Medicare pie by providing the home delivery of diabetic testing supplies. I am disappointed in him and I am embarrassed to have admired his work so much.
Another of the stars of that film, Sally Field, is also cashing in on her star power by hustling in TV ads. Sally is doing commercials for a calcium supplement for women. Sally tries her best to convince us that she is just a regular gal who routinely sits around with her girlfriends discussing calcium supplements and bemoaning how difficult taking a daily pill can be. I doubt it. She comes across as a phony and despite what Sally believes, I really don't like her, at least in this role.
This is just another way in which I continue to be repulsed by entertainment people.
Merle.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgemental and cranky
Tag: Daily Life
Personal Finance
Humor
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