Basic Economics

A lot of Republican-led states are phasing out extra unemployment benefits that have been offered during the pandemic. They claim that extra benefits dissuade people from rejoining the workforce because why work when the government gives you free money?

There’s a certain logic to that. But since the extra unemployment benefits are around $300 a week, that works out to a little over $7/hr for a 40 hour workweek. Which is to say that, people who are “turning down” work because unemployment pays better must be getting job offers that pay less than $7/hr. So, perhaps the solution would be for employers to pay a living wage?

Of course, increased unemployment benefits are not the only factor keeping people out of the workforce. There are also things like fears of illness and the lack of childcare options, but Republicans don’t want to acknowledge those. Acknowledging those things might necessitate their thinking about actually doing something to help people. And lord knows helping people is not what Republicans got into politics for!

What they did get into politics for remains anyone’s guess.

*****

Amazon update: $5.06. You’re SO close, Bezos!

Save a Cat, Hug a Donut

 Happy National Hug Your Donut Day! It’s also National Cat Day!

...Now that I read that, I think I might have those sorta backward...

Wish I’d realized that before I got myself all covered in sprinkles... and took a bite out of my cat.

I notice that there’s no National Hug Your Dog Day. I suppose that’s because one doesn’t really need an excuse to hug a dog. And hugging even the most amenable cat can sometimes be an unpleasant experience, full of claws and teeth and tears....

Defense Is Overrated; Suits Are Not

When did basketball coaches stop wearing suits? I think it was last year, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. The NBA resumed the season that had been suspended in March, but the teams all played in what came to be known as “The Bubble”: a state of the art athletic facility in Disney World. While the playoffs progressed, players remained sequestered in Orlando, away from friends and family, but relatively safe from Covid. Still, one can’t help but wonder how many players made half-assed efforts during the playoffs so as to get booted earlier from the Bubble. That would go a long way toward explaining how the Miami Heat made it to the finals.

Anyway, when the season resumed, coaches seemed to decide that the Bubble called for a more casual approach to fashion. Team-logoed fleeces replaced the Armani’s and Hugo Bosses to which we’d become accustomed since the days of Pat Riley. And this year, even with the resumption of relatively normal games, complete with fans on the stands, the coaches are still rocking the casual Friday look every day of the week.

Next thing you know, they’re gonna take a page from baseball and start dressing in uniforms like the players. I hope it doesn’t come to that. Nobody needs to see Tom Thibodeau in a pair of baggy shorts.

Speaking of Tom Thibodeau, the New York Knicks got bounced out of the playoffs yesterday. I’m not overly disappointed—I save my disappointment for the Mets. And the Knicks had a pretty good season, anyway.

It goes to show, though, that the old sports adage about defense winning championships doesn’t always hold true. Tom Thibodeau is universally acknowledged as a defensive-minded coach, and the Knicks did practice spectacular defense throughout the season. But in basketball, the better offensive team will almost always win.

You might respond, “Well, ultimately, doesn’t the better offensive team ALWAYS win in any sport?” Well, no. I mean, in other sports, you could have a team that, in general, is great offensively but that gets shut down by a superior defensive team—a defensive team that manages to eke out just enough offense to win. The key idea here is that, in other sports, the defense can shut down the opposition. Think about a pitcher throwing a shutout, or a football defense blanking their opponents.

In basketball, even a terrific defense is going to give up 90 points or so. So a great defense by itself won’t win you any championships if you can’t score enough. It’ll just cause you to lose by two points instead of 20.

*****

Amazon update: The price of the book today? $5.61. Nice try, Bezos!

Amazon Is Onto Me

I like books. I own quite a few. At least seven! Hard to believe, I know. And in addition to my physical, paper and paste library, I have an ever growing digital library on my Kindle.

I should also mention that I’m frugal. For example, that Kindle I mentioned? It’s not actually a physical device, but a free app downloaded onto my iPad. (To be fair, does anyone own an actual Kindle anymore? Do they post on MySpace about all the great books they’ve read?) So while I’m always looking for things to add to my library, I will not spend great amounts of money to do so.

Amazon makes it easy, though. Every day, I check my Kindle ‘Wish List,” and I sort the list by price, from lowest to highest. Generally, the books range in price from about $8 - $14, but there are frequent markdowns. Whenever a book on the list drops below $5, I go ahead and snatch it up. Every couple of weeks, I get a book for, like, $1.99.

Lately, though, I’ve noticed something strange. The same book shows up at the top of the list as the lowest-priced book of the day. That’s not unusual: Once a book hits its low price of, say, $7.99, it will stay there for a while, and unless and until something drops below it, it will remain at the same position. In this case, though, the price of the book has been changing every day, but very slightly, and within the range of $6.22 - $6.87. And while I admit to feeling a certain temptation on the day the book hit $6.66, I am sticking to my sub $5 principles.

I can’t help but think, though, that Amazon has tumbled to my strategy, and they’re engaged in a psychological probe, trying to tweak the price ever so slightly to see when I might take the plunge. Seeing the algorithm in action as it tries to suss out the exact level of my stinginess is unnerving.

Look, Bezos, I’ll make a deal with you: Drop some juicy “Apprentice” outtakes on the internet, and I’ll spring for the extra buck.

The Word of Dog

There’s a sheepadoodle in Washington State that knows how to talk. I had no idea that such a thing existed. I mean, what the hell is a sheepadoodle?

OK, acceptable.

But as for the whole “talking” thing, I remain unimpressed. 

To be clear, the dog in question, “Bunny” (if that is her real name), is not some sort of real-world Scooby Doo. She communicates by pushing buttons—buttons that have words printed on them, allowing her to create rudimentary phrases at a slightly higher developmental level than that displayed by the former President of the United States.

To be sure, this is intriguing, and it’s somewhat entertaining when Bunny seems to be using her button collection to express displeasure at her owner’s lack of alacrity in taking her for walks. At the same time, having to set up a rather unwieldy Louisiana-shaped mat with about fifty buttons in order to allow a dog to  express such complex thoughts as “Feed me” seems like a bit more trouble than it’s worth.

Dogs (and for that matter cats, guinea pigs, parrots, and any number of other domesticated animals) have no need for fancy technological support to communicate with humans. They have us wrapped around their paws all on their own power.

Still Not as Gross as Brussels Sprouts

Cicadas are the new sushi. Bun Lai, a chef in New Haven, Connecticut, has developed several recipes centered on the cicada, that most reclusive of insects, known for their ear-splitting noise, as well as the fact that they emerge to swarm over parts of the East Coast but once every 17 years.

So three things:

Number one, yuck.

Number two, see number one.

Number three, did we mention that cicadas only show up every 17 years? Basing a restaurant menu on cicadas, then, seems like a flawed business model, no matter how “delicious” one purports them to be. And one shudders to think what a chef uses as a cicada substitute. ‘Cause let’s face it, when it comes to insects, the East Coast is the furthest thing from a food desert. Indeed, I suspect the kitchen of even the most upscale restaurant hosts whole pantries full of. . .shall we say, ingredients. . . for an enterprising chef.

So, y’know, enjoy your cicada frittatas all you like, if that’s your thing. But come 2022, I’d think twice before chowing down on that Brood X Burger.