A few years ago, I wrote a column lamenting the fact that there are no holidays in the middle of summer, except for the Fourth of July. By summer, I am referring to those months that most people think of as being summer months: June, July, and August. And the middle of summer would include the period between July 4 and August 31.
Look on your calendar; there is nothing of any significance between those two dates. Yes, I know, it is summertime. We don’t necessarily need a holiday to celebrate fun in the sun. But, still, it would be nice to have something. That is nearly two whole months in which there isn’t even a minor holiday, like Groundhog Day. No other time of year is so void of formal calendar observations.
I looked it up just to be sure I didn’t miss something. I didn’t.
There’s Hoya Hoye Night, which is a children’s festival celebrated in mid-August, in Ethiopia. There is Ivan Kupala Day on July 7, which is a celebration of John the Baptist by the Orthodox Church in Russia. And let’s not forget Lughnasadh. It is a Gaelic holiday celebrated on the first of August, marking mid-summer.
There are several holidays celebrating the solstice, mostly in Europe. But these all occur on or around June 24, not within the two-month stretch I’m talking about. So that’s about it for summer celebrations anywhere in the world. I guess it’s just not we who have nothing official to celebrate during the middle of summer.
Our next official holiday is Labor Day. It is celebrated on the first Monday in September. So this year, it is as early as it can be, September 1. By then, school will have already been in session about two weeks in most places.
I think I probably mourn the dearth of summer holidays more than most people because I run a Web site devoted to holidays. I make money through the advertising that appears on those pages. So no holidays means less money. Sigh.
But at least it is summer. And, really, who needs an excuse to celebrate when you can go outside without a coat? That’s one of my least favorite parts about winter, having to wear a coat.
At any rate, I think there should be some kind of celebration in August. We don’t necessarily have to declare it a federal legal holiday. No, I want my mail delivered. It should be equivalent to St. Patrick’s Day or Valentine’s Day. After all, the card, candy, and flower shops desperately need another holiday when they get to sell stuff.
Maybe the Ethiopians have it right. We have a day in celebration of mothers, fathers, and grandparents. Perhaps we should have a day to celebrate kids (besides Christmas). We could call it Progeny Day. We could give them a festival of their own just before we send them back to school.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Scammed by the Plumber
You expect businesses to make a profit; that’s what they are in business for. You might even expect some of them to overcharge for goods and services, such as convenience stores or mom-and-pop shops. But you don’t expect a well-known operation that advertises on TV every day and touts their professionalism above all else to rip you off.
Well, I learned my lesson. I had a small leak from the supply pipe under my bathroom sink. I’m not handy, nor did I want to get down there and tighten it, lacking tools, so I called a plumber. It was Attaboy Plumbing in Indianapolis. One of their claims to fame is that there is no up-front service fee if they do the work.
So the guy comes out, tells me there will be no service fee and then looks at my pipe. “Oh yeah, that won’t be too bad. It’s pretty simple,” he said. So then he looks through his price list and shows me. “This is the discounted price I’m giving you,” he said as he pointed to what I knew had to be a misprint. It said $147.
“What? You’re charging me $147 to replace a five-dollar piece of copper?” I asked. “Why don’t I just pay you the $89 service fee that you’re NOT charging me?”
He said he couldn’t do that. I suspected as much.
So after I told him it had only cost me $69 in labor to install an entire toilet that I bought at Lowes, he called his boss. His boss told him to come down to the minimum amount they charge for anything, $131.
I had little choice. I could pay $89 for nothing and try to fix it myself, or I could pay the $131. I paid it.
So if you live in the Indianapolis area and if you ever need a plumber, call someone else and pay for the service call. Most places include at least 30 minutes worth of labor in that price. It took the guy less than 15 minutes to replace the pipe. Attaboy Plumbing has a nice scam going on.
Well, I learned my lesson. I had a small leak from the supply pipe under my bathroom sink. I’m not handy, nor did I want to get down there and tighten it, lacking tools, so I called a plumber. It was Attaboy Plumbing in Indianapolis. One of their claims to fame is that there is no up-front service fee if they do the work.
So the guy comes out, tells me there will be no service fee and then looks at my pipe. “Oh yeah, that won’t be too bad. It’s pretty simple,” he said. So then he looks through his price list and shows me. “This is the discounted price I’m giving you,” he said as he pointed to what I knew had to be a misprint. It said $147.
“What? You’re charging me $147 to replace a five-dollar piece of copper?” I asked. “Why don’t I just pay you the $89 service fee that you’re NOT charging me?”
He said he couldn’t do that. I suspected as much.
So after I told him it had only cost me $69 in labor to install an entire toilet that I bought at Lowes, he called his boss. His boss told him to come down to the minimum amount they charge for anything, $131.
I had little choice. I could pay $89 for nothing and try to fix it myself, or I could pay the $131. I paid it.
So if you live in the Indianapolis area and if you ever need a plumber, call someone else and pay for the service call. Most places include at least 30 minutes worth of labor in that price. It took the guy less than 15 minutes to replace the pipe. Attaboy Plumbing has a nice scam going on.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Patriotism Runs Amok
I think I’m on solid ground when I say that most Americans tend to be patriotic, especially this time of year. We are right in between Flag Day and Independence Day. Our collective patriotism is so robust that it explodes, in the form of fireworks.
Patriotism is defined as being the love of, and the devotion to one’s country. Since, it seems, that I typically find it necessary to take up a contrary position to the view of the masses, I will admit here that I am not particularly patriotic.
Oh, I enjoy the Fourth of July festivities. And I still find that a good rendition of America the Beautiful or the Star Spangled Banner can give me goose bumps. But I still refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t pledge allegiance to anyone or anything. I’m my own person.
Drilling down into why I don’t claim to be patriotic requires a definition or two. If patriotism is the love of one’s country, then what is meant by the word country? Is it the land? America has some extraordinarily beautiful landscapes, but then so do many other countries.
Perhaps it is the people that make up the country. But America is probably more pluralistic than any other nation. We are a very diverse group of people. There are probably as many differences between the average San Franciscan and the average Iowan as there are between the average American (whatever that is) and the average German or Australian.
Perhaps a country can be defined as the form of government that runs it. I’ll grant that our Founding Fathers were really onto something. They wrote a brilliant document that we now call the Constitution, which outlines the basic premises that govern our nation. The fact this 200-year-old document is still relevant today speaks volumes.
But the Constitution is not the government. The government can loosely be defined as being those in charge. And personally, I’m not too proud of our government right now, especially the one in charge.
Most Americans, if asked why they are patriotic, would probably bring up our freedom. America is a free nation. It is the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” But come on. Does anyone believe that Americans are any freer than Canadians, Germans, Britons, or Italians?
Americans have their Bill of Rights. And while other countries may not have a two-centuries-old document granting them their rights, they still have basically the same rights as we do. There are many free countries in the world. And, frankly, some of them grant their citizens more freedoms than we in America have.
The truth is, I was born and raised in America and so I’m an American. But I would venture to say that I could be just as happy living in England, France, Germany, or Australia. And if I were living in one of those countries, I would not be patriotic toward them either, although I would thank my lucky stars I didn’t have a leader like George W. Bush.
Sometimes I think Americans overdo their patriotism without even realizing it. My daughter and I were sitting in the Arts Garden over Washington Street in Indianapolis recently. We were looking east and making a little game out of counting the number of American flags we could see. Within only two blocks, we counted an even dozen. These are permanent fixtures, not simply displays for the Fourth of July.
My daughter mentioned that during her trip to France last year, the only French flags flying were on the grounds of government buildings. Her friend from England said it is the same way there and she was amazed at actually seeing an American flag flying over McDonalds when she visited here.
Don’t get me wrong. Flying a flag is fine; it is what we do in America. Being proud of one’s country, however you define it, is fine, too. But from a historical perspective, when patriotism runs amok, it becomes nationalism. And in the past, that has been sufficient incentive for starting wars or otherwise being a global bully. And that’s how much of the world is starting to view us.
Patriotism is defined as being the love of, and the devotion to one’s country. Since, it seems, that I typically find it necessary to take up a contrary position to the view of the masses, I will admit here that I am not particularly patriotic.
Oh, I enjoy the Fourth of July festivities. And I still find that a good rendition of America the Beautiful or the Star Spangled Banner can give me goose bumps. But I still refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t pledge allegiance to anyone or anything. I’m my own person.
Drilling down into why I don’t claim to be patriotic requires a definition or two. If patriotism is the love of one’s country, then what is meant by the word country? Is it the land? America has some extraordinarily beautiful landscapes, but then so do many other countries.
Perhaps it is the people that make up the country. But America is probably more pluralistic than any other nation. We are a very diverse group of people. There are probably as many differences between the average San Franciscan and the average Iowan as there are between the average American (whatever that is) and the average German or Australian.
Perhaps a country can be defined as the form of government that runs it. I’ll grant that our Founding Fathers were really onto something. They wrote a brilliant document that we now call the Constitution, which outlines the basic premises that govern our nation. The fact this 200-year-old document is still relevant today speaks volumes.
But the Constitution is not the government. The government can loosely be defined as being those in charge. And personally, I’m not too proud of our government right now, especially the one in charge.
Most Americans, if asked why they are patriotic, would probably bring up our freedom. America is a free nation. It is the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” But come on. Does anyone believe that Americans are any freer than Canadians, Germans, Britons, or Italians?
Americans have their Bill of Rights. And while other countries may not have a two-centuries-old document granting them their rights, they still have basically the same rights as we do. There are many free countries in the world. And, frankly, some of them grant their citizens more freedoms than we in America have.
The truth is, I was born and raised in America and so I’m an American. But I would venture to say that I could be just as happy living in England, France, Germany, or Australia. And if I were living in one of those countries, I would not be patriotic toward them either, although I would thank my lucky stars I didn’t have a leader like George W. Bush.
Sometimes I think Americans overdo their patriotism without even realizing it. My daughter and I were sitting in the Arts Garden over Washington Street in Indianapolis recently. We were looking east and making a little game out of counting the number of American flags we could see. Within only two blocks, we counted an even dozen. These are permanent fixtures, not simply displays for the Fourth of July.
My daughter mentioned that during her trip to France last year, the only French flags flying were on the grounds of government buildings. Her friend from England said it is the same way there and she was amazed at actually seeing an American flag flying over McDonalds when she visited here.
Don’t get me wrong. Flying a flag is fine; it is what we do in America. Being proud of one’s country, however you define it, is fine, too. But from a historical perspective, when patriotism runs amok, it becomes nationalism. And in the past, that has been sufficient incentive for starting wars or otherwise being a global bully. And that’s how much of the world is starting to view us.
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