Sunday Musings (Before the Holiday)

[Update 26 Dec-Due to an unexpected high number of shipments from online merchants, both UPS and FEDEX were unable to deliver all packages by Christmas Eve. The result was many did not get presents in time for Christmas. Since those were tendered by the merchant, you need to contact them to get a refund the shipping charge. Amazon has announced that it will be refunding all shipping charges for packages scheduled to be delivered on 24 Dec. Amazon claims it tendered the shipments in time for delivery but UPS claims that volume exceeded capacity.]

wreath*Time to send presents by Post Office or by package delivery services like UPS for Christmas is about up. You will have to pay extra for overnight delivery if you send it on Monday. The Post Office will deliver Priority Mail Express on Christmas day, FedExpress has FedEx SameDay and FedEx SameDay City.

*UPS Stores are convenient but remember they are not UPS but a franchise. Each store is owner operated and part of the franchise UPS Store that used to be Mailboxes Etc. While it offers the same rates as going to the UPS shipping office, if you have a problem with the delivery or have to put a claim in for damage, your shipping contract is with that store and not UPS. The contract called Parcel Shipping Order explicitly states: “We assume no liability for the delivery of parcels accepted for shipment or loss or damage by any cause to the parcels or their contents while in transit.” Any claim you have has limited liability of $100 unless you declare a value and pay extra. But the limitations on liability is that the do not cover items that are sentimental, negotiable instruments, precious metals, and anything forbidden to be sent by UPS. UPS states in its terms and conditions that you have nine months from package delivery or nine months after “in case of failure to make delivery, within nine months after a reasonable time for delivery has elapsed.” You file the claim with the UPS Store you used so save all documentation and they will need to inspect the package and damage caused. They may deny your claim and if so, your only recourse is small claims court. If you try to sue UPS as well as the store owner, UPS will likely get dismissed from the case as the contract is between the store and you, not UPS.

There is a different rule for a getting a refund due to a service failure. UPS guarantees that it will deliver the package(s) to your recipient (the usual exclusions apply-weather, national emergencies etc)in the time frame contracted (regular or express). If they fail to do that, you have 15 calendar days to file a claim with the UPS Store.

If you shipped via UPS directly and you decide to take legal action against them, there is a major change starting 30 Dec 2014. Except for certain actions that would belong in a small claims court, all other legal actions now will be done by arbitration through American Arbitration Association. The terms and conditions in force them waive trial by jury. According to the new rules “Any arbitration under this Agreement will take place on an individual basis; class,mass, consolidated or combined actions or arbitrations or proceeding as a private attorney general are not permitted. Claimant and UPS are each waiving the right to trial by jury. Claimants and UPS are further giving up the ability to participate in a class, mass, consolidated or combined action or arbitration.”

*Reason#152 People Dislike Going To Post Office:It was Friday morning and just after 10:00 a.m. in the San Bruno Post Office. There was a line of about 20-30 people and only two clerks. A third person handled pickups. More people are coming in while I was in line. Then without fanfare one of the clerks closes up and walks away leaving one clerk to handle the entire growing line of people wanting to mail packages, get postage etc. A manager type walks by and he asks for more help. It never comes and by the time I leave (about 20-25 minutes later) no one came out to assist that lone clerk. And the line had grown even longer by then.

*Dogs and antlers do not mix. Bows are better. Your cat though may resent the bow since they already think themselves special.

*Poinsettias do not poison you but make you nauseous if eaten. Keep away from small kids and pets.

*Hot cocoa is wonderful but if you do not want to make it yourself, mixes are the only way to go. Some mixes are just sugar and mild chocolate (like Swiss Miss) that offer no depth. Ghiradelli makes some good cocoa mixes but they are not cheap but you get good flavor. The best ones require you use hot milk (not boiling!) and not water. Labels tell the truth. Usually the first ingredient is sugar followed by cocoa and often chocolate. If cocoa and chocolate appear way down the list of ingredients it means there is very little of it (common in those instant varieties). Those instant versions usually put lots of sugar and “natural flavors” to make you think there is cocoa in it. The worst offenders use artificial ingredients. Ghiradelli’s double chocolate only has five ingredients in it: sugar, cocoa, chocolate, soy lecithin (emulsifier), and vanilla. Starbucks is not bad but too watery for my taste.

*Apple juice or apple cider? Apple juice is clear apple juice in which all the apple bits have been strained out, while apple cider has all those bits of apple from the mashing process still in them. Apple juice is much sweeter than apple cider and cooks often use the cider version for cooking since it is less sweet (and better for cooking). Hot mulled cider is either apple juice or cider heated up with spices for a delicious warm treat. Do not bother with mixes, just get a decent juice or cider and make your own. Most recipes call for cinnamon, cardamon, oranges or other spices to add. Most spices can be wrapped in cheesecloth (tied up with butchers or cooks twine). There are many recipes out there and have fun figuring out what you like in a mulled cider. Just remember never to boil it. You need to heat it up to a simmer and allow the spices to do their job for at least a half hour. You can cheat it a bit by heating up the cider and then reducing to simmer and adding the spices. If you do not use a cheesecloth, you will need to strain your cider before serving.

*Real fruitcake is not a doorstop but a dense, moist cake. It originated as means to preserve fruit during winter and alcohol was often used to keep it moist. Now fruitcakes do not last forever despite what some wags out there claim. They will spoil over time. Unfortunately fruitcake has garnered a bad reputation because of really bad fruitcakes put out by industrial bakers. Those are most definitely doorstops full of nasty ingredients, most of which are artificial. The best ones are made from bakeries, some of which are religious based. In fact many religious orders make fruitcakes for income and you can find many selections at Monastery Greetings . A blog called Mondo Fruitcake offers reviews as well. I usually get one from Assumption Abbey and it is one of the better ones out there. Chuck Williams liked the Assumption Abbey fruitcake that he put it in his catalog years ago. It sells so well there that they do not advertise at all and rely on word of mouth to sell. They make fruitcakes year round so you can get one for Easter (too late for Christmas but some online retailers may still have some).

*Use common sense when shopping at malls or just about anywhere. Never leave anything of any value (digital music players, gps, sunglasses, briefcases, packages, shopping bags full of goods purchases etc) in plain sight in the car. It practically reads break glass and take what you want. Never leave anything, even just small change (I once had someone break into my car for a mere 50 cents!). And two other things you ought to take with you when parking the car in a public area. Take your garage door remote with you. If someone breaks into your car and gets this combined with looking at your auto registration, they learn where you live. And visit you later by opening the garage door and entering your home from there (many robberies have occurred this way in my area). That leads to another tip: take your car registration with you. It is a pain but most states do not require you have it there when you park and leave the car. Otherwise thieves learn where you live (many burglary rings use valet parking services as a means to view such information).

*Professor George Giuliani has penned a book called No More Bullies At The North Pole which asserts that the Rudolph story (both the song and the animated version)is about bullying. He claims the treatment of Rudolph by the other reindeer and Santa are examples of unfair behavior. Lyrics such as this promote, he asserts, this view:

All of the other reindeer
used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
join in any reindeer games.

The animated feature fleshes this out more in depth with how he is rejected and by Santa as well. So he takes off and joins with an elf who wants to be a dentist (rejected by his own as well), and a fanciful character who tries to find gold. There is a nasty creature (the North Pole version of the abominable snowman) and an island of misfit toys, where the rejected toys (due to square tires or other things that are considered production errors in the real world) hang around hoping for a kid to love them. The nasty bumble (as it is called in the animated story) eventually threatens Rudolph’s family and he comes to their aid. Both the bumble and miner seem to die but turn up later quite alive at Santa’s house and workshop. A very bad storm nearly keeps Santa grounded until he Rudolph’s nose and gives him an idea:

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
“Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

No apology for their bad behavior from the deer or Santa, just a request to help them out. And off they go in the song (the animated story adds now tamed bumble putting a star on the Christmas tree)leading them to celebrate Rudolph as a hero for what he did.

Then all the reindeer loved him
as they shouted out with glee,
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
you’ll go down in history!

Giuliani, who has doctorate in psychology, believes this song and show display bad things so the book is meant to help educators and parents. Now whether or not the merits of his argument are valid, let us begin at the source. The song Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer was based on a poem by Robert May, an advertising executive, that could be given out by Santa Claus in Montgomery Ward’s department stores in 1939. The goal, of course, is to encourage toy sales. And it did just that! Then in 1949 Gene Autry sang the song composed by Johnny Marks. The song became the number one Christmas song that year selling 1.75 million copies. Other versions and covers exceeded 150 million putting it behind Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. The animated version with Burl Ives (Rankin/Bass 1964) remains popular to this day and regularly shown at Christmas time.

Rudolph has a happy ending, in both the song and Rankin/Bass animation. He becomes a hero and in the animation the misfit toys each find a home thanks to Santa in the end. The problem Giuliani says is “the message to disabled children is we will not accept you as you are, but only if you can do something extraordinary.” I am not convinced that is the message here but I think many kids, past and present, remember times when they were not always accepted for whatever reason. And sometimes you got acceptance by being good at something, helping out at a needed time, or in some cases standing up to a bully and forcing him to back down.

Disabled kids are a different issue. I remember kids who had problems when I was a kid. And I see Giuliani’s point on this. Those kids are almost always, at least as I recall, laughed at and mocked for acting different (I never had anyone confined to a wheelchair). Why? Because they were weird in our eyes and so they were treated differently. Not fair at all I agree. That is why today parents and educators try to make them feel they belong. And kids are told not to make fun of them or call them “retarded.” But I am not convinced this song is directed at those kids. I doubt May, Gene Autry, or Johnny Marks thought it was about bullying either. It was showing someone who looked different but found a way to contribute to the team in the end. And make them all look good. Not unlike the American ideal of someone foreign arriving on the shore, not knowing how to fit in, and does find something that brings praise from those around him.

Except for some Christmas postings, I will not be blogging much this week. I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.

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Titanic News For 20 Dec 2013

1. Premier Exhibitions, Inc. Partners With Crossmedia to Re-envision Exhibition Marketing Strategy (19 Dec 2013,Wall Street Journal-press release)
Many of the exhibitions have been touring for a number of years and in some instances, have been in their respective markets for five plus years,” said Elizabeth Natwick, the new vice president of marketing that recently joined Premier Exhibitions. “While the concept of the exhibit and the content is evergreen and transcends generations, the way we interact with the public in terms of messaging and marketing should be evaluated and updated, and we are looking forward to doing just that with Crossmedia.”

2. Deep Subterranean Microbe Thrives On Iron And Oil(19 Dec 2013,RedOrbit)
The team found that the bacteria are able to utilize iron and nitrogen from their surroundings and recycle scarce nutrients to meet their metabolic needs. The superstructure of the sunken Titanic is being consumed by another member of the same group, named the Halomonas titanicae. The researchers also found that the microbes living in the deep sandstone deposits of the Illinois Basin were capable of metabolizing aromatic compounds, a common component of petroleum.

3. Probably Coming Out Next Halloween:Ghostly Queen Mary Supernatural Thriller To Set Sail(18 Dec 2013,Bleeding Cool)
Described as “The Shining on a ship,” the untitled film will be a supernatural thriller that taps into the Queen Mary’s own sordid reputation as one of the 10 most haunted places in America (as declared by Time magazine in 2008). One cabin is said to be haunted by someone who was murdered there, while others have claimed to have heard children playing in the nursery.

Warning! Titanic Cliche Ahead
Warning! Titanic Cliche Ahead

4. Titanic Cliche Alert: Headline for Perez Hilton claims The Voice sinking like Titanic:
The Voice Finale’s Ratings Sink Like The Titanic!(18 Dec 2013,Perezhilton.com)
The actual commentary never mentions Titanic so the headline is just an attention grabber. Nice try. Except of course none of those on The Voice had to leave a sinking ship on a very cold night with too few lifeboats to save them. Bad analogy Perez. For that you get the fractured finger Titanic Cliche Award.

The New Perils of Today

Photo:MALIZ ONG (publicdomainpictures.net)
Photo:MALIZ ONG (publicdomainpictures.net)

In the good old days when things were done mostly by hand and phone, crooks and con artists came up with clever ways to steal from stores. Shoplifting–the five finger discount–was popular but risky if you got caught. Stores that offered up charge cards or took credit cards offered ways for the crook to make a living. Often cards were put on a device which impressed the card on a charge slip. And it meant you got a copy of the charge and they did too for processing. Carbon paper used to be used and those crafty cons learned to sift through store garbage cans to retrieve them. Then of course the customer would get his bill and see a lot more had been charged. Today thanks to credit and debit cards, we swipe them on a terminal to pay for our purchases. And the crooks got smart too.

They learned that you can skim the important data by using devices that capture as you swipe. Gas stations have become a real target since a lot of people swipe their debit cards. Grocery stores have been caught too when someone shows up claiming to be from the company that works on those terminals adds a little something to them. Target, a large name in the retail business, got hit hard according to news reports. Just about everyone who used the store between 27 Nov and 15 Dec potentially gave their important credit card and debit card data to these sophisticated thieves. All Target credit and debit cards are effected as are any other credit cards swiped during that time.

Now Target has had to make official statements and apologies. Too bad their customer service is virtually unreachable right now (busy signals and the recorded voice coming on saying all circuits are busy). Go online to check your RedCard perhaps to change your pin on the debit card? Nope, cannot do that either. The website is not working there but you can apply for one! I went down to my local Target in San Bruno, California and spoke to a young man at the Guest Services counter. Sadly I learned that you cannot change your pin there. You have to go to the website or call up to have it done. So I politely asked for some scissors and cut my RedCard debit card in half. He looked unconcerned though the Target checker standing behind him gawked at what I did. I handed him back the scissors and the now decapitated card. And I walked away. I had thought about shopping there that day. I brought my checks with me.

I decided otherwise. They were either cleverly hacked from the outside or someone from the inside did the job. No word yet on how many people have unauthorized charges. So far I have had none but then again debit charges made through Target’s card take a few days to show up (it is processed like a check rather than a straight debit). Already I see people quite rightly mad and complaining how they cannot get through to Target either at the website or by the phone. And how they were exposed to crooks when they swiped their cards. It may, at least for some, warrant some rethinking of using debit cards to pay for things. I loathe to use credit cards for grocery shopping and usually use a debit card (but using the charge function rather than debit). Still it makes one think using checks is not such a bad thing after all. Perhaps the check printers are about to get a bump in orders.

As for Target, since I cannot either contact them by phone or through the website, I will send an old fashioned postal letter directing them to cancel the debit card. If I shop at Target in the future, I will use cash or pay by check. No more debit or credit cards (except when ordering online) for use there. I may never go back since I can get most of what I need elsewhere (they do have some good prices on groceries compared to the other stores in the area). But I likely will not go back. They way they handled this was to say oops, sorry, and good luck to you! The fact their customer service and certain areas of their website was unreachable is the clincher. So in this age of tech savvy crooks and con artists, places like Target ought to have been more on the ball. This is not inconsequential as it involves peoples credit card and debit card information that thieves will be sure to use. No doubt lawsuits are pending. In the end the consumer must watch over their information because places like Target are sometimes unable to do so when clever crooks break the system and win the jackpot.

Clive Palmer’s Dinosaur Park Opens

Palmer Colossal CrocodileClive Palmer’s dinosaur theme park opened on Saturday on the grounds of Palmer Coolum Resort in Queensland, Australia. There are 160 dinosaurs and some are animatronic to give that bit scare to those walking by. Palmer, who is building Titanic II claims not to know how much it cost saying his wife counts the money. While that seems like a stretch, Palmer is going to make money from it. The cost to attend is AUS$100 or $89US for a family of four. No word if they are selling Jurassic Park themed products in a gift shop.

Source: Titanic II Creator’s ‘Palmersaurus’ Theme Park(16 Dec 2013,The Telegraph)

White Christmas-Elvis Presley Version

The song White Christmas (Irving Berlin) was made popular by Bing Crosby in part by the movie Holiday Inn(1942). Initially the song was not that popular but during World War 11 it gained popularity with troops away from home. The simple lyrics resonated so strongly it became one of the most requested songs from the troops. Bing Crosby initially thought the song was just a song and did not know its lasting importance.

Crosby’s rendition and the many others that follow use the same formula but add various bells and whistles to make it their own. Crosby’s rendition remains the most popular but in 1957 Elvis Presley recorded his own version for his own Christmas album. His version departs from the standard version in terms of tempo and how it is sung. So much that it bothered Irving Berlin (who wrote the lyrics) and pressure was put on radio stations to not play it. And it disappeared from the airwaves and was rarely heard since. Until recently when the Elvis Presley Christmas Album was re-released. I have that cd and it has a lot of great renditions of classic Christmas songs. But here is the official YouTube release of the song so you can judge for yourself whether it is thumbs up, thumbs down, or toss the cd of it into the fire! Warning-this YouTube video does have advertising.

A Cup Of Tea….And Titanic?

Here is something that caught my eye being a tea drinker. Those of us who like to brew tea the old fashioned way with loose tea (rather than that awful stuff in most flow through bags) often use an infuser. So some crafty person thought that it would be nifty and novel to make one look like a famous ship of old. So was born the idea of a Titanic themed tea infuser. Oh boy. Tea infusers are supposed to allow water to steep the tea leaves so the leaves do not get into your tea. This one being shaped like a ship probably will not be making a great cup of tea owing to its size. One of those weird novelties you give someone who likely put its in a trunk in the attic and never seen again.

Titanic tea infuser

Titanic Hidden Histories At Shipwreck Museum(UK) 14-21st December

Bonny Cummins friendship with Titanic survivor Millvina Dean inspired Titanic Hidden Histories which includes Titanic art, film, and animations and original music composed by Josh Cummins. On 15 December, Bonny will hold a screening and conversation of  her zoetrope animations, original music, and showing her special Titanic collectibles.  Further information is at The Shipwreck Museum.

Sources:
1. Titanic Exhibition And Film Arrives At Shipwreck Museum(12 Dec 2013,Hastings & St. Leonard Observer)
2. Shipwreck Museum

Titanic, historic ship, and general history news.