The End of the Collector Mindset

[jamespowers]

And live "entertainment."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1MxyZjdPgA

A typcal night at th WaHo. lol lol

 

[jamespowers]

The consultants got paid, though. Whenever anything stupid is proposed at any level, public or private, you can bet there's a "consultant" at the back of it.

We had a Chamber of Commerce initiative here some years ago to build a "Harbor Trail," some kind of tourism gewgaw that would lead the touristi from historic downtown point to historic downtown point, but the city thought it was a dumb, dumb idea since all it would do would be to further congest the already intolerable traffic in the summer -- US 1 runs right thru the middle of town. But the Chamber lobbied and lobbied, and finally the city complied in the most passive-aggressive way possible. They sent out one Public Works guy with a parking-lot striper loaded with royal blue paint, and he drew a line on the sidewalk from the start of the "Harbor Trail" to its finish. And for the next ten years, until the sidewalks got replaced, tourists wandered around wondering what that blue line was all about.

I think a consultant came up with that one too, and he probably got paid.

He got paid alright--probaby $100,000 just like here. We elect local morons to office and pay them but they are obviously too dumb to make decision without paying consultants tons of money. Cut out the middle man and elect consultants---it is cheaper and we can choose which consultant to use.

 

[jamespowers]

Jalapeños make everything better

Jalapenos and deep fried fish eyes.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

We have about TEN Starcrooks around here. :doh: The city is against more fast food places but they LOVE coffee houses. Damned hippie hangouts……

I've got TWO Starbucks just 5-10 minutes walk from my house, one of which is in a supermarket.

 

[jamespowers]

I've got TWO Starbucks just 5-10 minutes walk from my house, one of which is in a supermarket.

I have that situation here! Starcrooks are everywhere----in the local Safeway here. I hardly ever drink coffee. This is not helpful/useful for me.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

He got paid alright--probaby $100,000 just like here. We elect local morons to office and pay them but they are obviously too dumb to make decision without paying consultants tons of money. Cut out the middle man and elect consultants---it is cheaper and we can choose which consultant to use.

Unfortunately in the political arena ignorance is what sadly passes for honesty. Because, God forbid, you should elect someone who actually knows something about something. Why that's "conflict of interest!" :doh:

 

[LizzieMaine]

Once you give stuff away you lose control of it. If you cannot handle your item being broken, sold, used, or packed away; don't give it away.

And no matter who you are, and no matter how much of it you've got, the day is coming when you're going to leave every last bit of it behind. Unless you're an ancient Egyptian monarch, you can't take it with you.

In the end, we're all just dust. And so, in the end, is all our stuff.

 

[Fading Fast]

And no matter who you are, and no matter how much of it you've got, the day is coming when you're going to leave every last bit of it behind. Unless you're an ancient Egyptian monarch, you can't take it with you.

In the end, we're all just dust. And so, in the end, is all our stuff.

And even most of the Pharaohs' tombs were raiding during the time of the Egyptians (when the Egyptian economy went into a depression, raiding Pharaoh tombs became a big business - with the public officials taking pay-offs to look the other way). Those few that weren't raided in ancient times, well, we've been doing that for over hundred years and will continue until no Pharaoh's tomb has been left untouched.

 

[Fading Fast]

He got paid alright--probaby $100,000 just like here. We elect local morons to office and pay them but they are obviously too dumb to make decision without paying consultants tons of money. Cut out the middle man and elect consultants---it is cheaper and we can choose which consultant to use.

I worked for a large New England Bank in the 1990s and the upper-ups paid $1.2 million dollars to a consulting firm to make suggestions of how to make the bank's name more modern. They suggested and it was accepted to change the bank's name from "Bank of ..." to "Bank..." Hence, they paid $1.2 million dollars to have the word "of" removed or $600,000 a letter.

 

[jamespowers]

I worked for a large New England Bank in the 1990s and the upper-ups paid $1.2 million dollars to a consulting firm to make suggestions of how to make the bank's name more modern. They suggested and it was accepted to change the bank's name from "Bank of ..." to "Bank..." Hence, they paid $1.2 million dollars to have the word "of" removed or $600,000 a letter.

No brain trust in house just like my local government I guess.

 

[jamespowers]

Unfortunately in the political arena ignorance is what sadly passes for honesty. Because, God forbid, you should elect someone who actually knows something about something. Why that's "conflict of interest!" :doh:

Honestly ignorant = stupid.

 

[Fading Fast]

No brain trust in house just like my local government I guess.

Yes and there's also an element of CYA - "we hired in the 'best' consultant;" hence, if something doesn't work, it's the consultant's fault and not management (or that's how they'll try to spin it anyway).

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Makes you wonder what's the use of voting anymore because more and more of our laws are being made by unelected bureaucrats and consultants and the people we elect nothing more than figureheads who blindly give rubberstamp approval to their "recommendations."

 

[jamespowers]

Yes and there's also an element of CYA - "we hired in the 'best' consultant;" hence, if something doesn't work, it's the consultant's fault and not management (or that's how they'll try to spin it anyway).

Oh yes CYA has tons to do with it---no matter how much it costs. :doh:

 

[jamespowers]

Makes you wonder what's the use of voting anymore because more and more of our laws are being made by unelected bureaucrats and consultants and the people we elect nothing more than figureheads who blindly give rubberstamp approval to their "recommendations."

:doh:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Oh yes CYA has tons to do with it---no matter how much it costs. :doh:

And you might be familiar with this one. Some twenty years ago the main San Francisco library was being renovated and somehow they had miscalculated the amount of shelf space needed so what they did was load up the books that there was no longer any room for in the middle of the night and take them to the dump. Among the material that was thrown away was much of the reference section. It came to light when a local author who was doing research for a book discovered that the reference material he needed was suddenly no longer available.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I worked for a large New England Bank in the 1990s and the upper-ups paid $1.2 million dollars to a consulting firm to make suggestions of how to make the bank's name more modern. They suggested and it was accepted to change the bank's name from "Bank of ..." to "Bank..." Hence, they paid $1.2 million dollars to have the word "of" removed or $600,000 a letter.

We have vandals here who could have done it for them wholesale.

"Corporate Image Consultants" are merely the Boys From Marketing with a new racket to work. "A Fresh New Look" is corpspeak for "we need a new way to distract the consumers from how we're screwing them over."

 

[HudsonHawk]

I worked for a large New England Bank in the 1990s and the upper-ups paid $1.2 million dollars to a consulting firm to make suggestions of how to make the bank's name more modern. They suggested and it was accepted to change the bank's name from "Bank of ..." to "Bank..." Hence, they paid $1.2 million dollars to have the word "of" removed or $600,000 a letter.

Reminds me of the great line by Mel Ott: "Everytime time I sign a ball, I thank my luck I wasn't born 'Coveleski' or 'Wambsgnass' or "Peckinpaugh'"

 

[Fading Fast]

We have vandals here who could have done it for them wholesale.

"Corporate Image Consultants" are merely the Boys From Marketing with a new racket to work. "A Fresh New Look" is corpspeak for "we need a new way to distract the consumers from how we're screwing them over."

When I was typing this out, I did think, "Lizzie will like that the Boys from Marketing are screwing Corporate America this time," because, let's be honest, Corporate America paid that consultant bill and the average customer didn't give a hoot.

 

[Fading Fast]

When I was typing this out, I did think, "Lizzie will like that the Boys from Marketing are screwing Corporate America this time," because, let's be honest, Corporate America paid that consultant bill and the average customer didn't give a hoot.

As a lowly employee - who endured endless memos about "cost save this," "efficiency initiative that" and a general penny pinching approach to business, I was utterly disgusted at the time. Now I can see it with more wry humor, then I was like, "great, I need to get a form signed by my manager to have my 10 year old desk chair fixed - so that it doesn't fall over - but these yahoos in the big offices spent over a million bucks to take out a preposition."