Open Thread Wednesday 8/28/13

By on August 28, 2013 12:18 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

Update: Karl Junkersfeld really wanted to see this week’s main conversation turned into an animation. So here it is (with apologies to all involved!):

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  • Remsen Street Dweller

    Come to LICH today (Wed.- 8/28) at 3 PM for a Rally

    LICH still needs our support —
    SUNY still speaks with forked tongue.

  • ColumbiaHeightster

    Good morning. Can anyone be so kind as to recommend (1) a local dentist; and (2) a trustworthy cleaning person? Thanks much.

  • Trini

    I can wholeheartedly recommend Matthew Bellafiore DDS on Montague Street, and Handybook.com for a cleaning person. The woman they have sent me is excellent.

  • DrewBurch

    I’ve been going to Dr. Eric Last on Remsen for years. He’s done everything for me from simple cleaning to an implant. He is great.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    :Yowzah — NYSNA endorses Steve Levin for City Council!

  • Wilbur MacKenzie

    Perelandra has become quite absurd with their “do you want a bag?” policy at checkout. The other day I brought a good 15 items to the counter and the chap working the register asked me this question. It took enormous restraint not to reply with sarcasm, but I’m not sure how long I can hold my tongue.

  • DrewBurch

    Actually he is on Schemerhorn. Got a little confused there lol

  • DrewBurch

    They are just trying to encourage you to bring a reusable bag. Sure it is a bit of an annoyance I suppose, but if you can remember it is better for everyone involved.
    http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/2010/08/10-reasons-why-single-use-plastic-bags-blow/

  • BrooklynBird

    tough life you live there.

  • Heightsman

    Could be worse….in Europe the supermarkets charge for each bag.

  • MonroeOrange

    they are asking in case you have a bag and just haven’t taken it out…doesn’t seem like that is really an issue to complain about Wilburrrrrrrrrrrr……..

  • Wilbur MacKenzie

    Does it make you feel just and superior, BrooklynBird, to make comments like that? It’s a tradition on this blog to kvetch a little on Open Thread Wednesday. There’s no harm in it. I’m well aware that orphans in Darfur have it worse.

  • Wilbur MacKenzie

    No, that’s not it, DrewBurch. These are just not terribly bright people working the counter who have no sense of judgment. I have been shopping at the store for more than 20 years, and this is something new. And for the record, I have a reusable bag, but I don’t carry it with me at all times, and I sometimes find myself in the neighborhood needing to pick a few things up. I can understand asking if I want a bag if I’m only checking out a few items, but once we get over 10, it’s just plain silly.

  • DrewBurch

    There has been more and more effort to curb the use of bags in recent years, because they are horrible to produce and dispose of. check that link I posted. In the EU you have to pay a few cents for every disposable bag you use at the supermarket. Other US cities have similar regulations, and they are talking about it for NYC as well.

    I understand that you can’t always bring a bag. But I really don’t think they expect you to carry 12 items home in your arms. It is just a way of making you think about every bag that you use. A bit of social consciousness with your groceries as it were. Not that much of a burden really.

  • BrooklynBird

    Los Angeles does this as well. I wish NYC started doing this too.

  • Wilbur MacKenzie

    I have no objection to paying a fee for a bag. I do object to a lecture; that’s not how you treat customers.

  • BrooklynBird

    The lecture? They asked you, “do you want a bag?” They asked you 5 words. Such a lecture for you. Sorry you had to sit through that.

  • Wilbur MacKenzie

    Good point, MonroeOrange. I often keep shopping bags tucked in my pants.

  • Joe A

    Well we know where your head is tucked in at least.

  • Joe A

    Wow. Attack checkout people for not being terribly bright. What an arrogant piece of garbage you are to complain about them doing their job for which they are probably being paid $9 an hour. Obnoxious is the word that comes to mind.

  • Philo T. Worthfarns

    What has become of this once great neighborhood? Not two days ago I was shopping at Trader Joes on Atlantic (perhaps a tad outside the Heights, but close enough). The cashier had the audacity, the sheer, unbridled audacity to ask me if I wanted a paper or a plastic bag! How utterly rude and obnoxious! And I had to stand there while this peon proceeded to ask this endless question for upwards of two entire seconds! Two seconds of my life I will never get back! What sort of rabble do stores hire these days? Who dares treat a paying customer like this? I came to purchase groceries, not to have to wrestle with philosophical questions! What kind of cretin thrusts such a burden on an innocent shopper? Why would management allow this? I dare say I will never shop in a store again or speak with an employee of any business or spend a dime again! Ever!

    Of course I had brought my own bag, so it wasn’t really big of a deal.

  • BrooklynBird

    Love!

  • Wilbur MacKenzie

    Well, I was responding to DrewBurch, who thinks the people working the registers know full well that I must have a bag when I have brought so many items for purchase, but they ask me anyway to remind me that I’m damaging Mother Earth by accepting a paper bag for my goods. If this is true – and I don’t think it is – than they are preaching to customers and I don’t approve of that.

  • Joe A

    Perfect

  • Wilbur MacKenzie

    Sorry if this bothers you, Joe A, but yes, I suspect a few cashiers in our neighborhood are not terribly bright. I’m all for giving them a pay raise.

  • Wilbur MacKenzie

    I’ve been shamed. Do you think we should intervene militarily in Syria?

  • HeatherQuinlan

    Tough crowd, Wilbur!

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    Are we turning into—God forbid!—Park Slope?

  • ab_bklyn

    I actually WISH that more stores asked this. When I go out to get lunch near my office in Manhattan, I usually tell them that I don’t need a bag (it’s usually one item that I’m carrying back to my office, no more than a few blocks). Oftentimes they don’t ask, and I see my coworkers get their salad or sandwich placed in a tiny plastic bag that they carry for a block or two, then throw away. EVERY day. It’s incredibly wasteful and unnecessary. Perhaps if more of these cashiers asked if you needed a bag, people would think harder about it.

  • Jorale-man

    Why are there so many smokers lurking about on Court Street? Every morning I’m assaulted with their toxic fumes the minute I get near Court & Joralemon. At night I get off the subway at Borough Hall and – slightly out of breath from the stair climb – the first thing I breathe in is someone’s nicotine. But as soon as I walk past the Starbucks the smoke almost completely vanishes.

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