Christine the Curmudgeon

Christine the Curmudgeon just saw this letter on Dear Abby:

DEAR ABBY: I am a 48-year-old man about to be married for the second time. My bride, “Jennifer,” is significantly younger than I, but aside from that, we’re alike on most issues. We have lived together for five years and have two beautiful daughters, ages 3 and 7.

We are now involved in making wedding plans. I know it’s a woman’s special day, but when I ask the normal question of “How much does it cost?” Jennifer becomes unglued. She says she’s aware that we don’t have an unlimited budget, and she’s sick and tired of my always asking about the costs and saying things are too expensive.

Today she went off again when I said that the diamond-encrusted wedding band she wants me to wear was too expensive, and a simple gold band is fine for me. I told Jennifer to cut out the Bridezilla attitude. Money is a factor in a wedding, and since I’m part of it, my opinion should matter as much as hers.

Now she’s stomping around in a huff, and I’m at the end of my rope. If this is how she acts now, what about after the wedding? Am I being an idiot to worry about the money, or is Jennifer being unrealistic by ignoring it and stifling my concerns? — GROOM (?) IN MICHIGAN

DEAR GROOM (?): You’re not an idiot. You are asking some very intelligent questions. One of the most frequent causes of divorce is arguments over money. So before you go any further, stop the music and insist that the two of you get premarital counseling to ensure that you really are on the same page. It could save you a bundle — of heartache and money.

I beg to disagree. This guy IS an idiot if he refuses to see what has been staring him in the face for years. He is nothing to “Jennifer” but a meal ticket. And, if he marries her or not, he will be still committed forever to her, because of those two kids that he has to support. He can look forward to a lifetime of her making all sorts of unreasonable child support demands, and if he forks it over, most of it will be to pay for expensive crap for HER.

This dude doesn’t say exactly how old Jennifer is, but I’m betting she is in her early 20′s, and looking for a sugar daddy. She probably has a bunch of idiot bimbo friends who are pushing her to demand more and more from this guy. But hey, they have two kids to support, that cuts down on the disposable income, so cutting down on wedding costs is JUST THE WAY IT HAS TO BE.

I mean, the letter-write dude is trying to do his best to save money, he probably goes to sites like cheapestautoinsurance.net to save money on necessities like car insurance.  She won’t get into that, she’ll complain if he buys a cheaper car like a Ford Focus, rather than a Lincoln Navigator SUV.  The demands for money will NEVER end.  He may love having a much younger trophy wife, but she needs to see that he is NOT Donald Trump, who can afford lots of young bimbos, kids, and expensive wedding crap. My advice to this guy is to call off the wedding, call an attorney to make reasonable child support/visitation arrangements, and only deal with Jennifer when it comes to the kids.  It will be less expensive for him in the long run.

I doubt that the pre-marital counseling that Abby suggests will help.

Sheesh!  The things that some people complain about!  Christine the Curmudgeon read this completely stupid letter on Planet Feedback.  It’s from someone who whined because Olive Garden did not automatically give her a free dessert after she blatantly advertised the fact that it was her birthday.

I honestly do not understand this sort of thing.  Where is it written that anyone has to give anyone, anything for their birthday?  Don’t you see how easily this could be abused?  Anyone could come in, claim it was their birthday, and demand the freebie.  And what would be next?  Freebies for people who send out baby shower invitations to have their shindig at Olive Garden…a freebie for the mother-to-be? I don’t think so!

Anyhoo, here’s the stupid letter:

A few months ago, I celebrated my birthday at Olive Garden. I could have picked any other restaurant, but no, I chose the Olive Garden. Without even thinking about it, I assumed I would recieve a birthday dessert at the end of my meal. We let our waiter know that it was my birthday, and he stated that Olive Garden has a policy that says that even though a guests celebrates a birthday with us, we will not give them anything in return such as a dessert. HOW WONDERFUL! At first I thought he was kidding and he was going to come back in 5 minutes and surprise me… but no he wasn’t joking.

I belong to a social networking site. A friend of mine left a wall post that said “I went to Olive Garden for my b-day and for dessert, they brought me some of their mints with a candle on it.” Now doesn’t that sound like such a generous company that cares about their customers satisfaction? I know I’m defiantly going to want to come back on my birthday to get my birthday mints!!!! Yay! Actually NO.

0_0

That’s really sad.

I’d like Olive Garden to give desserts to their customers who celebrate their birthdays at their restaurants.

This is not to say that no chain restaurants never give away anything for customers’ birthdays.  But to reap such benefits, one usually has to sign up for their e-mail club or loyalty program.  For example, if you join TGI Friday’s Give Me More Stripes loyalty program, you not only receive a coupon for a free birthday dessert, but also money-saving coupons all year ’round.  You also earn “stripes” for each dollar you spend, earn 100 stripes and they’ll send you a coupon for $8.00 off your next meal there.

I also received a free birthday dessert coupon fromthe 99, for belonging to their e-mail club.  They also send occasional money-saving coupons.

Also, Margarita’s, a chain of Mexican style restaurants here in New England, has a mailing list where they will send you a $10 off coupon to be used during the month of your birthday.  You can sign up from their website.

Oh, and by the way, I checked, and Olive Garden has an e-mail newsletter, as well.  The sign-up is right here.  The form does ask for your birthday, so maybe they do have coupons for their subscribers’ birthdays.  I wouldn’t know, I have never eaten at an Olive Garden, nor have I signed up for this list.

But basically, these businesses are rewarding you for being frequent customers, and allowing them to market to you via email.  They will NOT just hand out a freebie to any old dumbass who walks in and demands it!

Oh, and Jess…just because you and your friends on Facebook bitch about this situation, it’s NOT going to change anything. It just makes you look stupid. kthxbai.

And Christine the Curmudgeon says that it’s the collective group of people known as The Center for Science in the Public Interest.  They have told McDonald’s that they have 30 days to stop selling Happy Meals with toys in them, or else they will sue.  Story here.

Why do I think that McDonald’s is NOT quaking in their boots with fear?  I don’t think that CSPI can win this one.  For one thing, McDonald’s has more money and more lawyers than the non-profit group.  Second, it’s so ridiculous that no judge in his/her right mind would do anything but throw it out of court!

Does McDonald’s food make people fat?  Yeah, if you eat nothing but a steady diet of the stuff.  But I’d like to think that the majority of parents out there have enough sense to NOT feed this to their kids every day.  Sure, it is marketing to children, but who is in charge of the family money and how it’s spent?  The PARENTS, at least they should be.  If any parents do let the kids dictate what food is bought, and how family money is spent, those people have a LOT more issues to worry about besides their kids getting fat.  The parents are supposed to be in charge, they have the power to say NO.

Personally, I won’t touch the stuff now.  But I loved going to McDonald’s as a kid.  We only went maybe once a month or so, as a special treat.  I loved all of the McDonaldland characters, had little toy figures of them, plus a huge poster that they were giving out, a big map of McDonaldland with pictures of all the characters, showing where they lived.

And somehow, I managed to survive.  I do not have diabetes or heart problems.  My weight gain and other health issues were not caused by eating at McDonald’s as a kid, they were caused by simply getting older.

In any case, it is not the responsibility of the government, the self-appointed food police, or McDonald’s to decide what parents are allowed to feed their kids.  What are they gonna do next, set up a security camera at every single home in which kids live, to make sure that they are not consuming Happy Meals? It is the job of the PARENTS and the PARENTS alone to be sure that their kids get good, healthy food to eat every day.  But to deny these kids an occasional treat is just insane!

It has to seriously suck to be a kid now.

Christine the Curmudgeon was bored and surfing around the web.  And came upon some sites that referred to the Safelink Wireless program as the “Obama Phone”.

Safelink Wireless is a program that provides a free cell phone and a small amount of monthly minutes to qualified low income people.  It’s been around for years now, in fact, it started when George W. Bush was President.  But apparently, some people are just hearing about this program now, and are quick to blame Barack Obama for its existence, just like they like to blame him for everything else that supposedly is wrong with the world, from the oil spill disaster in the Gulf to the fact that the Baltimore Orioles are the suckiest team in baseball.

Safelink’s website says that this is a “government supported” program.  But that does NOT mean “government funded”.  I found this piece on FactCheck.org that explains the program, and where the money for it comes from.  It’s NOT taxpayer funded, as some people would like you to believe.

But the fact that some people are begrudging the ability for low income people to have a basic cell phone seriously chaps my hide.  For one thing, that’s what it is…a basic cell phone, on which you can make and receive calls and text messages.  No camera, no mp3 player, no mobile web, no fancy video cards. Just a basic phone.  It’s there for people to use in emergencies, or perhaps for job hunting, if they can’t afford a landline phone.  And with pay phones going the way of the dinosaur, a cell phone is becoming more and more of a necessity these days.

The phones and service are from TracFone Wireless, which is the worst wireless company in the world, and should not be used unless you are dirt poor and need to sign up for this Safelink thing.  Mr. C. and I used to use TracFone, on a paid basis, and we both had the crappy little Motorola phone that is pictured here.  It’s okay, I suppose, unless something goes wrong, and you have to call customer service, which they seem to outsource to India, judging by the poor English and heavy accents of their call center reps.  As much as we don’t understand a word they are saying, they don’t understand a word we say, either, because problems are never resolved.  We dumped them and switched to Virgin Mobile, and have been happy with them for years now.

Safelink also gives you about an hour of airtime per month, which can be used for either talk or text messages.  If you use up your monthly allotment, too bad, you either have to wait until next month to get more minutes, or you have to buy more yourself.  With your own money.

Now, I’d be seriously pissed if they were handing out free BlackBerrys or iPhones to low-income people.  But the way this program operates, I don’t have a problem with it.  I just wish that people would quit calling it the “Obama Phone”.

So last night, Christine the Curmudgeon was sitting in the Samuel Adams Bar & Grill at MerchantsAuto.com Stadium, watching the grounds crew getting the field ready for the Fisher Cats game that night, drinking a Sam Summer Ale, and waiting for Mr. Curmudgeon to show up.

He showed up, and asked me if I were sitting down.  Well, being that my ass was firmly planted on the bar stool, that was a dumb question.  But seriously, I was worried.  Did he get fired or laid off from his job?  I was afraid it was something catastrophic.

No, nothing like that!  His boss has to go to the Netherlands and meet some clients there, and he MIGHT want Mr. C. to accompany him.  However, Mr. C. does not want to go.  He’d end up joined at the hip to the boss the whole time, there’d be no time for any fun stuff, like sight-seeing, hanging out in the red-light district of Amsterdam and smoking legal weed, etc.  This isn’t a European tourist trip, nor is it something fun like a trip to the Orlando theme parks. If there was a bit of time allowed for sight-seeing, he might feel differently. But being stuck with the boss watching his every move, 24/7 is his idea of hell on earth. He’ll do it to keep his job, if it is at all possible, within reason.

HOWEVER, the real problem is that Mr. C. does not possess a valid passport.  He has an ancient expired passport from when he was in the Navy eons ago.  But he has never needed one since.  Back when we took a vacation up in Nova Scotia, Canada, a passport was not required to visit the Great White North.  It is now, though.

The trip is three weeks from today, leaving on July 10.  That may or may not be enough time for Mr. C. to get an expedited passport.  The wait for a regular one is currently 4-6 weeks, the travel.state.gov site is saying that an expedited one may take 2-3 weeks.  But some people say that they’ve been able to get a passport within 24 hours, without having to shell out hundreds of dollars to one of those “passport expedition service” that I’ve seen online.  And honestly, I’m skeptical about such services, anyway.  How do I know that we can’t do ourselves what they charge an arm and a leg for?  How do I know that they can guarantee a passport in time for this trip?  I don’t.  I fail to see how a third party service can make a government agency move any faster than it wants to.

But Mr. C’s boss is one of those people who expects things ON DEMAND.  If Mr. C. calls in sick, he expects Mr. C. to call a doctor and get an appointment with said doctor THAT DAY…even if it’s something like a 24 hour stomach bug that makes him gack and and have the runs for a day, something that passes through and is gone in a day.  Doctors do NOT see people on an emergency basis for stuff like that; what planet is this guy living on?  We’re lucky we can get a same-day appointment with a doctor for stuff that is far more serious than that!

Anyhoo, Mr. C. told the boss that he didn’t have a passport, and was not sure that he’d be able to get one in time.  Boss told him that there are ways to pay “a lot of money” to get it quicker.  For one thing, who knows how well that works, and for another, why should we spend that much money, when we don’t even know if Mr. C. will be picked to go?  Boss is still deciding between him and some other guy.  The sensible thing would be to go to the other guy and find out if he already has a passport, and if he does, pick him to go.  But tell Mr. C. to get a passport in case this comes up again in the future.

But this guy is a lot like the pointy-haired boss in Dilbert; he’s not very realistic about how things really operate in the world.  He thinks everyone is as rich as he is, and has passports because EVERYONE goes abroad for vacations, right?  He’ll likely pick Mr. C. to go, even if the other guy has a passport, and then threaten him with losing his job if he can’t get a passport in time.  Can he DO that?

Travel was NEVER a condition of employment.  If it were, chances are, Mr. C. would have either went ahead and applied for a passport so he’d be prepared, or turned down the job and went somewhere else.

I think it was a stinking thing to do, to put this pressure on an employee who already ha health problems (and yes, the boss knows about this), is taking blood pressure meds among other things, and spring such a thing on him with such little notice.  Now we’re both scared Mr. C. might lose his job if the passport cannot be issued in time for this stupid trip.  The jerk should just take the other guy if he has a passport, find someone else who does, or just go by his sorry self.

We don’t need this shit.