Just need to vent...

I think Subway would be a lot better if they used their money to improve their product instead of paying millions to celebrities to endorse them! (Do you hear me, Nissan????)

We don't eat much fast food but, when we do, Kneaders Bakery has a huge turkey, bacon, and avocado sandwich that we split and it's only $14. And Schlotsky's has great flat-bread pizzas....I like the Meaty and the Mrs. likes the Supreme.

 

Been a lot of Downsizing during Covid

 

Costco checking receipts as we leave their stores.

 

Many others doing it now too, due in increased shoplifting, especially in areas with high levels of 'unhoused' people or organized shoplifting rings.

In the worst areas, they are simply closing the stores.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_v._Boise

Not much of a problem where I live.
People who want to experience the care-free 'unhoused' life are strongly encouraged to do so elsewhere.

Since shelters are widely available, no Boise beefs.
Every now and again some person claiming to be 'uncashed' will try to wave placards at intersections disrupting what passes for rush-hour traffic in my small community.

Strangely enough, they're always gone the next day and not usually seen thereafter.
Strangely enough, we don't have to spend money on signs like these:

 

If all companies did this who would be left to advertise at the Superbowl?

Mike

 

Just less of it.

You wouldn't really want it to be the same floss, anyway.

 

Misuse of the Freedom of Speech.

I our small town there is an advertising group that throw small circulars in plastic bags on everyone in towns lawns. These then blow all over the neighborhoods get it the sewers when it rains etc. The City Council tried to do something about it but was stymied by the Advertising Groups claims on infringement on their free speech. Apparently, this battle has been fought many times in many places and the Courts support the Advertisers claim that this is their right of Free Speech.

 

In the world of constitutional law - this (ads/flyers etc) is considered a subset a free speech referred to most commonly as "commercial speech" - & it's much easier to regulate or "infringe" on it. That's why when you go to a beautiful Coastal Community like Carmel California you don't see giant billboards everywhere, as an example of denying speech or limiting it - per U.S. supreme's. Perhaps your city's Council members are owners of the companies being advertised?
follow the money

.

 

No

Annoyed by ad circulars on your lawn? - Evanston Now
"Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, told the residents she’s asked the city’s law department to explore what can be done about the advertising circulars, but says she expects that First Amendment free speech rules will limit the actions the city can take." This is a universal problem in the US.

Billboards do not = ad circulars thrown on peoples lawns in plastic bags.

You are confusing zoning and ordinances regulation with advertising circulars to try and negate anothers experiences.

If you want some fun here is another example of misues of Free Speech

Does the First Amendment Protect Door-to-Door Solicitation? (findlaw.com)
"In Martin v. City of Struthers, the Court struck down an ordinance forbidding solicitors or distributors of literature from knocking on residential doors in a community, the aims of the ordinance being to protect privacy, to protect the sleep of many who worked night shifts, and to protect against burglars posing as canvassers. The five-to-four majority concluded that on balance [t]he dangers of distribution can so easily be controlled by traditional legal methods, leaving to each householder the full right to decide whether he will receive strangers as visitors, that stringent prohibition can serve no purpose but that forbidden by the Constitution, the naked restriction of the dissemination of ideas.1"

Political Canvassing: Door-to-Door Free Speech | The Free Speech Project (georgetown.edu)
"According to a number of court cases, however — most recently Citizens Action Coalition vs. the Town of Yorktown, Indiana, decided by a federal district court in 2014 — door-to-door canvassing is considered political speech and thus is protected by the First Amendment." In these cases the Court Equates Political Canvassing and Door to Door Sales.

Warning others experiences and opinions may differ from yours.

 

An interesting twist, Elon's troubles with "X" (aka. Twitter)

• Elon opens "X" to all points of view.
• Anti-semitic racists and neo-nazis join "X" to tout their free speech
• Anti-Defamation League protests "X" for hate speech and organizes boycotts
• Elon sees reduced advertising revenue and blames boycott
• Elon threatens to sue Anti-Defamation League for impacting "X" business
• Elon is labeled "Anti-semitic"

The lawsuit threat is empty. Accusations Elon is anti-semitic are equally empty. I don't have a dog in that fight.

When 'free' the "X" formerly known as Twitter gave me no value. Elon/Tesla ignored my posting about problems with Tesla products. When "X" started charing $8/mo, I tried it for three months and verified "X" is not a 'trouble ticket' system for Tesla products. So I dropped it.

Bob Wilson

 

Free Speech is NOT a right to litter!

 

You've given me an idea.

If the climate protestors who block roads show up in an area, get one of their flyers and make a bunch of plastic or plastic coated flyers. When they stage their next protest, join them and hand out the plastic coated flyers ... especially to news media. But also to those who are being obstructed with a suggestion ... "Could you share this with someone who actually worries about littering and the environment?"

A variation of a 'false flag' operation.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm moving house at the moment. My sister called me the other day, at 6pm my time. I was eating when I picked up the phone. "What are you eating?" she asked. "Breakfast," I said.

But it also creates a great deal of joy. Finding good restaurants and takeaways in one of the great pleasures of travelling for work.

My Singapore and Chengdu trips have always been particular highlights. But even London last year was really good. And Adelaide was surprisingly good this year.

 

I'm in Kansas City this week. The food has been mediocre, but the service has been very good everywhere. It's better when people are cheerful about it.

A Singapore hawker alley would be most welcome about now...

(and just to make it a vent, the rental is a 2022 Kia K5. I want to like the car, but Hertz handed it out filthy, riding weird and crying about a missed oil change every time I start it up. Hertz is really sloppy lately, though it varies widely by location.)

 

For both of us.

That said, the place I've moved to is a joy for food. I'm on a quiet cul-de-sac, but within five minutes' walk I have a huge range of very good Italian food (it's a suburb that a lot of Italian immigrants moved to in the 60s, and you still hear a lot of Italian in the street), loads of Greek, lots of Japanese and lots of Vietnamese - all reflecting immigration patters. And some very very good Lebanese. So, much as I would always welcome a Singapore hawker centre, my need is less desperate than yours.

----

I did have a huge food surprise on a recent business trip. I had to go to Surfers Paradise (not a Paradise). It's a cultural desert, offering beaches and skyscrapers for bogan tourists. It's dreadful. Food is burgers, and terrible dumbed-down versions of Cantonese, and Domino's-style pizzas. Ugh.

But.... right by my hotel was a fantastic Iranian restaurant. All the staff and most of the customers were Iranian. And the food.... It was like I was back in Tehran. It really was excellent, and most unexpected. I went both nights I was there.

 

That's called an Optima here. I don't think they sell it here any more.

Anyway, yes. My last couple of Hertz cars were OK. But I got a Model 3 from Sixt in Brisbane (for the drive to Surfers). It rode funny.

And the weather was nice - it was the depths of winter, so it was mid 70s Fahrenheit - so I did some driving with the windows down. And there were all sorts of weird noises from the rear suspension. Clunks and rattles: it sounded like a Scooby Doo ghost with rattling chains. I'm sure @bwilson4web will assure me that the Model 3 isn't supposed to sound like that. Quite how the Sixt staff had missed it when driving over all the speed humps you get in rental car parks I don't know.

And some water in the washer tank might have come in useful.

I got a Kia Sportage from Europcar (is that National in the US?) in Adelaide recently for an early-morning drive to Broken Hill. The inside of the windshield was so filthy that when the sun rose I could hardly see. I had to crawl to the next town, and wait for a hardware shop to open so I could get some glass cleaner.