Uber plays as a shitty, shitty version of the Snidely Whiplash of corporate persons:
The next step:* A letter from a former Uber security employee, accusing the company of secretly surveilling competitors, is expected to be released, in a redacted form, by the court on Friday.
(From The New York Times Dealbook newsletter.)
What’s the crappiest/dumbest thing you’ve ever seen management do where you worked?
And now, for a moment’s amusement and/or devant le revolution tumbrel reservation list, here’s the tea room at Claridges, in the West End, which I had the pleasure of visiting. And that’s it. I didn’t stay. Don’t even know where it is. Really. Don’t warm up the guillotine…please…
I was actually just across the pond for a quick trip, centered on a memorial trip for a beloved aunt, who is one of my models/mentors in the art of living a life with intention. But I did get to do some publishing/broadcasting work while I was there (hence, Claridges) and, as always, had a chance to drop in on some old friends.
So, in a post that is intended to offer a little change of pace from our usual chronicling of the end of the American century, I’ll just sign off with a nod to some of my all-time favorite bovines. (Excuse the reproduction — that’s me with an iPhone.)
I should note — these are cattle ever ready for their closeup:
How now, Brown Cow?
And with a mite of randomness thus inserted into the day….
Open Thread.
*That’s the next step in the trade-secrets case being fought between Uber and Alphabet (Google).
Image: Aelbert Cuyp, The Large Dort, aka A Distant View of Dordrecht, with a Milkmaid and Four Cows, and Other Figures, c. 1650.
It’s in the newly opened (reopened?) Gallery A in the basement level of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The room is a hoot. It’s huge, and it’s populated by a sample of the Nat’s collection across the full range of periods, medieval to 20th c., one space with hundreds of paintings taking you on a wild journey. The pictures are all good, and the room, on its own, would make a hell of a regional museum for almost any city around the world — and yet most of the work is stuff that didn’t quite make the cut for inclusion upstairs. Totally worth a look.
raven
Gerald Mc Boing Boing!
raven
How Now Brown Cow
jeffreyw
The brown cow
wanted to be
a purple cow.
Now, mind,
I’ve never seen
a purple cow
but I’d rather see
than be one
Boatboy_srq
In Claridges’ defense, their afternoon tea is excellent, and their accommodations equal Waldorf’s for slightly less.
Humboldtblue
Nearly 50 years ago he served in Vietnam. For the past 44 years he and his wife have operated the Blue Ox Millworks and they take in troubled teens and teach them real life skills such as carpentry, woodworking, metalworking and a hundred others.
Our local weekly, the North Coast Journal, has just posted a profile of 70-year old Eric Hollenbeck and in addition to being a deeply caring and decent man who has helped mold and change countless lives, he’s also a motherfucking war hero who now has three Bronze Stars to his name. What a fucking story.
Boudica
Ryan looking to leave Congress?
LAO
I’ve been waiting for an Open Thread. So, I’ve been on trial for the last 10 weeks (jury is still deliberating and I’m not very optimistic). Yesterday, my client shared with me his personal religious philosophy. I’m pretty impressed and am considering adopting it as my own. Here it is, he prays to Robert DeNiro and his reasoning is as follows: (1) DeNiro is a damn fine actor; (2) more likely to run into/meet DeNiro on the street than a sky based deity; and (3) figures DeNiro cares about him about as much as a sky based deity does. I like it.
pacem appellant
@LAO: Are you a lawyer, defendant, or the plaintiff?
LAO
On a sadder note — Jake Tapper timeline on twitter is heart breaking today. I can’t believe it’s been five years since 20 second graders and 6 educators were slaughtered.
Tom Levenson
@Boatboy_srq: Their coffee is at best meh. But I agree, the afternoon tea is very nice, and the hotel is a hoot. Always happy to be someone’s guest there of a four o’clock.
LAO
@pacem appellant: criminal defense attorney.
Cacti
Yeah man, but Uber is cheap.
Who cares if they’re practically a criminal organization?
Roger Moore
Can I include former management? Because then I have one that’s hard to top. One of our former CEOs tried to blackmail us by threatening to reveal all the illegal/unethical things that had been done while he was in charge.
Humboldtblue
@LAO:
Would you be willing to come to Humboldt and take over the Public Defender’s office? The position is vacant after the Supervisors hired a man wholly unqualified (literally) for the job and that led to the resignation of several experienced attorneys.
Ruckus
@Humboldtblue:
Many of us would be just as amazed at what he was amazed at. He had a name. He was an actual person, not a number, not just a breathing piece of equipment. He had a name. Sounds like he’s gone on and kept up the same attitude over the years. I’d heard of Blue Ox Millworks and what he accomplishes and the good it does for people. It’s still nice to hear it again.
Miss Bianca
@Humboldtblue: Wow, sounds like a really cool dude. Thanks for sharing the story!
SFAW
When I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation a/k/a DEC (in the years before Compaq bought them), someone in management had the bright idea to try to trademark the word “digital.” Not the DEC or “digital” logo, but the actual word. The company sent something out to various customers where the customers were supposed to attest (or whatever) to things like “When I hear the word ‘digital,’ the first thing that comes to mind or the main association or thought that comes to me is of Digital Equipment Corporation and its products.”
This was in the late 1990s, not the mid-1960s (when digital electronics was still relatively new).
Fucking morons. I loved working for the company, and they did some great engineering, but JHC they could be clueless at times.
Amir Khalid
Claridges is one of the famous posh department stores, isn’t it? I haven’t been in London since I was a toddler, and my recollection of the place is hazy.
Humboldtblue
@Ruckus:
Stories about Blue Ox never get old. I don’t have a lot to spare but I go to every open house and fundraiser and kick in what little I can.
Decent is the word, they are deeply decent people.
LAO
@Humboldtblue: Holy Crap. I just googled “Humboldt County Public Defender” — what a disgrace. I can’t believe what’s happening there. Appalling.
Miss Bianca
@Roger Moore: Wow, that scores for both crappy AND dumb as fuck. Congratulations!
jharp
“What’s the crappiest/dumbest thing your management has ever done?”
I worked for a toy company that introduced and sold a line of water guns that were made to look like real guns.
And the major discount chains bought them. And yes a child was shot and killed by police who thought the water gun was real.
rikyrah
I love this story.
……………………….
How a former sharecropper in an SUV helped drive Doug Jones to victory in Alabama’s Black Belt
Updated 3:39 AM; Posted Dec 13, 4:52 PM
By Connor Sheets [email protected]
Tom Levenson
@Amir Khalid: Hotel. If posh had an address it would be the corner of Davies and Brooks Streets:
“The reputation of the hotel was confirmed in 1860 when Empress Eugenie made an extended visit and entertained Queen Victoria at the hotel.”
Mnemosyne
The best afternoon tea in the US is at the Drake hotel in Chicago.
Fight me.
Tom Levenson
@Mnemosyne:
It’s ok ma’am. It’ll all be fine. Just drop the crumpet and back away slowly.
Redshift
Our management a few years ago thought it would be a fine idea to create a video for a company meeting featuring executives awkwardly dancing to “Everything is Awesome.” A couple of weeks before major layoffs. It was leaked to the media by a disgruntled employee.
On top of everything else, apparently none of them had seen The Lego Movie…
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
At one point, I think when Bill Gates was still CEO, Microsoft tried to copyright the word “windows”.
SRW1
@jeffreyw:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milka#/media/File:Milka_in_Potsdam.jpg
Humboldtblue
@LAO:
Absolutely mind-boggling.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
It’s a hotel.
Obdurodon
Had a VP of marketing once who sent out personal Christmas greetings over the company logo – including to a friend who worked at a company that believed we had infringed on their logo design. Caused us some trouble. Scary thing is that the moron in question, who did a whole lot of other things to be the main reason that company failed, teaches management at one of the local colleges. Sure knows a lot about *career* management, I guess, less so about doing anybody else any good.
Redshift
@rikyrah:
Yeah, me too!
Mnemosyne
And on a less aggressive note, if we’re pimping local charities, Homeboy Industries is a juggernaut that has been changing lives for over 30 years and now supports multiple businesses that help former gang members gain new skills to get out of that life.
I have said here many times that there are very few people that I think are truly religious and are in touch with something beyond most people’s understanding. IMO Father Greg Boyle is one of those people. He saw there was a need, so he stepped up and created what people needed, over and over again.
Redshift
@Amir Khalid: You’re probably thinking of Selfridges.
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
Humboldt County has very nice weather, and all the pot you can smoke. ?
Humboldtblue
@rikyrah:
Yeah, that’s brilliant.
david
GQ’s annual list of Least Influential People is online… you’re welcome.
Luthe
My last manager was forging signatures on government documents. She got fired when I brought the evidence to the higher-ups. The only reason we didn’t bring charges is because the resulting shitstorm would have destroyed the company.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Wow, she is an inspiration.
Humboldtblue
@Redshift:
And if you are do everything in your power to avoid the Netflix show about Selfridge’s with Jeremy Piven. You will want to commit murder. I was really looking forward to enjoying that series and I gave episode one two solid tries but sweet mother of mercy I wanted to strangle Piven until he turned purple. Never made it to the end of first episode.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I worked for a company that was owned by a non profit. 90 employees and still run like an inept high school play. On of the board members was convicted and did time in the federal pen for embezzling funds through his expense reports. He’d been doing this for years and no one caught him till they got audited. Filing expense reports for trips he never took, inflating his reports. This is the same company that said that the total daily expense amount for food while traveling was $12.50. They said this while this guy was stealing, and of course it was to control costs. This was not in the 50s, it was during this century.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
I just shared that on Facebook. So many (Black) Wonder Women in Alabama!
Mnemosyne
@Tom Levenson:
You can have the crumpets, but I’m taking the mini scones with me. ?
TenguPhule
A cold, well greased guillotine is an effective one.
TenguPhule
@LAO:
What did you do wrong? /s
TenguPhule
@LAO:
That still means you could be all three.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
I assume his body has never been found?
Brachiator
Breaking News
AG Sulzberger, 37, will become the new publisher of the NY Times, effective January 1. He is taking over from his father.
Disney buys entertainment assets of Fox for $52 billion, a windfall for Rupert Murdoch. Disney will likely leverage their new position against competition resulting from upcoming Net neutrality changes.
Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger has extended his contract with the company for another two years, through the end of 2021, in order to oversee the integration of the assets. But there is one interesting tidbit relating to Murdoch’s sons.
I’m betting that the Trump boys will be asking for some new toys to play with so that they can keep up with the major players elsewhere.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
What kind of tea?
Robert Sneddon
My boss wanted to know if I could sanitise his posts on social media asking about which S&M brothels were worth his time visiting on a business trip to Amsterdam… before his wife found out. He used his own name on the posts and a traceable email address. Nice guy otherwise.
Tom Levenson
@Robert Sneddon: “How do these intertubes work?”
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
First of all, very, very cool woman.
Second of all, one of the things my parents did for me that worked as a life lesson was on a car trip one day we stopped by a field and dad asked if we could pick some cotton, so the kids could see what it is like to do actual manual labor. They agreed and showed us how and let us go. We lasted at best maybe 15 minutes. That is tough, tough, hard work. That minimal taste of what work that was has stuck with me for over 60 yrs. And all the jobs I’ve had over the years have involved physical labor and do to this day. Nothing matches that for shear repetitive, back breaking work.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
I’m partial to lapsang souchong, myself. A friend from Singapore introduced me to it years ago. Their ginger green tea is also very good.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: Then I guess we have nothing to fight about. You have good taste. :P
PIGL
@Redshift: Harrods.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Woke up to that news. I’m wondering if the Murdoch heirs are trying to distance themselves from the news arm of the company. ?
Tom Levenson
@Mnemosyne: “Do you like Lapsang Souchong?”
“I don’t know. We’ve never been introduced.”
PS: I love L-S, and have evangelized it some.
Brachiator
Net neutrality officially dead
Tom Levenson
@Brachiator:
fuck.
Not surprised, but fuck.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Nothing worse than a place that claims to serve “afternoon tea” but only offers English Breakfast and Earl Grey. ?
Miss Bianca
@david: that was amusing. and on target, too!
Butch
Worst? Current company requires you to apply vacation time if your timesheet doesn’t add up to 40 hours. I’m currently at negative 35 hours vacation because work has been so scarce and the company characterizes it as me “mismanaging” my time.
Leto
Jebus Tom, I work for the US Air Force. You don’t have the time, and internet doesn’t have the storage capacity/bandwidth to handle the amount of crappy/dumb that occurred in just MY 20 years. Two quick ones though: 2008-2009 we force shaped (i.e. removed) 40k personnel to pay for planes. 2014 is known as the year of the Air Force Hunger Games: another 15k personnel… to pay for planes. Explaining how this equates into 10x the work for only 1/2 the gains, to my new troops, is always a joy.
Regarding the National Galleries, when my wife and I lived in the UK we visited them quite often. They’re free entry (supported via taxes… imagine that! Along with public donations which I always gladly dropped a 10) and they house some of the worlds best art. I really do miss living there.
catclub
@Luthe:
so you don’t work for a bank or mortgage service company that was forging signatures on court documents. Those companies were not destroyed.
Humboldtblue
@Brachiator:
These fucking assholes.
Jager
@Robert Sneddon:
I hope you spanked him, no he would have liked that too much.
Mnemosyne
@Tom Levenson:
I have a tea from Adagio called Loch Ness Lapsang, with added dried blueberries and cocoa nibs, that’s one of my all-time favorites. I have to warn our security host every time I make it because the scent makes my coworkers worry that the building is on fire. ☕️
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
@TenguPhule:
@Tom Levenson:
An old joke I recently heard for the first time.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
We knew Pai was going to do it, if only to spite everyone who was telling him not to. The only person in the Trump administration who has a worse case of you’re not the boss of me! is Trump himself.
The Moar You Know
Firing key personnel without having a replacement ready, or even advertised for. We’ve done this a lot. Kinda surprised we’ve survived it.
@Roger Moore: You win any story of mine by a mile. And I thought I had some doozies.
That’s fucking incredible.
Ruckus
@Leto:
That’s not fair, comparing the military to our lowly civilian fuck ups.
FlipYrWhig
@Humboldtblue:
To be fair that’s true of every role Jeremy Piven plays. And also true of Jeremy Piven just walking down the street.
Kraux Pas
One time after a layoff of about a quarter of the people at a company where I worked, I profiled the people laid off and realized they were disproportionately pregnant women, new mothers, and black people; all full time and replaced by temps.
I basically went to my manager and cried/called them out and about 15 minutes later they called a company-wide meeting and gave everyone raises. I think that last part may have been a coincidence but I’ll never be sure.
Jager
In my radio consulting days I helped fix a dead in the water FM station. The station was bad, they were running ABC news at the top of the hour and NBC on the bottom. I cleaned it up, adjusted the music, etc.The ratings came out, the station was number one in adults. The owner called me up after the ratings were published, He said, “Now that we’ve got all these new listeners, we can put the news back on the station again.”
catclub
@Kraux Pas: @Butch:
I am pretty sure those are labor law violations.
ET
I really want to have tea at Claridges one day.
Humboldtblue
@FlipYrWhig:
See? I never really had an issue with him, I sort of like that insouciant smart-ass comedy style. But he absolutely drove me bonkers as Selfridge.
Thanks goodness the Peaky Blinders showed up to keep my lust for good British TV drama sated.
Brachiator
@rikyrah: Wonderful story! Thanks for the link.
Tom Levenson
@Brachiator: For you.
@Mnemosyne: I’m hidebound. The only thing I want in my tea is tea.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
It could be worse. A different one of our former CEOs was brought on even though he was banned by the SEC from being an officer or board member of a public company; I guess being a board member and officer of a non-profit was still peachy. Another CEO was fired after it was discovered he had been abusing his prescribing privileges to let his wife get the pills she was addicted to. Our subsequent CEOs have been apparently upstanding citizens; at least nothing has come out about them.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
I can top that.
Lipton tea as the only actual tea on the menu.
Kraux Pas
@catclub: I’m guessing they had a plausible-sounding alternate explanation for whom they chose for the lay-off. Also, I don’t even think the company is truly around anymore.
TenguPhule
@Butch:
This is illegal and you should consult your local legal services about this.
Cacti
@david:
My favorite:
America, Just in General
Maybe you still have hope for the Republic, but the rest of the world has basically written us off. We’re a nutjob racist backwater now, and we probably deserve to be dismissed as such. You can see this every time Trump goes abroad and world leaders hand him a shiny orb to play with while the real players get down to business. Then Trump declares the trip a success and the world laughs behind his ample, fatty back. We’re a joke, and we’re gonna be a joke for a long, long time.
raven
@Humboldtblue: I’m sure the dude is a great guy but this is incorrect.
A Bronze Star is an individual award and there would be a “V” device on it if it was for combat. Every officer who served in Vietnam got a Bronze Star just for showing up, they are like all the “awards” I have, show up awards.
Vietnam Service Medal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Service_Medal
“The Vietnam Service Medal (VSM) was awarded to all members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Vietnam and its contiguous waters or airspace thereover, after 3 July 1965 through 28 March 1973. Members of the United States Armed Forces in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, or airspace thereover, during the same period and serving in direct support of operations in Vietnam are also eligible for the award.[3]
Requirements
Individuals must meet one of the following requirements:[4][5][2][6][7][8]
Be attached to or regularly serve for 1 or more days with an organization participating in or directly supporting military operations.
Be attached to or regularly serve for 1 or more days aboard a U.S. naval vessel directly supporting military operations.
Actually participating as a crewmember in one or more aerial flights into airspace above Vietnam and contiguous waters directly supporting military operations.
Serve on temporary duty for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days in Vietnam or contiguous waters, except that time limit may be waived for personnel participating in actual combat operations.
No person will be entitled to more than one award of the VSM.”
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
Only the boss is key. Everyone else is just an employee.
And yes I worked for a similar company. Although in this case the CEO retired after the board screwed him and figured out how to blame him for their massive and quite costly mistakes. Of course the third new CEO was the charm for them, that CEO sold the subsidiary that I worked for, fired the most successful people and managed to get himself a 100% wage increase while reducing employee moral to an all time low and losing customers by the bus load. He was the best of those three.
Miss Bianca
@Tom Levenson: I love that one too – in fact, L-S even made its way into the latest story I’ve been writing. Right now I only have it in Twinings tea bags – and even that was a challenge to find where I live!
@Mnemosyne: Want to find that L-S variation you were talking about. Sounds yummy!
Speaking of tea… I had a dream last night that I was reading a book you wrote. Yes, I actually turned to the front cover and read “Mnemosyne” written on it. All I remember of the story was a combo tea party/political rally, which I remember thinking was a bit odd for the 19th century before women had the vote.
Pete Downunder
Does anyone know why Lapsang tea seems to have completely disappeared from the shelves here in Australia? I also could not find it in Paris or New York. Really miss it.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Was laid off along with several other staffers from a nonprofit due to budget problems. It was later “discovered” the director had been embezzling to fund his hot air balloon side business. To this day I wonder how the board of directors staved off being held responsible (it was a managing, not advisory board and they received considerable government funding).
Brachiator
Years ago, a company I worked for bought, instead of leased, some big ass IBM computers. As soon as they paid for them, IBM announced newer, more efficient models of the computers.
The computers, one for development, another for production, could not handle the work load. Meanwhile, the IT management demoted one competent superstar and outright fired another excellent guy. They officially banned this guy from ever being allowed in the building.
One day, because of severe database related issues, they called the company that provided the software and said, “Send your best guy over, NOW! And no messing with us. This damn well better be your top guy and he has to be here and on call as long as it takes to fix this. And, by the way, did we tell you we want him right freaking now?”
So the company sent their top guy. The guy my company had fired.
Later, the top IT management were all fired and the demoted superstar became the acting manager of the department.
Tata
In 1996, I worked in a university library system, near the bottom of the food chain. One day, a small, homemade bomb went off in one of the branch libraries. My department head sent home all the union people and sent the rest of us into the stacks to search for bombs. I found a shoebox, too.
First chance I got, I joined a union.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
Nah. We just reported him to the FBI.
TenguPhule
@Tata:
You win.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
If you ever read Amanda Foreman’s biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the late Georgian Era was when women started to get politically active in public for the first time. Georgiana even made a few public speeches, which shocked everyone.
So a political tea party in the years before women had the vote is very plausible!
raven
Since you only get one they issue stars for each “campaign”
“The U.S. Army, and U.S. Coast Guard recognize seventeen 3⁄16″ bronze service stars (also known as campaign stars; 3 silver stars and 2 bronze stars) ” So they are technically bronze stars but the are not the “Bronze Star”. Confusing huh?
Mnemosyne
@sylvania:
So you missed the news where half the Uber board had to quit over sexual harassment and discrimination complaints?
I know that Lyft isn’t much better since asshole vampire Peter Thiel funds them, but I still use them over Uber.
Humboldtblue
@raven:
Yup, I just looked into what he was actually given by the Army. I initially thought they were Bronze Stars instead of service medals.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
That tea. I may still have a $5 coupon for Adagio (they hand them out to customers like water). If you want one, email me.
TenguPhule
@Pete Downunder:
May not have had enough demand to warrant supplying on the shelves. Looks like there’s lots of online orders available for your region.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: It was only in the dream that it seemed odd to me. In waking life, not so much. For the reasons you outline.
ETA: I actually have read that biography of the Duchess. Enjoyed it, too!
Bill Arnold
Arguably in scope for this thread:
Kenya president’s election campaign used firm hired by Trump: privacy group
Snippet, but read the article for denials and context.
Larger context not mentioned is that some of these companies do business swinging elections, or trying to, in the developing world.
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
Then there’s all the recent stuff about their organized corporate espionage practices.
Emma
@Mnemosyne: I wish I could. I need Uber right now as taxis in the area I live in are both expensive and abysmal and the closest bus stop (typical Miami planning) is 8 blocks away. To a person all the drivers I have met are fantastic people and hard workers. How typical that the upper echelons are turds.
laura
@Humboldtblue: Damn fine man there, mighty fine and decent. Thank you Humboltblue.
different-church-lady
@Cacti:
Throw in the fact that you can get Americans to do anything as long as it involves playing with their phones, and who gives a shit about corporate ethics?
Mnemosyne
@Cacti:
Yes, I wonder where I was reading about that … ?
raven
@Humboldtblue: Easy to see that, especially the way it is written. Good dude either way.
John Revolta
@sylvania: It’s because of Cole. Did you know he called for Franken to resign?
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
No Lyft in your area? That stinks. I used them a couple of times while I was in SF and was pleased with them.
Immanentize
@ET: I’ve had tea at the Palm Court at the Langham in London Truly and excellent experience. We sat next to a young family, dressed so politely, the young boy of the family (14?) wearing his school tie and blazer (don’t know which). I would love to live in London if I had tremendous wealth….
different-church-lady
@sylvania: I hate Uber because (a) they abuse their labor force (b) they converted taxis from a thing you can’t get to a complicated game you can’t win, just like airlines, and (c) they’re basically Napster for taxis, corroding an industry as much as they can until all the loopholes get closed.
They’re parasites. You want to fix the cab industry with technology? Then fix the cab industry with technology. Don’t trick everyone into being a cab driver because labor laws haven’t caught up with your “disruptive paradigm.”
Just One More Canuck
@Cacti: ‘practically’?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/uber-toronto-apologizes-overcharge-18k-1.4443712
different-church-lady
@Robert Sneddon: Wouldn’t it be easier to just invite his wife along?
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
The really smart thing that Uber and Lyft figured out was to tell customers up-front what the ride will cost rather than having it metered per quarter-mile like regular taxis do. I would rather know ahead of time how much something will cost than have it depend on traffic conditions even if the cost ends up about the same.
The two taxis I took were perfectly nice and the drivers were friendly, but I definitely preferred paying up front to watching that meter tick by.
Interesting thing that happened — the driver of the cab I took from Jack London Station to Union Square obviously had regulars who call him directly for pickups, because he took a couple of calls during the drive. I actually liked that because I felt like he had an incentive to get me to my hotel as rapidly as possible so he could pick up his next fare rather than dicking around to increase my charges.
SFAW
@John Revolta:
But has he called for Shitgibbon to resign?
Oh, sorry, I was channeling some moron whose go-to “argument” is that one. Never mind.
Just One More Canuck
OT but apparently Mueller met with Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YCGFLhrMkk
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
Not to mention that the whole idea behind the company is that it evades regulations of cab companies by pretending not to be a cab company even though it obviously is one, or that its goal is to become a monopolist and then drive prices through the roof once it’s removed all the competition.
different-church-lady
@david: Hello, topical!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I still don’t see it up to Ellison of Oracle hiring detectives to go threw Bill Gate’s trash to prove Gates was cheating by making software people actually wanted. In high tech Larry Ellison sets a pretty grim standard for douchy exec.
different-church-lady
@Mnemosyne: But then they dick with the price moment to moment. At least I know roughly what my cab to the airport is going to cost at any time of the day.
The thing they did right — really, the only thing they did right — is break the miserable culture of shoddy cab service. Ten years from now we might be right back there when people figure out that we can’t run an economy where everyone drives everyone else to the airport any more than we could run an economy where everyone sold houses to each other.
Robert Sneddon
@different-church-lady:
Couple of things, it was gay S&M brothel recommendations he was after and she was pregnant at the time.
HeleninEire
@Boatboy_srq: The Shelborne has afternoon champaign tea, um, “tea”. We win!
PIGL
@Mnemosyne: I won’t use either of [email protected]different-church-lady: Exactly. Thank you.
different-church-lady
@Robert Sneddon: Details, details…
Joe Falco
My management team hired a new director for our city planning department who although he had 18 years of experience in zoning administration, he has no experience running a department, in historic preservation, in transportation planning, among other things. It’s been months since he was hired and he barely studied the code. And he has shifted major duties of his job on me and my co-workers while convincing management to hire one more position to do transportation planning. It’s been frustrating how someone like him got hired without requisite knowledge or experience to run an entire department.
NotMax
Doubtful shall ever get back to London, but if ever do… Wyld Tea will be on the list.
tarragon
@Tata: Whoa.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
Well, they can dick with the price moment-to-moment until you order the driver. Once you do that, the price is locked in. They can’t change it on you once you accept the price. A taxi cab can always take an unexpected “shortcut” that ends up extending the ride and thus charge you more if they want to screw with you.
I think that if taxi companies would use the same technology, they would probably win, because they have the drivers and cabs available. Of course, Uber and Lyft will never sell the technology to cab companies, because they know it would kill their business model.
And I will say, the cabs I took in SF were fine. They were clean, the drivers were nice, and their credit card machines worked. With the second one, I was going to use Lyft, but a weird homeless guy kept trying to talk to me, so I hopped into the nearest cab to get away. That’s a service that Lyft can’t provide!
Mnemosyne
@PIGL:
There are advantages and disadvantages. In many cities, cabs don’t show up when you call for them, or they refuse to go to certain neighborhoods. Lyft and Uber don’t usually have those issues. You also don’t usually have the problem of drivers refusing to pick people up based on their race as taxi drivers in NYC are notorious for doing.
When I was in SF, I took taxis when it was easy to get a taxi, and I took Lyft when it was easier to get one. It was nice to have a choice.
Ben Cisco
@Leto: See you and raise you. Commander, Southern Command was due in for a visit. We stopped ALL flying AND maintenance for the two weeks prior to his visit and polished, buffed, waxed, and painted everything in sight. INCLUDING some dead bushes out back of the EMS building (Olive drab, with a spray can).
EPILOGUE: Day of the visit arrives, and our shop was once of the ones the general got to see the inside of. Floors shining, baseboards glistening. General looks around, looks me dead in the eye and says the following:
“Place looks great. They ever let you guys do any work in here?”
He personally dismissed me and my crew, and we promptly decamped to the nearest parking lot, where we proceeded to laugh ourselves silly.
PIGL
@Mnemosyne: It’s true that my cabbing is limited to circumstances where that is not a problem; e.g. central Toronto, business hotels in exciting destinations like Ottawa, or my home bases where cabs are summoned to take me to the airport.
Admittedly, therefore, it’s easy for me to be all noble and only take cabs. But I still regard both firms as criminal conspiracies whose owners and executives should be in prison; their entire business model is explicitly based on flouting municipal laws.
schrodingers_cat
@Tom Levenson: Same here. I will occasionally make an exception for fresh ginger, or cardamom. I like my tea strong with milk and sugar and made from loose leaves.
BTW how is Tikka the magnificent.
Aleta
@Humboldtblue: Thanks for this. I sent it to 2 carpenter friends, Vietnam vets.
My (elementary school) friend’s older brother was also in the 101st Airborne 2nd BTN Infantry and went to Vietnam.
They were close. I remember him coming to school in his uniform; she was allowed to leave class to say goodbye to him. He arrived in Vietnam in Nov 1969 and died on Dec 24th 1969. She was then the last in her family line, and when I learned she’d died I decided to keep his memory.
There’s a lot more these days on the internet about his unit, organized and put there by vets. Just as in the article, his unit was sent from battle to battle all over the area, Many of its higher ups, including a commander in his battalion, had bravely fought alongside and were among the casualties. So fortunate that Mr. Hollenbeck survived (sent home after the death of his father) and does so much good for others. Again, thanks for the link.
satby
@Mnemosyne: nope, I’m down with you. The Drake is beautiful, the view of Lake Michigan is wonderful, and the high tea there makes you feel like a guest in Buckingham palace.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Green Earl Gray is surprisingly tasty too.
Humboldtblue
@Aleta:
I am so glad you and many others enjoyed the story. Good people doing good things is always worth sharing.
Aleta
What’s the crappiest/dumbest thing you’ve ever seen management do where you worked?
New director of two newly joined depts, elected by secret ballot but election seemed to be fixed. Ignored the provisions to maintain equal power (carefully worked out before the agreement to merge) and proceeded to decimate one department and ignore all its proposals and leave unfilled its scheduled hires. After 2 years he went home to Germany and left a mess.
Aleta
@Humboldtblue: Yes it always helps.
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
Reading the rules applying to our new Internet Overlords now:
Restoring Internet Freedom (Really! That’s the name of this Beast.) (Am assuming that’s what was voted on.)
In particular the disclosure rules in 216, 219. Particularly concerned about blocking, e.g.
And on related tactics with potentially similar effects. Any lawyers care to comment?
MoxieM
@SFAW: Ah yes,but remember when the mighty Ken Olsen (DEC President) said (approx.), “No one will want a computer on their desk!”
I used to have a MicroVax in the dining room, but boy that was a while ago. Good times.
Shana
@satby: Ahem. “High tea” is usually what the lower classes have, which was basically a meal with meat etc. “Tea” is what you think of with little sandwiches and scones, etc.
Peter H Desmond
speaking of cows … the film Rebel Cows / Vacche Ribelli
trailer: https://vimeo.com/206698808
film: https://vimeo.com/227292964
footnotes.
salvatico: variant of selvatico.
selvatico (feminine singular selvatica, masculine plural selvatici, feminine plural selvatiche)
(of a flower or animal) wild; (of an animal) untamed; (of a person) timid and unsociable;
(of a taste or smell) gamy
quintale = 100 kg
(english subtitles mistranslate as “ton”.)
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
The biggest issue I ever had with taxis was paying. I’d ask if they took credit cards, even if the car had decals. The drivers seemed to hate cc. But it was my company card, until the company decided that we all had to use our cards and ended the company card service. Which didn’t end up working out so well as a lot of the people on the road were young and had no credit cards. But they’d all demand my phone number and I’d tell them to fuck off, we are at my home, you know where I live, you just drove me here and my phone number is not a requirement to use my card. One was so incensed that he threatened to call the cops. I asked him if he want me to call them and complain about him. He drove off right away.
The second thing was all the cabs were filthy and smelled. Now I’ve ridden in cabs in many countries and US cabs all were the same, filthy, smelly and drivers that didn’t want to be there, while none of the others were. If uber/lyft or any other service is even 25% better, it’s a huge improvement.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Claridges is a hotel … The store is … starts with an H… Herrods, that’s it.
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
Two contestants: The Brown Palace in downtown Denver, since 1885 or so.
The Greenbrier in White Sulfur Springs, WV, since before the civil war. Marse Lee stayed there after the end of the war, for summer. They still have a string quartet playing for afternoon tea.
At least they did the last time I was there… while the Railroad still owned it. Now Gov Jim Justice owns it. The afternoon tea can still be good though, he doesn’t have much to do with that.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m big on Darjeeling and Oolong teas myself. I don’t want anything but hot water and tea leaves, myself. Spices are for food and other beverages. Like hot chocolate… Tea should just be tea.
Much preferred to coffee, which I only learned to drink recently, before a long trip, because it is so unusual to get good tea at a restaurant/hotel kitchen.
Luthe
@J R in WV: Bring your own. I usually travel with at least two tea bags.
I recommend having tea at Fortnum and Mason. The ice cream parlor on the first floor has an option where you get a pot of tea, a savory item, two scones with clotted cream and jam, and two scoops of ice cream. Everything is better with ice cream.