Canada is going to let vaccinated US of Americans into their lovely country starting on August 9. Vaccination will be proven by scanning or photographing a vaccination card and uploading it using the ArriveCAN system, either as an app on your smartphone, or via a desktop computer web browser. It appears that Canada will do away with the current requirement to have a recent COVID PCR test in addition to being vaccinated, and they’re going to let kids under 12 enter with their vaccinated parents, no quarantine.
This is all preliminary, but I want to address one thing that comes up in the comments whenever vaccine passports are mentioned: Any of these passport mechanisms work better with a smartphone, but they do work without one. Every time I mention a passport, there are comments from people who don’t have a smartphone — you can log in at your library and print out the passport. That said, how the fuck do you people travel without a smartphone? Do you print out maps from Mapquest? Do you have your Rand McNally on your lap the whole time? As someone who’s old enough to have traveled pre-smart-phone, my God, what a game-changer they are when traveling to a place you’ve never been.
That said, a cheap smartphone with a modest data plan is $109 / $30/month at Cricket Wireless, and the Lifeline program subsidizes data for folks who can’t afford a cell phone. Another point: the passport regimes that I’ve seen are generally coupled with an activity that costs a fair amount of money — tickets to a professional sporting event, international travel, and the like. Nobody has proposed a passport to get into the grocery store.
Anyway, with this act, Canada joins the ranks of other sovereign nations, principally Fox News, who have also developed a vaccine passport (in Fox’s case, for their employees), because the one thing that Tucker Carlson and Justin Trudeau have in common is that neither one of them wants to come in contact with unvaccinated Americans.
WereBear
FAKE NEWS!
Adam L Silverman
There are people who live in parts of the US that have neither decent/sufficient wireless access nor Internet access.
There are other people that just want a phone to make calls and that’s it. One of my closest friends who is a former colleague held out until his beloved flip phone finally died about a year ago, a flip phone he’d been using since I first met him in 2010. He now has an iPhone.
Doug R
British Columbia is happy to welcome all fully vaccinated tourists and their $.
Baud
I agree. Maps and GPS are lovely features to have.
Baud
@Doug R: Little do they know how diseased my money is.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Adam L Silverman: Well aware of that. My point is that people who are going need a vax passport are likely to have Internet access as well as the money to pay for a smartphone. Vax passport activities are expensive.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I remember listening to an infuriating report on Colorado public radio this spring about a changeover in the UI system to use a smartphone app to combat fraud. Turned out the app was mandatory. Want to collect UI but don’t have a smartphone or don’t know how to use it well enough? You can always go to the library. Oh whoops, those are all closed.
Brilliant thinking by CO Dems.
Doug R
About smartphones. Your data plan will be different. I suggest possibly buying a dual sim unlocked phone at somewhere like Costco or Staples and using the second slot for a Canadian carrier while in Canada.
If you don’t, you can download maps for places out of coverage if you know the area you’re headed. There’s wifi everywhere.
The Dangerman
Smartphones suck!
/Thomas Brothers
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I’ve traveled with a smartphone and no data plan as recently as 2017, it’s not impossible, but no smartphone at all? Could get tricky, maybe not so much in like Canada.
Anonymous At Work
Smartphones are nice and all but not when you are driving in a strange city and trying to find the right exit. When travelling out of comfort zone, I write down markers, exits and turns on paper as well. If I miss anything and get lost, THEN I check the Smartphone in a parking lot, so I don’t check the phone in the middle of an intersection.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
No. It is in the pocket behind the passenger seat where it belongs. Duh.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
I love consumer GPS, even more so now that it’s essentially part of your phone rather than a separate device. When I’m on a plane, I’ll use my phone to track where I am, although many planes now have that feature as part of their onboard entertainment.
Of course, the big problem nowadays of not having even a cell phone is that most of the pay phones are gone.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
We just broke down and got smartphones. I hate it.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Doug R: I used to swap SIMs in Canada, but Cricket wireless will give you free roaming in Canada/Mexico for their $55/month plan, which is $50/month on autopay. They are a subsidiary of AT&T.
dr. luba
I still have my Garmin.
Cell phone signal can be crappy in some areas outside of major metropolitan areas.
zhena gogolia
My God, you people. People have been traveling for hundreds of years without smartphones. What is wrong with you all?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: in 2019, a European data plan– I was in Austria, Hungary, Czechia, Germany and France– cost $10/day with ATT
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: LOL — Actually, I have one, and I use it for trip planning. The phone screen isn’t good for that.
Gin & Tonic
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Having the money to pay for a smartphone and having the perception of a need for one are not the same. One of my oldest and closest friends, a retired systems programmer with an MS in Computer Science, whose first Usenet posting is approaching its 40th birthday, simply sees no need, and functions quite well without a cell phone of any kind. He travels to Canada not do to anything expensive, just to see family. He knows the route, having driven it at least a hundred times. What does the extra $30/mo get him?
And, yes, he obviously has Web access and can print whatever he needs to print. But this assumption that the cell-phone-less are missing something crucial is not always true.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I believe Canada and Mexico are free with Verizon’s unlimited plan, and also $10 (or $5) a day for other countries.
Baud
How the hell do you luddites access Balloon Juice while traveling?
A Ghost to Most
Cell service, even Verizon, is dicey in the mountains. We now travel with an InReach satellite messenger that pairs with our GPS. Send and receive emails, or send an SOS almost anywhere. Overkill for most people, but good for us.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I take a much-needed break. It is incredibly refreshing.
Now that’s going to be impossible, and I’m sure I’ll be logging on ten times a day. But I’m not going anywhere until Covid is more over than it is now.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I don’t have a smart phone and for some reason I have no problem navigating halfway across the country to visit family. I wonder how we ever got around before smart phones…lol! My wife’s boss gives her crap about not having a phone so he can pester her while she’s not at work, like all of the other managers he torments in their off time. The other managers envy her not having to deal with the boss whenever he gets a bug up his ass (which is fairly regularly).
The pharmacy that we had our vaccinations done at gave us a cash register receipt (for $0.00), a pharmacy printout for the vaccine and dose given (J&J, one and done) and the CDC Vaccination card with the notations for the vaccination on it. We will be traveling across the country in September (without smart phones, the horror!) to visit family who have also been vaccinated and will be bringing out paperwork along with us.
Mike in NC
I’m retired and don’t have an iPhone/smartphone. Wife has one and will probably force one on me next year.
WhatsMyNym
Consumer Cellular is a good option. They also offer calling from many countries by the minute. They do recommend using wifi apps to save money on calls.
Omnes Omnibus
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: my parents are both internet savvy. My dad is computer savvy. They can afford mart phones. My dad does not have a cell phone of anyone kind and my mom has a track phone. She is considering getting a smart phone if it is necessary to get into Brewer games. Not everyone who can afford one wants one.
RSA
It’s mainly for convenience. People traveled for hundreds of years without cars or airplanes, too.
Leto
@zhena gogolia: I remember when I was in my land nav course and they said, “If you don’t have a Cricket Smartphone, you’re fucking dead! Do you know how many good men we lost prior to 2008 because they didn’t have Google Maps? MY GOD MAN!”
Wait, nope, they never said that. This is one of those troll posts where we used to commonly say, DFTT!
J R in WV
@Doug R:
I did that when we went to Tuscany on my tablet. We drove around with 2 friends using Google maps in a rental BMW SUV for a week. Never needed a EU sim card or anything. Verizon contract, not sure about roaming, didn’t notice extra charges, did check the news with a wi-fi connection in the hotels with the tablet…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Related, but older customers who aren’t tech savvy get so mad about the fact you need the store app to get certain deals on products. Digital/eCoupons they’re called. I get being a little irritated, but I can’t really sympathize with them when they whine about it being “discriminatory” towards older folks who don’t have smartphones/internet. Like, it’s $1 or something off for a tub of ice cream, come on lol
Kim Walker
Hi All,
I am I US citizen (also Canadian citizen) who has been living near Ottawa for many years now. I do not have a smart phone. For many years, I couldn’t afford it as I struggled for gainful, well-paid employment here in the Great White North that advertises a love and need for immigrants (that is bullshit). And I don’t want to be a smartphone zombie – you know what I mean. I drove down to the US in May with an expensive Garmin, destination Oregon. Garmin did not work in rental car (not sure why). I had a road atlas and I can tell which way is which. So I just drove. Basically west. It worked. I did the same thing to get home – drove east. But stopped in Lexington to see beautiful new grandbabygirl. Also all the older grands. When I can no longer drive by the direction of the sun or understand how to navigate by map, I will be done with the road trips. That will be a sad day.
Baud
FWIW, another great feature with smartphone GPS is live traffic updates.
Major Major Major Major
@RSA: people traveled between Asia and Hawaii in canoes! Anybody who crosses a large body of water any other way is just a lame poser. What is wrong with them. Next you’ll tell me not everybody walks to get to North America.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
Kinda makes you wonder how many ancient peoples died circumventing the world on canoes when encountering bad weather and simply not knowing where land wa
Also, saw your question on the Economy thread down below. I’m doing OK! How about you?
BTW, I know this is random, but as a writer/author, what’s your opinion on the “GRRM is not your bitch” post by Neil Gaiman?
On the one hand, while nobody actually owes anybody anything and Martin can do whatever he wants with his life, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a book series to have an end at some point (barring the writer dying, having metal health problems, etc). Like there IS a social contract between writer and reader to finish a story. On top of that, GRRM has blown through deadline after deadline, promise after promise, repeatedly over the years, and spent lots of time at conventions as well as other projects, while letting the show catch up to his books, setting the stage for D&D to ruin his franchise
I’ve always thought it was a ridiculous strawman argument from Gaiman, who I honestly expected better from
Kelly
Back in olden times I used to be able to study the map of my trip for a few minutes before I left and remember every turn. We got smart phones 4 years ago and now I need my phone to tell me where the next turn is ;-)
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
HA!
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, it’s “for convenience.” I don’t find it convenient.
mskitty
My car has a navigator system, maps for all of US. I use my phone for calls out, otherwise it is off.
Roger Moore
@dr. luba:
With Google Maps, at least, it’s possible to download the map for an area where you’ll be traveling so it’s still available even if you can’t get signal. My phone is now smart enough to check my travel schedule and suggest doing this before I leave for a trip.
mrmoshpotato
Paper maps don’t run out of battery. Also, highway signs exist. You aren’t flying blind trying to get from Chicago to, say, Detroit.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Gin & Tonic:
I have a MS in Computer Science, and I first accessed Usenet in 1986 (so I have him beat), and yet I still have a smartphone. Not retired, though. I wouldn’t know what do do with myself.
@A Ghost to Most:
I have one, too, for when I go offgrid and need to contact my wife/daughter.
Roger Moore
@zhena gogolia:
People have been getting lost and dying for thousands of years, too. I’d rather have a map with me, TYVM.
Baud
@Roger Moore: It’s a great feature, but the downloaded maps lose some of the map detail still pretty good for navigating streets.
CaseyL
Pre-cell phone (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I lived by my Thomas Brothers Guides. Used to have two or three always in the car, and I do miss them.
Pre-smartphone, yes I did indeed print out (or write out) directions from GoogleMaps, and take them with me.
Nowadays? I have fallen into the honey trap of having Google Assistant tell me how to get to new places. It’s hugely amusing to anyone in the car with me, as I have conversations with The Lady in the Box.
On a recent trip, the Lady in the Box managed to get us off track, onto a road that led to a non-public Naval Base, and refused to reroute us. I yelled at her a lot for that. We wound up having to backtrack about a mile, for her to come up with a different route. Made me nostalgic for the Thomas Brothers Guides :)
Major Major Major Major
@zhena gogolia:
Then don’t use it for convenience. Problem solved.
WhatsMyNym
@Kim Walker: Printed maps have limited detail and are usually out of date. Calling ahead and getting directions can be a pain in foreign countries.
Major Major Major Major
When people complain about kids these days with their newfangled information technology that the complainant hates and never needed when THEY were young, I like to pretend they’re talking about like, books and maps. Like Socrates complaining about kids these days and their newfangled “literacy”.
NotMax
Landline: $20 or $30 for the phone*/$10 a month for service.
Do the math**.
*which doesn’t become obsolete, nor run out of juice nor is reliant on updates and never subjects one to ads
**in the very busiest of times I might make six phone calls in a month. That works out to $5 per call on a $30 plan, $1.66 on the landline. Fixed, extremely modest income has only so much give when it comes to recurring costs (finally getting around to cutting the cord on cable last year provided welcome relief to budgeting headaches).
Quite capably, thank you very much.
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
True enough, but these folk can be accommodated even if they have to go through a few extra steps.
People who insist on holding onto old technology make things harder on themselves. Again, they can be accommodated, but they have some control over this.
Roger Moore
@CaseyL:
You can tell my car is very old, because the map pockets are full of paper maps. I don’t think they’re moving to the new car when I finally get one.
Just Chuck
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): GRR Martin doesn’t owe me or anyone anything, and in fact I no longer care. The series ending was unsatisfactory, but it’s done and behind. If he wants to do it different, great, but I stopped holding my breath years ago.
As Cersei said to Jaime: “You took too long.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: People are reacting to MM’s “shock” that people still live without smart phones. MM poked the luddites; it’s fair that they get to fight back.
VeniceRiley
Not just good for maps. LIVE traffic. In an unfamiliar city, can be a miracle. people without may not know that your phone will literally talk your directions and tell you if there is an accident ahead and give you a route change.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@NotMax:
In Rochester, NY I was paying almost $50/month for a landline before I nixed it. It would still be in my house if it was $10/month. Cell towers can go down, but I’m not gonna pay $600/year just in case they do.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
My reaction was to the incredulity of the original post. Seems overblown to me.
sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): People drive into canals and other bodies of water all the time using GPS.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major: Did you read the original post? It’s complaining about US, not the other way around. I don’t give a shit what young people do.
CaseyL
@NotMax:
You’re lucky your landline stayed inexpensive.
Mine, which I had had since I moved into my house (in 1998) was through CenturyLink, which larded the bill with so many additional fees that my basic $35/month service was actually costing me $80/month. I finally told them to get stuffed, took my landline number and ported it to a second cell phone.
If CenturyLink hadn’t started using their landline customers as cash cows to make up for all the customers they were losing to cell phones, I’d still be with them. But no, they had to get greedy. Fuck’em.
J R in WV
@Baud:
Nope, we had every 14th century alley in Firenze / Florence, although google maps steered us wrong a couple of times trying to reach the hotel, we hit a 6 way intersection, I wound up taking one street after another, once I hit the same intersection twice.
Fourth time worked out – “You have Arrived!” the tablet announced. Didn’t lose any detail at all, though.
WhatsMyNym
@NotMax:
Is that a special deal? My mom pays about $60/month with tax for a landline.
RaflW
As it happens, this thread just reminded me to add an offline map to my phone! I’ve been in a part of SE Wisconsin a lot this spring & summer (near the inlaws) that has crap reception from my chosen carrier. If I want to add or change navigation after leaving the cabin’s wifi, I’m often SOL.
But, with the wonders of flash memory, that will be fixed shortly. Thanks!
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): good to hear! I am also good. Enjoying the reopening.
I haven’t seen Gaiman’s post, but it sounds like he has the absolutely correct opinion that artists don’t owe their audiences anything. In Martin’s specific case I just think it’s funny. From what I’ve read he wrote himself into a corner by killing off a character who would be instrumental to the ending he wants. I’m much more annoyed by Patrick Rothfuss, tbh.
It’s different for something more team-based or less auteur-based that novels, though. Like, there’s absolutely an expectation that a TV show crew won’t just blow up the series or walk away forever.
piratedan
if I am going somewhere for the first time, I’ve been known to access Google Maps before hand and simply write down the directions, so maybe I’m a hybrid using new school to go old school….
UncleEbeneezer
I look up directions online, but write down the main notes on paper (North on X, exit #Y, turn left on Z etc.) so I can easily check it while driving, regardless of whether I have enough data, strong enough signal etc. But that’s pretty much how I’ve always done driving directions. All that’s changed is that the route comes from a computer rather than a paper map. When I’ve rented cars that have GPS displays I don’t really enjoy using them. I like to mentally know (at least roughly) the route in my head and know what I’m looking for at each step. I found the onboard GPS is distracting and not always accurate.
Baud
I do think it’s wrong that a lot of professional sports arenas now have only electronic tickets which require a smartphone. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more pushback on that.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: and it’s fair for me to point out that their complaints are stale.
NotMax
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
The $10 per month is for VoIP service via my ISP, not the phone company. So if power goes out so does the phone service, a minuscule consideration so far as I’m concerned.
@zhena gogolia
Yeah, lambasting people for not having one is plain rude.
Cheryl Rofer
I plan my trip before I go and print out maps of the stuff that is likely to be confusing. I memorize that day’s maps every day. I hate having the phone talk at me. I occasionally use it while I’m traveling if I have a problem.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
And the original post is not stale? As long as it’s young people complaining about old people, that’s fine.
Anyway
ooooh, I love cellphone wars. I resisted getting one for many years after my peers all had one. I managed fine when I was around the house but eventually succumbed due to
(a) Having to meet friends that wanted me to “text when you get there”. Esp when you’re driving over an hour and can’t be certain of eta due to traffic
(b) Friends not always having plans nailed down before I left the house
(c) I was able to travel without a smartphone but interactions with people for whom that was the default mode became tedious
(d) Before the pandemic I drove up and down the East coast for work and liked being able to catch up on work/personal life via hands-free calling
etc etc
sab
I often get butt-dialed calls from my sister where I get to eavesdrop on her dinner conversations in restaurants. My flip phone never does that to me.
Sparkedcat
“That said, how the fuck do you people travel without a smartphone?”
Every day. Some people dislike having their movements tracked and recorded.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
I was talking to my sister about this yesterday because I had to help some people navigate the system to certify for California UI claims. California has had a massive problem with fraud and added this “ID dot Me” process to try to fight it.
I am not sure you could easily take care of this at the library. Basically, a person logs onto the California UI website (unless the site is down), but then has to branch out to the ID site. Here they have to use a smartphone or other device to scan their driver’s license or other ID and then use the device to scan their own face, create an ID reference and password and then return to the UI website.
Huge pain.
This system will also be used for some IRS purposes, so unfortunately people are going to have to get used to it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: They aren’t complaining. They offering reasons – which you may choose to dismiss – why and how the can get by without smart phones. No one is taking digs at phone users.
Roger Moore
@Just Chuck:
Yep. I wasn’t that into the Song of Ice and Fire, but I probably would have read it all if it had been finished in a timely fashion. It reminds me of what happened with The Wheel of Time, which dragged on so long Robert Jordan actually did die before finishing the series. His estate hired another author* to finish it from the author’s notes, but by that point I couldn’t be bothered. When an author lets things drag out that much, it’s just too easy for the audience to lose interest.
*Brandon Sanderson, who was about the best person you could imagine to finish it. While Jordan was very much a pantser, who let the series drag out interminably by introducing more characters and subplots, Sanderson is an extreme plotter, and an ideal choice as someone to finish another author’s work from his notes. Sanderson was also a fan of the series, so he had a personal desire to finish it well.
NotMax
@UncleEbeneezer
This. Drivers’ eyes belong one place – looking at the road. Should I ever acquire a vehicle with one of those ubiquitous screens, it would either be switched off and/or covered by a (suitably tasteful and attractive) screen cozy.
The Thin Black Duke
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Well, I had a few thoughts on the subject.
Major Major Major Major
@zhena gogolia: no, the original post is sort of annoying too, but you all are just so much more fun to poke.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
So you don’t think there’s an implicit social contract between reader and author that a book series should be completed in a timely manner? I mean, Martin’s publisher must have paid him handsomely for an advance on TWOW. I can’t imagine they’re happy with him. Plus, it’s his magnum opus. You’d think, HBO money or not, he’d want to finish it so his reputation/legacy would be assured
If he’s having troubles, to the point where ASOIAF is probably never going to be finished, then he needs to just say so and be honest. My impression of him is that he’s been soaking up the attention at conventions for years, stringing along his readers with promises that the next book is right around the corner, failing to deliver, while having plenty of time to write Westeros history books. My hunch is that it’s partly the HBO money he’s gotten that killed his drive to finish the main series.
I think the biggest issue with “GRRM is not your bitch”, is that it’s often used to stifle criticism and venting on fan forums/reddit when people understandably voice frustration with him
Also, lol Rothfuss. I remember his editor called him out for ghosting her for like 7 years, never submitting anything to her. I know the guy had some mental health problems, but he keeps talking about King Killer Chronicles like he’s still working on them and going to finish them any day now
Delk
My first trip to Toronto with my husband who is not from the Midwest.
Him: Do you know how to get there?
Me: Yeah, head for Indiana. We will have three choices, go straight, make a right and go south, or make a left to go north. Make the left, there will be signs to tell us the rest.
eta: the next trip we made a right and went to New Orleans.
MagdaInBlack
@Cheryl Rofer: That;s pretty much how I do it. I have it memorized to the point I can see it in my head. I use the phone for help, or a refresher.
I do love maps though. In our home, spreading out the maps on the kitchen table and planning or reliving a trip was a bonding experience. I’m stunned with people who cannot read maps. ( and don’t know their 4 directions)
Mallard Filmore
@Baud:
Yeah, what a joy to watch THAT screen. 6 hours into the flight and you’re not even half way done.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I do have to admit that we have added a nav system to our minivan (Kenwood Excelon head unit with Garmin) during our plague downtime but have yet to use it on a trip. That is coming in September as we are visiting my wife’s 96 and 97 year old uncles, both of them also being vaccinated because they ain’t stupid. I usually nav by loading each day’s maps into browser tabs on my Surface Pro (or other laptop in the past), along with street views of anything I need for that day’s adventures.
Bigger screen makes it easier for old eyes to see the maps and more of them. :)
sab
@The Thin Black Duke: I like that.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): the other reason he doesn’t want to finish the series because everybody already knows how it ends. He does lots of stuff it’s not like he’s just sitting on his hands collecting checks.
There’s certainly a commercial expectation that works get finished, but that’s between him and his publisher.
I actually try not to pick up incomplete series for this reason *shakes fist at Rothfuss*
Ugh, and the second Kingkiller book was a complete waste of space. You could tell because he did not one but two hard resets of Kvothe’s circumstances. I’d have writer’s block too if I’d wasted the middle book of my trilogy.
Baud
@Mallard Filmore:
I like being able to identify the geography I’m seeing out the window.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: Being in the collision repair industry, I am convinced those screens are just as bad as being on the cell phone. I suppose I should be happy, more business for us, but nope.
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: I like long road trips. A year before the pandemic I drove Virginia-Atlanta-Alamosa-Phoenix and back twice. I carried a smart phone and used it some, but my main navigational resource was the Rand McNally Atlas stuffed between the console and the passenger seat. But I like looking at maps
I know people who like having a voice on their phone telling them when to turn. But my phone and I are not on speaking terms. I think it’s my fault.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Are you trying to argue that by spending $7.95 on a paperback, the author now works for you in the future? Does it work in reverse? Am I required to buy and read every book in a series because the author keeps churning them out?
gbbalto
Folks, even if you are fully vaccinated US citizens, you still need a negative test before arrival:
https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/flying-canada-checklist/covid-19-testing-travellers-coming-into-canada#getting-tested
Brachiator
@CaseyL:
Back in the day, the Thomas Guide was huge in Southern California and elsewhere. People throwing a party would photocopy the Thomas Guide map page and circle the address. Of course sales people and real estate folk depended on these maps.
Smart phones and laptops pretty much made these maps obsolete.
When I visited my sister in Texas she used google maps to find accurate real time shortcuts and detours when we were driving around.
And I used maps to provide me with walking directions to a new polling station during the November election.
There are times when my smartphone is my most essential device.
Don K
The reason I don’t have a smartphone has nothing to do with the expense. I just don’t want people texting me every ten minutes (“Hey! We’re at Friday’s!!!”) expecting an answer and if they don’t get one they’ll resend the text in a minute, then in 30 seconds, then in 15 seconds. I treasure alone time. Yes, there are conveniences to having a smartphone, but to my mind much outweighed by the annoyances. Navigating on trips? I call up the Google route at home, memorize it, and get a mental picture of what I need to do. Did I mention I navigated on road trips with my parents when I was 8? About a month ago I went to a family wedding outside Philadelphia, and the route from PHL Airport to our hotel was “I-95 South to I-476 to the Turnpike to the Willow Grove exit, then PA Route 611 to the hotel”. Easy-peasy. Now granted, this doesn’t work for detailed navigation in cities, but that’s when I rely on a friend’s smartphone and let him/her call out the directions so I don’t have to focus on the screen rather than, y’know, traffic.
Baud
@Don K:
I solve that problem by not having friends.
Frank Wilhoit
OT: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/ny-times-columnist-nicholas-kristoff-run-for-oregon-governor.html
We are officially post-parody. Is travesty the unique successor of parody, or only one among many?
Major Major Major Major
Oh wow it turns out the “anti-sex bed” olympics thing is just totally… not true. https://twitter.com/parkermolloy/status/1417239361289170948?s=21
NotMax
@MagdaInBlack
Yup. It lights up. And in some applications the display moves. Cannot not be a distraction, whether directly or peripherally.
Kent
My Verizon plan includes both Canada and Mexico in my unlimited voice and data. I don’t know how common that is.
RaflW
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I just assume that if the coupon is digital only, then the chances are good that I’m probably giving the store more than a dollar in consumer intelligence (aka spying) in the ‘exchange.’
evodevo
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Yep…I have it on my lap while Mr. Evodevo’s smart phone is yapping on the console. There have been several times when the phone got it wrong and I had the map there in front of me. Also, in the days of Garmin, it was always trying to send us down crazy back streets to get to a destination more easily reached by main roads. SOOOO – I am the designated paper navigator when we’re out on the road…
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Ultimately, no. I don’t think that writers “owe” fans a goddam thing. If someone writes a book and you like it, be happy.
BTW, I note that a publisher may want to milk a series to death. A publisher or even an author might even engage a ghost writer to continue a series. This mixes commerce with art I suppose.
I also think that one of the earliest examples of fans exerting control over a character involved Sherlock Holmes. Doyle got bored and wanted to move on to other work, so he killed off his detective. Fans would not have it, wore mourning clothes and demanded more. Doyle relented and brought Holmes back.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: A lot of them have the controls in that display; heat, radio, etc ; so that your’re switching screens to find how to turn the heat down or change the radio/satellite station. Not good.
Mallard Filmore
@Major Major Major Major:
That gets out of hand when you would need to memorize the credit card numbers of your multi-million customers.
frosty
Many years ago, on a trip from PA to New England, our Garmin GPS (set to avoid traffic) routed us through NYC on the Cross Bronx Expressway at rush hour, instead of the Tappan Zee bridge. Changing lanes was a lot of fun while towing a trailer.
After that I’ve always wanted to see the route preview. Once that’s OK, the satnav has been a great help. Our new one shows which lane we should be in coming up to a turn through an intersection, which is useful when you’re on a road with 6 lanes in your direction (looking at you, Florida and California!)
Kent
Well, they have electronic tickets with a QR code that needs to be scannable. But you can always print them out on paper. Or for a fee, you can usually have them mail you paper tickets that have the QR code on them. So you don’t really need a phone to get into the stadium. That’s just easiest method for most people as they don’t have to worry about losing their tickets.
Major Major Major Major
@RaflW: oh they already know all that.
gbbalto
@gbbalto: Also, you might have to do a post entry test plus you have to check what your destination province requires.
I am hoping to travel to Atlantic Canada for Christmas – God only knows what may change with the gathering Delta wave here.
Baud
@Kent:
Well, no. I’m under the impression that a lot of places are moving to electronic exclusives. Can’t even print them out. But maybe I’m wrong.
Mallard Filmore
@Baud: With a 14 hour flight, the view out the window is of the ocean. But mostly I agree, until either over-land flights went so high, or the air got so dirty, there was not a lot to see.
The Thin Black Duke
@Brachiator: Thing is, besides writing short stories and novels, GRRM was also a screenwriter who worked in the industry for years, so he damned well knew what the expectations were. Time and tide and TV wait for no man, and Martin was aware that even on his good days he never was a roadrunner at the keyboard, so he never should have signed the TV contract. Any screenwriter who can’t make their deadlines won’t last long in the business.
Sure Lurkalot
Cleaning out the crawl space for something productive to do during Covid, spouse and I found a box containing manilla envelopes, each containing paper from a different trip…road maps, local city maps, menus, venue brochures, etc. We decided to keep the box and even though we haven’t gone through it yet, we intend to spend a rainy afternoon looking through the detritus of our travels. Not so much detritus when a trip employs smart phone and tablet. I do like technology for driving directions and things like scoring tickets to venues, restaurant reservations, screen shot of a trail map at a trailhead… while missing the mementos.
scav
I’m rather amused by this thread emerging after reading the latest warnings about people using google maps while hiking. As though there’s a single, perfect for all circumstances, form of technology (and yes, paper maps count as such.)
Major Major Major Major
@The Thin Black Duke: his HBO contract wasn’t predicated on finishing the books, was it? Like what screenwriting deadline did he blow.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: On birch bark or palm leaves depending on the destination.
Balloon Juice needs to change its name to Humble Brag.
frosty
@Don K:
You don’t need a smartphone to text. Our kids taught us how to text them and each other on our flip phones, probably around 12-15 years ago. Ms F and I rarely talk to each other (remotely) any more.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MagdaInBlack: last time I rented a car they upgraded me to a BMW SUV. I thought it was pretty cool at first but that car had that screen and so many whistles and bells it got annoying real quick
I’ve had my Toyota six years and there are still features I haven’t figured out, mostly because I only think of working through them when I’m driving, then I forget about it when I walk away from the car
NotMax
@MagdaInBlack
As a side note, vehicles nearly universally no longer include CD players (not even available as an option), which also bugs me, as the cost of a perfectly adequate one is peanuts.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus:
Absolutely. But they should have to write their responses in longhand and mail them to John Cole.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: You can solve crossword puzzles on it!
prostratedragon
@CaseyL: Your navy base experience sounds like a more benign version of this type of thing, in which googlemaps is said to lead the unknowing off a cliff of Ben Nevis. Have heard enough other bad stories that I’d be hesitant to rely soley on those tools for trips off extremely well-beaten paths.
piratedan
@NotMax: agreed, I’m so old school I burn my own cd’s from my collection of music to suit mood and whimsy, Spotify can’t do that as well as I can (humble brag) nor do they have my crappy taste in music because it never fails that some damn algorithm is gonna slap some bee gees and barry manilow on if I’m listening to some 70’s stuff or Culture Club if I am tuning in some 80’s tunes.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Passenger
pigeonscrows.;)
otmar
I did my share of driving in the US with a Rand McNally.
But seriously, you’re all being ripped of by your carriers. Both the fixed line and the mobile fees are rather high.
The current going rate for a sim-only (I.e. no subsidized phone) plan here in Austria is 10 to 20 Euros/month. See e.g. https://www.yesss.at/
schrodingers_cat
I do miss the rotary dial phones though, you can’t slam the phone in its cradle to display annoyance. Pressing the hang up button on the touch screen is just not the same. Also, for actual call quality nothing can beat a landline. Talking on a smart phone is a punishment.
The Thin Black Duke
@Major Major Major Major: GRRM knew that the TV series was going to end eventually. Hell, they even added an extra season, too. And Martin always had the option of putting the books on the back burner and working with Benioff and Weiss to give Game of Thrones the conclusion he wanted once he saw that he wasn’t going to catch up. As it now stands, both the books and the TV series will always have an asterisk attached to it.
frosty
@MagdaInBlack: I needed a new car a couple of years ago and decided on a Mazda 3, I bought a used one from the last year before they came out with an upgraded model with a big screen and GPS.And yes, all the radio and climate controls were through the screen. Sorry, but I want to twist a dial to change the volume or the fan, and I want to twist a dial to set the heat and AC. I can’t stand the climate control on Ms F’s Jeep.Plus, like someone else said, I’ll never get around to figuring out how to use it if I have to bring up a different screen for each feature.
@NotMax: My obsolete Mazda 3 has a CD player!
BOWTIEJACK
As someone who’s old enough to have traveled pre-smart-phone, my God, what a game-changer they are when traveling to a place you’ve never been.
Back in them olden days, a big problem was if you had to notify anybody of a delay or change in plans, you had to pull off the highway somewhere to find a phone booth.
Unique uid
I just loaded the ArriveCAN app on this iPad. Looks like they don’t want your info until 3 days before trip. I was hoping to send them my vaccine card now and have it taken care of.
oh, Target sells a Moto G Play from ATT prepaid for $50. You can use it without service as a 6” WiFi tablet.
The app HereWeGo is pretty good for offline maps. You can download individual states/provinces, or full countries. All of North America is about 6GB I think. Free.
I have had problems downloading Google maps areas, they seem to expire within a few weeks. But I quit doing that maybe 5 years ago.
UncleEbeneezer
@scav: If we ever get to do any back-country hiking again (fires and Covid are real impediments) we plan to try the AllTrails GPS app. Supposed to work very well and can be used even when your phone is in airplane mode.
debbie
@NotMax:
My landline is $70.00; the only reason I still have it is (a) power outages and (b) the thought of fighting all day with AT&T to close my account. My cellphone is with Consumer, and my bill, more or less and having paid off the phone I bought, is $30.00.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: I haven’t had a landline for the last 10 years.
James E Powell
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Let’s assume there is a contract. What are the remedies for breach? Specific performance is generally not available for personal services contracts.
debbie
@Steve in the ATL:
?
swiftfox
Rand McNally. I know how to read a map and enjoy geography. On a 2011 trip when we had a flat tire between Ft Collins and Cheyenne I called out our directions before the computer. Previous knowledge of the area did help.
sab
@debbie: My ATT landline used to go out every time it rained.
Roger Moore
@piratedan:
Most car entertainment systems these days will let you play from your phone’s music app. So you can just make a playlist from your library and achieve about the same thing as burning a mix CD, except without the need to use a physical disk to do it.
Roger Moore
@swiftfox:
The drive from Fort Collins to Cheyenne is not exactly challenging navigation.
NotMax
@BOWTIEJACK
Flash of the past.
;)
Also too, These 6 cool TV detectives had car phones decades before you did. (Article is off by a decade for Sabrina, which was released in 1954. Would have been quite the trick for Bogey to have made a film in ’64, what with having died in 1957.)
scav
@UncleEbeneezer: Should at least have better quality data, vetted by people that specialize in hiking applications (rather than, say, taking off hiking using a AAA map). But still universally good to turn on the brain and plan ahead of time — a step that often gets omitted in a lot of “oh, I’ll just look it up on the portable google” just-in-time behaviors. Both technologies have strengths and weaknesses as well as just the risk of being poorly used.
Earl
They traveled without airplanes and cars too. Doesn’t mean it didn’t suck.
RSA
Dude.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
In other other news:
I think Pelosi can overrule him? I hope she doesn’t let Jordan on the committee
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia: Heh.
Last time I traveled internationally, to Japan a couple of years ago, I was on Google Fi. Everything “just worked” – I didn’t have to sign up for any international plan or whatever. It’s usually less than $30 a month for me (as I use very little cellular data).
The time before that, in Europe, I tried to use a fancy reprogrammable SIM that I got in advance in the USA that supposedly worked in almost any country. Instead, it didn’t work at all for me. :-/
The time before that, in Europe, I tried to be “smart” and get a local SIM at the airport with some data for Google maps. The cellular data got eaten up within a few minutes while I was trying to configure the SIM. I think it was gone before we left the airport. :-/
We’ve got a couple of Garmin boxes and they’re fine, but one of them did get us lost leaving a small park in the mountains of Tennessee a few years ago. We ended up on what seemed to be a fire road and had to ask an old lady in her tiny house how to get back to a bit of civilization.
Progress is good.
Cheers,
Scott.
Just One More Canuck
The first car I see with American plates, I’ll point and yell, “Unclean! Unclean!”
scav
Oh, and if the digital latest tech is always and necessarily better, there logically should be a fair number of zoom-exclusively personal relationship enthusiasts here.
MattF
McCarthy has named his 5 R members to the 1/6 select committee. Including Gym Jordan. Bear in mind that Pelosi has a veto.
Another Scott
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Be careful about thermal paper tapes – the “ink” fades.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL:
Loving that image!
Major Major Major Major
@scav:
Definitely a claim made in this post and comment thread
Roger Moore
@Another Scott:
Especially in a hot car.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@RSA:
What? I’m not crapping on Rothfuss for having mental health problems. My understanding is he’s gotten help since. He’s been doing other things since finishing his second KKC book. He streams games a lot on Twitch and hasn’t been writing, hence his editor calling him out for ghosting her
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think Rodney Davis is from Illinois, and may be Ms. Watergirl’s Congressman. Maybe she can tell us how bad he is.
germy
Alison Rose
@Omnes Omnibus: The author doesn’t “work for us” but he also wouldn’t have a career and an income that can let him sit around doing whatever he wants if it weren’t for his readers. Sure, a writer is a writer even if no one ever reads their work, but you can’t pay bills with that. In a sense, readers (or viewers, or listeners, or what have you) pay his salary. It would just be nice to see him (and some others) show the same respect within that relationship that people demand we show to him.
I had no problem with it taking maybe 3, 4, 5 years to get the next book. They’re beasts, after all, and if he dashed it off in a year, it would probably be crap. But it’s been a damn decade, filled with empty promises while he works on like 12 other projects. No, we don’t own him, we’re not his boss, but I think it’s completely fine and logical to expect that an author to give two shits about their fans. (I’d point out too that it’s a lot more than $7.95 for most of us. My hardcover of DWD has a list price of $35. Even if you apply chain store discounts, we’re still talking about around $100 or more for the five thus far. Not a princely sum, but that’s hardly the point.)
Brachiator
@The Thin Black Duke:
Martin signed the contract and took the money. If he dies before he drops another novel, he wins.
But I agree here that any deal is between Martin and his publisher. He does not owe the fans another book. Of course, the fans can stop reading and supporting him.
RSA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Thanks for clarifying. I mistook your tone.
Roger Moore
@Alison Rose:
It’s true that the author doesn’t owe readers anything, but that doesn’t make readers’ criticism invalid. GRRM has a string of broken promises to finish ASOIAF, and fans are fully justified in being upset that he not only hasn’t finished it but doesn’t seem to be working very hard on doing so.
ETA: The point here is that maybe an author doesn’t have a general obligation to their fans, but when they make specific promises, that does create some kind of moral obligation to keep those promises.
Another Scott
@prostratedragon: There were some early Apple Maps stories about people being directed onto airport runways and the like.
Fun times.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison Rose: He doesn’t for for the fans, but he owes them an obligation? And if you want to substitute $34.95 for a hardcover, that’s fine. It doesn’t change my point.
Alison Rose
@Roger Moore: My post is in agreement with this, but it sounds like you think I’m not?
Alison Rose
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s not an obligation, if you want to be so pedantic. People are simply pointing out that after all the money his fanbase has funneled into his coffers, it would be nice if he could manage to give a shit about us.
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I am ambivalent on Jordan or anyone else being on the committee. It’s not like any of them will not be an a hole.
I trust Pelosi to make the right decision.
James E Powell
@germy:
In other words, they want the legislation to be as if they had won the majority in 2020.
Roger Moore
@Alison Rose:
I’m agreeing with you, just expanding a bit. I added an ETA to say that I think that an author making an explicit promise does create an obligation. If you say “I’m working on a 7 book series” and sign a contract to write a 7 book series, you’ve promised fans 7 books. If you say, “The next book will be done by next Christmas,” they have a reasonable expectation to be able to give it as a Christmas present next year. If you fail to keep that promise, they have a right to be upset, not as readers of an author but as recipients of a broken promise.
Patricia Kayden
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison Rose: I am not the one who originally talked in terms of contracts and obligations. It was how Goku framed the question. One of my concerns is how this attitude can lead to really shitty stalkerish behavior. The original Stan, for example. Or Rebecca Schaeffer. We buy the book. We buy the concert ticket. Etc. We don’t buy anything else.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hmm…
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@germy:
I gotta admit. The GOP is bold here. Their base is truly a bunch of suckers for going along with this.
The Thin Black Duke
Or, in this case, using option (c): expressing their frustration. And who’s to say they’re wrong? I think it’s legitimate that GRRM stop making promises to his fans that he can’t keep. Martin has the right to take as long as he needs to take, but maybe he should keep his mouth shut at this point?
germy
@James E Powell:
Audacious.
dmsilev
@Another Scott: My favorite, which I think was back in the MapQuest era, was someone getting directions for someplace in upstate New York, which included a step of ‘turn left on River St.’
Better known as ‘the Hudson River’.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Visions of 1999. Kind’a skims over the $10,000 monthly electric bill to keep everything up and humming.
;)
sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks for giving us this list.
Patricia Kayden
@zhena gogolia: Yes, I remember printing out pages from MapQuest in the olden days.
VFX Lurker
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I think Stephen King explored this concept in Misery.
Alison Rose
@Roger Moore: Very much agreed.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: So the infrastructure bill, for all intents and purposes, is DOA.
Alison Rose
@Omnes Omnibus: I agree some people take it too far and don’t support that kind of thing at all. But I maintain that his attitude toward his readers has been one of blatant disdain for a long time now, and it’s gross.
JimV
To answer your question, I used to use MapQuest but Google Maps is better now, especially the street view option. Believe me, I have had people stop their cars and ask me for directions (I walk approximately everywhere now) who had smart phones and got lost using them.
Anyway, for me having a map and directions I can stare at and think about beforehand is the right way to go.
Amir Khalid
@VFX Lurker:
I would advise against kidnapping GRR Martin and taking a sledgehammer to his ankles.
guachi
@VFX Lurker: If you’re upset that an author didn’t finish a series it means you want to break into his house and torture him. They’re totally the same thing.
sdhays
@Patricia Kayden: They can always just pay for it like a Republican bill – claim it will stimulate growth and pay for itself and go home.
laura
@Geminid: You are correct, he represents Springfield and thereabouts. I only know this because he’s the Rep that Driftglass and Blue Gal are stuck with. They describe him as a no show who adds no value and yet continues to be reelected – a typical midwest republican.
Gvg
@NotMax: The onboard gps are often doubling as a backup camera which can be really great. Some of them also do side and rear view mirror views when you signal a lane change.
I have an add on gps that my dad wired to a mail order backup camera that isn’t as good as the built in one my mother has. It always shows where I am when I don’t program if to go somewhere. I find it easy to ignore when I don’t need it. You get so used to it, you tune it out, till you want it.
My mother wanted the backup camera because she can’t fully turn her head and it hurts, due to an injury years ago. I don’t know why the gps’s are paired with backup cameras but they are, and now they are becoming common.
I have a smartphone but find the gps easier to use most times or even the iPad. The phone is my last choice.
The Thin Black Duke
@Roger Moore: You said it much better than I did.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Roger Moore:
This
VFX Lurker
@Amir Khalid: Fun bit of trivia: Stephen King’s original novel used an axe. The film adaptation used the more memorable sledgehammer.
Brachiator
@sdhays:
Works for me. The Republicans claimed that the 2017 tax cuts would pay for themselves. When told that nonpartisan analyses showed huge future deficits, they just smiled and shrugged.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Curtis Sliwa makes a play for the Balloon Juice endorsement (unless the Gothamist is some kind of Onion outlet and I’m falling for something)
Michael Cain
Perhaps GRRM needs a David Weber moment. Which I understand was his doctor telling him, “David, you have to take a year off away from sitting in your office in front of your computer writing. Because if you don’t, you’re going to die.” And Weber’s wife agreed to enforce it. The main Honor Harrington thread and the first Safehold series got wound up real fast. One might even say abruptly.
I’ve always wondered if perhaps his wife also told him, “David, I’ll let someone else finish the damned series.” :^)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I added the bolds. I hope Nancy bounces ’em and names Kinziger and a couple of the Impeachment voters. Or WTF AOC(!), Bowman and Tlaib
Uncle Cosmo
My GPS story: In 2014 I was in Yerp with my nephew N8 to connect him with his touring college chapel choir. In Salzburg we discovered that they were at supper at the Stiegl-Keller on Festungsgasse, so we engaged a taxi and sped off. The driver was innocent (if not ignorant) of that part of town and trusted his GPS; when it said we’d arrived, he pulled up, popped the trunk, and as soon as we’d claimed our luggage took off.
I looked around and said, This can’t be right, there’s nothing here, and chased him fruitlessly down the hill. The road dumped out onto a plaza, and as N8 came up behind I screeched to a halt and announced:
I pointed to the next street to our left that ascended from the plaza –
And so it was. And we marched in to the cheers of his schoolmates in the middle of dessert. CSD*** 1, GPS 0!
** Uncle Cosmo 10.5 – Rest of Yerp 0.5, and I’m still pissed I let that damn Swedish tourist escape with a draw. The little old guys on the spectators’ benches thought I was a Grandmaster. :^D USA! USA!
*** Cosmo’s Sense of Direction, natürlich!
satby
@Baud: Tablet, Kindle specifically. Though most of my travel is to rural areas of third world countries, often after disasters. No cell service. Or electricity lots of times. So even the Kindle stays home and we go old school (paperbacks). Never really miss being in contact every minute.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I would like to see Republican impeachers like Katko (NY) and Upton (MI) on the commitee, but they may not be willing. If more Democrats are named, I would like to members of the talented class of 2018 like Ellissa Slotkin (MI) and Jason Crow (CO) get the spotlight. Always On Camera already gets far more exposure than she deserves. But I think you may have been joking about her and Tlaib.
James E Powell
On GRRM, my take is that he lost control of it and can’t figure out how to bring it all back together for an ending that makes sense in the number of books he is supposed to write.
Great works that were never finished include Aeneid, Canterbury Tales, and “Kubla Khan.”
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Interesting list.
I wish Nancy Pelosi would refuse to seat any committee members who voted against certifying election results in any states. That would drop Jordan, Banks, Nehls, and would sidestep their being replaced by Taylor Greene, Boebert, or any of the howler monkey reality show wanna be’s.
Keep the committee members to those from the reality-based world, and — especially for Republicans — those who have shown courage in not following the whackaloons.
Jim Jordan is there purely to bring the carnival atmosphere and, very honestly, get viewers to turn off the proceedings so they don’t have to watch him. To discredit the whole process.
Dump his ass.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: mostly, but as a big old “Cram it” to McCarthy, I’d allow it.
Or Pelosi could name Upton and Katko and Beutler-Herrera and leave empty, name-plated seats on the dais
(I’m not actually advocating or expecting any of this…)
DB11
@Gin & Tonic:
Thank you! Mistermix’s apparent assumption that the (only?) reason someone wouldn’t own a smartphone is that they can’t afford it elides the possibility that one has simply chosen to live sans cell.
I have gone phone-less since 2008 — an intentional decision not driven by financial need — and while I wasn’t originally convinced it was a viable or practical choice, I tried it anyway. Thirteen years later I think it’s one of the best choices that I have made.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: More seriously, those high profile commitee spots provide valuable exposure. Val Demings was a relative unknown before she brought the fire in the first impeachment hearing and people “discovered” a new star. Same with Jaime Raskin, Madeleine Dean, Joe Neguse, and Stacy Plaskett in the second impeachment. Who can forget Maise Hirono’s questioning of Brett Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing? And how many Democrats knew Hirono as more than a name before?
It sometimes bothers me how Democrats are enthusiatic about a few stars, but still have a low opinion of their office holders generally. I think Speaker Pelosi and the the rest of leadership bear this in mind when they choose from among their talented caucus the Representatives to serve on these commitees. Elaine Luria, VA 2nd, seems like such a choice. I think Luria will be a solid contributor to the Commitee’s work. She will also get valuable exposure that will help her in a tough reelection race next year.
JAFD
Dumb question for yo’ smart jackals:
Have old smartphone. Battery won’t charge above 50%, but otherwise OK. Would like to keep it as ‘backup communications link’.
Is there such an animal as a ‘purchase an hour’s worth of calls in the next year’ plan ??
Thanks, very much, for any help you can give me with this.
topclimber
Who McCarthy names is unimportant. Their BS will be overwhelmed by the Dems on the Committee and the mountain of evidence that the insurrection is real.
More noteworthy is that McCarthy named anybody at all. Now Republicans have given credibility to a committee they assailed as a Democratic witch hunt.
The man has the touch of s–t, that is for sure.
Repatriated
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I get creeped out by the realization that the store values the data point “[Repatriated] bought a quart of Blue Bunny Vanilla Ice Cream” as being worth $1.00 to them.
Brachiator
@evodevo:
Years ago, I was driving to visit some friends who had recently bought a condo. Had my trusty Thomas Guide with me.
Only problem, the condo development was new and so not depicted on the map. Had to go to a nearby restaurant and use a pay phone to call to get directions.
Those were the days.
Frankensteinbeck
On the GRRM issue, speaking as an author: Sure, Martin does not ‘owe’ his readers a book. But that’s a charged word that ignores a central issue. If he doesn’t finish the series he has committed a serious failure as an artist. He absolutely and legitimately deserves criticism for it. To create a metaphor exaggerated enough to get the point across clearly, a professional baseball player doesn’t owe it to his fans to ever hit a baseball ever again, but if he doesn’t they and everyone are justified in saying he’s bad at his job.
NotMax
@Brachiator
TripTiks. Which apparently still exist.
James E Powell
@topclimber:
Key point right here. I’m curious which Rs wanted on that committee that he didn’t put on there.
Jeffro
I think we should all get to know Canada well: it will have most of North America’s habitable land in just a few short decades.
I still think that (per that Fox “vaccine passport”) that the best-selling bumper sticker in human history could easily be ‘trump and Tucker got vaccinated a.s.a.p. you saps’
(Long version includes ‘pwn the libs some other way, dumbasses’ at the end)
Roger Moore
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think there’s an issue about failing to live up to a promise. I would dearly love for Susanna Clarke to write a followup to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but whether she does or not is up to her. She doesn’t owe her fans another book set in that world. If she doesn’t have a good idea for one, it’s probably better that she write something completely different, or just not write at all, rather than produce something second rate to get people off her back.
But George RR Martin did promise another novel in ASOIAF. Not only did he implicitly promise this by writing a series that clearly hasn’t wrapped up, he has explicitly said it will be done by a specific deadline and then failed to meet it. That’s making a promise and failing to live up to it.
To make an analogy, imagine that your daughter dearly wants a pony. You are not a bad parent for failing to get her one, no matter how much she wants one. But if you tell her that yes, she can have a pony for Christmas this year and then fail to get her one, she has a right to be upset about it. If you repeatedly promise her a pony and then fail to deliver, you are a bad parent, and probably a bad person, too. Don’t make that promise unless you are going to make every effort to follow through.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
I don’t know. I might say that he has abandoned his craft.
What if he writes other works that are just as good or just as popular?
I could not make sense of your metaphor. An active player on a team cannot unilaterally decide not to hit a baseball ever again. Not without risking punishment or losing his job.
A baseball player’s contractual obligation is to his team, not to his fans.
dnfree
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t download apps from stores or any commercial ventures. I have very few apps on my phone, and I delete ones I don’t need if I have to download one for a specific purpose. The permissions and access most apps “require” is far beyond what they need.
That said, I use my iPhone, maps, text messages, and I can’t imagine not having them. I remember years before phones when I was supposed to meet someone and plans changed, or the location was misunderstood, and there was no way to communicate. In fact, I got my first cellphone after a debacle at O’Hare airport where I was supposed to pick up my brother and had told him where we’d meet him, and he went somewhere else thinking that would helpful. It was not. We were hours late to our family reunion.
dnfree
@zhena gogolia: you might discover the usefulness if you and whoever you’re with ever get separated, or have trouble meeting up, at a large and crowded venue.
EM
Pretty insular comments about smart phones. I have literally never had one. As far as travel goes, well, I don’t. Just don’t have the need to. Also the poster makes comment about a smart phone only being $110 and $30 per month. Well, my new basic phone cost $45 and is $10 per month and that’s for unlimited minutes. To some that may not seem like a big difference but it is to others.
dnfree
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: I have an MS in computer science and was programming in the mid-sixties, and I have a smartphone too. I guess I don’t understand why a techie wouldn’t want one.
No name
@JAFD: If your old phone is not 5G it’s not worth keeping at this point as companies are phasing them out. I’m with AT&T and my 3G phone won’t work at all come next February.
Another Scott
@Roger Moore:
Cheers,
Scott.
dnfree
@The Thin Black Duke: way late to this post, but your take on it is very clear and well-expressed. Makes sense to me. The whole setup reminds me of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld. Every human who ever existed is reincarnated on an artificial planet. People speak different languages! Neanderthals co-exist with modern humans! And how and why did this happen? No shortage of material, which of course turned out to be the problem. The first and second books narrowed in on small groups and were very readable. The third book took forever for those of us waiting. The fourth book was enormous and tried to wrap it all up, resulting in jumping twenty years between one paragraph and the next. I still wish someone would write more books set in that world, though.
Since then, I don’t like to start reading a series until it’s all written.
Richard
@zhena gogolia:
I still don’t use them very much. I came to this late in life. I’m not even sure what exactly is a smart phone? Are they all smart phones? I use a Samsung tablet and a little phone. I understand that they are Android. This is how i am visiting with you.
Then, there are Microsoft people. Are they the true smartphones?
I can tell you for sure that i don’t trust them when it comes to local conditions.
I remember how weird it looked when all the sudden everyone was carrying these little rectangles and looking at them. I resisted, but around 2005 there was a tragedy and i gave in.
I had to have a “cellphone ” for a ride to the ceremony.
So now i use the internet everyday, but i still don’t answer the phone.