Legalized Lying

Winston Churchill, 1874-1965
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A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

--Winston Churchill

Have you ever had a day when thoughts seem to flow like an oozing sludge?

Today is such a day--it must be the back thing caused by the treadmill mishap: I have a compression fracture of the L1, so I'm a bit concerned about that. Tomorrow I'm going to the spine specialist, so that I can get a treatment plan and put the injury out of my mind.

Meanwhile, I keep going back to the H.G. Wells quote: "Advertising is legalized lying."

Seems especially timely right now: my husband Jerry is shopping around for tires, and the various ads appear to be offering some good deals. However, when he inquires about the so-called deals, suddenly the fees begin piling on: taxes, recycling fee, disposal fee, installation fee, balancing the tires fee, breathing fee--well, almost.

Jerry is normally a patient person, but he finally just started telling the salespeople, "Look, just quote me a walk-out-the-door-with-four-tires-installed-and-balanced price." In other words, cut the Madison Avenue crap.

So, then, I go to way-overpriced Kohls, $10.00 gift card in hand (they send us these cards every few weeks), in search of everyday, cotton underwear. Now I don't know about you, but $13.50 for three pair of Haines low-rider briefs seems a bit pricey--after all, I live in York, NOT New York. With the gift card, I got them for $3.50. Okay, I can live with that, although I still bristle paying over $1 for a piece of cloth whose sole job is to cover your butt and other nether regions.

OKAY, so I'm cheap.

I did buy two mock turtle necks for $4.80 apiece minus 15% for senior citizen day. (My old ones are too big now.) Total cost: $8.58. Normally $16.00 each. (They have some tees that retail for $45.00. Seriously?). I guess they couldn't move that winter stuff out very fast.

Then at Wal-Mart, I bought another three-packer of Fruit-of-the-Loom low riders for, guess what? $3.49. In addition, I bought a SUMMER t-top for $5.00. Now I don't love Wal-Mart, the big ugly conglomerate that consumes everything in its path, but I do want to thank the cashier who processed my order with a smile, although she was scheduled to close. I had only two items, and the other lines were busy with grocery shoppers with huge orders.

So here goes:

A HUGE thanks to you, kind lady! You have no idea how your willingness to help me out made my day and got me home faster to my hot water bottle. You could have easily blown me off, but you didn't.

Now I need to return a kindness to someone else...

The airlines are also the great deceivers of consumers; you'll be quoted a rock-bottom price, only to be loaded up with all kinds of fees.

My plea: just quote me an all-inclusive price--luggage, seating, food and beverage, and landing fees. If all airlines did this, we could just pay for our tickets, albeit at a higher price, without all the drama at the check-in counter.

In Europe, prices at retail shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. are quoted with fees and VAT included. Makes life so much easier. Yes, Europe can be more expensive but not as much as you might think.

That's it for today!