thoughts on cheap entertainment, or: "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!"
I was thinking about how shocked and angry that_dang_otter was at the idea of someone making $12,000.00 a year. then curiosity drove me to The Salary Calculator, where I learned that $12K in Tucson is the equivalent of $14,777 a year in San Jose.
Funny how very much poorer that seems.
I happen to know several people who, for one reason or another, have far FAR more money than I. I read or hear about their travels, vacations, concerts, hobbies, theatre tickets, wardrobes, vehicles, houses, condos, art collections, parties, European tours, haute cuisine dinners, road trips, health insurance, dentistry, swimming pools, retirement plans, summer getaways, home improvements, and other American Dream-type stuff.
A lot of these folks are proud to say that they don't watch television. It just occurred to me that they don't have to.
Bernie gave me a ride to Costco today so I could pick up my blood-pressure meds. I plunked down $122 (yes, Tony, half a week's pay) and wandered around the warehouse a bit. It WAS what I call "high tea" at Costco: midday on Saturday, with hordes of Sonoran children in miniature vaquero outfits and frilled-toothpick bridesmaid dresses, crowding around the hair-netted food-sample ladies. But the usual hunky daddies and shopping otters were also around. As I walked toward the men's clothing bins (where, btw, they no longer stock XXL t-shirts), I remarked to Bernie that I am indeed an LJ addict: I was already thinking about how to phrase the entry about using a trip to buy socks at Costco for its entertainment value.
Then I heard the voice of Twila Conger, the mother of an old boyfriend, back in her dank, smelly kitchen in Holton, Kansas: "Poor people's got poor ways."
Or Roseanne, on her TV show, when an acquaintance was shocked to hear that she and Dan fucked every night: "Poor people got nothin else to do."
And some of us not even that! *laugh*
Funny how very much poorer that seems.
I happen to know several people who, for one reason or another, have far FAR more money than I. I read or hear about their travels, vacations, concerts, hobbies, theatre tickets, wardrobes, vehicles, houses, condos, art collections, parties, European tours, haute cuisine dinners, road trips, health insurance, dentistry, swimming pools, retirement plans, summer getaways, home improvements, and other American Dream-type stuff.
A lot of these folks are proud to say that they don't watch television. It just occurred to me that they don't have to.
Bernie gave me a ride to Costco today so I could pick up my blood-pressure meds. I plunked down $122 (yes, Tony, half a week's pay) and wandered around the warehouse a bit. It WAS what I call "high tea" at Costco: midday on Saturday, with hordes of Sonoran children in miniature vaquero outfits and frilled-toothpick bridesmaid dresses, crowding around the hair-netted food-sample ladies. But the usual hunky daddies and shopping otters were also around. As I walked toward the men's clothing bins (where, btw, they no longer stock XXL t-shirts), I remarked to Bernie that I am indeed an LJ addict: I was already thinking about how to phrase the entry about using a trip to buy socks at Costco for its entertainment value.
Then I heard the voice of Twila Conger, the mother of an old boyfriend, back in her dank, smelly kitchen in Holton, Kansas: "Poor people's got poor ways."
Or Roseanne, on her TV show, when an acquaintance was shocked to hear that she and Dan fucked every night: "Poor people got nothin else to do."
And some of us not even that! *laugh*