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| Posted by: Ylee, 12:57 PM GMT on November 07, 2012 | +3 |
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I live and work in metropolitan Lewisport, KY. I like webcams, through which I can see the whole world!
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Hope you are no working too hard!
Ozgalah - never mind sending H down to the harbour.... We want to see you !!! lol :-)
Quiet as can be around here tonight. It's been getting down into the 40s,which means I close my windows and the folks on the docks stay inside their boats. No partying-hearty until spring, now! (Or a serious warmup!)
Reno, I think this bunch of penguins might like Zingers instead! :)
Hi, Sandi! You're up late! If we can them both down there with a dog or two, that would be awesome! :)(No pressure, Ozgal, lol!)
Hi, Skye! I wonder when the penguins will start laying eggs and having chicks?
No, I don't watch reality shows. I think the soaps that my coworkers are glued to at lunch in the break room have sent sublimal messages to me.
Anyone remember this?
Bye, bye Twinkies. I hate to hear that so many people will lose their jobs, with Hostess going out of business but I won't miss the snack cakes. I haven't eaten a Twinkie since... since... well, heck, since I was knee high to a grasshopper?
There was a quote about the demise of the Twinkie in our local paper this morning that made me laugh so hard, I thought I would do myself damage: "I always thought they would survive the apocalypse - those and cockroaches and Keith Richards."
Being deaf, I can't tell. Rats.
Just a brief greeting with a photo collage from my last painting, and a quote from a poem:
Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
To a Skylark.
Just tidying up here to do today, a little cleaning and dusting then my work day will be over. Will toss a wash in the washer and let it do its thing while I clean. Lot's can be said about retirement, sweet cheeks, it will give you plenty of time to do the little things you always wanted to do around the house without being on a specific schedule. Just look at Plapman enjoying his little projects... Your day will come too.
Well off to make some brunch then get my lazy old bones working. Have a great day dear one.
BTW, never was a Twinkie lover so they won't be missed but our home delivery bread was Wonder and we did like that for sandwiches. Too bad to see it go the way of the dodo bird.
Miss BUG, you delightful little lady, every day you make me smile with your sense of humor. Bless you dear friend. Oh BTW, have not watched soaps in a dreadful long time, hell Victor Newman was still a young handsome man at that time and I think he was still married to Nicki the first time...LOL
Who? I haven't got a clue as to who that is, Alley! Gramma watched her 'shows' daily, as did Mama but I never got into them.
I guess you could say that shows like "Walking Dead", "Hell on Wheels", "Downtown Abbey" etc could be called 'soaps' in a way. Continuing story lines. You never know what's gonna happen to who but those daytime dramas? Nah.. I'd rather watch news and weather during lunch IF the girls in the break room would let me.b Which they don't, so I blog and play Bookworm or World of Warcraft mahjongg.
Yes, I was up late last night, watching the live Children in Need charity event on TV, so tonight I am heading to bed in a few minutes and hope to be asleep by 10pm!
We could get Ozgalah to let us know what on earth they are building on the harbour in Adelaide. Looks like a wooden jetty, or something.
49 penguins and one large "gull" type bird!
I love Hostess products, be it Wonder Bread, or most of their snack cakes. When I was a kid, my father even had a job transporting Hostess products from St. Louis to Evansville, In., five days a week! I can safely say that I have been a fan of Hostess for at least 40 years! In recent years, as a union member, I noticed that Hostess was also made by other union members, so I made it a point of buying exclusively Hostess products.
According to the news articles that I read this morning, the company demanded the workers take an 8% pay cut. The workers thought this was unfair, they went on strike, and the company shut everything down. Their owed vacations were wiped out, their health insurance eliminated, and their pensions were handed over to the federal government, where likely they will recieve only a fraction of what was promised by the company.
Some of the comments that followed these articles pretty much teed me off. A lot of the comments were directed at the "greedy" union workers, and they got what they deserved. Why they made up to $20 an hour! They have pensions! They deserved what they got! Excuse me, since when is $40,000/yr a lot of money? They made a decent living wage; enough to buy a house, a car or two, maybe a yearly vacation somewhere. They probably had a decent but not extravagant health plan, with copays and deductibles. Don't know their pension either, but I'd be surprised if it's more than $50 per year of service. All of their wages and benefits were negotiated before this last contract; more than likely, the company gave them a number, and they decided how to split it up, be it higher wages and less benefits, or vice versa. 8% of wages is about $3200/yr. I don't know about you people, but to a middle class family, that's real money!
Some folks would make the argument that would you want to make $36,800/yr, or nothing? That is a valid argument, and I'm not sure what my choice would be if I was in their shoes. I don't know their wage and benefit history, but I do know that Hostess has changed hands several times over the years, and usually when this happens, with each contract their benefits are whittled away with little in the way of wage increases. The workers probably had a line in the sand, so to speak, and company's offer crossed it. They felt they had no choice but to strike.
I have no idea the company's intentions during the negotiations; whether they made an offer the union had no choice to refuse on purpose in order to close the plants and have the union be a scapegoat, or they were in such a financial mess(OVER 90% of the time this is caused by bad management) this was their last resort, probably more like a band-aid.
The next question is what happens now? I'd say the least likely scenario is someone buys the plants and brings all the workers back. Much more likely either they wait three years or so , fire the plants back up and hire new workers(a plant has to be closed for so many years before it can be opened without a union), or sell the rights to make Hostess to another, probably non-union company which has workers making $9-$12/hr with limited benefits.
If the latter two options happen, I have eaten my last Twinkie.
P.S. The workers also took a pay cut in 2004.
Aside from the real problems of people losing their jobs, pensions, etc., there is the aspect of people being denied special treats that have become part of our rituals, eating pleasures,.... In the school year of 1953-1954 my daily lunch consisted of a small carton of chocolate milk and a Devil Dog. This is all I could afford, mom could not give me enough money for a regular school lunch. I loved and love Devil Dogs and the memories of that year are actually pleasant and certainly tasty. Yes, that was my first year in the USA.
Please understand that I am not trivializing the real issues with the demise of the Hostess company and the dilemma that the workers are facing. I just wanted to share a memory of long ago.
Besides, they are the best-tasting snack cakes out there, IMO!
I need to reply to everyone from earlier....
Bug, Victor Newman is a longtime rascal from the soap opera The Young and the Restless, on CBS! I used to watch it as a kid with my grandma when I was growing up!
Cal, good luck on the peafowls! Our dogs used to run full speed for no other reason than it was cool, and they were feeling good! :)
Sandi, I'm thinking that maybe this species of penguin isn't that big; I've seen the gulls too, and they do disproportionately big! From watching nature specails gulls eat penguin eggs and small chicks.
Alley, the way the USA is bungling Social Security, Medicare, and the rest, someday I'll probably punch out at the time clock and go crawl in a coffin! :( I can easily see myself working to 70(and beyond), not because I want to, but because I have to.
We are in Williams, Nevada on the way to the Grand
Finally have an half decent wifi and I can now start to get to know this new little box. Yes, I still have a ride home but we are seeing some special places just now and we ain't in an hurry to leave..
Ylee, hope you have a great shift and that it is not too tiring. Stay warm and stay well.
Trauma, are the Twinkies for the Zombies, or are they for your retirement fund? :)
Have a good night!
Alley, I'll bet Nikki isn't a spring chicken either, lol! Me, I'll watch some PBS, and little else! The real world is much too interesting!
ycd, enjoy your trip to the Grand Canyon The North Rim is probably closed, so be prepared to take the long way around!
Good morning Ylee.
I'm amazed at companys like Papa Johns that say they are laying off workers now, raising prices now, only hiring part-timers now, because of a health care bill that won't affect them for nearly two years. Hmmmmmm.
Have a good day.
My Gramma watched her 'show' every day, without fail. I don't remember anything about the show itself but I still remember how fascinated I was with the edge of night coming across the screen and the lights coming on in the buildings. That image has stuck with me all these years. Funny, the things you remember. These are the closing credits showing showing it. Looking at it now, it's really cheesy but I suppose it was considered high tech special effects in the '50's! LOL
Hakai cam is not working this morning; the rest of the cams are OK, best as I can tell!
Pros, you're up early this morning! We'd all look good if we got as much work as those TV people do! :)
GG, I've heard the upper management and investors of Hostess got bonuses(imagine that!), but I don't have verification of this.
Don't the AHCA provisions start kicking in Jan. 2014? Still, look for most low wage establishments to dump employees to whatever federal plan is available. I know Obama and the Dems mean well, but I'm afraid this is going to be a big mess before it's over, if it ever truly will be over.
Tony, I'm not very much overweight, but it still bugs me. My biggest bugaboo is lack of time. I simply don't have the time to go out and exercise an hour a day, not with all the OT. When I get home, I'm pooped, and don't feel like doing any exercise.
Bug, The Edge of Night was another of my grandma's soaps; it was on ABC, I believe. At 3:30, after it was over, she'd dutifully call my aunt(her daughter), and they'd talk about what went on on the soaps that day!
ycd, I'm guessing you are only a couple of hours away from the Canyon!
If anyone is wondering, ycd's view should be something like this:
(We are very rarely allowed OT in my office; there usually has to be some kind of crisis. We also have to watch our daily clock in/clock out times very carefully, so that we don't get any OT; you can get in trouble, if you do.)
Then there was this paragraph on CNN.com: The Hostess name dates to the 1920s, when the Continental Baking Co. in New York City sold "Wonder" bread goods and "Hostess" cake products. Through a series of mergers, Continental became the largest commercial bakery in the U.S. Over the decades, the business has been owned by such conglomerates as International Telephone & Telegraph and Ralston Purina, which sold it to Interstate Bakeries Corp., which launched another round of acquisitions. Recognizing the power of its main brand, IBC officially renamed itself Hostess Brands in 2009, following the company's exit from its first bankruptcy. Today Hostess, with headquarters near Dallas, has a workforce of roughly 19,000 -- 83% of it unionized -- in 36 plants and more than 500 distribution centers across the country. The company remains one of the largest bakeries in the U.S. The Balkanized nature of its empire gave Hostess a piecemeal labor situation, including a matrix of 372 collective-bargaining agreements, a dozen separate unions, 5,500 delivery routes, and no fewer than 40 multi-employer pension plans that are despised by management.
Looks to me like Hostess suffered from too many corporate takeovers and maybe some vulture capitalists thrown in for good measure.
I'm just saying, it seems that some of TV's talking heads are trying to blame the striking union members, when the problem looks like it goes way deeper than that. Ylee, you made some excellent points in your commentary and I agree with you that the workers did have to draw a line in the sand and are now paying for it. Another in a long string of unfair labor practices started by Reagan, when he busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union in the 80s. It's all about lining the pockets of the few at the top.
I won't miss the Twinkies, but we all will miss the loss of another 18,000 or so living-wage jobs.
Bug, maybe I could do some tummy crunches while I'm blogging! :) Can't hurt, as long as I remember to do it!
Briar, that's an excellent bit of research, and I appreciate you posting it here! A huge mess, and a sad one, too! :(
Well, I'm done for the day! Be back tomorrow!
Enjoy your break, Ylee.
Hi there, hope you have a great night and that work is not too stressful. Just in case I miss you, have a wonderful holiday.
I have a query... When I do manage to catch the water sport centre in daylight, I see cruise liners in the water! But they are ever so small - fancy paddle boats, perhaps?
Oh, a REAL big cruise liner has just left Adelaide :-)
Happy Monday - the start of a new week for most, but those who worked the weekend.... the end of a long week?
Cams are looking well; I'm particularly struck by the fall colors in the Agordino cam this morning! It's time to do a new blog; this upcoming blog will only be around for little over a week, as the one following will herald the return of the Milos cam on the 29th! As a matter of fact, the next two blog themes after the Milos blog are already booked up, so the rest of this year is already planned!
Bug, I had a great 12 hour break, but it was starting to get a little boring at the end, so I'm glad I'm back here! :)
I LOVE that pic, Alley! LOL! I'll be here until Friday morning, as I should get firewatch on Thanksgiving night! If you're going to be around, I'll see you then! :)
Sandi, today is actually the first day of my regualar work week. I'm on a eight day work schedule with four days(and nights) worked, then four days off, so my starting day advances one day each week! Those last three days were all overtime!
Don't know about the boats....
Sun rising in Italy, casting glorious rays on the autumnal trees.
Have a good rest, and I am glad you can have fun at home on Thursday. (With the in-laws! lol)
Good morning Ylee. Looks like it's going to be another great day here with warm temps and lots of sunshine again.
Have a great day dear one.
Half the BRITISH terms I have never heard of! Who on earth wrote that list had no idea of British English!
For instance
Windshield wipers we call window-wipers not wishy-washies.
A face is a face! How rude to tell someone their face is a slappy ham! lol
Blueberry pancakes are blueberry pancakes not clammy rogers!
A pen is a pen, or biro: a popsicle is known as a lolly here, and a gun is a gun!
The term rooty-tooty point and shooty is nonsensical. Can you image Prince Charles going on a "shoot" and saying to his bearer .... have you got the 'rooty-tooty point and shooty' my good man! lol
A man carring a stick worked. I never got run over at the school yesterday.
Enjoy the day.
After catching up on the blogs, I'll work on finding the rest of the cams for tomorrow night's blog!
I see that Hostess has a reprieve; why couldn't they have done this earlier? PR, my good folks, public relations! As long as the same people are making Twinkies and Wonder Bread, I'm good with that!
I wonder what the goobs that paid crazy prices for a box of Twinkies on ebay are thinking? :)
Alley, thanks for the Peanuts; can't go wrong with them! :)
It had to be an American who came up with that Brit words list; as Sandi pointed out, some of those phrases aren't commonly in use over there!
On craigslist, I've seen guns called bang-bangs, for example.
Sandi, you'll have to keep us straight on British words and phrases; do you have another phrase for "annoying in-laws"? ;-)
Prince Charles? Possibly? Bond? "Mr. Bond, do you see this rooty-tooty point-and-shooty pointed at you, and I'm going to use it, and you're going to die!"
Heee heeee heeeee
Gosh I never laughed so hard as to Sandi's comment about the silly words, I could just picture in my mind Prince Charles and yes Bond asking for their rooty-tooty point-and-shooty, good lord even the Queen....Oh my, tummy hurts from laughing so much.
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