No, Thursday's Out....

New kitchen compost bucket delivered to our icy doorstep! What a bright spot in this cooped-up winter weather week! And what an upgrade! The old one warped, then broke. It had been given to us by the City. It had a url on it for Questions. The landing page was very industrial. The sort of Questions they suggested we ask were along the lines of: How can I dispose of hydrochloric acid? Undaunted, I asked how to get a new kitchen compost bucket. Days passed. Then I got a message from Annette, who really didn’t have to reply. Her title is something to do with permits for knocking structures down. Annette said the old compost bucket was a promotion they did in 2013, when they were trying to introduce people to composting, but alas, there are none of them left. She sent me a link to Home Depot’s compost bucket page. 2013 seems like - well, gee, time sure flies!! I guess that’s about right. No wonder the old one broke. The whole episode made me feel slightly abashed, and made me laugh. I also...

It’s January, when some of us get invigorated, so I’m back to pestering strangers about voting.The current postcard campaign targets “absentee” Democrats in George Santos’s district – in other words, registered Democrats who haven’t voted for a while, if ever. Being “data-driven,” I wanted to know what we have learned from previous campaigns. It’s pretty interesting. For example, the impact of postcards is bigger in primaries, special elections, and other “quiet” elections than in elections where voters are bombarded with messaging. Makes sense to me. Also – and this cracks me up - “motivational” messages are far less effective than “social pressure” messages. Writing, “Make a plan to vote!” doesn’t do much compared to writing, “We know you aren’t voting!” The most effective “social pressure” message tested so far read something like, “No one can know how you voted. But whether or not you voted is a matter of public record.” It’s a little bit …. much,   right? The folks at Pr...

Here it is, the start of a new year, and I have big questions. Not really. I have a little bit of a fever, and I'm slightly spacey, and I have very small questions, which is how I usually get when feverish. Specifically, I have questions about The Algorithm. Why does it think I want woolen t-shirts and dresses that won’t smell even if worn nine days in a row? Or 100 days in a row? Why does it think I have any interest at all in wearing unwashed clothes for long periods? And Why does it think I want a bra designed by a 70 year old granny? I grasp that by posting these questions, I may be spurring The Algorithm into sending me a tidal wave of similar ads. But my Hide This Ad muscles are strong, and I have performed an eradication before. I’m prepared. I did click through on the t-shirts once, because I was buying a present, and I was charmed to see a review that had slipped past the marketing people, “Actually, mine smelled pretty underarmy on day two.” And I suppose the granny br...