Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Earlier this week I ordered a book, Moneyball, from half.com. It was listed as being in very good condition and priced at 89 cents. About a day later, I heard from the seller. Whoops, they said, they didn’t actually have the book. They gave me two options: either choose a different book from their inventory, or have them refund the order. I chose neither. I replied, “I want the title I ordered at the quality I ordered at the price I ordered.” In other words, I’m saying that it is their obligation to find a new copy for their inventory and ship it to me even if it means they lose money on the deal. That seems fair to me. Heck, I think it should be the half.com policy: if a seller suddenly realizes they don’t have the product they listed for sale, then they should be obligated to buy the next cheapest similar item and then sell it to me at the price originally listed by the seller.

I haven’t heard back from them. We’ll see how this goes.

Right now, 5:20AM, I’m at the Dayton airport waiting for my 6:10 flight to Dulles to board. And I’m damn happy to be here.

Not 5 minutes after I left my parents house, I was cruising down the highway toward another highway which would take me to the interstate. From far away, there was a car stopped up near my exit. Given the distance and the whole it-being-night-thing-at-4AM thing I couldn’t tell exactly where they were stopped so I started to slow down. Then, from the left, a car comes flying from the entrance ramp, over the road, barrels through the median onto my side of the road. The driver then, kinda gained control and then he/she started heading straight for me. I, of course, froze like a deer in the headlights. Fortunately the driver straightened out a bit and passed to my left.

Fuck, that was scary.

If you don’t buy our coffee, we’ll kill you. Got it.

I thoroughly believe that buying local is a great idea, so long as the price/quality combination is better than I’d get elsewhere. Which of course means that I don’t give two cow-patties about where my food comes from. Certainly I am not alone in this matter, but I at least do not try to delude others about my motives. It is from this perspective that I’m always suspicious of people who stake a claim to their progressivity by buying local, especially when it just so happens that they’re getting a bargain.

It is that point-of-view that hit me when I was reading a WaPo article about urbanites who are now going out of their way to buy sides-o-meat.

A friend invited [David Storm, a legal analyst in Charlottesville,] to share a steer bought from a farmer just 45 minutes away. The cost: $1 a pound, plus a 36-cents-per-pound processing fee, or $735.76 for a 541-pound carcass, which translated to 275 pounds of dry-aged beef. “We did it for a lot of reasons,” says Storm, 39. “One was cost. Two, it is grass-fed and fresh, so it will hopefully taste better. And three, we’re supporting a local farmer, something we’re very avid about.

“Plus it seemed fun. People would say, ‘Anything new?’ And I could say, ‘Yeah, I just bought a side of beef.’ “

Nevermind.

Now that I read this again, I think that David realizes that he made a bad decision but is trying to convince himself that it wasn’t. Seriously, how could you convince yourself ahead of time that freshness is important when you’re considering purchasing 275 pounds of beef that you’re just going to put in the freezer for up to a year?

On news that Americans drove 1.4 Billion fewer highway miles than at the same time last year,

[Transportation Secretary Mary] Peters expressed concern that the cutbacks have resulted in the collection of fewer taxes on gasoline. Such taxes are funneled to the federal Highway Trust Fund, which gets 18.4 cents per gallon from gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon from diesel fuel.

“History shows that we’re going to continue to see congested roads while gas tax revenues decline even further,” she said.

So people are going to drive less, but congestion isn’t going to improve? That seems odd. I’m certain there is wiggle room. For example, perhaps the miles being cut are vacation miles, or something, and not commuter miles. Or not [emphasis mine].

Commuter rail ridership broke an all-time record this week, and Caltrans reported a dip in freeway traffic as commuters across California struggled with record gasoline prices.

I will go back and somewhat agree with Mary Peters. If fleet fuel efficiency improves, and all other things remain equal, then higher gas taxes are necessary.

MSN has posted 9 big credit card myths. I figured I’d write a post about it because I’ve heard many of these rumors before and thought they were wrong.

1: Your credit card account isn’t opened until you activate it using the issuer’s toll-free number.…

Sorry, but the ding to your credit scores — typically 5 points or less — happens as soon as the issuer pulls your credit reports, which is usually within seconds of receiving your application. The account shows up as active on your credit reports shortly after the card is approved.

Myth No. 2: You can stop unsolicited credit card offers by sending them back in the postage-paid envelopes.

Myth No. 7: High credit card limits are bad for your credit scores.

I guess I should add that I did try to send back the offers in the pre-paid envelopes. Although, I read later, and perhaps it is another myth, that some credit card offerers measure their hit rate by how many replies of any kind they receive.