My dad and i hunted with dave mapes' "Quaking Aspen Outfitters" in 1998, and i filed a formal complaint of gross fraud and cheating hunters from any chance of getting a shot at an elk/anti-guiding in 1999. The State of Colorado Office of Outfitters Registration, AGREED, said they could "only put a letter in dave's file", so we were cheated out of $$$ thousands and a fair chance at many possible shots at legal elk: by guides telling us we could not shoot at legal bulls, by dave telling us on the last minute drive in that only he would choose who was fit enough and had paid enough guides over years of guided hunting experience to be allowed to be given a chance to take a shot at a legal elk, by the guides leaving my dad in a meadow/park almost all day and alone on a stand hunt contrary to dave's brochure and verbal contract that one guide per two hunters or less on all hunts was the rule,by his guides leading me on wild goose chases by horse and foot to waste time in the wrong area while the two youngest and fittest and most paid guide experienced hunters were taken the first day to the National Forest property "hole" to both easily get antlered male elk and then have the whole camp focus on getting them out by the next day, and by dave's guides repeatedly telling me that i could not take a legal shot at a legal bull within 100 yards !! And not one, not one, of the reference list past hunters was honest enough to warn me off this bad apple, bum of a guide,,, BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE, THIS IS HUGE AND COMMON OUT-OF-STATE FRAUD THAT YOU CAN NOT WIN AT IN YOUR HOME STATE SMALL CLAIMS OR CIVIL COURTS, SO JUST STAY AWAY !!
Also beware of "ray billings,outfitter,jackson hole,wyoming" who has a fraudulent and nasty habit of getting you cow tags for your requested antlered elk hunt,,,and providing incompetent guides, like the one busted for child pornography ,,,during the hunt week,,,online computer,,,by the FBI !! Where do Colorado and Wyoming find all these LOSERS ?!
Do NOT NOT NOT expect any help or professional expertise from either the Colorado Outfitter associations,state or private, NOR the Wyoming Outfitter associations,state or private,,, as they allow these bad apple guides to profit-by-theft for years and thus ruin all Colorado and Wyoming outfitters reputations and that of the states of Colorado and Wyoming and their fish and game departments !!!!!
Also BEWARE of "Wilderness Unlimited" a California-base western states hunt club that charges large initiation and large membership fees, and then allows ,for instance, the oregon rancher next door to helicopter herd the elk from the ranch you have also paid trespass fees for onto a ranch that the Madras,Or. chamber of commerce charges $3000/person access onto !!, after illegal helicopter herding of game animal elk !!!!! Also, the club asks property owners for their "worst, lest game rich section of property" for the same lease fee they could have had the most game rich corner for, a clear violation of best interest trust of the membership !!!!!!
When and how are we all in the United States going to clean up this massive abuse in out of state fraud and in state fraud in commercialized hunting ?????
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Saturday, November 26, 2005
"Tanglefoot" insect barrier for gardening:a consumer's opinion
Acouple years ago, we were having lots of trouble with ants climbing our front yard birch trees, so i went to the local garden center, and OSH recommended "Tanglefoot" super-sticky tube goop as a barrier to keep the ants out of the birch trees with annual apids. We applied per directions and watched as the ants just walked over stuck bodies of ants until they had re-established a path up all the trees ! Then we had to get this sticky "Tanglefoot" off the birch trees,,,!!! What a mess and pain in the neck !!! Beware, and do not buy this product for this problem and nuisance of ineffective result !!!
Now we have gone 2 years spraying twice with a mild pesticide like malathion and have had little problem with aphids and ants turning our birch tree's leaves black. Cheers,,,also, try alfalfa pellets from your local feed store at $8 for about 50 pound sack on all your roses and flower beds and fruit trees, to add organic matter cheaply to the soil and make lots of worms and their beneficial castings ! Works great !
Now we have gone 2 years spraying twice with a mild pesticide like malathion and have had little problem with aphids and ants turning our birch tree's leaves black. Cheers,,,also, try alfalfa pellets from your local feed store at $8 for about 50 pound sack on all your roses and flower beds and fruit trees, to add organic matter cheaply to the soil and make lots of worms and their beneficial castings ! Works great !
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
The best Southwest Alaska charter boat company:"Yakutat Charter Boat Co.",,,a consumer's opinion
After years and years of trying different guides and different charter boat companies, i would like to recommend the hardest working and most honest (and sober) Mark Sappington and his "Yakutat Charter Boat Company". Alaska is the hideout of so many drunks and incompetents , that it is a shock to find someone who does not just want to Alaska-overcharge you for wetting your line with the common saying," let just stay and make it (you, Sucker!!) pay". If anyone can find and get rank amateurs,year after year, to hook and land legal and large halibut,in the 75#-200# range...not 30# "chickens" that so many try to pawn off as a worthwhile ,long distance ,expensive once in a lifetime or per year vacation experience. And usually in less than 120 feet of water ,maybe 80ft, not the 200-300 ft of distant-cranking-up of Kenai. Plus, you can fly the awful--expect your luggage in Alaska airspace to be misdelivered,or stolen,no shit-- Alaska Airlines into Yakutat directly without a floatplane, from the south or north and Copper River and Anchorage. And if you are lucky enough to hit the silver salmon, you will have a blast, just outside the harbor, light longrod topwater fishing these fighters--forget the kings at only 2 per year for non-residents--or go for the reds/sockeye that taste so good and can be caught in the near Situk River with chartreuse yarn on a red or plain legal hookup on the lip,not side. If you have never been, or have been a dozen times, try Mark Sappington in small quiet but still outrageously expensive Alaska and Yakutat. We liked Leonard's Landing at the harbor for accomodations, but there are some better and some worse if you care to look.
"Video Only" electronics,tvs,store review,,,a consumer's opinion
I went into "Video Only" in San Mateo County to buy my last tv, after checking GoodGuys and Circuit City,,,beware,,,they sold me a big screen tv ,telling me it was "HDTV ready", when i got it home and read all the paper to discover it was NOT ,,,"HDTV ready",,,also ,the set i got was defective with constant bars across the screen,,,and they gave me a hard time returning it right away,,,so beware,,,caveat emptor,,,and shop somewhere else maybe,,,
Saturday, November 19, 2005
"BEST BUYS",,, a consumer's opinion,Nov.2005
Now that we have lost GoodGuys ,bought by CompUSA,,,and there is still mediocre Curcuit City,,,where does one go for electronics? Certainly not Fry's,with disinterested salesmen who will not give you any info without an easy commission,,,so what about "Best Buys"?
I went into one of their stores yesterday,looking for a new medium size refrigerator. It is a very busy store, usually with a near full parking lot. And i noticed they had over 20 different refrigerators, which i was surprised but glad to see. Had done my homework,and read the Consumer Reports article for 2005 on refrigerators,and since i am an adult and not a midget, i fully agreed that my old top freezer model had been a real pain in the back, bending over every time i wanted to get into the more often used lower ,refrigerator part. OK, so look for a bottom freezer model,like my friends just got in san jose at Western. And it was also recommended i look for lower cost of operation in an "energy star" certificate. And i wanted a 16-20 cu.ft. size model, preferrably by the "best brand for reliability, Whirlpool".
The salesman had massive acne. Don't they have medical for Clearacil or Oxy10 or Proactiv ??? I asked to see some bottom freezer models with "energy star", Whirlpool, and 16-20 cu.ft. size,,,and he could only find one midprice bottom-freezer model, and not a Whirlpool! Only one ?? He kept showing me larger sizes and more expensive models without "energy star". Then he asked why i would want a bottom freezer versus a top freezer, and i told him i was not interested in stooping over every time i opened the refrigerator door as an average-to-tall height adult. He kept on showing me all their side-by-sides, that i was not interested in in the least. Finally after looking on the web , as he suggested ,for more models in their inventory that would fit my desired criteria,,, and finding none,,,i left.
OK. What did we learn? He told me they do not carry Whirlpool. OK, so they do not have the "Best" brand. And most of the floor display was side-by-sides, then lots of painintheback top-freezer model refrigerators, then just a couple or one bottom-freezer type refrigerator, the configuration that Consumer Reports says is best for most of us. And the prices were much higher than Costco or IKEA, where i had seen Whirlpool models under $500 for a 17.5 cu.ft. with installation and under $400 at IDEA in East Palo Alto,,,but they are both top-freezer models, unfortunately.
And "Best Buys" did not have the best model, the bottom-freezer style,but lots of top-freezer refrigerators, to choose from. And they did not care much about annual energy cost ,since they did not have most or all their refrigerators with the "energy star" rating. I was in Best Buys when they first opened and was very disappointed with their toaster selection and prices, certainly not the "best". And i had been i once looking at CD prices, but was not impressed.
Avoid "Best Buys" if you are looking for the best brands and best versions at the best prices. I'm going to checkout Sears today. Good shopping!
I went into one of their stores yesterday,looking for a new medium size refrigerator. It is a very busy store, usually with a near full parking lot. And i noticed they had over 20 different refrigerators, which i was surprised but glad to see. Had done my homework,and read the Consumer Reports article for 2005 on refrigerators,and since i am an adult and not a midget, i fully agreed that my old top freezer model had been a real pain in the back, bending over every time i wanted to get into the more often used lower ,refrigerator part. OK, so look for a bottom freezer model,like my friends just got in san jose at Western. And it was also recommended i look for lower cost of operation in an "energy star" certificate. And i wanted a 16-20 cu.ft. size model, preferrably by the "best brand for reliability, Whirlpool".
The salesman had massive acne. Don't they have medical for Clearacil or Oxy10 or Proactiv ??? I asked to see some bottom freezer models with "energy star", Whirlpool, and 16-20 cu.ft. size,,,and he could only find one midprice bottom-freezer model, and not a Whirlpool! Only one ?? He kept showing me larger sizes and more expensive models without "energy star". Then he asked why i would want a bottom freezer versus a top freezer, and i told him i was not interested in stooping over every time i opened the refrigerator door as an average-to-tall height adult. He kept on showing me all their side-by-sides, that i was not interested in in the least. Finally after looking on the web , as he suggested ,for more models in their inventory that would fit my desired criteria,,, and finding none,,,i left.
OK. What did we learn? He told me they do not carry Whirlpool. OK, so they do not have the "Best" brand. And most of the floor display was side-by-sides, then lots of painintheback top-freezer model refrigerators, then just a couple or one bottom-freezer type refrigerator, the configuration that Consumer Reports says is best for most of us. And the prices were much higher than Costco or IKEA, where i had seen Whirlpool models under $500 for a 17.5 cu.ft. with installation and under $400 at IDEA in East Palo Alto,,,but they are both top-freezer models, unfortunately.
And "Best Buys" did not have the best model, the bottom-freezer style,but lots of top-freezer refrigerators, to choose from. And they did not care much about annual energy cost ,since they did not have most or all their refrigerators with the "energy star" rating. I was in Best Buys when they first opened and was very disappointed with their toaster selection and prices, certainly not the "best". And i had been i once looking at CD prices, but was not impressed.
Avoid "Best Buys" if you are looking for the best brands and best versions at the best prices. I'm going to checkout Sears today. Good shopping!
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
San Mateo County residents...BEWARE,,,as the elected county officials care less for your public health and safety!!
I was working in South San Francisco, in San Mateo County, for SFOAirporter bus company, and complained to the county board of supervisors and the County Manager and the Environmental Health Department that this company was dumping raw bus toilet sewage across it's parking lot and into a storm drain to the SF Bay. And we lowly employees were forced to walk through feces and toilet paper for weeks. The official San Mateo County Environmental Health Department response was that they could not come out to look at it until after work and they could not get the overtime approved,so that no matter how many times i phoned and pleaded, they said they could not come out to verify or act on this pollution. All the cities of San Mateo County, from the poorest to the richest of "Atherton" and "Palo Alto" and "Hillsborough" are affected by this general county-wide disregard for pubic health so that one superrich family can get richer.
There is no excuse for their derilection of duty to all San Mateo County residents !! It took weeks,and near fatal illness, before the obscure storm drain- county people came out and verified it, but covered up for the company again by not taking pictures to fully document this general public health fiasco !! There is so much excessive wealth in this and SF county and yet there is this stupid dumb indefensible behavior by our elected county officals that puts all of us,all of us, at risk. A super expensive zip code will offer you little protection from any future public communicable disease. Please urge your elected officials to be more responsible. And let's replace the officials who persist in putting one small companies gross gross profit over all our basic human health and environmental health. Thank you.
There is no excuse for their derilection of duty to all San Mateo County residents !! It took weeks,and near fatal illness, before the obscure storm drain- county people came out and verified it, but covered up for the company again by not taking pictures to fully document this general public health fiasco !! There is so much excessive wealth in this and SF county and yet there is this stupid dumb indefensible behavior by our elected county officals that puts all of us,all of us, at risk. A super expensive zip code will offer you little protection from any future public communicable disease. Please urge your elected officials to be more responsible. And let's replace the officials who persist in putting one small companies gross gross profit over all our basic human health and environmental health. Thank you.
Burlingame,Ca. residents...BEWARE,,,your city elected officials are aftaid of the word "renter" !!
As a long time Burlingame resident , i find it perplexing and terribly dishonest that the mayor and city council of Burlingame are lying to all the citizens and misrepresenting the basic facts. Burlingame ,like SF, is mostly a ,,,renter city,,,most households are renters,,,and more importantly during this ,again, election cycle, most eligible and registered voters are,,,here is that dirty word again, "renters". So why is it that almost all the current candidate literature avoids like the plaque mentioning that word/fact "renters", but rather "businesses and residents"?????
When you ask the past mayors of the last 10-20 years to do something for the renters , like free city-wide parking on the metered or unmetered streets since there is not nearly enough parking, you get a polite "thank you" but no action. Or when you ask for a standard to old apartments so that over 20 units do not have to share a single washer and dryer, you only get a polite "thank you" and no representation !! We Burlingame renters are being taken to the cleaners, by elected politicians we vote for but who refuse to say how poor and mansion-less we are or to even care about us after we-the renters,the majority, elect them !! It is high time we dump the old polite mayor and all the old council who refuse to represent us,even if we were the minority, and who are afraid to use the word "renter" in their campaign brochures. How many "businesses" are actually non-residents and non-voters,especially the apartment building owner variety, but also the Broadway/Burlingame Avenue type the mayor and council seem to only want to fraternize with ??? Why have so many past mayor and council members continued to perpetrate this gigantic fraud on us , that "residents" are homeowners and have children in the public schools,,,and "businesses" are actually resident owners and voters that deserve all the attention. Talk about a Civic Rights abuse of the highest order!! We renters are just like "niggers" to all the past Burlingame elected officials,as if the Civil Rights Movement never happened, and the landed rich of our Founding Fathers are ,even now in the 21st Century,the only ones worthy of the mayor's and council's attention and vote gather politics. This is such a shame on Burlingame and such an abuse of the American Dream. Obviously, we are NOT "all created equal". The Declaration of Independence was just a lie?
When you ask the past mayors of the last 10-20 years to do something for the renters , like free city-wide parking on the metered or unmetered streets since there is not nearly enough parking, you get a polite "thank you" but no action. Or when you ask for a standard to old apartments so that over 20 units do not have to share a single washer and dryer, you only get a polite "thank you" and no representation !! We Burlingame renters are being taken to the cleaners, by elected politicians we vote for but who refuse to say how poor and mansion-less we are or to even care about us after we-the renters,the majority, elect them !! It is high time we dump the old polite mayor and all the old council who refuse to represent us,even if we were the minority, and who are afraid to use the word "renter" in their campaign brochures. How many "businesses" are actually non-residents and non-voters,especially the apartment building owner variety, but also the Broadway/Burlingame Avenue type the mayor and council seem to only want to fraternize with ??? Why have so many past mayor and council members continued to perpetrate this gigantic fraud on us , that "residents" are homeowners and have children in the public schools,,,and "businesses" are actually resident owners and voters that deserve all the attention. Talk about a Civic Rights abuse of the highest order!! We renters are just like "niggers" to all the past Burlingame elected officials,as if the Civil Rights Movement never happened, and the landed rich of our Founding Fathers are ,even now in the 21st Century,the only ones worthy of the mayor's and council's attention and vote gather politics. This is such a shame on Burlingame and such an abuse of the American Dream. Obviously, we are NOT "all created equal". The Declaration of Independence was just a lie?
Monday, September 12, 2005
San Francisco tourists,,,BEWARE!!,,,tour industry insider's warnings,,,
For over ten years i have worked the the San Francisco tourism industry,,,and i want to warn my fellow working poor or declining middle income workers-visitors about some of the common but maybe not so evident costly pitfalls to visiting on vacation a city that could and should do much better in it's primary business,tourism.
But ,first,,,about 20 fun things to do in SanFran/Frisco/S.F. ,,,
Ride the $7 ferry from the Ferry Bldg. to Sausalito,,,
And have a nice ,resys ok, dinner at the most famous restaurant,Scoma's,,,
Ride the Hyde St. cable car ,from Union Square, over Russian Hill,past almost crookedest Lombard St., to Aquatic Park,,,
Walk or bicycle across the Golden Gate Bridge,,,
Explore one of the distinctive neighborhoods,like Chinatown or North Beach, with one of the free walking tours from the Main Library,,,
Go to a baseball game,for the view,the beer,and the expensive food,,,
Go to a football game, for the view, the beer, and the not so great food,,,
Rent a bicycle for about $20/day and cruise the Embarcadero waterfront and whereever your eyes lead you,,,
Check out the half-price theatre ticket office in Union Square,,,
Try to get tickets for the longest running live theatre in the usa, Beach Blanket Babylon, at Club Fugazzi, in North Beach,,,by making advance resys, or contacting a connected conscierge,or phoning direct, or waiting on the curb before show time for a tour bus with possibly extra tickets they can not use,,,singing, comedy, big hats,,,great fun!!
Watch the sunset from the Beach Chalet Restaurant at the end of Golden Gate Park,on the second floor, after enjoying the murals and mosaics on the ground floor from the Depression ,but not depressing,,,
Skip the remodeled and too expensive Cliff House,,,
Skip Alcatraz,,,you're not a con,right?,,,so don't be a sheep!,,,NPS set up a lousy slow frustrating monopoly with long lines, poor availability of tickets, and high prices with only one ferry company, instead of competition and multiple ferry companies to come even close to meeting the demand,the American way,,,
Take the new big racing catamaran out of Pier 39 for a fun sail on the Bay,,,
Skip the 2 "bay cruise" companies, as they only go around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge, not into the north bay,,,or into the south bay,,,or into the east bay,,,what a rip for over $30.00 !!
Phone or write the Mayor about how you are enjoying your vacation,as tourism is the #1 biz of SF,,,so do you like waiting in line for up to 3 hours for a cable car at the end of the line in peak season summer ??
Shop for 7,,,or 12,,,or 18 postcards for a dollar on Grant St. versus 2 for a dollar in Union Square,,,
Try and find the fortune cookie factory on Ross Alley in Chinatown,as they were invented in SF by a japanese man, in 1894 at the Golden Gate Park ,,,Tea House,,,
Visit the Tea House,on a free day,,,
Visit all the major museums ,,,on free days,,,if you can,,,the Cartoon Museum,,,and the MOMA in SOMA/modern art museum in the south of market area,,,and the new DeYoung in GGPark,,,and the Legion of Honor Museum in the NW's Lincoln Park,,,and the newish Asian Art Museum in the old library at the Civic Center,,,
(more to follow,,,)
One, parking is very very expensive, and your hotel will probably charge you $20-50/night to park your car. Not that i care one bit about the overabundant rich being charged this outrageous price, may i suggest you also park your car where i often do at one of the cheapest downtown parking garages near Union Square, the Sutter St.-Stockton St. Garage for only about $7 per night. Or on the other south side of Union Square, the Ellis-OFarrell Garage.
2,,,also about the many Frisco-if you only knew how S.F. stole it's name from an east bay city---hotels, recently over the last couple years the hotel concierges have been engaged in unethical and excessively greedy price gouging commission kickbacks and strong arm tactics with the various local tour bus companies in town. Some SF concierges are hotel employees and some are independent contractors,but my opinion is the hotel is ultimately responsible for what happens on their property, as some or many of the cities concierges have been forcing the tour bus companies to pay them up to 30-40 % of your city tour or muir woods or monterey-carmel or yosemite tour price !! This is almost high street robbery!! And the latest wrinkle is that the goodly mayor has done little to nothing to stop this abuse,but the courts have told the 2 largest tour bus companies, mediocre w/old dirty dinged and Wyo.license plate Greyline-CoachUSA, and not South Korean megamillionaire Tower Tours, but little starting-over-with-new-less-crazy-owner SuperSightseeingTours, to settle and pay a huge fine to the SF concierges who were price fixing up and all the tour bus companies were also getting together and price fixing down,with little success. Why were the tour bus companies Right and the courts Wrong? Because the SF Concierges were in the divers seat and winning,over powering the tour bus companies that needed ,i think, to pay for a good maintenance mechanics versus postpone regular preventive maintenance as many have done in these terrible US economy and swimming-in-red-ink SF economy times,,,and pay to have the seats steam cleaned after being vomited on/annually ,as only one bus company in the city area used to do,,,
Third,,,i believe it was "60Minutes" that warned us 12 years ago about these "sale sale sale!!" camera stores in NYC and SF that often sell second quality major brand cameras to unsuspecting tourists,,,did the last several mayors do anything to stop this common ripoff at the Union Square area and the Fisherman Wharf area,,,?????,,,"no",,,so BEWARE,,,!!!!!
4,,,beware of the SF Police as most have not had a miss manners civility class,ever,and there is a law that if you pause you car in the slow lane to let some one into your car or out of your car, it is not a parking ticket, but a moving violation that goes on your driving record and against your insurance !! Not very friendly from a city and county that makes its living so easily and carelessly,,,from #1 biz of tourism,,,why are there so few cops walking bad neighborhoods like the Tenderloin and the Western Addition and Third Street and Sunnydale,,,and,,,?????
Fifth,,,the SF city/county public health departments are a joke. I have had access to many/most of the city's restaurants,over 3000, back doors ,,,and have seen a dead rat on one,,,and unimaginable greasy filth on the floors of others,,,the city could and should do much better in protecting the public health . Bars especially,,,
6,,,the chinese restaurant, the "House of Nanking",on Kearny near Columbus must be in a guide book as there is always a long line,,,but it is unclean to my standards and too crowded and not nearly as good as Chef Gia next door,,, or Hunan-they will always make custom mild or medium or hot to your taste-Restaurant on Sansome,near Broadway, nearby. I also recommend for first time visitors the very famous,tho could use new carpets or no carpets as they are expensive to keep clean,the Empress of China Restaurant.
7,,,for italian food ,i would like to recommend(no longer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,) Ceasar's(oops,dec'06, found the fet w/porcini mushrooms to look and taste like puke for $14) in the Fisherman Wharf area,,,especially on the weekend when the italians eat there as the waiters are very fiendly and speak that lovely italian language,,,and also on Union Street just up hill from Washington Square, the small but popular restaurant,Trattoria Contadina,by the cable car line. Go to Pasta Pomodoro on Washington Square for the best tasting and cheapest italian and best view in nb-sf !!
8,,,for american food, can i recommend Moose's ,,,on Washington Square as a formal but reasonably priced place,,,and,,,,Tadich's on California,the oldest restaurant in SF,,,very good and reasonable prices,,,
9,,,which SF tour bus company to choose?? Avoid "TravelSF.com" as for years they have unscruplously cheated their paying customers with the sexiest website on the net but instead of giving them the muir woods ticket ,that says muirwoods on it, they have been passing out generic theater stub tickets,you know the kind you can buy in big rounds of double tickets,,,so that when their guest get to Muirwoods National Monument,they have to come up with the additional cash as generic theatre tickets are worthless,,,amazing that the city of SF has not stopped this flagrant fraud for years and years,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Greyline"/"CoachUSA"/SanFranciscoSightseeing/CUSA/Grosvenors goes by several confusing different names and paint jobs,,,but why??!!??,,,and their buses do not pay for California license plates,but rather Wyoming,,,to operate in SF,,,strange,,,and they are mostly old busses over 5 to 10 to 15 years old with nasty dirty seats that have probably never been steam cleaned,just vomit wiped ,,,ugh,,,and the drivers are not happy about the merging of so many companies and the mess it has made of their years of senority,,,,then there is the relatively new "Tower Tours" with all new buses ,quiet gas mini Ford's with lousy rides suspension from Krystals from LA vs Federals from the midwest and German Setra big coaches,,,,but their drivers tend to make stuff up versus read a SF tour book,as one senior driver's tour i rode recently said that "redwood trees near the ocean die because the salty air kills them",,,but they do have all new equipment and i hope none of their minibuses have noisy diesel engines you can not hear the tour over,,,and then there is " Super Sightseeing Tours", which is getting all new busses "this year" they say,,,hopefully none of their drivers make stuff up about SF as there are so many good SF cheap history books available,,,
10,,,try in advance to get tickets to "Beach Blanket Babylon",singing dancing comedy and big hats ,,,the longest running theatre in the USA,,,never met anyone who did not enjoy it,,,forget "Theatro Zinzani" as it is not nearly as popular,,,
11,,,be sure to find a free copy in the sidewalk newstands of the "SF Bay Guardian" to learn a lot about everything,dancing clubs and night clubs, restaurant reviews, politics, and all the other info useful to tourists and locals,,,it is the #1 useful info paper in SF,,,
12,,,buy or borrow the hotel concierge's coppy of "Zagat" restaurant guide and night club guide,,,if you go to their website and review a SF restaurant,,,hint hint,,,they will usually sent you a copy of the SF one, before you leave home,,,plan ahead,,
13,,,most travel websites lie about SF hotel and motel locations, calling SF airport locale hotels and motels part of a "SF hotels" search !!! Also, they lie and euphemize the correct name for the neighborhood "the Tenderloin",lots of prostitution,drugs,and possible scams like faked bum and auto accidents to extort money asap from the driver,,,and purse snatching,,,and filthy not-steam-cleaned-in-ages sidewalks,,,as "lower Nob Hill" or "the Western Union Square",,,BIG FAT LIES,,,!!!,,,DO NOT BE DECIEVED BY MOST TRAVEL WEBSITES,,,the Tenderloin is between Union Square and City Hall-Civic Center from Van Ness on the West to Mason Street on the East to south of Market on 6th,7th,and 8th,9th St. and to Post or Geary St. on the North,,,also beware of the West side of Civic Center, the Western Addition,a black poor high crime ghetto project of about 20 square blocks,,,
14,,,SF is 7 miles by 7 miles ,or about 52 square miles,,,you can divide it into 4 quarters to easily understand the layout,,,the NE quarter is the tourist area with Chinatown and FishermansWharf and NobHill,,but avoid at night especially the Tenderloin and the Western Addition,,,the NW is the upper left area with the Golden Gate Bridge,the Marina District for yuppies,the Pacific Heights area for the overabundant rich,the"Cow Hollow" area with" the best bargains of hotels and motels in SF "with prices of $39-49-59-69 such as the lowest price of the Comfort Inn at Lombard and Van Ness with lots of good restaurants on Chestnut St. and Union Street and northern Polk St. and good public transportation,,,and the Golden Gate Park,,,the SE is another poor ,high crime, mostly black,polluted,ugly, quarter with the only attractions being the baseball park and the 49ers football stadium,the old Candlestick,,,only tourists call it 3Com or MonsterPark,,,say "the Stick" to appear local and knowledgeable,,,so forget the SE quarter for sightseeing,,,and for the SW quarter it is mainly the Sunset District,in "the Avenues" ,a rather boring residential neighborhood ,with the only attractions of the Zoo ,with the old poo-throwing monkey, and Stern Grove for summer concerts,,,so forget most of the SW tho it is relatively safe to vist, oh, it also has the only street car transit available ,standard one-roof a/c shopping mall, "Stonestown" with Nordstrom and all the usual $$$$$ shops,,,
15,,,,,,recommend the "DK" travel book series as one of the best guide books on SF,,,also "Dr Weird's SF" paperback to study up and giggle before the trip and learn about the Summer of Love in 1967 and the "human be-in", the flower children,the press called the hippies,,,also the white paperback "Historic San Francisco" sold recently at Costco for about oooh maybe $15,,,
16,,,,,,,there are free walking tours out of the new main public library in the Civic Center,,,beware of the nightime Tenderloin social problems mentioned earlier,,,!!!
17,,,,,,there is a HALF PRICE theatre ticket office in the newly remodeled Union Square,,,check it out,,,
18,,,,,,again "Cow Hollow" is the best bargain neighborhood for inexpensive motels and hotels,,,and even some very expensive motels like the Del Sol,,,find Lombard Street between Lake St. on the West and Van Ness on the east and about Union St. on the south,,,why do none of the major travel websites nor the SF website emphasize this BIG Bargain area ??
19,,,,,,alot of the wealthy SF neighborhoods are closed to tour buses and "tourists looking in our windows!!", like the Marina, Russian Hill, Telegaph Hill with the Coit Tower, part of Pacific Heights, the Sea Cliff neighborhood formerly of Sharon Stone,,,and in a city whose number one business is tourism,,,also the city will not allow tour buses to stop at some of the most famous tourist attractions,like the Alamo Square most famous Victorian houses,the postcard row of painted ladies !!,,,and Civic Center!!near the new library,,,!!,,,crazy eh ?
20,,,,,,only the Haas victorian house on Franklin west of Van Ness is open to most tourists during the day,,,groups with cash can get into several others of more interest,,,
21,,,,,,"shareholders beware!!",,,companies on convention are blowing your dividends on extravagant spending for travel agencies called DMCs that book tour buses,charter buses, dinner reservations,etc.,,,for from 33%-50% NET PROFIT,,,this is exhorbitant and a total ripoff/giveaway of money that could be spent on an inhouse secretary doing the same job for FREE ,,,but what do most if not all American or multinational corporations care about fiscal responsibility to their shareholders ??? If a major corporation like IBM can spend 10$million in a week in SF,imagine how much is wasted on these travel agencies that could go directly to shareholders !?!?!? Contact Lucha(only) ,the very best manager in sf, at Compass, for a very competent SF charter bus secretary who can help you plan your trip,a charter bus company with old reliable MCI buses ,,,that probably need their seats steam cleaned,,, like Mercury use to do every year,,,now that is quality service,,,,
22,,,,,,some hotels do not keep their white curbs clear,but rather let cars park there all day it seems,,,like the Nikko,on Mason,,,what is up with that,,,???,,,and the Grand Hyatt at Union Square blocking a busy lane of traffic at a very busy corner,,,???,,,
23,,,,,,taxis,,,are very hard to find,,,doing the gravy run,like in seattle, between the airport and downtown,,,slide some green to a hotel doorman,like the most famous in town,tom at the sir francis Drake, and they will get you a cab faster,,,also great service at the nob hill Ritz,,,or try a restaurant host to call a cab for you,,,unless you are gorgeous or hot to a gay driver or near union square, your chances are slim of gettng a cab by waving on the corner,,,and beware of these terrorists in training as the sf taxi drivers usually find the slowest,most costly way to your destination, the one with the most red lights,,,there are way too few cabs in the city,,,and the cabbies,not the city is in control, so that is wacked,,,
24,,,,,,many of the city's most famous tourist sites do not have tour bus white curbs,,,like alamo square's postcard row of 7 painted lady victorians,,,what is up with that major industry handicap,,,??!!
25,,,,,,why is the city and county of sf allowing the airport minibus companies to force the drivers to buy or lease their formerly just employee operated minivans,,,??!!what a terrible show of capitalism at it's worst,,,try to help these low wage working poor drivers and only use companies that do not force the driver to assume what is traditionally the company's rightful overhead cost built into the usual high profit sturcture,,,drivers should not be forced to lease or buy minis and coaches ,,,and pay for the mechanic ,,,and insurance,,,and gas,,,this is a huge social injustice!!,,,but sf is asleep at the city hall,again,,,,
26,,,,,,NPS has created a monopoly monster at Alcatraz by allowing only one ferry boat operator, so prices are too high,,,and the lines are too long,,,and there should be at least 2 or 3 different ferry boat companies,,,and it is too hard to get tickets,,,sometimes sold out for 2 weeks,,,plus many people regularly swim from alcatraz to sf, children and grandmothers and grandfathers, and even jack lalane use to swim as a senior citizen yearly from alcatraz ,hand-cuffed and pulling many boats,,,handcuffed!!,,,so do not believe the common myth that" is was impossible to escape from alcatraz",,,
27,,,,,,many myths,,,to S.F.,,,is has snowed in the past in town ,with ground accumulation ,in the 1950s and 1960s,,,also ,,,lombard street is not,,,not,,,not,,,the "crookedest street in town",,,it is Vermont street, of dirty harry -clint eastwood fame, in a poor bad neighborhood called potrero hill south,,,
28,,,,,,weather,,,,,,also the worst weather is during the peak tourist season of summer with fog, cold,wind,cold, damp, cold ,poor visibility 50-60 degree days,,,and the south bay in summer,silicon valley,has brown layer and green layer smog on top days,,,ugh,,,Tower Tours says we can not say that "negative" to the tourists,,,ha,,,,"scare away biz",,,ha,,,in summer,,,PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE,,,EXPECT LOUSY COLD WINDY FOGGY OVERCAST POOR-VISIBILITY WEATHER IN SUMMER,,,AND NOW IF YOU DO COME IN SUMMER TO SAN FRAN,,,YOU CAN NOT NOT NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE WEATHER!!!,,,there is a clockwise warm moist air circulation over the n.pacific and it pushes the warm coastal water away,clockwise,,,this coastal water is replaced by colder deep oxygenated and nutrient rich water,,,so that when the warm moist air of summer central northern pacific hits cal.coast, it is like blowing on a mirror in the morning,,,you create "fog",,,also it can be 100-110f in the state capitol what with all that politician hot air rising,,,and that just sucks in the fog more thru the wind funnel of the low ,mouth of the biggest river in the state, the golden gate (the bridge is red),,,the best weather is in autumn or our indian summer with temps in the 80s and 90s,,,one year,acouple years ago, there were 3 days in a row over 100f and one day it was 103f in SF,,,winter is the best visibility and with only 15 inches of rain a very nice uncrowded season to visit SF,,,spring is my favorite when the hills are green,,, versus brown in summer,,, and there are lots of flowers and the city is also uncrowded,,,
29,,,,,,Scoma's is the most famous seafood restaurant in SF,,,no resys ,and not fancy,,,also Scoma's in sausalito is fancy but very price competitive reasonable and right on the water,,,and does take resys,,,may i suggest you take the $7 commuter ferry over from the sf ferry building to sausalito,with a frequency of 45-90 minutes,but not past midnight in summer and especially the other slower seasons,,,forget,ok,it is getting better,but "Spinnaker" eating- the- view mediocre food and service category restaurants in sausalito ,,,
30,,,...forget about the 2 "bay cruise " boat companies,,,red and white,,,and blue and gold,,,as they only go around alcatraz and under the golden gate bridge,,,not into the south bay or the north bay or 80% of the bay, what a ripoff for over $30,,,take the more modern,more stable,commuter ferrys to sausalito and tiburon from the ferry building near the sf bay bridge for about only $7,,,what a steal of a deal,,,!!
31,,,...Presidio,,,beware of poison oak all over and also rattlesnakes,,,as there are not any warning signs,,,so stay out of the bushes,,,!!,,,also ,go down to the fort point area versus the south bridge parking lot, as there is a new toilet set, tho without enough holes, only 2 per side,,,typical NPS incompetence,,,over 20 years without flushing toilets and when we get them, NPS spends all this money and time in slow construction yet only puts in 2 holes per mens or womens,,,what bureauocraps,,,
32,,,...stay out of the water at ocean beach on the pacific at the end of golden gate park,,,as there are very dangerous rip currents and holes near the beach,so that 6-7 people drowned each year wading at a seemingly popular ,but too small warning sign and too few life guards, beach,,,horse back riding probably should be allowed to keep all but the surfers from going into the ocean at the dangerous "red triangle" of highest stat great white shark attack area,,,go to baker beach in the presidio or to the rich neighborhood of sea cliff's beach and don't spoil the rich spoiled selfish residents,but treat them like the rest of sf,,,
33,,,...a private for-profit biz is in control,at least on paper, in the Presidio,tho you will see NPS personnel there,,,the P.Trust has a 15 year contract to do what they said and boasted and pledged to do,make a profit in the old military base since the military left in the early 1990s,until 2013,,,and have yet to show a yearly profit,,,so typical for corporate america to lie ,and get away with it,year after year,,,there is no law protecting this 1500 acres and 1000 buildings of very very very valuable land ,in the public ownership,forever,like a national monument that only takes a president's signature,,,so there is a considerable risk that the P.Trust will sell off some or all of this former huge valuable public land asset,,,beware,,,
34,,,...scary-looking bus companies,,,ACE,,,MAJESTIC,,,NEW WEST,,,MAJIC,,,(and many more,,,to list later,,,)
35,,,...cable cars,,,only one woman spoke up to keep cable cars,yet they are a big part of the sf image,,,prices just went up to $5 per ride and $10 for a day pass,,,there are only 3 lines left,,,and the california street line ,from drum street near the ferry building to van ness street ,is the easiest one to ride,,,tho the most popular, the hyde street and mason street lines run perpendicular and north-south,from either aquatic park thru union square to powell street and market street or from fisherman's wharf thru union square to the same end of line at powell street and market street,,,so there is a huge line at market and powell by nordstrom's,,,beware,,,and do what the locals do,,,it is not end to end service,,,but continuous to the end of the line ,where you must get off,,,and pay again,,,so just walk up a block or 2 and wait for the cable car to stop,,,and hop on the rail on the right side and hang out with a firm grip on the vertical pole,,,so much fun,,,but a bit dangerous for kids and klutzes,,,so take a seat if one is available,,,my big gripe is that the price went from $3 to $5 with talk of $10 and yet the unionized drivers take terribly long breaks,like 55minutes of every hour,right in front of our #1 biz guests, reading the paper bs and such,,,so rude,,,!!!,,,the goodly mayor should insist on continuous service to our valued quests with the use of relief drivers on the cable car system,,,and tax the way too many rich in the way too many rich neighborhoods to pay for it if the union squalks,or not,,,do not ,do not, do not stand in line for up to 3 hours and get very upset at SF,as it has alway been corrupt,,,always,,,(acouple years ago after a big election, voting boxes full of ballots were found floating in the bay on the day after election),,,(sf public school district mgmt misappripriated $$$ millions,,,and did all monies get reclaimed and all put in jail for long terms=no),,,
36,,,...some hotels have changed names 3 xs in 10 years, like the Argent,,,and why do they have sf cops kicking cars and buses out of their white curb ??,,,during the day,,,
37,,,...CalTrain down the Peninsula,is sooo much better than BART,,,it goes to the cheaper hotels near SFO and down past palo alto and stanfud,,,to silly-con valley and stuped san josey,,,and even down to morgan hill and the outlet malls of 100s in gilroy,,,BART IS SUCH A TECH-NO-LOGICAL WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY,,,LIKE DIAMOND LANES THAT THE FEDS REQUIRE,,,(more later on history,start-stumble to bumble-present, of farty BART,,,),,,
38,,,...use the new CalTrain station at 4th x King street,near the baseball park,,,to get to lots of cheap motels in Millbrae on ElCaminoRealBlvd near SFO and san mateo and burlingame,,,and SuperSightSeeingTours will pick you up for city tours or muirwoods tours or monterey-carmel tours or wine country tours or other tours,,,as they were the first of the sf tour bus companies to go down out of sf county and into san mateo county to pick up these stranded out of town tourists,,,
39,,,...sooo many complaints about the HOMELESS,,,hey, if it were not for a certain coldhearted slick governor shutting down the 2 huge mental hospitals in the north bay,Sonoma, and the south bay, Agnews,,,there would not be so many crazy people making bad choices to sleep in doorways and on the sidewalk,,,and wait in long lines in the Tenderloin for the soup kitchens,,,and beg for $40-50,000 /yr of sf huge generosity of tourists,,,just a couple years ago the city had "general assistance" where it gave out $300-400/mo to the homeless,,,but so many got phoney DMV ids that some had 10-20 false accounts ,so the program was stopped,and now there is something like $7/hr street sweeping program,that is not very popular,,,also, avoid Golden Gate Park at night,as 100s of homeless might be sleeping there at night ,after dark,,,when the sun goes down,,,
39,,,...one temperature for SF,,,makes about as much sense as,,,one cop for all the poor neighborhoods,,,there should be a temp for the beach chalet at ocean beach on the west side or pacific ocean coast and one for twin peaks in the geographic center and one for the golden gate bridge and one for downtown-financial district and one for the mission district or candlestick area,,,at least,,,hey, wx people, do your job better !!
40,,,...what is with all this cottonseed oil coming into SF in double tanker gasoline-type trucks,every few days,to the 3rd x Army-Chavez st. area ??,,,are all or many of the expensive sf restaurants using such cheap and inferior cooking oil, the most toxic crop in california,,,without telling their dining customers ?,,,well, do not expect the cowardly american press to investigate that one,,,
41,,,...the Golden Gate Bridge District,that owns the golden gate bridge,not the state of california,,,has already gone in autumn to winter reduced hours on the $7 ferry from sf-sausalito-sf,,,??,,,and it stops at 620pm,,,??,,,what a Stupid thing to do, when people want to go to sausalito by ferry for dinner,or sf,,,and the g.g.bridge takes in about $500,000 per day, so the ggbd can certainly afford to run the ferries until midnight,on the hour,,,where are our public servants??,,,out to lunch,on the taxpayers,again ??
42,,,...most modern western European cities have Central Hotel Reservations Offices,,,but not SF,,,
43,,,...a central taxi dispatch would be helpful,too,at the taxis are circling the gravy run at SFO by the score,,,instead of covering SF,,,so have a hotel dorman or restaurant host call you a cab,,,unless you are a babe or gay darling,,,beware , the cabbies are rude,slobs in dirty cabs,and usually go the long ,full of redlights,slow,way,,,
44,,,...why can't SF regularly steam clean the sidewalks downtown,as some are constantly filthy,with bum pee,,,???,,,maybe at least monthly,,,???
45,,,...ok, here is (going to be) a list of all the "secret bargain neighborhood" motels and hotels in Cow Hollow, that SF and all the travel websites are cluck-cluck-cluck chicken to tell you about,,,
,,,,,ch,1,,,the Comfort Inn,on Van Ness x Lombard,sometimes as low as $69/double in peak season summer(last year),,,!!
(more latter when i have time,,,)
46,,,...about tour bus operators,,the biggest,by far,in size, is Greyline/CoachUSA/FranciscanLines/PacificCoast/,or,,,SanFranciscoSightseeingandTours/
GrosvenorLines,,,they have gobbled up sooo many companies, that they are definitely the biggest, just not the best, as most of the sf buses have Wyoming plates, and are old and dirty, especially the never before steam cleaned seats,,,if you slap them ,a huge dust cloud of disease dust forms,,,tho they are getting new double deckers,still packing people in like sardines,to max profit,,,the second biggest tour bus company is probably Tower Tours, with all new $3-400,000 German Setra big buses and many minis,,,try to get a gasoline mini so you can hear the tour and not just the diesel noisy unsoundproofed engine,,,they seem to operate on a "ignorance is bliss" tour guide theory as they are not allowed to talk about how bad the summer peak-season weather can be,,,but the all new equipment is a big big big safety plus,,,the third largest sf tour bus company is probably SuperSightseeingTours,that is just now replacing with the new big German Setra buses,,,they seem to have a "knowledge is power" tour philosophy as the drivers are allowed to tell the truth from the myths,like Lombard is not really the crookedest street but Vermont is, and the summer fog can be very cold,,,the 4th largest tour bus company in sf ,with actual tour buses, is probably TravelSF,but they have been very naughty with the sexiest website and selling generic theatre tickets as official Muirwoods entrance tickets for years,,,bad bad bad,,,most of the other "sf sightseeing tour companies" you may Google on the web are just travel agencies or booking agencies,taking a cut ,with no actual buses of their own, so BEWARE !!
47,,,...guidebooks,,,i prefer the DK series,available at Costco membership warehouse stores for cheap,,,
(but will compare all the others like LonelyPlanet ,etc. with my max sf knowledge,,,soon,,,)
48,,,...clean public toilets,,,this has always been a problem in sf,,,in the past some stores were kind and public-minded enough to let the public and customers use their toilets, as in merry old England is the rule,,,but the last mayor, Sac-a-tomatoes Cal. legislature-slick Willie Brown thot he could get the best of the french by negotiating for about 35 green kiosk automatic coin operated 25cent self-cleaning modern toilets,,,but the french got the best of the mayor,and sf,by charging 3xs the best retail price, in a sloppy ad space for toilet swap,,,so much for slick Willie,,,who left the city swimming in red ink,,,remember , these dark green oval units are on a timer,so don't plan to take your sweet time,,,ladies,,,
49,,,...there is a new street car line on market st. from the castro district down to the ferry building and all along the embarcadero/waterfront from the baseball park to fisherman's wharf,,,cost is about $1.50 and of course the city bus co/muni wants exact change,,,natch,,,
,,,more to follow ,as time allows
,,,best of luck !!
But ,first,,,about 20 fun things to do in SanFran/Frisco/S.F. ,,,
Ride the $7 ferry from the Ferry Bldg. to Sausalito,,,
And have a nice ,resys ok, dinner at the most famous restaurant,Scoma's,,,
Ride the Hyde St. cable car ,from Union Square, over Russian Hill,past almost crookedest Lombard St., to Aquatic Park,,,
Walk or bicycle across the Golden Gate Bridge,,,
Explore one of the distinctive neighborhoods,like Chinatown or North Beach, with one of the free walking tours from the Main Library,,,
Go to a baseball game,for the view,the beer,and the expensive food,,,
Go to a football game, for the view, the beer, and the not so great food,,,
Rent a bicycle for about $20/day and cruise the Embarcadero waterfront and whereever your eyes lead you,,,
Check out the half-price theatre ticket office in Union Square,,,
Try to get tickets for the longest running live theatre in the usa, Beach Blanket Babylon, at Club Fugazzi, in North Beach,,,by making advance resys, or contacting a connected conscierge,or phoning direct, or waiting on the curb before show time for a tour bus with possibly extra tickets they can not use,,,singing, comedy, big hats,,,great fun!!
Watch the sunset from the Beach Chalet Restaurant at the end of Golden Gate Park,on the second floor, after enjoying the murals and mosaics on the ground floor from the Depression ,but not depressing,,,
Skip the remodeled and too expensive Cliff House,,,
Skip Alcatraz,,,you're not a con,right?,,,so don't be a sheep!,,,NPS set up a lousy slow frustrating monopoly with long lines, poor availability of tickets, and high prices with only one ferry company, instead of competition and multiple ferry companies to come even close to meeting the demand,the American way,,,
Take the new big racing catamaran out of Pier 39 for a fun sail on the Bay,,,
Skip the 2 "bay cruise" companies, as they only go around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge, not into the north bay,,,or into the south bay,,,or into the east bay,,,what a rip for over $30.00 !!
Phone or write the Mayor about how you are enjoying your vacation,as tourism is the #1 biz of SF,,,so do you like waiting in line for up to 3 hours for a cable car at the end of the line in peak season summer ??
Shop for 7,,,or 12,,,or 18 postcards for a dollar on Grant St. versus 2 for a dollar in Union Square,,,
Try and find the fortune cookie factory on Ross Alley in Chinatown,as they were invented in SF by a japanese man, in 1894 at the Golden Gate Park ,,,Tea House,,,
Visit the Tea House,on a free day,,,
Visit all the major museums ,,,on free days,,,if you can,,,the Cartoon Museum,,,and the MOMA in SOMA/modern art museum in the south of market area,,,and the new DeYoung in GGPark,,,and the Legion of Honor Museum in the NW's Lincoln Park,,,and the newish Asian Art Museum in the old library at the Civic Center,,,
(more to follow,,,)
One, parking is very very expensive, and your hotel will probably charge you $20-50/night to park your car. Not that i care one bit about the overabundant rich being charged this outrageous price, may i suggest you also park your car where i often do at one of the cheapest downtown parking garages near Union Square, the Sutter St.-Stockton St. Garage for only about $7 per night. Or on the other south side of Union Square, the Ellis-OFarrell Garage.
2,,,also about the many Frisco-if you only knew how S.F. stole it's name from an east bay city---hotels, recently over the last couple years the hotel concierges have been engaged in unethical and excessively greedy price gouging commission kickbacks and strong arm tactics with the various local tour bus companies in town. Some SF concierges are hotel employees and some are independent contractors,but my opinion is the hotel is ultimately responsible for what happens on their property, as some or many of the cities concierges have been forcing the tour bus companies to pay them up to 30-40 % of your city tour or muir woods or monterey-carmel or yosemite tour price !! This is almost high street robbery!! And the latest wrinkle is that the goodly mayor has done little to nothing to stop this abuse,but the courts have told the 2 largest tour bus companies, mediocre w/old dirty dinged and Wyo.license plate Greyline-CoachUSA, and not South Korean megamillionaire Tower Tours, but little starting-over-with-new-less-crazy-owner SuperSightseeingTours, to settle and pay a huge fine to the SF concierges who were price fixing up and all the tour bus companies were also getting together and price fixing down,with little success. Why were the tour bus companies Right and the courts Wrong? Because the SF Concierges were in the divers seat and winning,over powering the tour bus companies that needed ,i think, to pay for a good maintenance mechanics versus postpone regular preventive maintenance as many have done in these terrible US economy and swimming-in-red-ink SF economy times,,,and pay to have the seats steam cleaned after being vomited on/annually ,as only one bus company in the city area used to do,,,
Third,,,i believe it was "60Minutes" that warned us 12 years ago about these "sale sale sale!!" camera stores in NYC and SF that often sell second quality major brand cameras to unsuspecting tourists,,,did the last several mayors do anything to stop this common ripoff at the Union Square area and the Fisherman Wharf area,,,?????,,,"no",,,so BEWARE,,,!!!!!
4,,,beware of the SF Police as most have not had a miss manners civility class,ever,and there is a law that if you pause you car in the slow lane to let some one into your car or out of your car, it is not a parking ticket, but a moving violation that goes on your driving record and against your insurance !! Not very friendly from a city and county that makes its living so easily and carelessly,,,from #1 biz of tourism,,,why are there so few cops walking bad neighborhoods like the Tenderloin and the Western Addition and Third Street and Sunnydale,,,and,,,?????
Fifth,,,the SF city/county public health departments are a joke. I have had access to many/most of the city's restaurants,over 3000, back doors ,,,and have seen a dead rat on one,,,and unimaginable greasy filth on the floors of others,,,the city could and should do much better in protecting the public health . Bars especially,,,
6,,,the chinese restaurant, the "House of Nanking",on Kearny near Columbus must be in a guide book as there is always a long line,,,but it is unclean to my standards and too crowded and not nearly as good as Chef Gia next door,,, or Hunan-they will always make custom mild or medium or hot to your taste-Restaurant on Sansome,near Broadway, nearby. I also recommend for first time visitors the very famous,tho could use new carpets or no carpets as they are expensive to keep clean,the Empress of China Restaurant.
7,,,for italian food ,i would like to recommend(no longer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,) Ceasar's(oops,dec'06, found the fet w/porcini mushrooms to look and taste like puke for $14) in the Fisherman Wharf area,,,especially on the weekend when the italians eat there as the waiters are very fiendly and speak that lovely italian language,,,and also on Union Street just up hill from Washington Square, the small but popular restaurant,Trattoria
8,,,for american food, can i recommend Moose's ,,,on Washington Square as a formal but reasonably priced place,,,and,,,,Tadich's on California,the oldest restaurant in SF,,,very good and reasonable prices,,,
9,,,which SF tour bus company to choose?? Avoid "TravelSF.com" as for years they have unscruplously cheated their paying customers with the sexiest website on the net but instead of giving them the muir woods ticket ,that says muirwoods on it, they have been passing out generic theater stub tickets,you know the kind you can buy in big rounds of double tickets,,,so that when their guest get to Muirwoods National Monument,they have to come up with the additional cash as generic theatre tickets are worthless,,,amazing that the city of SF has not stopped this flagrant fraud for years and years,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Greyline"/"CoachUSA"/SanFranciscoSightseeing/CUSA/Grosvenors goes by several confusing different names and paint jobs,,,but why??!!??,,,and their buses do not pay for California license plates,but rather Wyoming,,,to operate in SF,,,strange,,,and they are mostly old busses over 5 to 10 to 15 years old with nasty dirty seats that have probably never been steam cleaned,just vomit wiped ,,,ugh,,,and the drivers are not happy about the merging of so many companies and the mess it has made of their years of senority,,,,then there is the relatively new "Tower Tours" with all new buses ,quiet gas mini Ford's with lousy rides suspension from Krystals from LA vs Federals from the midwest and German Setra big coaches,,,,but their drivers tend to make stuff up versus read a SF tour book,as one senior driver's tour i rode recently said that "redwood trees near the ocean die because the salty air kills them",,,but they do have all new equipment and i hope none of their minibuses have noisy diesel engines you can not hear the tour over,,,and then there is " Super Sightseeing Tours", which is getting all new busses "this year" they say,,,hopefully none of their drivers make stuff up about SF as there are so many good SF cheap history books available,,,
10,,,try in advance to get tickets to "Beach Blanket Babylon",singing dancing comedy and big hats ,,,the longest running theatre in the USA,,,never met anyone who did not enjoy it,,,forget "Theatro Zinzani" as it is not nearly as popular,,,
11,,,be sure to find a free copy in the sidewalk newstands of the "SF Bay Guardian" to learn a lot about everything,dancing clubs and night clubs, restaurant reviews, politics, and all the other info useful to tourists and locals,,,it is the #1 useful info paper in SF,,,
12,,,buy or borrow the hotel concierge's coppy of "Zagat" restaurant guide and night club guide,,,if you go to their website and review a SF restaurant,,,hint hint,,,they will usually sent you a copy of the SF one, before you leave home,,,plan ahead,,
13,,,most travel websites lie about SF hotel and motel locations, calling SF airport locale hotels and motels part of a "SF hotels" search !!! Also, they lie and euphemize the correct name for the neighborhood "the Tenderloin",lots of prostitution,drugs,and possible scams like faked bum and auto accidents to extort money asap from the driver,,,and purse snatching,,,and filthy not-steam-cleaned-in-ages sidewalks,,,as "lower Nob Hill" or "the Western Union Square",,,BIG FAT LIES,,,!!!,,,DO NOT BE DECIEVED BY MOST TRAVEL WEBSITES,,,the Tenderloin is between Union Square and City Hall-Civic Center from Van Ness on the West to Mason Street on the East to south of Market on 6th,7th,and 8th,9th St. and to Post or Geary St. on the North,,,also beware of the West side of Civic Center, the Western Addition,a black poor high crime ghetto project of about 20 square blocks,,,
14,,,SF is 7 miles by 7 miles ,or about 52 square miles,,,you can divide it into 4 quarters to easily understand the layout,,,the NE quarter is the tourist area with Chinatown and FishermansWharf and NobHill,,but avoid at night especially the Tenderloin and the Western Addition,,,the NW is the upper left area with the Golden Gate Bridge,the Marina District for yuppies,the Pacific Heights area for the overabundant rich,the"Cow Hollow" area with" the best bargains of hotels and motels in SF "with prices of $39-49-59-69 such as the lowest price of the Comfort Inn at Lombard and Van Ness with lots of good restaurants on Chestnut St. and Union Street and northern Polk St. and good public transportation,,,and the Golden Gate Park,,,the SE is another poor ,high crime, mostly black,polluted,ugly, quarter with the only attractions being the baseball park and the 49ers football stadium,the old Candlestick,,,only tourists call it 3Com or MonsterPark,,,say "the Stick" to appear local and knowledgeable,,,so forget the SE quarter for sightseeing,,,and for the SW quarter it is mainly the Sunset District,in "the Avenues" ,a rather boring residential neighborhood ,with the only attractions of the Zoo ,with the old poo-throwing monkey, and Stern Grove for summer concerts,,,so forget most of the SW tho it is relatively safe to vist, oh, it also has the only street car transit available ,standard one-roof a/c shopping mall, "Stonestown" with Nordstrom and all the usual $$$$$ shops,,,
15,,,,,,recommend the "DK" travel book series as one of the best guide books on SF,,,also "Dr Weird's SF" paperback to study up and giggle before the trip and learn about the Summer of Love in 1967 and the "human be-in", the flower children,the press called the hippies,,,also the white paperback "Historic San Francisco" sold recently at Costco for about oooh maybe $15,,,
16,,,,,,,there are free walking tours out of the new main public library in the Civic Center,,,beware of the nightime Tenderloin social problems mentioned earlier,,,!!!
17,,,,,,there is a HALF PRICE theatre ticket office in the newly remodeled Union Square,,,check it out,,,
18,,,,,,again "Cow Hollow" is the best bargain neighborhood for inexpensive motels and hotels,,,and even some very expensive motels like the Del Sol,,,find Lombard Street between Lake St. on the West and Van Ness on the east and about Union St. on the south,,,why do none of the major travel websites nor the SF website emphasize this BIG Bargain area ??
19,,,,,,alot of the wealthy SF neighborhoods are closed to tour buses and "tourists looking in our windows!!", like the Marina, Russian Hill, Telegaph Hill with the Coit Tower, part of Pacific Heights, the Sea Cliff neighborhood formerly of Sharon Stone,,,and in a city whose number one business is tourism,,,also the city will not allow tour buses to stop at some of the most famous tourist attractions,like the Alamo Square most famous Victorian houses,the postcard row of painted ladies !!,,,and Civic Center!!near the new library,,,!!,,,crazy eh ?
20,,,,,,only the Haas victorian house on Franklin west of Van Ness is open to most tourists during the day,,,groups with cash can get into several others of more interest,,,
21,,,,,,"shareholders beware!!",,,companies on convention are blowing your dividends on extravagant spending for travel agencies called DMCs that book tour buses,charter buses, dinner reservations,etc.,,,for from 33%-50% NET PROFIT,,,this is exhorbitant and a total ripoff/giveaway of money that could be spent on an inhouse secretary doing the same job for FREE ,,,but what do most if not all American or multinational corporations care about fiscal responsibility to their shareholders ??? If a major corporation like IBM can spend 10$million in a week in SF,imagine how much is wasted on these travel agencies that could go directly to shareholders !?!?!? Contact Lucha(only) ,the very best manager in sf, at Compass, for a very competent SF charter bus secretary who can help you plan your trip,a charter bus company with old reliable MCI buses ,,,that probably need their seats steam cleaned,,, like Mercury use to do every year,,,now that is quality service,,,,
22,,,,,,some hotels do not keep their white curbs clear,but rather let cars park there all day it seems,,,like the Nikko,on Mason,,,what is up with that,,,???,,,and the Grand Hyatt at Union Square blocking a busy lane of traffic at a very busy corner,,,???,,,
23,,,,,,taxis,,,are very hard to find,,,doing the gravy run,like in seattle, between the airport and downtown,,,slide some green to a hotel doorman,like the most famous in town,tom at the sir francis Drake, and they will get you a cab faster,,,also great service at the nob hill Ritz,,,or try a restaurant host to call a cab for you,,,unless you are gorgeous or hot to a gay driver or near union square, your chances are slim of gettng a cab by waving on the corner,,,and beware of these terrorists in training as the sf taxi drivers usually find the slowest,most costly way to your destination, the one with the most red lights,,,there are way too few cabs in the city,,,and the cabbies,not the city is in control, so that is wacked,,,
24,,,,,,many of the city's most famous tourist sites do not have tour bus white curbs,,,like alamo square's postcard row of 7 painted lady victorians,,,what is up with that major industry handicap,,,??!!
25,,,,,,why is the city and county of sf allowing the airport minibus companies to force the drivers to buy or lease their formerly just employee operated minivans,,,??!!what a terrible show of capitalism at it's worst,,,try to help these low wage working poor drivers and only use companies that do not force the driver to assume what is traditionally the company's rightful overhead cost built into the usual high profit sturcture,,,drivers should not be forced to lease or buy minis and coaches ,,,and pay for the mechanic ,,,and insurance,,,and gas,,,this is a huge social injustice!!,,,but sf is asleep at the city hall,again,,,,
26,,,,,,NPS has created a monopoly monster at Alcatraz by allowing only one ferry boat operator, so prices are too high,,,and the lines are too long,,,and there should be at least 2 or 3 different ferry boat companies,,,and it is too hard to get tickets,,,sometimes sold out for 2 weeks,,,plus many people regularly swim from alcatraz to sf, children and grandmothers and grandfathers, and even jack lalane use to swim as a senior citizen yearly from alcatraz ,hand-cuffed and pulling many boats,,,handcuffed!!,,,so do not believe the common myth that" is was impossible to escape from alcatraz",,,
27,,,,,,many myths,,,to S.F.,,,is has snowed in the past in town ,with ground accumulation ,in the 1950s and 1960s,,,also ,,,lombard street is not,,,not,,,not,,,the "crookedest street in town",,,it is Vermont street, of dirty harry -clint eastwood fame, in a poor bad neighborhood called potrero hill south,,,
28,,,,,,weather,,,,,,also the worst weather is during the peak tourist season of summer with fog, cold,wind,cold, damp, cold ,poor visibility 50-60 degree days,,,and the south bay in summer,silicon valley,has brown layer and green layer smog on top days,,,ugh,,,Tower Tours says we can not say that "negative" to the tourists,,,ha,,,,"scare away biz",,,ha,,,in summer,,,PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE,,,EXPECT LOUSY COLD WINDY FOGGY OVERCAST POOR-VISIBILITY WEATHER IN SUMMER,,,AND NOW IF YOU DO COME IN SUMMER TO SAN FRAN,,,YOU CAN NOT NOT NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE WEATHER!!!,,,there is a clockwise warm moist air circulation over the n.pacific and it pushes the warm coastal water away,clockwise,,,this coastal water is replaced by colder deep oxygenated and nutrient rich water,,,so that when the warm moist air of summer central northern pacific hits cal.coast, it is like blowing on a mirror in the morning,,,you create "fog",,,also it can be 100-110f in the state capitol what with all that politician hot air rising,,,and that just sucks in the fog more thru the wind funnel of the low ,mouth of the biggest river in the state, the golden gate (the bridge is red),,,the best weather is in autumn or our indian summer with temps in the 80s and 90s,,,one year,acouple years ago, there were 3 days in a row over 100f and one day it was 103f in SF,,,winter is the best visibility and with only 15 inches of rain a very nice uncrowded season to visit SF,,,spring is my favorite when the hills are green,,, versus brown in summer,,, and there are lots of flowers and the city is also uncrowded,,,
29,,,,,,Scoma's is the most famous seafood restaurant in SF,,,no resys ,and not fancy,,,also Scoma's in sausalito is fancy but very price competitive reasonable and right on the water,,,and does take resys,,,may i suggest you take the $7 commuter ferry over from the sf ferry building to sausalito,with a frequency of 45-90 minutes,but not past midnight in summer and especially the other slower seasons,,,forget,ok,it is getting better,but "Spinnaker" eating- the- view mediocre food and service category restaurants in sausalito ,,,
30,,,...forget about the 2 "bay cruise " boat companies,,,red and white,,,and blue and gold,,,as they only go around alcatraz and under the golden gate bridge,,,not into the south bay or the north bay or 80% of the bay, what a ripoff for over $30,,,take the more modern,more stable,commuter ferrys to sausalito and tiburon from the ferry building near the sf bay bridge for about only $7,,,what a steal of a deal,,,!!
31,,,...Presidio,,,beware of poison oak all over and also rattlesnakes,,,as there are not any warning signs,,,so stay out of the bushes,,,!!,,,also ,go down to the fort point area versus the south bridge parking lot, as there is a new toilet set, tho without enough holes, only 2 per side,,,typical NPS incompetence,,,over 20 years without flushing toilets and when we get them, NPS spends all this money and time in slow construction yet only puts in 2 holes per mens or womens,,,what bureauocraps,,,
32,,,...stay out of the water at ocean beach on the pacific at the end of golden gate park,,,as there are very dangerous rip currents and holes near the beach,so that 6-7 people drowned each year wading at a seemingly popular ,but too small warning sign and too few life guards, beach,,,horse back riding probably should be allowed to keep all but the surfers from going into the ocean at the dangerous "red triangle" of highest stat great white shark attack area,,,go to baker beach in the presidio or to the rich neighborhood of sea cliff's beach and don't spoil the rich spoiled selfish residents,but treat them like the rest of sf,,,
33,,,...a private for-profit biz is in control,at least on paper, in the Presidio,tho you will see NPS personnel there,,,the P.Trust has a 15 year contract to do what they said and boasted and pledged to do,make a profit in the old military base since the military left in the early 1990s,until 2013,,,and have yet to show a yearly profit,,,so typical for corporate america to lie ,and get away with it,year after year,,,there is no law protecting this 1500 acres and 1000 buildings of very very very valuable land ,in the public ownership,forever,like a national monument that only takes a president's signature,,,so there is a considerable risk that the P.Trust will sell off some or all of this former huge valuable public land asset,,,beware,,,
34,,,...scary-looking bus companies,,,ACE,,,MAJESTIC,,,NEW WEST,,,MAJIC,,,(and many more,,,to list later,,,)
35,,,...cable cars,,,only one woman spoke up to keep cable cars,yet they are a big part of the sf image,,,prices just went up to $5 per ride and $10 for a day pass,,,there are only 3 lines left,,,and the california street line ,from drum street near the ferry building to van ness street ,is the easiest one to ride,,,tho the most popular, the hyde street and mason street lines run perpendicular and north-south,from either aquatic park thru union square to powell street and market street or from fisherman's wharf thru union square to the same end of line at powell street and market street,,,so there is a huge line at market and powell by nordstrom's,,,beware,,,and do what the locals do,,,it is not end to end service,,,but continuous to the end of the line ,where you must get off,,,and pay again,,,so just walk up a block or 2 and wait for the cable car to stop,,,and hop on the rail on the right side and hang out with a firm grip on the vertical pole,,,so much fun,,,but a bit dangerous for kids and klutzes,,,so take a seat if one is available,,,my big gripe is that the price went from $3 to $5 with talk of $10 and yet the unionized drivers take terribly long breaks,like 55minutes of every hour,right in front of our #1 biz guests, reading the paper bs and such,,,so rude,,,!!!,,,the goodly mayor should insist on continuous service to our valued quests with the use of relief drivers on the cable car system,,,and tax the way too many rich in the way too many rich neighborhoods to pay for it if the union squalks,or not,,,do not ,do not, do not stand in line for up to 3 hours and get very upset at SF,as it has alway been corrupt,,,always,,,(acouple years ago after a big election, voting boxes full of ballots were found floating in the bay on the day after election),,,(sf public school district mgmt misappripriated $$$ millions,,,and did all monies get reclaimed and all put in jail for long terms=no),,,
36,,,...some hotels have changed names 3 xs in 10 years, like the Argent,,,and why do they have sf cops kicking cars and buses out of their white curb ??,,,during the day,,,
37,,,...CalTrain down the Peninsula,is sooo much better than BART,,,it goes to the cheaper hotels near SFO and down past palo alto and stanfud,,,to silly-con valley and stuped san josey,,,and even down to morgan hill and the outlet malls of 100s in gilroy,,,BART IS SUCH A TECH-NO-LOGICAL WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY,,,LIKE DIAMOND LANES THAT THE FEDS REQUIRE,,,(more later on history,start-stumble to bumble-present, of farty BART,,,),,,
38,,,...use the new CalTrain station at 4th x King street,near the baseball park,,,to get to lots of cheap motels in Millbrae on ElCaminoRealBlvd near SFO and san mateo and burlingame,,,and SuperSightSeeingTours will pick you up for city tours or muirwoods tours or monterey-carmel tours or wine country tours or other tours,,,as they were the first of the sf tour bus companies to go down out of sf county and into san mateo county to pick up these stranded out of town tourists,,,
39,,,...sooo many complaints about the HOMELESS,,,hey, if it were not for a certain coldhearted slick governor shutting down the 2 huge mental hospitals in the north bay,Sonoma, and the south bay, Agnews,,,there would not be so many crazy people making bad choices to sleep in doorways and on the sidewalk,,,and wait in long lines in the Tenderloin for the soup kitchens,,,and beg for $40-50,000 /yr of sf huge generosity of tourists,,,just a couple years ago the city had "general assistance" where it gave out $300-400/mo to the homeless,,,but so many got phoney DMV ids that some had 10-20 false accounts ,so the program was stopped,and now there is something like $7/hr street sweeping program,that is not very popular,,,also, avoid Golden Gate Park at night,as 100s of homeless might be sleeping there at night ,after dark,,,when the sun goes down,,,
39,,,...one temperature for SF,,,makes about as much sense as,,,one cop for all the poor neighborhoods,,,there should be a temp for the beach chalet at ocean beach on the west side or pacific ocean coast and one for twin peaks in the geographic center and one for the golden gate bridge and one for downtown-financial district and one for the mission district or candlestick area,,,at least,,,hey, wx people, do your job better !!
40,,,...what is with all this cottonseed oil coming into SF in double tanker gasoline-type trucks,every few days,to the 3rd x Army-Chavez st. area ??,,,are all or many of the expensive sf restaurants using such cheap and inferior cooking oil, the most toxic crop in california,,,without telling their dining customers ?,,,well, do not expect the cowardly american press to investigate that one,,,
41,,,...the Golden Gate Bridge District,that owns the golden gate bridge,not the state of california,,,has already gone in autumn to winter reduced hours on the $7 ferry from sf-sausalito-sf,,,??,,,and it stops at 620pm,,,??,,,what a Stupid thing to do, when people want to go to sausalito by ferry for dinner,or sf,,,and the g.g.bridge takes in about $500,000 per day, so the ggbd can certainly afford to run the ferries until midnight,on the hour,,,where are our public servants??,,,out to lunch,on the taxpayers,again ??
42,,,...most modern western European cities have Central Hotel Reservations Offices,,,but not SF,,,
43,,,...a central taxi dispatch would be helpful,too,at the taxis are circling the gravy run at SFO by the score,,,instead of covering SF,,,so have a hotel dorman or restaurant host call you a cab,,,unless you are a babe or gay darling,,,beware , the cabbies are rude,slobs in dirty cabs,and usually go the long ,full of redlights,slow,way,,,
44,,,...why can't SF regularly steam clean the sidewalks downtown,as some are constantly filthy,with bum pee,,,???,,,maybe at least monthly,,,???
45,,,...ok, here is (going to be) a list of all the "secret bargain neighborhood" motels and hotels in Cow Hollow, that SF and all the travel websites are cluck-cluck-cluck chicken to tell you about,,,
,,,,,ch,1,,,the Comfort Inn,on Van Ness x Lombard,sometimes as low as $69/double in peak season summer(last year),,,!!
(more latter when i have time,,,)
46,,,...about tour bus operators,,the biggest,by far,in size, is Greyline/CoachUSA/FranciscanLines/PacificCoast/,or,,,SanFranciscoSightseeingandTours/
GrosvenorLines,,,they have gobbled up sooo many companies, that they are definitely the biggest, just not the best, as most of the sf buses have Wyoming plates, and are old and dirty, especially the never before steam cleaned seats,,,if you slap them ,a huge dust cloud of disease dust forms,,,tho they are getting new double deckers,still packing people in like sardines,to max profit,,,the second biggest tour bus company is probably Tower Tours, with all new $3-400,000 German Setra big buses and many minis,,,try to get a gasoline mini so you can hear the tour and not just the diesel noisy unsoundproofed engine,,,they seem to operate on a "ignorance is bliss" tour guide theory as they are not allowed to talk about how bad the summer peak-season weather can be,,,but the all new equipment is a big big big safety plus,,,the third largest sf tour bus company is probably SuperSightseeingTours,that is just now replacing with the new big German Setra buses,,,they seem to have a "knowledge is power" tour philosophy as the drivers are allowed to tell the truth from the myths,like Lombard is not really the crookedest street but Vermont is, and the summer fog can be very cold,,,the 4th largest tour bus company in sf ,with actual tour buses, is probably TravelSF,but they have been very naughty with the sexiest website and selling generic theatre tickets as official Muirwoods entrance tickets for years,,,bad bad bad,,,most of the other "sf sightseeing tour companies" you may Google on the web are just travel agencies or booking agencies,taking a cut ,with no actual buses of their own, so BEWARE !!
47,,,...guidebooks,,,i prefer the DK series,available at Costco membership warehouse stores for cheap,,,
(but will compare all the others like LonelyPlanet ,etc. with my max sf knowledge,,,soon,,,)
48,,,...clean public toilets,,,this has always been a problem in sf,,,in the past some stores were kind and public-minded enough to let the public and customers use their toilets, as in merry old England is the rule,,,but the last mayor, Sac-a-tomatoes Cal. legislature-slick Willie Brown thot he could get the best of the french by negotiating for about 35 green kiosk automatic coin operated 25cent self-cleaning modern toilets,,,but the french got the best of the mayor,and sf,by charging 3xs the best retail price, in a sloppy ad space for toilet swap,,,so much for slick Willie,,,who left the city swimming in red ink,,,remember , these dark green oval units are on a timer,so don't plan to take your sweet time,,,ladies,,,
49,,,...there is a new street car line on market st. from the castro district down to the ferry building and all along the embarcadero/waterfront from the baseball park to fisherman's wharf,,,cost is about $1.50 and of course the city bus co/muni wants exact change,,,natch,,,
,,,more to follow ,as time allows
,,,best of luck !!
Thursday, August 25, 2005
"Wilderness Unlimited" hunting and fishing Cal. Sportsmen membership club,,,a consumer's opinion,,,BEWARE!!
Back in the 1990s i joined "Wilderness Unlimited" hunting and fishing on private property sportsmen's club for about $700 initiation and about $700 in annual dues. I had seen their booth at the various hunting and fishing sportsmen shows as in San Mateo and had lost all my private property access through the farmers going "clean" as in no weeds or habitat for Cal.native wildlife and exotic game like quail, ducks, geese, and pheasants.
HUGE MISTAKE,,,
The first clue that the club was not interested in the game or member's best interests but primarily and mainly and mostly just profit, came when my very experienced and savvy Dad and i paid extra for Oregon licenses and also the club's arranged Maupin,north central Oregon, ranch access to a big private plot. We drove up there early and stayed in a small motel in Madras,Oregon and scouted the property from the highway as we were incouraged to do,also from the gated access. On about day 2 we ran into a fellow club member who told us he had seen another member from So.Cal. who told him that a helicopter from the neighboring eastern ranch had herded illegally all the male antlered elk in herds onto his off limits property and closed the fence!! Both were quiting,after paying and traveling,as it was thus useless. But Dad said lets "hunt".
The season opened and we were on the property we had paid tresspass for ,the Rocking something, before sunrise,,,and hunted for days,,,until just after sunset. Finally i decided to phone one of the club owners in San Diego and ask if he had heard complaints from the 2 other hunters that had left. He said no,,,and that i was "crazy" to think such a thing could happen on WU club property and in Oregon,,,and in these United States of America!! So i went into the town of Madras Chamber of Commerce office building downtown and asked if this was true,,,or was i "crazy"? The man said it was true, all the legal bulls had been helicopter herded onto the closed neighbors property,and it would cost me like $3000 to be taken on this ranch for a "guaranteed 5pt or better bull elk,i would shoot dead". I almost said ok,till he said it would be $6000.00 for my dad and me.
I immediately phoned the Oregon State Wildlife officers ,,,and they said if i did not see it ,it did not happen ,and they were too busy in their offices to come all that way out to see for themselves,,,is that corruption at it's worst,or what ?! I phoned the feds, same weak ass story, we are too busy story.
Dad and i drove home to the S.F. Bay Area very disappointed in WU.
Then i had the rare luck to run into one of the club's private property leasors who said the club told him ,for the same money, it wanted his worst piece of game habitat and not the best he intended the club to use,as he was filthy rich and afforded hunting in Oregon,etc.. That was it, and i was out of the club for good. BEWARE !!
Also, if you are an elk hunter, beware of Gunnison, Colorado as there is a popular guide there who will take your advance check in full and when you drive to his ranch,ride in his new red Dodge twincab,ride a horse in the snow up to 10-11000 feet base camp just north of town acouple hours,,,he will tell you -and get away with it- you being outofstate- that you are "not worthy of getting a shot at an elk because you are not as fit as a college athlete and have not paid your dues in previous many outfitter fees over the years",,,and the Colorado state outfitter association lets him get away with this fraud and larceny!!
Also, beware of elk hunting out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as there is/was a well known guide there who got away with booking outofstate hunters cow-no horns hunts on orders of getting male-antler only tags and not telling the hunters until they arrived !! Were we pissed or what ?! Back home,after the Wyoming state and outfitter association did next to nothing, we were contacted by the FBI that our guide "the best guide in Jackson Hole!!" was being investigated for child pornography during,,,during our week hunt of the area and inside the Grand Teton National Park !! Commercialization of hunting and fishing has many flaws and pitfalls.
Tho the state of california has had a bad attitude about the environment and state habitat health for decades of rep.and dem. governors !
HUGE MISTAKE,,,
The first clue that the club was not interested in the game or member's best interests but primarily and mainly and mostly just profit, came when my very experienced and savvy Dad and i paid extra for Oregon licenses and also the club's arranged Maupin,north central Oregon, ranch access to a big private plot. We drove up there early and stayed in a small motel in Madras,Oregon and scouted the property from the highway as we were incouraged to do,also from the gated access. On about day 2 we ran into a fellow club member who told us he had seen another member from So.Cal. who told him that a helicopter from the neighboring eastern ranch had herded illegally all the male antlered elk in herds onto his off limits property and closed the fence!! Both were quiting,after paying and traveling,as it was thus useless. But Dad said lets "hunt".
The season opened and we were on the property we had paid tresspass for ,the Rocking something, before sunrise,,,and hunted for days,,,until just after sunset. Finally i decided to phone one of the club owners in San Diego and ask if he had heard complaints from the 2 other hunters that had left. He said no,,,and that i was "crazy" to think such a thing could happen on WU club property and in Oregon,,,and in these United States of America!! So i went into the town of Madras Chamber of Commerce office building downtown and asked if this was true,,,or was i "crazy"? The man said it was true, all the legal bulls had been helicopter herded onto the closed neighbors property,and it would cost me like $3000 to be taken on this ranch for a "guaranteed 5pt or better bull elk,i would shoot dead". I almost said ok,till he said it would be $6000.00 for my dad and me.
I immediately phoned the Oregon State Wildlife officers ,,,and they said if i did not see it ,it did not happen ,and they were too busy in their offices to come all that way out to see for themselves,,,is that corruption at it's worst,or what ?! I phoned the feds, same weak ass story, we are too busy story.
Dad and i drove home to the S.F. Bay Area very disappointed in WU.
Then i had the rare luck to run into one of the club's private property leasors who said the club told him ,for the same money, it wanted his worst piece of game habitat and not the best he intended the club to use,as he was filthy rich and afforded hunting in Oregon,etc.. That was it, and i was out of the club for good. BEWARE !!
Also, if you are an elk hunter, beware of Gunnison, Colorado as there is a popular guide there who will take your advance check in full and when you drive to his ranch,ride in his new red Dodge twincab,ride a horse in the snow up to 10-11000 feet base camp just north of town acouple hours,,,he will tell you -and get away with it- you being outofstate- that you are "not worthy of getting a shot at an elk because you are not as fit as a college athlete and have not paid your dues in previous many outfitter fees over the years",,,and the Colorado state outfitter association lets him get away with this fraud and larceny!!
Also, beware of elk hunting out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as there is/was a well known guide there who got away with booking outofstate hunters cow-no horns hunts on orders of getting male-antler only tags and not telling the hunters until they arrived !! Were we pissed or what ?! Back home,after the Wyoming state and outfitter association did next to nothing, we were contacted by the FBI that our guide "the best guide in Jackson Hole!!" was being investigated for child pornography during,,,during our week hunt of the area and inside the Grand Teton National Park !! Commercialization of hunting and fishing has many flaws and pitfalls.
Tho the state of california has had a bad attitude about the environment and state habitat health for decades of rep.and dem. governors !
"Club Ed" surf school of Santa Cruz,Cal. and Baja surf camp,,,a consumer's opinion
Now 2005, so a couple years ago i reminded myself that growing up in California i had promised myself that i would learn to surf before i became a senior citizen, and not by getting away with cutting friday class in San Jose in high school and driving over 17 to Santa Cruz. So i chose one of the 2 or more surf schools at Santa Cruz's safe beach with sandy bottom on the right side of the pier,opposite the famous Boardwalk amusement park, at Cowell Beach. Club Ed gave me an excellent Hawaiian college student age surf instructor and i was standing up repeatedly, with difficulty as it is not as easy a child's play at 50, in less than a full 8hr day!!
I was jazzed, or as they say "stoked",so i signed up for the Baja surf camp week in Mexico and this is were my consumer experience went "south", in a big way !! We were to caravan drive down and i was talked into driving one of the trucks,since i had a chauffeurs commercial limo and bus license and a much better safety record with the state DMV than the college kid who was going to get extra pay for driving after finishing a commercial driving course,,,in exchange,i understood at the time ,for a new surfboard of my size and a wet suit,as i was a pro limo driver and wound never have agreed to the risk and work during my expensive paid vacation of driving to and in Mexico for any thing less, period. I make $400-300 a day,just in tips.
So in November of 2001, i drove from Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay down to the Mex border,scary TJ, and down thru the federales-over armed thugs of Baja to a place south of Ensenada, i believe called Erindira Beach. This is NOT a safe place for beginners to learn to surf, in my humble opinion !! The beach is rocky and so is the wave break area bottom and we had one athletic guy jump instead of buttflop off his surfboard and shatter his ankle !! Yes, there was a very nice guy as pro EMT but he failed to immediately or even near term treat the victim for shock as you learn in basic and advanced first aid by taking him off the steep incline head up beach position for a horizontal position,,,basic bonehead stuff,,,and the guy almost went into SHOCK plus having to be driven fast in the back of a pickup all the way north to a good San Diego hospital.
Also the instructors were not available,but seemed unhappy to work for so little,as Ed had told me he was into making a quick fortune-killing and buying a new bigger house and lots more land in expensive Santa Cruz. The college kid who i aced out of the driving job certainly was not happy about losing that additional income. And usually the instructors would be available the first few hours of the first day and then only the first hour of the day after the beauty led the option beach yoga class,so that they could get their surf time in. At first the waves were under 6 feet but then a tropical storm offshore brought higher waves and we were told to go in and try,,,as in pee in your wetsuit scared stiff try,,,!!!!!
The other members of the paid staff and paying guests were a good mix:we had a young family ,rich,from Piedmont with a beautiful french- speaking wife and 2 great kids,and a young pretty blonde from Long Island,NY,,,and some single men like my self,and the paid and excellent cook, and Ed's nice wife and 2 brat kids. The weather was awful:sweltering hot in the black rubber wetsuits during the day and cold foggy damp bone-chilling cold in the provided small tents and our sleeping bags at night. We usually had a guitar for someone to play at the nightly campfire and lots of Mexicans ready to steal any loose stuff from our campsite right on the beach. If you stlll insist on going there ,there is a good clean cheap hotel at the far north-one mile-end of the beach,which is where i wish i slept,,, every,,, night,,,, of the trip, tho i have backpacked and horsepacked in the Sierra Nevada's all my life. No showers, i seem to remember,either at the beach.
On the drive back norte i asked Ed what kind of surfboard and surfing wetsuit he was going to buy me in compensation,,, and he said i had misunderstood,not in writing, that he would only give me his pro surf shop discount of about $200 on both. Shock,,,again,,, i said i did not misunderstand as i had restated his offer for a full wetsuit and new board on the ride down. So i was screwed, and probably not the first or last. Beware!! And there are other surf schools.
I was jazzed, or as they say "stoked",so i signed up for the Baja surf camp week in Mexico and this is were my consumer experience went "south", in a big way !! We were to caravan drive down and i was talked into driving one of the trucks,since i had a chauffeurs commercial limo and bus license and a much better safety record with the state DMV than the college kid who was going to get extra pay for driving after finishing a commercial driving course,,,in exchange,i understood at the time ,for a new surfboard of my size and a wet suit,as i was a pro limo driver and wound never have agreed to the risk and work during my expensive paid vacation of driving to and in Mexico for any thing less, period. I make $400-300 a day,just in tips.
So in November of 2001, i drove from Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay down to the Mex border,scary TJ, and down thru the federales-over armed thugs of Baja to a place south of Ensenada, i believe called Erindira Beach. This is NOT a safe place for beginners to learn to surf, in my humble opinion !! The beach is rocky and so is the wave break area bottom and we had one athletic guy jump instead of buttflop off his surfboard and shatter his ankle !! Yes, there was a very nice guy as pro EMT but he failed to immediately or even near term treat the victim for shock as you learn in basic and advanced first aid by taking him off the steep incline head up beach position for a horizontal position,,,basic bonehead stuff,,,and the guy almost went into SHOCK plus having to be driven fast in the back of a pickup all the way north to a good San Diego hospital.
Also the instructors were not available,but seemed unhappy to work for so little,as Ed had told me he was into making a quick fortune-killing and buying a new bigger house and lots more land in expensive Santa Cruz. The college kid who i aced out of the driving job certainly was not happy about losing that additional income. And usually the instructors would be available the first few hours of the first day and then only the first hour of the day after the beauty led the option beach yoga class,so that they could get their surf time in. At first the waves were under 6 feet but then a tropical storm offshore brought higher waves and we were told to go in and try,,,as in pee in your wetsuit scared stiff try,,,!!!!!
The other members of the paid staff and paying guests were a good mix:we had a young family ,rich,from Piedmont with a beautiful french- speaking wife and 2 great kids,and a young pretty blonde from Long Island,NY,,,and some single men like my self,and the paid and excellent cook, and Ed's nice wife and 2 brat kids. The weather was awful:sweltering hot in the black rubber wetsuits during the day and cold foggy damp bone-chilling cold in the provided small tents and our sleeping bags at night. We usually had a guitar for someone to play at the nightly campfire and lots of Mexicans ready to steal any loose stuff from our campsite right on the beach. If you stlll insist on going there ,there is a good clean cheap hotel at the far north-one mile-end of the beach,which is where i wish i slept,,, every,,, night,,,, of the trip, tho i have backpacked and horsepacked in the Sierra Nevada's all my life. No showers, i seem to remember,either at the beach.
On the drive back norte i asked Ed what kind of surfboard and surfing wetsuit he was going to buy me in compensation,,, and he said i had misunderstood,not in writing, that he would only give me his pro surf shop discount of about $200 on both. Shock,,,again,,, i said i did not misunderstand as i had restated his offer for a full wetsuit and new board on the ride down. So i was screwed, and probably not the first or last. Beware!! And there are other surf schools.
VBT/Vermont Bicycle Tours...a consumer's opinion
Now it is 2005, but about 4 or 5 years ago,so about 2000-2001, i took my first trip with VBT/Vermont Bicycle Tours in central Vermont during the first week of October. And the Fall foliage was,for a Californian, absolutely Fantastic !! I wish i could say the same for VBT bicycle tour company.
In my 50s I had bicycled all my life, even to and from High School,embarassing when the car dealers' sons were all driving new free GTOs and other hot cars, plus at 25, 2 friends and I had bicycled up and across Canada one Summer. I was in average American, or average to poor shape by my 50s.
At the first inn, the start of the trip, in Waitsfield,we stayed at a lovely old place with very polite hosts. The trip had 2 leaders ,one old and one young, and the older was unfortunately in charge. The older took us out the first morning for the routine bicycle operation and safety lecture, except he tried to make it only a very corny standup comedy routine and hardly anyone laughed at his tired ,obvious,constant weak jokes. But he made it plain he was the boss. He did not cover such basics as 1) shifting well before the hill and 2)ankling,or not keeping your ankle rigid. Unfortunately the bicycles were of a major manufacture but of the cheap end of the line as far as brakes and gears went and without any shocks in front forks even or at best front and rear. Some of the guests opted for the very thick ,cost extra, padded seat for all the bumpy dirt roads we would be traveling on on our bone shakers !
The younger leader drove the sag or tail or pickup wagon for those that got lost even with the detailed but flawed directions we all had-me included- or those that got too tired each day of the week trip and decided to ride in the van the last few miles-and many did thus. The terrain was gentle rolling hills and usual good shoulder with considerate passing drivers, but on the frequent dirt roads the VBT companies choice in rigid,non-shock bicycle frames proved a very uncomfortable,painful and unnecessarily difficult to operate choice. The handlebar wanted to vibrate out of your hands on such bad bumpy dirt roads! It was only the shockingly vivid colors of the leaves,,,and hopes of a hottub at the end that kept me in good spirits on this expensive adventure-working vacation.
One of the inns that VBT had chosen was a large county club golf course afair and ,unfortunately, we were all made by lack of smiles and welcomes , to feel unwelcome. At least the rooms were clean and well furnished,,,and they had a hot tub!! Why VBT does not advertise or promote or inform you that a wonderful for tired muscles jaccuzi is available some days at some inns is beyond understanding. The food and drinks were good, but again no friendly customer service.
One of the best inns/stays was at the "October Country Inn" in southern Vermont !! A++ gentlemen at the inn !! So friendly and welcoming and the food was definitely the ultimate ,very best cuisine of the trip ! Delicious, we were in such good spirits...and there was a beautiful river and microbrewery across the way...such a wonderful choice by VBT, as if all their chosen inns could be so friendly and high quality. It's near or just south of that famous ski area with a "K".
The younger leader was friendly,confident, capable,patient,much more handsome, ladies, and without the cornball constant jokes, so in my humble opinion, a much better tour leader than the older for boss, but not by VBT.
I would recommend VBT a grade of "C" for the uncomfortable rigid bicycle frames, the boring cornball older leader as boss who did such a lousy safety talk the first day and thought he was god's gift to bicycle tours, and the few unfriendly or tackly trailer-trash furnished inns that VBT for profit over quality chose to put us in. A 1" seat tube schock absorber, such as used by the competition, would not have helped much. For the money you pay, VBT could do a much better job. I flew in and out of the cute college town on the lake to the east with good rental car and flight service. Great job Vermont !!
In my 50s I had bicycled all my life, even to and from High School,embarassing when the car dealers' sons were all driving new free GTOs and other hot cars, plus at 25, 2 friends and I had bicycled up and across Canada one Summer. I was in average American, or average to poor shape by my 50s.
At the first inn, the start of the trip, in Waitsfield,we stayed at a lovely old place with very polite hosts. The trip had 2 leaders ,one old and one young, and the older was unfortunately in charge. The older took us out the first morning for the routine bicycle operation and safety lecture, except he tried to make it only a very corny standup comedy routine and hardly anyone laughed at his tired ,obvious,constant weak jokes. But he made it plain he was the boss. He did not cover such basics as 1) shifting well before the hill and 2)ankling,or not keeping your ankle rigid. Unfortunately the bicycles were of a major manufacture but of the cheap end of the line as far as brakes and gears went and without any shocks in front forks even or at best front and rear. Some of the guests opted for the very thick ,cost extra, padded seat for all the bumpy dirt roads we would be traveling on on our bone shakers !
The younger leader drove the sag or tail or pickup wagon for those that got lost even with the detailed but flawed directions we all had-me included- or those that got too tired each day of the week trip and decided to ride in the van the last few miles-and many did thus. The terrain was gentle rolling hills and usual good shoulder with considerate passing drivers, but on the frequent dirt roads the VBT companies choice in rigid,non-shock bicycle frames proved a very uncomfortable,painful and unnecessarily difficult to operate choice. The handlebar wanted to vibrate out of your hands on such bad bumpy dirt roads! It was only the shockingly vivid colors of the leaves,,,and hopes of a hottub at the end that kept me in good spirits on this expensive adventure-working vacation.
One of the inns that VBT had chosen was a large county club golf course afair and ,unfortunately, we were all made by lack of smiles and welcomes , to feel unwelcome. At least the rooms were clean and well furnished,,,and they had a hot tub!! Why VBT does not advertise or promote or inform you that a wonderful for tired muscles jaccuzi is available some days at some inns is beyond understanding. The food and drinks were good, but again no friendly customer service.
One of the best inns/stays was at the "October Country Inn" in southern Vermont !! A++ gentlemen at the inn !! So friendly and welcoming and the food was definitely the ultimate ,very best cuisine of the trip ! Delicious, we were in such good spirits...and there was a beautiful river and microbrewery across the way...such a wonderful choice by VBT, as if all their chosen inns could be so friendly and high quality. It's near or just south of that famous ski area with a "K".
The younger leader was friendly,confident, capable,patient,much more handsome, ladies, and without the cornball constant jokes, so in my humble opinion, a much better tour leader than the older for boss, but not by VBT.
I would recommend VBT a grade of "C" for the uncomfortable rigid bicycle frames, the boring cornball older leader as boss who did such a lousy safety talk the first day and thought he was god's gift to bicycle tours, and the few unfriendly or tackly trailer-trash furnished inns that VBT for profit over quality chose to put us in. A 1" seat tube schock absorber, such as used by the competition, would not have helped much. For the money you pay, VBT could do a much better job. I flew in and out of the cute college town on the lake to the east with good rental car and flight service. Great job Vermont !!
Saturday, July 30, 2005
DR. BILL WELLER , FAMOUS , BUT NO NATIONAL MEDAL , YET ,,,
So many of us go to the hospital ,whether we want to or not, and see some pretty awful to lousy to mediocre MD's in the USA. I would like to sing the praises of a great doctor,still living , as he is much due such audible commendation for a life of medical excellence and true charity.
When i was a child in the 50s growing up in the south bay of San Francisco Bay, i knew even then i was very lucky to live on the same block as Dr. William Weller and his nurse-trained wife , Mary. For Dr. Weller was an anesthesiologist, "gas man", who was making big big moola/money and yet offered to treat all the kids on the block for all their cuts and scrapes and possible broken bones and boy scout physicals,,,FOR FREE. He had a big family of 3 smart boys and one very smart girl and being from the Pennsylvania Dutch Quaker country, he certainly did not have to do this for so many long years, but he did. Do you personally know of such a doctor ? This kind of medical generosity and guilt over making so much money, just as a gasman ,must be extremely rare. Maybe it had something to do with his integral religion of Christianity and taking care of the less fortunate.
I can remember when i was in high school , he volunteer to work on the U.S.S. HOPE off the Pacific and South America, so his generosity was not limited to just his own block and neighborhood. Such fine medical skills,even if for just a annual Boy Scout physical, linked with such constant generosity i think you must agree are certainly deserving of a national medal at the least , a scholarship at one of the best medical schools, and a statue and plaque so that others can see what an exemplary life this one man has led. I am not his son, or a relative, just one of the many beneficiaries of his life-long good medicine and good cheer generosity and i am having trouble telling you about how good a man Dr. Weller has been to his family and to his block/neighborhood, because there are so few truly good men i have met in my 57 years of life. I hope you all met someone as good and kind and generous as Dr. Bill Weller in your own lives.
When i was a child in the 50s growing up in the south bay of San Francisco Bay, i knew even then i was very lucky to live on the same block as Dr. William Weller and his nurse-trained wife , Mary. For Dr. Weller was an anesthesiologist, "gas man", who was making big big moola/money and yet offered to treat all the kids on the block for all their cuts and scrapes and possible broken bones and boy scout physicals,,,FOR FREE. He had a big family of 3 smart boys and one very smart girl and being from the Pennsylvania Dutch Quaker country, he certainly did not have to do this for so many long years, but he did. Do you personally know of such a doctor ? This kind of medical generosity and guilt over making so much money, just as a gasman ,must be extremely rare. Maybe it had something to do with his integral religion of Christianity and taking care of the less fortunate.
I can remember when i was in high school , he volunteer to work on the U.S.S. HOPE off the Pacific and South America, so his generosity was not limited to just his own block and neighborhood. Such fine medical skills,even if for just a annual Boy Scout physical, linked with such constant generosity i think you must agree are certainly deserving of a national medal at the least , a scholarship at one of the best medical schools, and a statue and plaque so that others can see what an exemplary life this one man has led. I am not his son, or a relative, just one of the many beneficiaries of his life-long good medicine and good cheer generosity and i am having trouble telling you about how good a man Dr. Weller has been to his family and to his block/neighborhood, because there are so few truly good men i have met in my 57 years of life. I hope you all met someone as good and kind and generous as Dr. Bill Weller in your own lives.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Why doesn't Ca. Gov.Arnold hold Public School Administrators Accountable vs ,,,always blaming poor teachers? Econmic Racism of the RNC
i am not just speaking off the cuff as i have 2 sisters in Ca. public education. Plus i have more than most seen the guts of Ca. public education administration and there is shocking waste and incompetence,as for over 2 years i sold 403b's/TSAs to school teachers and administrators for a slighly sleazy insurance company-i know, aren't they all-and saw the paychecks and saw or was told how little p.s.admins did for their OVER $70,000 salaries. This was in 1989-1992 in Silicon Valley.
When we Californians recently had the oportunity to cap at a reasonable 10% the public school admins costs per school district,i was disappointed at the lies and distortions L.A.Unified and the others pulled out to defeat the measure. But then these admins/non elected officials have never cared more for public education than their own personal enrichment. And the u.s. and ca. press share the blame in always pandering to the rich regardless of the subject. Until we stop talking to ourselves like sick greedy little children,"mine mine mine!" and start treating our growing super-rich caste like adults that can and should pay much much more in taxes, the middle caste will continue to suffer and decline, as will American culture and democracy. Does a movie star really need the tax breaks to buy 5-10 personal major airliners, John Travolta? Do c.e.o.s really need the tax brake to skim salaries of 10-50- 100-200 MILLION DOLLARS per YEAR ?? i am sure they are laughing at all of us foolish, less well educated, less saavy,less political, less wealthy citizens that will have to carry their baggage, and pay for it!,no tip. Does it really matter to the top 30% wage earners if gas is $2/gallon or $8/gallon or if public schools continue to decline in ca.when they send their kids to private schools or if housing prices increase 20-25% per year ? No, it does not, other than the obsessive sick greed,that the RNC worships, pangs them that they will be paying 6% instead of 5% of their salaries and gross assets for living basics of food,clothing,shelter,transit and the rest on selfish frivolous luxuries that seem to be the only thing fueling our nation's ecomony now.
So let's talk Ca. public education. Basically every school district in the state is probably guilt of the same general philosophy,like a child/teenager, "if you give me no strings ,free tax money, i will spend it all, for sure, and probably on stupid stuff,but i will definitely spend it all. Cuz if i have any left over ,you will want it back,right? And next year you will give me less, right?" So why do ca. public schools have to act adult and responsibly and live within a budget that is logical and practical? My sis in SoCal tells me that L.A.Unified is one of the worst offenders in practice by constantly buying new no-bid ourtrageously overpriced textbooks almost every year,but switching from "literature based" to "phonics based", constantly, primarily to use up all those millions each year,so the next year they can get more free tax dollar millions. And the bloated staff of vice-principals and assistant superintendants all making over $70k/yr is amazing.
Here are 2 example of paycheck stubs i have seen of clear admin.staff waste. The first is from the most prestigious public school district in Silicon Valley,you might think a smart area. This assistant superintendant with my companies 403b was making over $70k/yr, yet complained one day that all she had to do that day was run the copier. Also in the same public school district, i attended a school board meeting and was surprised that they were talking about placing a new classroom over an existing sewer,thus having to move the sewer,,,and planning to do the same foolish wasteful thing next year,,,with the audience silent. So ,not being a parent,but what the hell, i asked why they would place 2 classrooms over a sewer in 2 years and move the sewer line twice,,,versus say put the classrooms elsewhere in the large play field? The answer was exactly as i feared,,,"because it is in our budget".
And there will be the bleeding heart response from some over-paid public school admin that they are working so hard. Well, our public school teachers are expected to teach, go home and make lesson plans and grade homework for hours,and meet with irresponsible parents,plus ca.s public school admins saddle them , the teachers, with admin responsibilities,like committees,especially if they complain about rampant lousy admin.So it is a punishment,not a shared responsibility of leadership. Ca. has never since the 60s just let the teachers teach. And now our Republican,rich- worshipping Governor wants to take away their special pensions because STRS and PERS are trying to clean up wall street, and cut their special tenure, when the vast majority of new school teachers quit in the first few years. And forget about the downed-cow teacher's unions as they are as much against change and improvement as the selfish greedy public school administrators.
Another example of outrageous public school admin waste? We have all heard about their golden hand shake hiring and golden parachute leaving contracts. I was at the Vocational School and my client had her position contract terminated,she was not fired,but by terms not for 6 months. So she had "nothing to do for 6 months but show up for work and plan my wedding all day".
So half of over $70k/yr is at least $35,ooo for six months this assistant superintendant just and only,,, planned her wedding.
We californians will hear more from our sacred rich cow worshipping Governor about our terrible teachers and how we use to be among the top public schools of the nation but are now at the bottom with the likes of louisiana. But i'll bet we hear very little from him or the lousy at oversight,be it budget or national security, Republicans about the ones who should be held accountable for the seeming permanent loss of quality public education in ca. that keeps democracy strong,the public school administrators.
When we Californians recently had the oportunity to cap at a reasonable 10% the public school admins costs per school district,i was disappointed at the lies and distortions L.A.Unified and the others pulled out to defeat the measure. But then these admins/non elected officials have never cared more for public education than their own personal enrichment. And the u.s. and ca. press share the blame in always pandering to the rich regardless of the subject. Until we stop talking to ourselves like sick greedy little children,"mine mine mine!" and start treating our growing super-rich caste like adults that can and should pay much much more in taxes, the middle caste will continue to suffer and decline, as will American culture and democracy. Does a movie star really need the tax breaks to buy 5-10 personal major airliners, John Travolta? Do c.e.o.s really need the tax brake to skim salaries of 10-50- 100-200 MILLION DOLLARS per YEAR ?? i am sure they are laughing at all of us foolish, less well educated, less saavy,less political, less wealthy citizens that will have to carry their baggage, and pay for it!,no tip. Does it really matter to the top 30% wage earners if gas is $2/gallon or $8/gallon or if public schools continue to decline in ca.when they send their kids to private schools or if housing prices increase 20-25% per year ? No, it does not, other than the obsessive sick greed,that the RNC worships, pangs them that they will be paying 6% instead of 5% of their salaries and gross assets for living basics of food,clothing,shelter,transit and the rest on selfish frivolous luxuries that seem to be the only thing fueling our nation's ecomony now.
So let's talk Ca. public education. Basically every school district in the state is probably guilt of the same general philosophy,like a child/teenager, "if you give me no strings ,free tax money, i will spend it all, for sure, and probably on stupid stuff,but i will definitely spend it all. Cuz if i have any left over ,you will want it back,right? And next year you will give me less, right?" So why do ca. public schools have to act adult and responsibly and live within a budget that is logical and practical? My sis in SoCal tells me that L.A.Unified is one of the worst offenders in practice by constantly buying new no-bid ourtrageously overpriced textbooks almost every year,but switching from "literature based" to "phonics based", constantly, primarily to use up all those millions each year,so the next year they can get more free tax dollar millions. And the bloated staff of vice-principals and assistant superintendants all making over $70k/yr is amazing.
Here are 2 example of paycheck stubs i have seen of clear admin.staff waste. The first is from the most prestigious public school district in Silicon Valley,you might think a smart area. This assistant superintendant with my companies 403b was making over $70k/yr, yet complained one day that all she had to do that day was run the copier. Also in the same public school district, i attended a school board meeting and was surprised that they were talking about placing a new classroom over an existing sewer,thus having to move the sewer,,,and planning to do the same foolish wasteful thing next year,,,with the audience silent. So ,not being a parent,but what the hell, i asked why they would place 2 classrooms over a sewer in 2 years and move the sewer line twice,,,versus say put the classrooms elsewhere in the large play field? The answer was exactly as i feared,,,"because it is in our budget".
And there will be the bleeding heart response from some over-paid public school admin that they are working so hard. Well, our public school teachers are expected to teach, go home and make lesson plans and grade homework for hours,and meet with irresponsible parents,plus ca.s public school admins saddle them , the teachers, with admin responsibilities,like committees,especially if they complain about rampant lousy admin.So it is a punishment,not a shared responsibility of leadership. Ca. has never since the 60s just let the teachers teach. And now our Republican,rich- worshipping Governor wants to take away their special pensions because STRS and PERS are trying to clean up wall street, and cut their special tenure, when the vast majority of new school teachers quit in the first few years. And forget about the downed-cow teacher's unions as they are as much against change and improvement as the selfish greedy public school administrators.
Another example of outrageous public school admin waste? We have all heard about their golden hand shake hiring and golden parachute leaving contracts. I was at the Vocational School and my client had her position contract terminated,she was not fired,but by terms not for 6 months. So she had "nothing to do for 6 months but show up for work and plan my wedding all day".
So half of over $70k/yr is at least $35,ooo for six months this assistant superintendant just and only,,, planned her wedding.
We californians will hear more from our sacred rich cow worshipping Governor about our terrible teachers and how we use to be among the top public schools of the nation but are now at the bottom with the likes of louisiana. But i'll bet we hear very little from him or the lousy at oversight,be it budget or national security, Republicans about the ones who should be held accountable for the seeming permanent loss of quality public education in ca. that keeps democracy strong,the public school administrators.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
TIPPING,,,GRATUITIES,,,GIVE DIRECTLY,,,NEVER TO "BILL" !!
AS A PROFESSIONAL LIMO DRIVER AND CHARTER BUS DRIVER WITH OVER 20 YEARS EXPERIENCE,,,I AM GIVING YOU THE,,,OFFICIAL CALIFORNIA STATE TIPPING AND GRATUITY GUIDELINES,,,AREN'T YOU LUCKY,,,?!
NOW MANY CONFUSED AND UNEDUCATED PASSENGERS THINK IT IS SAFE AND EFFICIENT TO JUST PUT THE TIP OR GRATUITY ON THE "BILL" AND LET THE LIMO OR BUS COMPANY HANDLE PAYING THE DRIVER THE FULL AND CORRECT AMOUNT,,,BOY, ARE THEY EVER WRONG IN ASSUMING MOST IF NOT ALL BUSINESSES IN CALIFORNIA ARE HONEST,,,!!
IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR MONEY WASTED, AS IN STOLEN BY THE DRIVERS COMPANY, TIP OR GRAT THE DRIVER DIRECTLY,,,ALWAYS,,,EVERYTIME,,,WITHOUT EXCEPTION,,,OF COURSE, IF YOU WANT YOUR DRIVER TO FEEL THAT HIS GRATUITY SHOULD BE MOSTLY OR COMPLETELY STOLEN BY THE COMPANY, YEAH, JUST PUT IT ON THE "BILL",,,AS I WOULD GUESS THAT OVER 90 % OF LIMO COMPANIES IN CALIFORNIA AND AS MANY CHARTER AND TOUR BUS COMPANIES CHISEL OR STEAL PART OR ALL OF DRIVERS TIPS AND GRATUITIES,,,THO IT IS PARTLY THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA'S FAULT FOR NOT CARING ENOUGH TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA WORKERS,,,STILL, IT IS THESE LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS COMPANIES, ESPECIALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO,,,AND LOS ANGELES,,,THAT FEEL "DRIVER GRATUITY" MEANS SECRETARY AND MANAGER SLUSH FUND,,,!!
OF COURSE , IF THE DRIVER WAS UNSAT,,,DON'T TIP THE DRIVER OR PUT ANY MONEY ON THE CREDIT CARD FOR THE COMPANY "BILL", AS MANY LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS COMPANIES WILL TELL YOU UNSUSPECTING USERS/PASSENGERS THAT THE GRAT IS "AUTOMATICALLY INCLUDED" IN THE "BILL",,,OR ANOTHER LIE, THAT THE DRIVERS ALL WANT THE COMPANY STICKY FINGERS ALL OVER THEIR RIGHTFUL TIPS AND GRATUITY,,,OR THAT IT IS A IRS RULE THAT GRATS GO ON THE BILL VERSUS DIRECTLY TO THE DRIVER,,,LIES,LIES,LIES,MORE AND MORE CORPORATE AMERICAN BUSINESS LIES,,,!!
THEREFORE,,,PLEASE FOLKS,,,HELP OUT US LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME WORKERS AT LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS DRIVING JOBS BY TIPPING OR GRATUITY GIVING DIRECTLY TO THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU BETTER SERVICE THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO SHOW APPRECIATION FOR,,,DOESN'T THAT MAKE SENSE,,,?,,,DON'T SAY " OH, PUT ANOTHER 100 $ ON THE CREDIT CARD FOR YOURSELF AS YOU DID A FINE JOB" AND THAT IS A $100 IN THE SECRETARIES OR MANAGERS POCKET AND THEY DID NOT PROVIDE YOU WITH ANY BETTER DIRECT SERVICE,,,
THANK YOU, IN ADVANCE,FUTURE CALIFORNIA LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS PASSENGERS AND HIRE CONTRACTORS !!
NOW MANY CONFUSED AND UNEDUCATED PASSENGERS THINK IT IS SAFE AND EFFICIENT TO JUST PUT THE TIP OR GRATUITY ON THE "BILL" AND LET THE LIMO OR BUS COMPANY HANDLE PAYING THE DRIVER THE FULL AND CORRECT AMOUNT,,,BOY, ARE THEY EVER WRONG IN ASSUMING MOST IF NOT ALL BUSINESSES IN CALIFORNIA ARE HONEST,,,!!
IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR MONEY WASTED, AS IN STOLEN BY THE DRIVERS COMPANY, TIP OR GRAT THE DRIVER DIRECTLY,,,ALWAYS,,,EVERYTIME,,,WITHOUT EXCEPTION,,,OF COURSE, IF YOU WANT YOUR DRIVER TO FEEL THAT HIS GRATUITY SHOULD BE MOSTLY OR COMPLETELY STOLEN BY THE COMPANY, YEAH, JUST PUT IT ON THE "BILL",,,AS I WOULD GUESS THAT OVER 90 % OF LIMO COMPANIES IN CALIFORNIA AND AS MANY CHARTER AND TOUR BUS COMPANIES CHISEL OR STEAL PART OR ALL OF DRIVERS TIPS AND GRATUITIES,,,THO IT IS PARTLY THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA'S FAULT FOR NOT CARING ENOUGH TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA WORKERS,,,STILL, IT IS THESE LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS COMPANIES, ESPECIALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO,,,AND LOS ANGELES,,,THAT FEEL "DRIVER GRATUITY" MEANS SECRETARY AND MANAGER SLUSH FUND,,,!!
OF COURSE , IF THE DRIVER WAS UNSAT,,,DON'T TIP THE DRIVER OR PUT ANY MONEY ON THE CREDIT CARD FOR THE COMPANY "BILL", AS MANY LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS COMPANIES WILL TELL YOU UNSUSPECTING USERS/PASSENGERS THAT THE GRAT IS "AUTOMATICALLY INCLUDED" IN THE "BILL",,,OR ANOTHER LIE, THAT THE DRIVERS ALL WANT THE COMPANY STICKY FINGERS ALL OVER THEIR RIGHTFUL TIPS AND GRATUITY,,,OR THAT IT IS A IRS RULE THAT GRATS GO ON THE BILL VERSUS DIRECTLY TO THE DRIVER,,,LIES,LIES,LIES,MORE AND MORE CORPORATE AMERICAN BUSINESS LIES,,,!!
THEREFORE,,,PLEASE FOLKS,,,HELP OUT US LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME WORKERS AT LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS DRIVING JOBS BY TIPPING OR GRATUITY GIVING DIRECTLY TO THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU BETTER SERVICE THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO SHOW APPRECIATION FOR,,,DOESN'T THAT MAKE SENSE,,,?,,,DON'T SAY " OH, PUT ANOTHER 100 $ ON THE CREDIT CARD FOR YOURSELF AS YOU DID A FINE JOB" AND THAT IS A $100 IN THE SECRETARIES OR MANAGERS POCKET AND THEY DID NOT PROVIDE YOU WITH ANY BETTER DIRECT SERVICE,,,
THANK YOU, IN ADVANCE,FUTURE CALIFORNIA LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS PASSENGERS AND HIRE CONTRACTORS !!
Monday, April 11, 2005
BEST CHEESEBURGER IN CALIFORNIA,,,AND THE S.F. BAY AREA,,,MY VOTE,,,
DEAR BAY AREA VISITOR,
I WOULD LIKE TO VOTE FOR THE BEST CHEESEBURGER,,,AND BEST HAMBURGER,,,AND BEST CHICKEN SANDWICH,,,AND BEST STEAK SANDWICH,,,IN THE ENTIRE S.F. BAY AREA OF CALIFORNIA ,,,AND MY VOTE GOES TO "HAMBURGER" IN SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA, OPPOSITE THE ONLY PUBLIC TOILET KIOSK ,,,AND BANK OF AMERICA IN DOWNTOWN SAUSALITO, PHONE 415-332-9471, HOURS OF 11AM-5PM,,,QUALITY INGREDIENTS, FAST SERVICE THO THERE IS USUALLY A LINE OUT THE DOOR, REASONABLE PRICES OF $6.40 FOR THE CHEESEBURGER,,,AND $6.25 FOR THE CHICKEN SANDWICH,,,AND $6.75 FOR THE HUGE, STRIPS OF STEAK SANDWICH,,,AND THERE IS A VERY CHEAP ONLY $7 FERRY FROM THE FERRY BUILDING OF SAN FRANCISCO TO THE DOCK OF SAUSALITO NEAR THE "NO WALKING" GRASS SMALL PARK AND MANY HIGHLY OVERPRICED OTHER STORES AND RESTAURANTS OF SAUSALITO, BESIDES THE EXCELLENT AND ALSO BARGAIN , FAMOUS "SCOMA'S" SEAFOOD RESTAURANT RIGHT ON THE WATER,,,FORGET "SPINAKER' MEDIOCRE FOOD THO GREAT VIEWS,,,AND FOR POOR SOULS STUCK IN THE SOUTH BAY, I RECOMMEND "BURGER PIT" ON BLOSSOM HILL, JUST WEST OF ALMADEN, AS A VERY GOOD REAL STEAK SANDWICH, NOT SWISS STEAK, BUT MANSIZE PALMSIZE ABOUT HALF TO 3/4 INCH THICK REAL STEAK SANDWICH FOR ABOUT $5 WITH FRIES OR BAKED POTATO,,,SO FORGET ABOUT POOR TASTE, AND POOR VALUE EXPENSIVE , SLOW SERVICE AT ANY "MCDONALD'S", MEN AND HUNGRY WOMEN,,,GO TO THE LAST REMAINING "BURGER PIT" INSTEAD FOR FAST FRIENDLY COMFY SERVICE,,,
HAPPY TRAILS,,,!!
july 2005,,,I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO RECOMMEND TO SF BAY AREA VISITORS, THE SAN JOSE RESTAURANT "HENRY'S HI-LIFE" FOR DOWNTOWN GREAT STEAKS IN A FUNKY OLD FAMOUS LOCATION, JUST WEST OF THE KIDS DISCOVERY MUSEUM AND ON THE OTHER/WEST SIDE OF HWY 87,,,I HAVE BEEN GOING THERE SINCE THE 1960s,,,SO PLEASE TRY THEM OUT ON YOUR TASTE BUDS AND KEEP THEM IN BIZ,,,
,,,ALSO,,,WOULD LIKE TO RECOMMEND THE" BURGER PIT "IN SOUTH CENTRAL SAN JOSE,CAL., NEAR THE INTERSECT OF HWY85X87 ,AT BLOSSOM HILL, JUST WEST OF ALMADEN BLVD,,,FOR ABOUT $5.25 YOU GET A GREAT THICK STEAK SANDWICH AND FRIES,,,WHAT A STEAL OF A DEAL,,,AND SOOO MUCH BETTER TASTING THAN McAWFULS,,,
I WOULD LIKE TO VOTE FOR THE BEST CHEESEBURGER,,,AND BEST HAMBURGER,,,AND BEST CHICKEN SANDWICH,,,AND BEST STEAK SANDWICH,,,IN THE ENTIRE S.F. BAY AREA OF CALIFORNIA ,,,AND MY VOTE GOES TO "HAMBURGER" IN SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA, OPPOSITE THE ONLY PUBLIC TOILET KIOSK ,,,AND BANK OF AMERICA IN DOWNTOWN SAUSALITO, PHONE 415-332-9471, HOURS OF 11AM-5PM,,,QUALITY INGREDIENTS, FAST SERVICE THO THERE IS USUALLY A LINE OUT THE DOOR, REASONABLE PRICES OF $6.40 FOR THE CHEESEBURGER,,,AND $6.25 FOR THE CHICKEN SANDWICH,,,AND $6.75 FOR THE HUGE, STRIPS OF STEAK SANDWICH,,,AND THERE IS A VERY CHEAP ONLY $7 FERRY FROM THE FERRY BUILDING OF SAN FRANCISCO TO THE DOCK OF SAUSALITO NEAR THE "NO WALKING" GRASS SMALL PARK AND MANY HIGHLY OVERPRICED OTHER STORES AND RESTAURANTS OF SAUSALITO, BESIDES THE EXCELLENT AND ALSO BARGAIN , FAMOUS "SCOMA'S" SEAFOOD RESTAURANT RIGHT ON THE WATER,,,FORGET "SPINAKER' MEDIOCRE FOOD THO GREAT VIEWS,,,AND FOR POOR SOULS STUCK IN THE SOUTH BAY, I RECOMMEND "BURGER PIT" ON BLOSSOM HILL, JUST WEST OF ALMADEN, AS A VERY GOOD REAL STEAK SANDWICH, NOT SWISS STEAK, BUT MANSIZE PALMSIZE ABOUT HALF TO 3/4 INCH THICK REAL STEAK SANDWICH FOR ABOUT $5 WITH FRIES OR BAKED POTATO,,,SO FORGET ABOUT POOR TASTE, AND POOR VALUE EXPENSIVE , SLOW SERVICE AT ANY "MCDONALD'S", MEN AND HUNGRY WOMEN,,,GO TO THE LAST REMAINING "BURGER PIT" INSTEAD FOR FAST FRIENDLY COMFY SERVICE,,,
HAPPY TRAILS,,,!!
july 2005,,,I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO RECOMMEND TO SF BAY AREA VISITORS, THE SAN JOSE RESTAURANT "HENRY'S HI-LIFE" FOR DOWNTOWN GREAT STEAKS IN A FUNKY OLD FAMOUS LOCATION, JUST WEST OF THE KIDS DISCOVERY MUSEUM AND ON THE OTHER/WEST SIDE OF HWY 87,,,I HAVE BEEN GOING THERE SINCE THE 1960s
,,,ALSO,,,WOULD LIKE TO RECOMMEND THE" BURGER PIT "IN SOUTH CENTRAL SAN JOSE,CAL., NEAR THE INTERSECT OF HWY85X87 ,AT BLOSSOM HILL, JUST WEST OF ALMADEN BLVD,,,FOR ABOUT $5.25 YOU GET A GREAT THICK STEAK SANDWICH AND FRIES,,,WHAT A STEAL OF A DEAL,,,AND SOOO MUCH BETTER TASTING THAN McAWFULS,,,
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
BEWARE OF "WINNING" PRIZES ON RADIO CONTESTS !!
DEAR FELLOW RADIO LISTENER,
JUST A LITTLE MORE CAVEAT EMPTOR, THIS TIME ABOUT "WINNING
PRIZES ON RADIO SHOWS,,,
MY PARENTS WERE IN THEIR 70'S AND LISTENING TO A POP RADIO STATION ONE OF THE 4 KIDS LEFT ON THE KITCHEN RADIO,,,WHEN S.F. BAY AREA RADIO STATION 101.3 FM ANNOUNCED THEY WERE GIVING
AWAY A JACUZZI SPA TO THE SOME NUMBER CALLER TO PHONE IN,,,SO MY MOM, THE LESS CONSERVATIVE , PHONED IN AND WON,,,AMAZING,,,
WHAT LUCK,,,SHE ALMOST NEVER ENTERS "FREE" CONTESTS,,,AND SHE WON A BIG NEW HOTTUB,,,WOW,,,
THAT WAS UNTIL SHE TRIED TO COLLECT HER SO CALLED "PRIZE",,,
THE RADIO STATION HAD CONTRACTED WITH ONE OF ITS ADVERTISERS SWAPPING AIR ADVERT TIME FOR A CERTAIN NUMBER OF HOTTUBS TO GIVE AWAY, TO INCREASE THEIR AUDIENCE,,,HAPPENS ALL THE TIME,,,
WELL, THE COMPANY THAT HAD "PAID" IN HOTTUBS FOR RADIO ADVERTISING ON 101.3FM WAS NOT VERY REPUTABLE,,,IN FACT, WAS ABOUT TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS, IN EMERYVILLE,,,NO MORE HOTTUBS,,,
SO MY ELDERLY PARENTS WENT THRU THE HASSLE OF GOING OVER TO THIS SLEAZOID BUSINESS OF HOTTUBS IN EMERYVILLE AND TRIED TO PICK UP ONE OF THEIR LAST HOTTUBS,,,AMAZINGLY, THEY GOT ONE OF THE LAST ONES,,,AND HAD IT PLACED IN THEIR BACK YARD , ON A BIG SLAB OF CONCRETE THEY HAD TO HAVE POURED,,,NOW SOME WOULD SAY THEY MADE OUT LIKE BANDITS, SO FAR,,
BUT AS I SAID , THIS WAS NOT A GREAT, OR GOOD, OR EVEN AVERAGE QUALITY AND REPUTATION HOTTUB COMPANY, SO THE HOTTUB THEY GOT WAS A NON-STANDARD BRAND,,,AND BROKE DOWN
ALMOST IMMEDIATELY,,,SO MY FOLK MAY HAVE FIRST THOUGHT THEY HAD WON, BUT THEN REALIZED THEY HAD ACTUALLY LOST, WHEN A QUALITY HOTTUB REPAIR COMPANY TOLD THEM WHAT A PIECE OF JUNK
THEY HAD "WON" AND HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST TO REPAIR, BESIDES THE COST OF THE CONCRETE PAD ALREADY PAID FOR,,,
SOME OF YOU COCKEYED OPTIMISTS ARE PROBABLY STILL, STILL SAYING, HEY DUDE THEY WON,,,WHELL, NOT REALLY,,,AS THE HOTTUB
BROKE DOWN AGAIN,,,AND AGAIN,,,AND AFTER LESS THAN A YEAR OF USE, NOW JUST TAKES UP SPACE IN THE BACKYARD,AS A PIECE OF LOW QUALITY CRAP THAT SOME BIG FAMOUS RADIO STATION PAWNED OFF ON ITS UNSUSPECTING LISTENERS,,,I HAVE OFFERED TO TAKE IT OUT FOR FREE,, , AND EVEN BUY ONE OF THE TOP QUALITY BRANDS TO REPLACE IT, AS MY DAD NEEDS WEEKLY CHIROPRACTIC MEDICAL TREATMENTS FOR A PULLED BACK MUSCLE NOW,,,BUT THEY SAY NO,,,AS WHY BOTHER WITH ANOTHER "FREE" HOT TUB THAT MAY BRING WITH IN ALL KINDS OF ADDITIONAL EXPENSES AND REPAIRS,,,
I KNOW THIS KIND OF THING HAPPENS ALL THE TIME IN AMERICAN CORPORATE LIFE. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS OK. SINCE MOST OF US TAKE TV DOSES FOR REALITY, BE IT COP DRAMAS INSTEAD OF THE REAL THING, OR COURT DRAMAS, OR MILITARY DRAMAS THAT HAVE LITTLE OR NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REAL INTERNAL CULTURE OF THAT SEGMENT OF OUR WORLD.
OH, AND THERE ARE OTHER RADIO STATIONS THAT DO THE SAME OR WORSE. ONE BIG SOUTH BAY/SILCON VALLEY FAMOUS ROCK RADIO STATION DOES THE SAME ADVERT SWAP WITH A LIMO COMPANY THE OLD LIMO DISPATCHER TOLD ME ALSO SOLD ILLEGAL DRUGS. BUT THE BIG FAMOUS ROCK RADIO STATION DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE ON ITS STATION NOR DO THEY CARE THEY SAID ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE LIMO COMPANY "PRIZES" THEY REGULARLY GIVE AWAY. IT IS JUST BIZ.
MY WEAKNESS IS THE "WEST WING". PRESIDENT BARTLET IS SUCH A GOOD PRESIDENT , PERSON, AND FATHER !!! BUT SAM SEABORN RECENTLY SAID ON ONE OF THE SHOWS THAT MOST SMALL BUSINESS FAIL BECAUSE OF EMPLOYEE THEFT. AND THAT SKEWED STAT CERTAINLY NEEDS CLARIFICATION. IMAGINE A LOWLY EMPLOYEE STEALING PENS AND PENCILS WITH THE COMPANY NAME ON THEM THAT GET RECIRCULATED OUT IN THE MARKET. OR MAYBE THE EMPLOYEE USED THE COMPANY CAR TO GET LUNCH, AS I HAVE DONE MANY TIMES, SINCE SO MANY OF THE COMPANIES I HAVE WORKED FOR FEEL THEY DON'T NEED TO GIVE EMPLOYEES TOILET BREAKS OR A MEAL BREAK IN 8-18 HOURS.
NOW LET'S LOOK AT ENRON AND WORLDCOM. AS SAM SAID, THESE WERE SUITS STEALING, AND TOP MANAGEMENT SUITS. ALSO MAY I REFER YOU TO THE NOW AMERICAN CORPORATE FORGOTTEN S+L SCANDAL, WHERE HUNDREDS OF FEDERALLY GUARANTEED S+L s WERE BOLDLY FLEECED AND ROBBED BY MANAGEMENT SUITS. LOCALLY, I USE TO USE A MECHANIC RECOMMENDED BY "CONSUMER CHECKBOOK" UNTIL THE 3RD VISIT WHEN THE GARAGE OWNER ON N. LINCOLN AVENUE SAID THEY HAD AGAIN FORGOTTEN TO KEEP MY REPLACED PARTS,LIKE AN EXPENSIVE TIMING BELT AND FILTERS, SO I COULD NOT ONLY SEE THE WEAR BUT MAKE SURE THEY REPLACED THE OLD "WORN OUT PARTS" LIKE SPARK PLUGS. ANOTHER LOCAL SF BAY AREA EXAMPLE IS A LIMO COMPANY THAT WAS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY "VALUE STAR", AND AS AN EMPLOYEE I KNEW THEY TREATED THEIR WEDDING AND FAMOUS CLIENTS LIKE DIRT AND MADE A TON OF MONEY IN THE PROCESS. CAVEAT SUIT EMPTOR. THE LIMO COMPANY OWNER REGULARLY WOULD SWITCH THE STRETCH'S COLOR ON BRIDES, SO THAT ASIAN BRIDES WOULD GET WHITE STRETCHES AND CAUCASIAN BRIDES WOULD GET BLACK STRETCHES. I WOULD OBJECT BUT SHOW UP ON TIME AT THE CHURCH OR HOME IN THE DEFINITELY WRONG COLOR STRETCH LIMOUSINE, AND THE BRIDE AND MOTHER WOULD BE IN TEARS AND THE FATHER WOULD BE STEAMING MAD. I WOULD ASK IF THEY PAID BY CREDIT CARD AND PUT THE COLOR REQUESTED AND "LESS THAN 3 YRS OLD" AND SIZE SINCE A "6 PACK" ONLY COMFORTABLY SEATS 4 AND A "10 PACK" MAY ONLY COMFORTABLY SEAT 7,,,AND THEY WOULD USUALLY SAY "NO, WE PAID BY CHECK". AMERICAN CORPORATE SCREWED, AS USUAL, WEEKEND AFTER WEEKEND, THE OWNER MADE HIS HUGE PROFIT THO HE WAS NOT FOLLOWING STATE LAW IN PAYING HIS DRIVERS OVERTIME, JUST AS MOST LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS COMPANIES DONT LEGALLY OBEY THE LAW BUT PUT REGULAR STRAIGHT HOURS IN THE TIME AND A HALF OVERTIME BOX AND THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA LETS THOUSANDS OF COMPANY OWNERS, NOT LOWLY HOURLY SLAVES LIKE ME, STEAL BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE WORKING POOR AND DECLINING MIDDLE INCOME CLASS IN CALIFORNIA ALONE. SO SAD THAT WE ALLOW OWNERS AND MANAGERS AND MANAGEMENT TO STEAL FROM EMPLOYEES AND FROM AMERICAN CONSUMERS, AND THEN TO TOP IT OFF WE LET THEM DECLARE AN OFFSHORE TAX HAVEN SO THEY DON'T PAY ANY FEDERAL TAXES,AS IF THIS WAS THE ONLY WAS AMERICAN COMPANIES COULD SUCCEED AND PROFIT, BY OUTRIGHT LAWBREAKING, FRAUD, AND THEFT. OUR CULTURAL ELITE WILL STEAL.
SO REGARDLESS OF THIS LIE TOLD IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS AND ON OUR "REALITY" FANTASY TV, IT IS THE SUITS THAT HAVE ALWAYS,OFTEN WITH THE HELP OF GOVERNMENT, STOLEN MORE AND CAUSED MORE BUSINESSES TO FAIL, THAN THE LOWLY HOURLY EMPLOYEE. OH, SO MANY EXAMPLES, BUT HERE IS JUST ONE MORE,,,I WAS IN "MISAD" FAMOUS MUFFLER SHOPS ,BUT FOR BRAKE DISC PADS, AND I HEARD A COUNTER GUY TELL A HOUSEWIFE WITH A STATIONWAGON THAT "MISAD" COULD NOT LET HER LEAVE WITHOUT ALL NEW 4 BRAKES AS HERS WERE SO WORN AS TO BE UNSAFE...!!!,,,HA,,,SHE BOT IT,,,AND DO YOU THINK CORPORATE "MISAD" OR CALIFORNIA STATE CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY DID ANYTHING CORRECTIVE ABOUT IT, ,,YOU ARE IN FANTASY LAND.
JUST A LITTLE MORE CAVEAT EMPTOR, THIS TIME ABOUT "WINNING
PRIZES ON RADIO SHOWS,,,
MY PARENTS WERE IN THEIR 70'S AND LISTENING TO A POP RADIO STATION ONE OF THE 4 KIDS LEFT ON THE KITCHEN RADIO,,,WHEN S.F. BAY AREA RADIO STATION 101.3 FM ANNOUNCED THEY WERE GIVING
AWAY A JACUZZI SPA TO THE SOME NUMBER CALLER TO PHONE IN,,,SO MY MOM, THE LESS CONSERVATIVE , PHONED IN AND WON,,,AMAZING,,,
WHAT LUCK,,,SHE ALMOST NEVER ENTERS "FREE" CONTESTS,,,AND SHE WON A BIG NEW HOTTUB,,,WOW,,,
THAT WAS UNTIL SHE TRIED TO COLLECT HER SO CALLED "PRIZE",,,
THE RADIO STATION HAD CONTRACTED WITH ONE OF ITS ADVERTISERS SWAPPING AIR ADVERT TIME FOR A CERTAIN NUMBER OF HOTTUBS TO GIVE AWAY, TO INCREASE THEIR AUDIENCE,,,HAPPENS ALL THE TIME,,,
WELL, THE COMPANY THAT HAD "PAID" IN HOTTUBS FOR RADIO ADVERTISING ON 101.3FM WAS NOT VERY REPUTABLE,,,IN FACT, WAS ABOUT TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS, IN EMERYVILLE,,,NO MORE HOTTUBS,,,
SO MY ELDERLY PARENTS WENT THRU THE HASSLE OF GOING OVER TO THIS SLEAZOID BUSINESS OF HOTTUBS IN EMERYVILLE AND TRIED TO PICK UP ONE OF THEIR LAST HOTTUBS,,,AMAZINGLY, THEY GOT ONE OF THE LAST ONES,,,AND HAD IT PLACED IN THEIR BACK YARD , ON A BIG SLAB OF CONCRETE THEY HAD TO HAVE POURED,,,NOW SOME WOULD SAY THEY MADE OUT LIKE BANDITS, SO FAR,,
BUT AS I SAID , THIS WAS NOT A GREAT, OR GOOD, OR EVEN AVERAGE QUALITY AND REPUTATION HOTTUB COMPANY, SO THE HOTTUB THEY GOT WAS A NON-STANDARD BRAND,,,AND BROKE DOWN
ALMOST IMMEDIATELY,,,SO MY FOLK MAY HAVE FIRST THOUGHT THEY HAD WON, BUT THEN REALIZED THEY HAD ACTUALLY LOST, WHEN A QUALITY HOTTUB REPAIR COMPANY TOLD THEM WHAT A PIECE OF JUNK
THEY HAD "WON" AND HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST TO REPAIR, BESIDES THE COST OF THE CONCRETE PAD ALREADY PAID FOR,,,
SOME OF YOU COCKEYED OPTIMISTS ARE PROBABLY STILL, STILL SAYING, HEY DUDE THEY WON,,,WHELL, NOT REALLY,,,AS THE HOTTUB
BROKE DOWN AGAIN,,,AND AGAIN,,,AND AFTER LESS THAN A YEAR OF USE, NOW JUST TAKES UP SPACE IN THE BACKYARD,AS A PIECE OF LOW QUALITY CRAP THAT SOME BIG FAMOUS RADIO STATION PAWNED OFF ON ITS UNSUSPECTING LISTENERS,,,I HAVE OFFERED TO TAKE IT OUT FOR FREE,, , AND EVEN BUY ONE OF THE TOP QUALITY BRANDS TO REPLACE IT, AS MY DAD NEEDS WEEKLY CHIROPRACTIC MEDICAL TREATMENTS FOR A PULLED BACK MUSCLE NOW,,,BUT THEY SAY NO,,,AS WHY BOTHER WITH ANOTHER "FREE" HOT TUB THAT MAY BRING WITH IN ALL KINDS OF ADDITIONAL EXPENSES AND REPAIRS,,,
I KNOW THIS KIND OF THING HAPPENS ALL THE TIME IN AMERICAN CORPORATE LIFE. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS OK. SINCE MOST OF US TAKE TV DOSES FOR REALITY, BE IT COP DRAMAS INSTEAD OF THE REAL THING, OR COURT DRAMAS, OR MILITARY DRAMAS THAT HAVE LITTLE OR NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REAL INTERNAL CULTURE OF THAT SEGMENT OF OUR WORLD.
OH, AND THERE ARE OTHER RADIO STATIONS THAT DO THE SAME OR WORSE. ONE BIG SOUTH BAY/SILCON VALLEY FAMOUS ROCK RADIO STATION DOES THE SAME ADVERT SWAP WITH A LIMO COMPANY THE OLD LIMO DISPATCHER TOLD ME ALSO SOLD ILLEGAL DRUGS. BUT THE BIG FAMOUS ROCK RADIO STATION DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE ON ITS STATION NOR DO THEY CARE THEY SAID ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE LIMO COMPANY "PRIZES" THEY REGULARLY GIVE AWAY. IT IS JUST BIZ.
MY WEAKNESS IS THE "WEST WING". PRESIDENT BARTLET IS SUCH A GOOD PRESIDENT , PERSON, AND FATHER !!! BUT SAM SEABORN RECENTLY SAID ON ONE OF THE SHOWS THAT MOST SMALL BUSINESS FAIL BECAUSE OF EMPLOYEE THEFT. AND THAT SKEWED STAT CERTAINLY NEEDS CLARIFICATION. IMAGINE A LOWLY EMPLOYEE STEALING PENS AND PENCILS WITH THE COMPANY NAME ON THEM THAT GET RECIRCULATED OUT IN THE MARKET. OR MAYBE THE EMPLOYEE USED THE COMPANY CAR TO GET LUNCH, AS I HAVE DONE MANY TIMES, SINCE SO MANY OF THE COMPANIES I HAVE WORKED FOR FEEL THEY DON'T NEED TO GIVE EMPLOYEES TOILET BREAKS OR A MEAL BREAK IN 8-18 HOURS.
NOW LET'S LOOK AT ENRON AND WORLDCOM. AS SAM SAID, THESE WERE SUITS STEALING, AND TOP MANAGEMENT SUITS. ALSO MAY I REFER YOU TO THE NOW AMERICAN CORPORATE FORGOTTEN S+L SCANDAL, WHERE HUNDREDS OF FEDERALLY GUARANTEED S+L s WERE BOLDLY FLEECED AND ROBBED BY MANAGEMENT SUITS. LOCALLY, I USE TO USE A MECHANIC RECOMMENDED BY "CONSUMER CHECKBOOK" UNTIL THE 3RD VISIT WHEN THE GARAGE OWNER ON N. LINCOLN AVENUE SAID THEY HAD AGAIN FORGOTTEN TO KEEP MY REPLACED PARTS,LIKE AN EXPENSIVE TIMING BELT AND FILTERS, SO I COULD NOT ONLY SEE THE WEAR BUT MAKE SURE THEY REPLACED THE OLD "WORN OUT PARTS" LIKE SPARK PLUGS. ANOTHER LOCAL SF BAY AREA EXAMPLE IS A LIMO COMPANY THAT WAS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY "VALUE STAR", AND AS AN EMPLOYEE I KNEW THEY TREATED THEIR WEDDING AND FAMOUS CLIENTS LIKE DIRT AND MADE A TON OF MONEY IN THE PROCESS. CAVEAT SUIT EMPTOR. THE LIMO COMPANY OWNER REGULARLY WOULD SWITCH THE STRETCH'S COLOR ON BRIDES, SO THAT ASIAN BRIDES WOULD GET WHITE STRETCHES AND CAUCASIAN BRIDES WOULD GET BLACK STRETCHES. I WOULD OBJECT BUT SHOW UP ON TIME AT THE CHURCH OR HOME IN THE DEFINITELY WRONG COLOR STRETCH LIMOUSINE, AND THE BRIDE AND MOTHER WOULD BE IN TEARS AND THE FATHER WOULD BE STEAMING MAD. I WOULD ASK IF THEY PAID BY CREDIT CARD AND PUT THE COLOR REQUESTED AND "LESS THAN 3 YRS OLD" AND SIZE SINCE A "6 PACK" ONLY COMFORTABLY SEATS 4 AND A "10 PACK" MAY ONLY COMFORTABLY SEAT 7,,,AND THEY WOULD USUALLY SAY "NO, WE PAID BY CHECK". AMERICAN CORPORATE SCREWED, AS USUAL, WEEKEND AFTER WEEKEND, THE OWNER MADE HIS HUGE PROFIT THO HE WAS NOT FOLLOWING STATE LAW IN PAYING HIS DRIVERS OVERTIME, JUST AS MOST LIMO AND CHARTER/TOUR BUS COMPANIES DONT LEGALLY OBEY THE LAW BUT PUT REGULAR STRAIGHT HOURS IN THE TIME AND A HALF OVERTIME BOX AND THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA LETS THOUSANDS OF COMPANY OWNERS, NOT LOWLY HOURLY SLAVES LIKE ME, STEAL BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE WORKING POOR AND DECLINING MIDDLE INCOME CLASS IN CALIFORNIA ALONE. SO SAD THAT WE ALLOW OWNERS AND MANAGERS AND MANAGEMENT TO STEAL FROM EMPLOYEES AND FROM AMERICAN CONSUMERS, AND THEN TO TOP IT OFF WE LET THEM DECLARE AN OFFSHORE TAX HAVEN SO THEY DON'T PAY ANY FEDERAL TAXES,AS IF THIS WAS THE ONLY WAS AMERICAN COMPANIES COULD SUCCEED AND PROFIT, BY OUTRIGHT LAWBREAKING, FRAUD, AND THEFT. OUR CULTURAL ELITE WILL STEAL.
SO REGARDLESS OF THIS LIE TOLD IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS AND ON OUR "REALITY" FANTASY TV, IT IS THE SUITS THAT HAVE ALWAYS,OFTEN WITH THE HELP OF GOVERNMENT, STOLEN MORE AND CAUSED MORE BUSINESSES TO FAIL, THAN THE LOWLY HOURLY EMPLOYEE. OH, SO MANY EXAMPLES, BUT HERE IS JUST ONE MORE,,,I WAS IN "MISAD" FAMOUS MUFFLER SHOPS ,BUT FOR BRAKE DISC PADS, AND I HEARD A COUNTER GUY TELL A HOUSEWIFE WITH A STATIONWAGON THAT "MISAD" COULD NOT LET HER LEAVE WITHOUT ALL NEW 4 BRAKES AS HERS WERE SO WORN AS TO BE UNSAFE...!!!,,,HA,,,SHE BOT IT,,,AND DO YOU THINK CORPORATE "MISAD" OR CALIFORNIA STATE CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY DID ANYTHING CORRECTIVE ABOUT IT, ,,YOU ARE IN FANTASY LAND.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
MANY TRAVEL WEBSITES, LIKE "HOTWIRE", ARE DECEIVING S.F.-BOUND TRAVELERS
GO TO ALMOST ANY TRAVEL WEBSITE AND PUNCH IN THAT YOU WANT A HOTEL SEARCH OF "SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, USA", AND YOU WILL NOTICE THAT MANY WEBSITES, LIKE "HOTWIRE" AND MANY OTHERS, ARE MAKING UP A NEW NAME FOR THE NIGHTTIME- SCARY NEIGHBORHOOD THE "TENDERLOIN" OF PROSTITUTES AND DRUG DEALERS AND DAYTIME SOUP KITCHEN LONG LINES AND NEVER ENOUGH COPS WALKING THE DANGEROUS STREETS. THEY ARE CALLING IT THE "WESTERN UNION SQUARE" NEIGHBORHOOD , JUST AS SOME IN THE PAST WITH MONEY TO MAKE IN DECEPTION, CALLED IT THE "LOWER NOB HILL" NEIGHBORHOOD. DO NOT BE CONNED, HOODWINKED, TRICKED, OR DECEIVED BY THIS ALL TOO COMMON PRACTICE.
I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW MANY FOREIGN TOURISTS I HAVE MET WHO HAVE BOOKED A HOTEL AND VACATION IN SAN FRANCISCO THROUGH ANY WEBSITE AND HAD TO SUFFER THE BASIC WEB MARKET DISHONESTY OF CHOOSING A HOTEL WITH ONLY ITS PRICE AND NUMBER OF STARS/QUALITY TO GO ON. NO ADDRESS BEFORE PURCHASE COMMITMENT AND IN MANY INSTANCES A FRAUDULENT NEIGHBORHOOD OR CITY AREA DESCRIPTION. MANY TRAVEL WEBSITE LIST MOTELS AND HOTELS IN THE NEIGHBORING COUNTY OF SAN MATEO AS BEING IN A S.F. MOTEL/HOTEL SEARCH, MAYBE BECAUSE THEY ARE NEARER TO S.F.'S SFO AIRPORT, WHICH IS OUTSIDE S.F. CITY AND COUNTY LIMITS. IMAGINE THE HORROR WHEN PEOPLE ARRIVE IN S.F. AND DISCOVER THAT MOST TRAVEL WEBSITES HAVE DECEIVED THEM EVEN FURTHER BY INTENTIONALLY MISNAMING THE BAD NEIGHBORHOOD ,THE "TENDERLOIN", AS SOME PAP EUPHEMISM LIKE
"LOWER SNOB HILL" OR " WESTERN NEEDLESS MARKUPS UNION SQUARE" ?
TRAVEL IS S.F.'S NUMBER ONE BUSINESS AND YET THERE IS NO CENTRAL RESERVATION OFFICE AS IN MANY MORE CIVILIZED WESTERN EUROPEAN CITIES. NOR IS THERE A CENTRAL CITY TAXI DISPATCH SO FINDING A CAB IN S.F. IS USUALLY VERY DIFFICULT,AS THEY PREFER LIKE IN SEATTLE TO DO THE SFO AIRPORT RUN,,,SPEEDING OR JUST DRIVING RECKLESSLY. MOST OF THE COPS IN SUCH A CITY SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN THEIR MANNERS, BUT NOT THE USUAL SCOWL AND A FEW FOUR LETTER WORDS. AND DOUBLE PARKING IS NOT JUST A TICKET BUT A MOVING VIOLATION GOING ON YOUR TRAFFIC RECORD AND AGAINST YOUR INSURANCE. AND YOU, OUR GUEST, THE TOURIST IS PAYING THROUGH THE NOSE FOR SUCH TREATMENT.
ALL TRAVELLERS SHOULD BEWARE OF MOST TRAVEL WEBSITES THAT SEEM TO THINK SUCH TRICKERY AND SLIGHT OF HAND AND COMMON BUSINESS DECEPTION AND MISREPRESENTATIONAL FRAUD ARE SOMEHOW "OK" FINE. MORE ON TRAVEL TIPS FOR S.F. IN A LATTER ARTICLE.
BUT FOR NOW, DO BEWARE OF THESE FLASHY "SALE, SALE, SALE" CAMERA STORES THAT SELL SECOND RATE CAMERA AS FIRST RATE, AND GET AWAY WITH IT FOR DECADES, EVEN THO I BELIEVE IT WAS "60 MINUTES" THAT WARNED US OF THIS NEW YORK AND SAN FRANCISCO UNSAVORY COMMON BUSINESS PRACTICE WAY BACK IN THE 1990s.
RATHER, IF YOU WERE MY RELATIONS, I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU SEARCH THE NORTHERN NEIGHBORHOOD OF "COW HOLLOW", BETWEEN RICH SELFISH BASTARDS OF PACIFIC HEIGHTS, PROBABLY MOSTLY REPUBLICANS, AND THE VERY NORTHERN EDGE, THE "MARINA DISTRICT", ANOTHER RELATIVELY SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD OF RICH SELFISH BASTARD REPUBLICANS,,, AND LOTS OF YUPPIES. YOU HAVE THE TWO SHOPPING AND DINING STREETS OF CHESTNUT AND UNION AND MANY MANY MOTELS AND HOTELS IN RELATIVE CLEAN SAFETY FOR LESS THAN $100 US /NIGHT FOR TWO. THERE ARE QUIETER STREETS IN "COW HOLLOW" BUT FOR $69-79 US/NIGHT/DOUBLE LAST SUMMER 2004, THE COMFORT INN IS ONE OF MANY GOOD BUYS IN THIS WELL POSITIONED NEIGHBORHOOD.
HAPPY TRAILS AND TRAVEL SAFE !!
I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW MANY FOREIGN TOURISTS I HAVE MET WHO HAVE BOOKED A HOTEL AND VACATION IN SAN FRANCISCO THROUGH ANY WEBSITE AND HAD TO SUFFER THE BASIC WEB MARKET DISHONESTY OF CHOOSING A HOTEL WITH ONLY ITS PRICE AND NUMBER OF STARS/QUALITY TO GO ON. NO ADDRESS BEFORE PURCHASE COMMITMENT AND IN MANY INSTANCES A FRAUDULENT NEIGHBORHOOD OR CITY AREA DESCRIPTION. MANY TRAVEL WEBSITE LIST MOTELS AND HOTELS IN THE NEIGHBORING COUNTY OF SAN MATEO AS BEING IN A S.F. MOTEL/HOTEL SEARCH, MAYBE BECAUSE THEY ARE NEARER TO S.F.'S SFO AIRPORT, WHICH IS OUTSIDE S.F. CITY AND COUNTY LIMITS. IMAGINE THE HORROR WHEN PEOPLE ARRIVE IN S.F. AND DISCOVER THAT MOST TRAVEL WEBSITES HAVE DECEIVED THEM EVEN FURTHER BY INTENTIONALLY MISNAMING THE BAD NEIGHBORHOOD ,THE "TENDERLOIN", AS SOME PAP EUPHEMISM LIKE
"LOWER SNOB HILL" OR " WESTERN NEEDLESS MARKUPS UNION SQUARE" ?
TRAVEL IS S.F.'S NUMBER ONE BUSINESS AND YET THERE IS NO CENTRAL RESERVATION OFFICE AS IN MANY MORE CIVILIZED WESTERN EUROPEAN CITIES. NOR IS THERE A CENTRAL CITY TAXI DISPATCH SO FINDING A CAB IN S.F. IS USUALLY VERY DIFFICULT,AS THEY PREFER LIKE IN SEATTLE TO DO THE SFO AIRPORT RUN,,,SPEEDING OR JUST DRIVING RECKLESSLY. MOST OF THE COPS IN SUCH A CITY SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN THEIR MANNERS, BUT NOT THE USUAL SCOWL AND A FEW FOUR LETTER WORDS. AND DOUBLE PARKING IS NOT JUST A TICKET BUT A MOVING VIOLATION GOING ON YOUR TRAFFIC RECORD AND AGAINST YOUR INSURANCE. AND YOU, OUR GUEST, THE TOURIST IS PAYING THROUGH THE NOSE FOR SUCH TREATMENT.
ALL TRAVELLERS SHOULD BEWARE OF MOST TRAVEL WEBSITES THAT SEEM TO THINK SUCH TRICKERY AND SLIGHT OF HAND AND COMMON BUSINESS DECEPTION AND MISREPRESENTATIONAL FRAUD ARE SOMEHOW "OK" FINE. MORE ON TRAVEL TIPS FOR S.F. IN A LATTER ARTICLE.
BUT FOR NOW, DO BEWARE OF THESE FLASHY "SALE, SALE, SALE" CAMERA STORES THAT SELL SECOND RATE CAMERA AS FIRST RATE, AND GET AWAY WITH IT FOR DECADES, EVEN THO I BELIEVE IT WAS "60 MINUTES" THAT WARNED US OF THIS NEW YORK AND SAN FRANCISCO UNSAVORY COMMON BUSINESS PRACTICE WAY BACK IN THE 1990s.
RATHER, IF YOU WERE MY RELATIONS, I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU SEARCH THE NORTHERN NEIGHBORHOOD OF "COW HOLLOW", BETWEEN RICH SELFISH BASTARDS OF PACIFIC HEIGHTS, PROBABLY MOSTLY REPUBLICANS, AND THE VERY NORTHERN EDGE, THE "MARINA DISTRICT", ANOTHER RELATIVELY SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD OF RICH SELFISH BASTARD REPUBLICANS,,, AND LOTS OF YUPPIES. YOU HAVE THE TWO SHOPPING AND DINING STREETS OF CHESTNUT AND UNION AND MANY MANY MOTELS AND HOTELS IN RELATIVE CLEAN SAFETY FOR LESS THAN $100 US /NIGHT FOR TWO. THERE ARE QUIETER STREETS IN "COW HOLLOW" BUT FOR $69-79 US/NIGHT/DOUBLE LAST SUMMER 2004, THE COMFORT INN IS ONE OF MANY GOOD BUYS IN THIS WELL POSITIONED NEIGHBORHOOD.
HAPPY TRAILS AND TRAVEL SAFE !!
"AMAZON.COM" DOES NOT LABEL ITS BOOK TITLES AS "FICTION" OR "NONFICTION",,,HOW NONSENSICAL IS THAT!!?!!
RECENTLY I PURCHASED A FEW BOOKS FROM "AMAZON.COM", AND AFTER RECEIPT WAS TOLD THAT I HAD TO LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WEBPAGE OR SOME OTHER STRANGE PLACE TO FIND THAT THO I WANTED NONFICTION IN THIS BOOK SEARCH, ONE OF THE BOOKS I HAD BOUGHT WAS A BOOK OF FICTION WITH A TITLE MASQUERADING AS NONFICTION, AND NO CLEAR TITLE LABEL BY "AMAZON.COM" THAT THIS BOOK I CLEARLY WAS NOT INTERESTED IN WAS AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN TITLE LABELED "FICTION".
THIS POLICY MAKES NO SENSE AND "AMAZON.COM" DOES NOT HAVE THE EASIEST POLICY ON RETURNS IN CLEARCUT CASES LIKE THIS WHEN THE PRODUCT SOLD HAS BEEN CLEARLY MISREPRESENTED.
THEREFORE, BEWARE OF THE "AMAZON.COM" WEBSITE...!!
THIS POLICY MAKES NO SENSE AND "AMAZON.COM" DOES NOT HAVE THE EASIEST POLICY ON RETURNS IN CLEARCUT CASES LIKE THIS WHEN THE PRODUCT SOLD HAS BEEN CLEARLY MISREPRESENTED.
THEREFORE, BEWARE OF THE "AMAZON.COM" WEBSITE...!!
Saturday, March 19, 2005
SAFEWAY'S "IS IT FRESH ?" FISH, BIG STINKING LIE
Back in the late 1980s, not so long ago, i worked at a Safeway fish counter in Silicon Valley. And i couldn't eat fish without wanting to retch for years.
One of the first strange rules of Safeway was and may still be is that all the fish arrives at stores frozen and yet we employees were forbidden to say that the fish was "frozen". There was a big, huge stainless steel sink with hot water that we would thaw the fish frozen blocks in every morning, to add to all the fish that we could not throw away from the refrigerator and the rusty stainless steel rack and dirty plastic rack cover. So when a customer asked, and we had Playboy bunnies and computer geeks and executives at the counter, "Is this fish fresh?" , meaning has it never been frozen and was it caught and shipped recently, Safeway told us to always answer "Yes, this fish is fresh." A huge lie, but American employees do such things normally in almost every job and field , every day.
Safeway boss told us that they had done a study that if we put out more and bigger stacks of fish, customers would buy more, so we did. But it was so disgusting how we were told to do it. When we thawed frozen new "fresh" fish, we were told to put in on the bottom of the stack of that kind of fish, under all the days and weeks old slimy smelly fish that we might rinse daily,or not.
Gross ? It gets worse. Out in the display trough on ice chips we had a huge 'brown' trout that went out there week after ,,,week,,,and eventually turned to brown flesh mush that we could not even handle. Have a vomit big trashcan nearby, cuz the floor was so disgustingly dirty greasy, and under the fish counter were all these prawns and shrimp what were growing mold afros cuz we were only allowed about 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to tear down, so no time to pick up and soap and scrub the floor.In fact we were not allowed to clean the floor even on our own time as it was against Safeway policy.
So, where were and are the public health departments to stop this ? Where were and are our elected representatives to protect us from such common private enterprise fraud and deception and public health risk? Business as usual.
One of the first strange rules of Safeway was and may still be is that all the fish arrives at stores frozen and yet we employees were forbidden to say that the fish was "frozen". There was a big, huge stainless steel sink with hot water that we would thaw the fish frozen blocks in every morning, to add to all the fish that we could not throw away from the refrigerator and the rusty stainless steel rack and dirty plastic rack cover. So when a customer asked, and we had Playboy bunnies and computer geeks and executives at the counter, "Is this fish fresh?" , meaning has it never been frozen and was it caught and shipped recently, Safeway told us to always answer "Yes, this fish is fresh." A huge lie, but American employees do such things normally in almost every job and field , every day.
Safeway boss told us that they had done a study that if we put out more and bigger stacks of fish, customers would buy more, so we did. But it was so disgusting how we were told to do it. When we thawed frozen new "fresh" fish, we were told to put in on the bottom of the stack of that kind of fish, under all the days and weeks old slimy smelly fish that we might rinse daily,or not.
Gross ? It gets worse. Out in the display trough on ice chips we had a huge 'brown' trout that went out there week after ,,,week,,,and eventually turned to brown flesh mush that we could not even handle. Have a vomit big trashcan nearby, cuz the floor was so disgustingly dirty greasy, and under the fish counter were all these prawns and shrimp what were growing mold afros cuz we were only allowed about 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to tear down, so no time to pick up and soap and scrub the floor.In fact we were not allowed to clean the floor even on our own time as it was against Safeway policy.
So, where were and are the public health departments to stop this ? Where were and are our elected representatives to protect us from such common private enterprise fraud and deception and public health risk? Business as usual.
Amtrak, why did Congress design you to fail ??!?
Amtrak, the press says , is threatened,weak, and about to be cut/killed/downsized by Congress.
So what is wrong with Amtrak ?
If you have ridden Amtrak across the USA you might know the real answer. If you are in Congress, you probably couldn't /wouldn't find the truth because of politics,even with something as important as a national railroad service. The USA is so far behind more civilized and culturally advanced Western Europe as far as public mass transportation goes. Who would even think of privatizing the USA Interstate Highway System with gas prices going higher than $3/gallon than those ivory tower fools in Congress ? And who has made sure Amtrak will sooner or later fail ? Our private campaign dirty money funded Congress.
Ask any passenger who has ridden Amtrak long distances and they will tell you what is wrong with
Amtrak, more honestly than Congress. Ask any Amtrak conductor what is wrong with Amtrak and even as employees they will probably tell you what is chronically fatally wrong with Amtrak.
I asked a conductor why this good idea is failing, after all the millions of square miles of land we gave the private railroads on either side of the tracks to build us a state of the art passenger and freight national railroad system. And all the millions in overpayment that the US railroads and people like Stanford stole from us. Think we would have had a /any less than perfect Interstate Highway System if we had gone a similar overspend and allow to steal privatization route ? Not a greedy chance.
The conductor told me that Amtrak has a terrible rough ride and the trains are often late due to being forced onto a sidetrack by a slow freight train. The USA and Amtrak rent the tracks from these same US railroad theives who have been stealing the USA blind for decades and the private railroad trains have the right-of-way on lousy bumpy freight train tracks. The conductor said Amtrak will never succeed unless it owns the tracks and can upgrade them to passenger smoothness, comfort and safety. The private railroad bastards don't care about passengers period. And he said Amtrak must have the right-of-way. Makes sense.
Now why does our overpaid and overpensioned and over quality medical plan and out-of-touch Congress fail to see or fix this obvious simple problem ?
As a California tour and charter bus driver, i can tell you that Congress and it's Amtrak are wasting millions and billions of dollars on feeder bus company contracts whether or not there are any bus-Amtrak passengers, these buses are crisscrossing this state and probably every other state , as a buy off to the bus industry. This should be pork barrel stopped immediately. And these bus companies get away with putting their oldest and least well maintained buses and worst driving record drivers on the Amtrak paid daily runs. Such a waste.
It does not seem to matter who is put in Amtrak, like a seemingly honorable recent Democratic national presidental candidate, as Congress from the get go has designed intentionally Amtrak to fail.
And we lazy-citizenship Americans, foolish with our national trust, are going to just sit by and let Amtrak fail it seems. It isn't a crying shame, but it is such a stupid waste of USA taxpayer billions and the effort of so many. Get ready for $4 and $5/gallon gas and even more obscene gas company profits than we are seeming now at over $2/gallon.
So what is wrong with Amtrak ?
If you have ridden Amtrak across the USA you might know the real answer. If you are in Congress, you probably couldn't /wouldn't find the truth because of politics,even with something as important as a national railroad service. The USA is so far behind more civilized and culturally advanced Western Europe as far as public mass transportation goes. Who would even think of privatizing the USA Interstate Highway System with gas prices going higher than $3/gallon than those ivory tower fools in Congress ? And who has made sure Amtrak will sooner or later fail ? Our private campaign dirty money funded Congress.
Ask any passenger who has ridden Amtrak long distances and they will tell you what is wrong with
Amtrak, more honestly than Congress. Ask any Amtrak conductor what is wrong with Amtrak and even as employees they will probably tell you what is chronically fatally wrong with Amtrak.
I asked a conductor why this good idea is failing, after all the millions of square miles of land we gave the private railroads on either side of the tracks to build us a state of the art passenger and freight national railroad system. And all the millions in overpayment that the US railroads and people like Stanford stole from us. Think we would have had a /any less than perfect Interstate Highway System if we had gone a similar overspend and allow to steal privatization route ? Not a greedy chance.
The conductor told me that Amtrak has a terrible rough ride and the trains are often late due to being forced onto a sidetrack by a slow freight train. The USA and Amtrak rent the tracks from these same US railroad theives who have been stealing the USA blind for decades and the private railroad trains have the right-of-way on lousy bumpy freight train tracks. The conductor said Amtrak will never succeed unless it owns the tracks and can upgrade them to passenger smoothness, comfort and safety. The private railroad bastards don't care about passengers period. And he said Amtrak must have the right-of-way. Makes sense.
Now why does our overpaid and overpensioned and over quality medical plan and out-of-touch Congress fail to see or fix this obvious simple problem ?
As a California tour and charter bus driver, i can tell you that Congress and it's Amtrak are wasting millions and billions of dollars on feeder bus company contracts whether or not there are any bus-Amtrak passengers, these buses are crisscrossing this state and probably every other state , as a buy off to the bus industry. This should be pork barrel stopped immediately. And these bus companies get away with putting their oldest and least well maintained buses and worst driving record drivers on the Amtrak paid daily runs. Such a waste.
It does not seem to matter who is put in Amtrak, like a seemingly honorable recent Democratic national presidental candidate, as Congress from the get go has designed intentionally Amtrak to fail.
And we lazy-citizenship Americans, foolish with our national trust, are going to just sit by and let Amtrak fail it seems. It isn't a crying shame, but it is such a stupid waste of USA taxpayer billions and the effort of so many. Get ready for $4 and $5/gallon gas and even more obscene gas company profits than we are seeming now at over $2/gallon.
Monday, March 14, 2005
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO PRICE-OUT AMERICA'S WORKING POOR AND SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS ?!?!
I WORKED IN YOSEMITE VALLEY FOR 10 YEARS, FROM 1974 TO 1984, SO BESIDES LOVING JOHN MUIR'S CATHEDRAL, I HAVE SOME MORE THAN PASSING CAR TOURIST INSIGHT,,,
SO WHY DOES THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE,,, AND THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERMENT,,,AND THE MAIN PARK CONCESSIONAIRE DELAWARE NORTH,,,WANT TO RAISE PRICES IN YOSEMITE SO DRASTICALLY AND REMOVE MANY OF THE LOWER PRICED ACCOMODATIONS THAT HAVE THE EFFECT OF KEEPING HARD WORKING AMERICAN CITIZENS, THE WORKING POOR AND THE STILL DECLINING MIDDLE CLASS, FROM VISITING AND ENJOYING ONE OF THE BEST NATIONAL PARKS IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES,,,?
WELL, IT IS JUST A GUESS, BUT I WOULD FIRST LIKE TO BLAME THE PARTY OF THE RICH, THE REPUBLICANS, AND THE PARTY THAT HAS FORGOTTEN THE NON-RICH, THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PARTY.
THEN I WOULD LIKE TO BLAME ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE NATIONAL PARK CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION, THAT TAKE IN ABOUT 60 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR FROM WELL INTENTIONED MOSTLY FOLKS WHO WANT TO HELP THE NPS DOUBLE MISSION OF PROTECTING THE PARKS AND PROVIDING FOR THEIR ENJOYMENT BY THE GREATER PUBLIC, AND YET HAVE THEIR MONEY SPENT BY A BOARD OF RICH SPOILED BASTARDS, YES I HAVE MET THEM, WHO SUBVERT THIS WELL-INTENTIONED HUGE DONATION TO A STATED CAUSE OF "ELIMINATING CARS FROM YOSEMITE COMPLETELY", WHEN THEY KNOW OR SHOULD KNOW THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE FROM A PRACTICAL STANDPOINT AND UNFUNDABLE FROM A RED INK FEDERAL STANDPOINT, BUT SEEM TO HAVE THE UNSPOKED DESIRE TO RETURN YOSEMITE TO THE EXCLUSIVE, VS INCLUSIVE, PLAY GROUND OF THE RICH,,,MID-PRICE LODGING AT YOSEMITE LODGE IS BEING REMOVED AND INEXPENSIVE ACCOMODATIONS OF THE 2 BEST CAMPGROUNDS, UPPER AND LOWER RIVER HAVE ALREADY BEEN PERMANENTLY CLOSED, AND MORE AT CURRY VILLAGE ARE TO BE CLOSED BECAUSE " THEY ARE ON A NATURAL FLOOD PLAIN" WHEN THE VALLEY FLOOR HAS ALWAYS BEEN A NATURAL FLOOD PLAIN !, WITH OR WITHOUT THE WHITE MAN DYNAMITING THE NATURAL TERMINAL MORAINE AT EL CAPITAN, OR THE RECENT REMOVAL OF THE POWER DAM JUST BELOW BRIDALVEIL FALLS AT THE JUNCTION OF HWY 140 AND 120,,,YOU DON'T SEE ANY REMOVAL OF CABINS BEHIND THE EXPENSIVE AHWAHNEE HOTEL THAT ARE ON THE VALLEY'S NATURAL FLOOD PLAIN, DO YOU, RICH BASTARDS ?
AND I WOULD LIKE TO BLAME OUR CALLOUS AND HEARTLESS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN IT'S CURRENT ADMINISTRATION,,,THE YNP GATE FEE JUMPED SEVERAL YEARS BACK FROM $5 /CAR TO $20/CAR IN ONE HUGE STEP,,,MONEY SIPHONED OFF THE WASH,D.C., NO DOUBT,,,AND MONEY TO KEEP THE WORKING POOR AMERICAN CITIZENS AND SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS THAT NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE ABOUT ANYMORE AWAY,,,
PLUS OTHER PRICES INSIDE YOSEMITE ARE SKYROCKETING ,NOT THAT THE 20-30 % RICH BASTARDS OF THE "UNITED" STATES WOULD EVEN FEEL IT,,,A BREAKFAST AT THE AHWAHNEE HOTEL OF PANCAKES USE TO BE AN AFFORDABLE TREAT FOR THE AMERICAN CASH UNDERCLASSES AT LESS THAN $12-15,,,,NOW IT IS ABOUT $20 IF YOU JUST ORDER PANCAKES, THE CHEAPEST ITEM ON THE BREAKFAST MENU,AND FREE TAP WATER,,,OUTRAGEOUS ELITISM !! THERE HAVE BEEN FOR DECADES THESE NPS-INAPPROPRIATE SIGNS INSIDE THE AHWAHNEE HOTEL THAT THE "HOTEL IS FOR THE HOTEL GUESTS",,,AND THE VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS ALLOW THIS CODDLING OF THE RICH, WHEN WE SHOULD BE TAXING THE HECK OUT OF THEM AND THOSE SCURRILOUS "AMERICAN" CORPORATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO AVOID ALL FEDERAL TAXES BY MOVING THEIR HEADQUARTERS OVERSEAS/OFFSHORE TO CORRUPT BURMUDA OR THE CAYMAN ISLANDS,,,
LASTLY I WOULD LIKE TO BLAME THE REGISTER AND NOT REGISTERED AMERICAN VOTER FOR BEING SO LAZY WITH ITS CITIZENSHIP RESPONSIBLITY,SPENDING ALL ITS FOCUS ON MAKING MONEY AND SELFFISH PERSUITS OR TAKING CARE OF THEIR FAMILIES, AND FORGETTING TO VOTE RESPONSIBLY EVERY TIME AND TAKE CARE OF THIS GOVERNMENT OF THE RICH, BY THE RICH, FOR THE RICH REVOLUTION THREAT TO OUR AMERICAN PUBLIC DEMOCRACY.
PLEASE, WAKE UP AMERICA, AND SMELL THE RICH ROTTING OF OUR TREASURES AND ACCESS TO SPECIAL PLACES LIKE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK.
WE MAY BE A NATION OF WANTA- BE -RICH BUT WORKING POOR AND MIDDLE INCOME PEOPLES, BUT HOPEFULLY WE HAVE NOT SUCCUMBED TO THE SICK ANTI-DEMOCRACY ELITISM OF COUNTRIES LIKE ENGLAND AND INDIA, WHERE THERE ARE THE RICH AND THE "UNTOUCHABLE" COMMON WORKERS ,WITH LITTLE OR SHRINKING MIDDLECLASSES.
SO WHY DOES THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE,,, AND THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERMENT,,,AND THE MAIN PARK CONCESSIONAIRE DELAWARE NORTH,,,WANT TO RAISE PRICES IN YOSEMITE SO DRASTICALLY AND REMOVE MANY OF THE LOWER PRICED ACCOMODATIONS THAT HAVE THE EFFECT OF KEEPING HARD WORKING AMERICAN CITIZENS, THE WORKING POOR AND THE STILL DECLINING MIDDLE CLASS, FROM VISITING AND ENJOYING ONE OF THE BEST NATIONAL PARKS IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES,,,?
WELL, IT IS JUST A GUESS, BUT I WOULD FIRST LIKE TO BLAME THE PARTY OF THE RICH, THE REPUBLICANS, AND THE PARTY THAT HAS FORGOTTEN THE NON-RICH, THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PARTY.
THEN I WOULD LIKE TO BLAME ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE NATIONAL PARK CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION, THAT TAKE IN ABOUT 60 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR FROM WELL INTENTIONED MOSTLY FOLKS WHO WANT TO HELP THE NPS DOUBLE MISSION OF PROTECTING THE PARKS AND PROVIDING FOR THEIR ENJOYMENT BY THE GREATER PUBLIC, AND YET HAVE THEIR MONEY SPENT BY A BOARD OF RICH SPOILED BASTARDS, YES I HAVE MET THEM, WHO SUBVERT THIS WELL-INTENTIONED HUGE DONATION TO A STATED CAUSE OF "ELIMINATING CARS FROM YOSEMITE COMPLETELY", WHEN THEY KNOW OR SHOULD KNOW THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE FROM A PRACTICAL STANDPOINT AND UNFUNDABLE FROM A RED INK FEDERAL STANDPOINT, BUT SEEM TO HAVE THE UNSPOKED DESIRE TO RETURN YOSEMITE TO THE EXCLUSIVE, VS INCLUSIVE, PLAY GROUND OF THE RICH,,,MID-PRICE LODGING AT YOSEMITE LODGE IS BEING REMOVED AND INEXPENSIVE ACCOMODATIONS OF THE 2 BEST CAMPGROUNDS, UPPER AND LOWER RIVER HAVE ALREADY BEEN PERMANENTLY CLOSED, AND MORE AT CURRY VILLAGE ARE TO BE CLOSED BECAUSE " THEY ARE ON A NATURAL FLOOD PLAIN" WHEN THE VALLEY FLOOR HAS ALWAYS BEEN A NATURAL FLOOD PLAIN !, WITH OR WITHOUT THE WHITE MAN DYNAMITING THE NATURAL TERMINAL MORAINE AT EL CAPITAN, OR THE RECENT REMOVAL OF THE POWER DAM JUST BELOW BRIDALVEIL FALLS AT THE JUNCTION OF HWY 140 AND 120,,,YOU DON'T SEE ANY REMOVAL OF CABINS BEHIND THE EXPENSIVE AHWAHNEE HOTEL THAT ARE ON THE VALLEY'S NATURAL FLOOD PLAIN, DO YOU, RICH BASTARDS ?
AND I WOULD LIKE TO BLAME OUR CALLOUS AND HEARTLESS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN IT'S CURRENT ADMINISTRATION,,,THE YNP GATE FEE JUMPED SEVERAL YEARS BACK FROM $5 /CAR TO $20/CAR IN ONE HUGE STEP,,,MONEY SIPHONED OFF THE WASH,D.C., NO DOUBT,,,AND MONEY TO KEEP THE WORKING POOR AMERICAN CITIZENS AND SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS THAT NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE ABOUT ANYMORE AWAY,,,
PLUS OTHER PRICES INSIDE YOSEMITE ARE SKYROCKETING ,NOT THAT THE 20-30 % RICH BASTARDS OF THE "UNITED" STATES WOULD EVEN FEEL IT,,,A BREAKFAST AT THE AHWAHNEE HOTEL OF PANCAKES USE TO BE AN AFFORDABLE TREAT FOR THE AMERICAN CASH UNDERCLASSES AT LESS THAN $12-15,,,,NOW IT IS ABOUT $20 IF YOU JUST ORDER PANCAKES, THE CHEAPEST ITEM ON THE BREAKFAST MENU,AND FREE TAP WATER,,,OUTRAGEOUS ELITISM !! THERE HAVE BEEN FOR DECADES THESE NPS-INAPPROPRIATE SIGNS INSIDE THE AHWAHNEE HOTEL THAT THE "HOTEL IS FOR THE HOTEL GUESTS",,,AND THE VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS ALLOW THIS CODDLING OF THE RICH, WHEN WE SHOULD BE TAXING THE HECK OUT OF THEM AND THOSE SCURRILOUS "AMERICAN" CORPORATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO AVOID ALL FEDERAL TAXES BY MOVING THEIR HEADQUARTERS OVERSEAS/OFFSHORE TO CORRUPT BURMUDA OR THE CAYMAN ISLANDS,,,
LASTLY I WOULD LIKE TO BLAME THE REGISTER AND NOT REGISTERED AMERICAN VOTER FOR BEING SO LAZY WITH ITS CITIZENSHIP RESPONSIBLITY,SPENDING ALL ITS FOCUS ON MAKING MONEY AND SELFFISH PERSUITS OR TAKING CARE OF THEIR FAMILIES, AND FORGETTING TO VOTE RESPONSIBLY EVERY TIME AND TAKE CARE OF THIS GOVERNMENT OF THE RICH, BY THE RICH, FOR THE RICH REVOLUTION THREAT TO OUR AMERICAN PUBLIC DEMOCRACY.
PLEASE, WAKE UP AMERICA, AND SMELL THE RICH ROTTING OF OUR TREASURES AND ACCESS TO SPECIAL PLACES LIKE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK.
WE MAY BE A NATION OF WANTA- BE -RICH BUT WORKING POOR AND MIDDLE INCOME PEOPLES, BUT HOPEFULLY WE HAVE NOT SUCCUMBED TO THE SICK ANTI-DEMOCRACY ELITISM OF COUNTRIES LIKE ENGLAND AND INDIA, WHERE THERE ARE THE RICH AND THE "UNTOUCHABLE" COMMON WORKERS ,WITH LITTLE OR SHRINKING MIDDLECLASSES.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
JANUARY 2005 AND THE I.R.S. IS KNOWINGLY OVERCHARGING INDIVIDUAL AMERICAN TAXPAYERS !!!!!
DEAR FELLOW AMERICANS,
I RECENTLY HAD TO REDO MY 2002 FEDERAL TAXES BECAUSE I DID NOT FILL OUT THE SCHEDULE D PROPERLY FOR THE SALE OF MUTUAL FUNDS, STOCK, AND AN IRA THAT THE MGMT CO. DECIDED TO NOT MANAGE ANY MORE,,,I PAID THE $1518 NEW BILL AFTER GOING TO H+R BLOCK TO PAY $120 TO A FEDERAL RETIREE WHO WAS IN A ROOKIE PANIC AND KEPT ASKING HIS 2 SENIORS AT THE BASCOM-VALLEY MED OFFICE WWWHAT DO I DO NOW,,,BEWARE OF ROOKIES AND INCOMPETENCE AT H=R BLOCK !!,,,THEN I GET ANOTHER BILL FROM THE FEDS IRS THAT I OWE $1638,,,SO I GO BACK TO THE SAME STUMBLING FUMBLING UNPROFESSIONAL H+R BLOCK OFFICE AND THE MANAGER TAKES A HALF HOUR TO FIGURE OUT THAT THE FEDS IRS JUST WANTS THE DIFFERENCE OF $118, THE INTEREST ON THE DUE $1518 SINCE 2002 !!,,,
NOW HERE IS THE KICKER,,,THE IRS SAY THAT THEY RECIEVED THE $1518, BUT DID NOT ACCOUNT FOR IT ON THE SECOND BILL AS A PAYMENT BECAUSE IT IS 2=3 WEEKS BACKLOGGED IN DATA ENTRY AND THUS IS KNOWINLY OVERCHARGING MANY AMERICANS ON THEIR TAXES BY NOT QUICKLY ENTERING PAYMENTS !!,,,
THE FEDS IRS IS A MESS AND NOT GETTING ANY BETTER AS ONE CONGRESS AFTER ANOTHER ,WETHER DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN, SHIRKS ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO DO THE HARD WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE EACH YEAR, WHILE STILL GETTING FULLY PAID,,,THERE ARE NOT ONLY LOOPHOLES, BUT "RIFLESHOTS" OF SPECIFIC IRS EXEMPTIONS OF INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES THAT DESERVE TO PAY TAXES,,,AND NOW WE HAVE BUSH43 WHO LETS AMERICAN AND MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES DOING BIZ IN THE USA MOVE THEIR "HEADQUARTERS" TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY LIKE BURMUDA AND THE CARRIBEAN CORRUPT GRAND CAYMAN TO AVOID PAYING ANY TAXES ON HUGE USA BIZ AND HUGE PROFITS,,,CRAZY,,,AND MEAN SPIRITED,,,THIS CURRENT PUSH TO HAVE THE RICH WITH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH PAY LESS TAX OR NO TAX THAN THE SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS/CASH AND THE WORKING POOR GROWING PERCENTAGE OF THE USA IS GOING TO BE OUR RUINATION,,,GOING BACK TO GOVERNOR AND PRESIDENT REAGAN WHO SUCCESSFULLY GOT THE FED TAX RATE DOWN FROM 70% OF THE TOP CREAM AND FOAM OF THESE MULITMILLION DOLLAR SALARIES TO JUST A TOP PERCENTAGE OF THAT TOP INCOME FOAM OF 28% HURT THE USA MORE THAN THE REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS ARE WILLING TO TALK ABOUT,,,WE NEED GOOD HONEST GOVERNMENT AND GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE FROM SAFE HIGHWAYS AND COPS ON THE STREET NOT IN CRUISERS OR HIDING IN OFICES AND ALL THAT IS EXPENSIVE AND THE RICH SHOULD PROGRESSIVELY, NOT SOCIALISTIC BUT SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLY, PAY A MUCH GREATER PERCENTAGE OF THEIR INCOME AND WEALTH FOR THE PRIVILEDGE OF WORKING AND LIVING IN THE USA,,,DID NOT GOVERNOR REAGAN DURING HIS TERM IN CALIFORNIA WATCH THE CLOSING OF BOTH S.F. BAY AREA MENTAL HOSPITALS, AGNEWS IN THE SOUTH BAY SILICON VALLEY AND SONOMA MENTAL HOSPITAL IN THE NORTHERN WINE COUNTRY ?,,,THAT IS JUST CALLOUS MEANNESS BY THE SELFFISH RICH REPUBLICANS AND NEGLECT BY THE DEMOCRATS,,,AND NOW MANY A S.F. TOURIST ESPECIALLY THOSE ON CORPORATE CONVENTION JUNKETS COMPLAIN ABOUT CRAZY DIRTY PEOPLE LIVING ON THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO THAT IS FEEDING IN SOUP KITCHENS AND CLOTHING AND HOUSING THESE SAME MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE THAT WERE KICKED OUT OF THESE TWO HUGE S.F. BAY AREA MENTAL HOSPITALS WHERE THEY GOT MUCH BETTER CARE,REGARDLESS OF THE RIGHTS WEAK EXCUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS LIMITING KEEPING INCAPABLE PEOPLE IN CAREGIVING INSTITUTIONS,,,SOME OF MY CONSERVATIVE TALK SHOW LISTENING FRIENDS TELL ME THAT FORMER GOVERNOR PAT BROWN IS NOW BEING BLAMED FOR CLOSING HUGE AGNEWS AND SOMONA, BUT THE RNC IS FULL OF LIARS ,PAID OR JUST WACKED LOYAL ANTI-AMERICAN ,WHO WILL LIE LIKE A RUG, ALA THE SWIFT BOAT VETERANS WHO SMEARED THE WEAK SENATOR KERRY WITH A WOUNDED VIETNAM BATTLEGROUND RESUME',VERSUS A PREZ BUSH43 WHO WAS AN ADMITTED DRUNK WELL INTO ADULTHOOD AND HID OUT IN THE USA DURING VIETNAM PROBABLY NOT EVEN GOING TO ARKANSAS OR TEXAS TO FLY A JET OVER THE USA,,,NOW HOW MANY RED BLOODED AMERICANS WOULD HAVE PASSED ON THAT DURING VIETNAM !!?,,,LET'S SEE, YOU CAN GO TO SOUTHEAST ASIA AND FIGHT AND KILL THE PEOPLE THE PENTAGON IS NOW CALLING GOOKS OR YOU CAN FLY A JET OVER ARKANSAS AND TEXAS ?,,,BOY, THAT IS A TOUGH ONE,,,MAYBE I JUST GET DRUNK AND LET MY RICH DADDY ,BUSH41,PROTECT ME,,,NO WONDER THE RED STATES IDENTIFY WITH SUCH A LOSER AS BUSH43,,,HE IS THE INTERNATIONAL LAUGHING STOCK OF ALL OUR FORMER ALLIES LIKE ENGLAND AND GERMANY AND WESTERN EUROPE, NOT TO MENTION FRANCE'S PEOPLE,,,
WHERE DO WE GET SUCH NATIONAL LOSERS AS BUSH43, FORD, NIXON,PSYCH.HUGE -FLAWED CLINTON THE LIAR, AGNEW,REAGAN THE PHONY SHALLOW DIMWIT HOLLYWOOD ACTOR BUT HANDSOME, AND ON AND ON BACK INTO OUR NATIONAL HISTORY ?!?MAYBE IT IS THE FATAL FLAW OF THE JUST 2 NATIONAL PARTIES,,,
WATCH OUT FOR THE IRS AND H+R BLOCK, NEIGHBORS,,,
ISN'T IT INTERESTING THAT AS SOON AS SOMEONE GETS RICH, AND I HAVE LIMO DRIVEN A TON OF CELEBS AND MULIMILS, THEY GET VERY SELFISH AND HEARTLESS AND GREEDY AND LOSE THEIR COMPASSION AND AMERICAN DUTY TO THE LESS FORTUNATE, UNTIL THEY ALMOST DIE AND THEN THEY START A FOUNDATION IN THEIR OWN NAME FOR TAX PURPOSES AND PROBABLY A LOT OF SMOTHERED GUILT OVER PAST MISDEEDS AND UNSCRUPULOUS FORMER FULL LIFETIME OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY, LIKE LELAND STANFORD OF STANFORD U. ,,,?
I RECENTLY HAD TO REDO MY 2002 FEDERAL TAXES BECAUSE I DID NOT FILL OUT THE SCHEDULE D PROPERLY FOR THE SALE OF MUTUAL FUNDS, STOCK, AND AN IRA THAT THE MGMT CO. DECIDED TO NOT MANAGE ANY MORE,,,I PAID THE $1518 NEW BILL AFTER GOING TO H+R BLOCK TO PAY $120 TO A FEDERAL RETIREE WHO WAS IN A ROOKIE PANIC AND KEPT ASKING HIS 2 SENIORS AT THE BASCOM-VALLEY MED OFFICE WWWHAT DO I DO NOW,,,BEWARE OF ROOKIES AND INCOMPETENCE AT H=R BLOCK !!,,,THEN I GET ANOTHER BILL FROM THE FEDS IRS THAT I OWE $1638,,,SO I GO BACK TO THE SAME STUMBLING FUMBLING UNPROFESSIONAL H+R BLOCK OFFICE AND THE MANAGER TAKES A HALF HOUR TO FIGURE OUT THAT THE FEDS IRS JUST WANTS THE DIFFERENCE OF $118, THE INTEREST ON THE DUE $1518 SINCE 2002 !!,,,
NOW HERE IS THE KICKER,,,THE IRS SAY THAT THEY RECIEVED THE $1518, BUT DID NOT ACCOUNT FOR IT ON THE SECOND BILL AS A PAYMENT BECAUSE IT IS 2=3 WEEKS BACKLOGGED IN DATA ENTRY AND THUS IS KNOWINLY OVERCHARGING MANY AMERICANS ON THEIR TAXES BY NOT QUICKLY ENTERING PAYMENTS !!,,,
THE FEDS IRS IS A MESS AND NOT GETTING ANY BETTER AS ONE CONGRESS AFTER ANOTHER ,WETHER DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN, SHIRKS ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO DO THE HARD WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE EACH YEAR, WHILE STILL GETTING FULLY PAID,,,THERE ARE NOT ONLY LOOPHOLES, BUT "RIFLESHOTS" OF SPECIFIC IRS EXEMPTIONS OF INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES THAT DESERVE TO PAY TAXES,,,AND NOW WE HAVE BUSH43 WHO LETS AMERICAN AND MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES DOING BIZ IN THE USA MOVE THEIR "HEADQUARTERS" TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY LIKE BURMUDA AND THE CARRIBEAN CORRUPT GRAND CAYMAN TO AVOID PAYING ANY TAXES ON HUGE USA BIZ AND HUGE PROFITS,,,CRAZY,,,AND MEAN SPIRITED,,,THIS CURRENT PUSH TO HAVE THE RICH WITH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH PAY LESS TAX OR NO TAX THAN THE SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS/CASH AND THE WORKING POOR GROWING PERCENTAGE OF THE USA IS GOING TO BE OUR RUINATION,,,GOING BACK TO GOVERNOR AND PRESIDENT REAGAN WHO SUCCESSFULLY GOT THE FED TAX RATE DOWN FROM 70% OF THE TOP CREAM AND FOAM OF THESE MULITMILLION DOLLAR SALARIES TO JUST A TOP PERCENTAGE OF THAT TOP INCOME FOAM OF 28% HURT THE USA MORE THAN THE REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS ARE WILLING TO TALK ABOUT,,,WE NEED GOOD HONEST GOVERNMENT AND GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE FROM SAFE HIGHWAYS AND COPS ON THE STREET NOT IN CRUISERS OR HIDING IN OFICES AND ALL THAT IS EXPENSIVE AND THE RICH SHOULD PROGRESSIVELY, NOT SOCIALISTIC BUT SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLY, PAY A MUCH GREATER PERCENTAGE OF THEIR INCOME AND WEALTH FOR THE PRIVILEDGE OF WORKING AND LIVING IN THE USA,,,DID NOT GOVERNOR REAGAN DURING HIS TERM IN CALIFORNIA WATCH THE CLOSING OF BOTH S.F. BAY AREA MENTAL HOSPITALS, AGNEWS IN THE SOUTH BAY SILICON VALLEY AND SONOMA MENTAL HOSPITAL IN THE NORTHERN WINE COUNTRY ?,,,THAT IS JUST CALLOUS MEANNESS BY THE SELFFISH RICH REPUBLICANS AND NEGLECT BY THE DEMOCRATS,,,AND NOW MANY A S.F. TOURIST ESPECIALLY THOSE ON CORPORATE CONVENTION JUNKETS COMPLAIN ABOUT CRAZY DIRTY PEOPLE LIVING ON THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO THAT IS FEEDING IN SOUP KITCHENS AND CLOTHING AND HOUSING THESE SAME MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE THAT WERE KICKED OUT OF THESE TWO HUGE S.F. BAY AREA MENTAL HOSPITALS WHERE THEY GOT MUCH BETTER CARE,REGARDLESS OF THE RIGHTS WEAK EXCUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS LIMITING KEEPING INCAPABLE PEOPLE IN CAREGIVING INSTITUTIONS,,,SOME OF MY CONSERVATIVE TALK SHOW LISTENING FRIENDS TELL ME THAT FORMER GOVERNOR PAT BROWN IS NOW BEING BLAMED FOR CLOSING HUGE AGNEWS AND SOMONA, BUT THE RNC IS FULL OF LIARS ,PAID OR JUST WACKED LOYAL ANTI-AMERICAN ,WHO WILL LIE LIKE A RUG, ALA THE SWIFT BOAT VETERANS WHO SMEARED THE WEAK SENATOR KERRY WITH A WOUNDED VIETNAM BATTLEGROUND RESUME',VERSUS A PREZ BUSH43 WHO WAS AN ADMITTED DRUNK WELL INTO ADULTHOOD AND HID OUT IN THE USA DURING VIETNAM PROBABLY NOT EVEN GOING TO ARKANSAS OR TEXAS TO FLY A JET OVER THE USA,,,NOW HOW MANY RED BLOODED AMERICANS WOULD HAVE PASSED ON THAT DURING VIETNAM !!?,,,LET'S SEE, YOU CAN GO TO SOUTHEAST ASIA AND FIGHT AND KILL THE PEOPLE THE PENTAGON IS NOW CALLING GOOKS OR YOU CAN FLY A JET OVER ARKANSAS AND TEXAS ?,,,BOY, THAT IS A TOUGH ONE,,,MAYBE I JUST GET DRUNK AND LET MY RICH DADDY ,BUSH41,PROTECT ME,,,NO WONDER THE RED STATES IDENTIFY WITH SUCH A LOSER AS BUSH43,,,HE IS THE INTERNATIONAL LAUGHING STOCK OF ALL OUR FORMER ALLIES LIKE ENGLAND AND GERMANY AND WESTERN EUROPE, NOT TO MENTION FRANCE'S PEOPLE,,,
WHERE DO WE GET SUCH NATIONAL LOSERS AS BUSH43, FORD, NIXON,PSYCH.HUGE -FLAWED CLINTON THE LIAR, AGNEW,REAGAN THE PHONY SHALLOW DIMWIT HOLLYWOOD ACTOR BUT HANDSOME, AND ON AND ON BACK INTO OUR NATIONAL HISTORY ?!?MAYBE IT IS THE FATAL FLAW OF THE JUST 2 NATIONAL PARTIES,,,
WATCH OUT FOR THE IRS AND H+R BLOCK, NEIGHBORS,,,
ISN'T IT INTERESTING THAT AS SOON AS SOMEONE GETS RICH, AND I HAVE LIMO DRIVEN A TON OF CELEBS AND MULIMILS, THEY GET VERY SELFISH AND HEARTLESS AND GREEDY AND LOSE THEIR COMPASSION AND AMERICAN DUTY TO THE LESS FORTUNATE, UNTIL THEY ALMOST DIE AND THEN THEY START A FOUNDATION IN THEIR OWN NAME FOR TAX PURPOSES AND PROBABLY A LOT OF SMOTHERED GUILT OVER PAST MISDEEDS AND UNSCRUPULOUS FORMER FULL LIFETIME OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY, LIKE LELAND STANFORD OF STANFORD U. ,,,?
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