Neflix Quagmire

Have any of you gotten "stuck" with Nefflix?

I have had the same three movies out for....I'm not going to admit how long. I never seem to be in the right mood for them. And so they sit. And so I pay $15 a month to not watch 3 movies a month. For the record, my three movies are:

1: Ikiru
2: Requiem for a Dream
3: Anger Management

Give in and just send them back! Thats what I say. Anyone else willing to admit to this and disclose what movies they have?

Howard Yellen

Death by a Thousand Cuts

Big corporate scams are obvious - Enron, Worldcom,

But there are scores of small rip-offs that we deal with every day. Let me share three that have gotten under my skin. These are clearly nits, but pick I must.

1: The St. Mary's Garage in San Francisco has a early bird special that lets you park all day for $20 if you arrive by 9AM. After that it is $30. They advertise the special with two giant signs. The full rate is only displayed on one complex board that you don't see until you pull into the ticket dispensing area. They do not pull down the early bird special signs or put up a "$30 All Day" sign. How many people park, only to get an unexpected $10 bonus?

2: My Treo cell phone with service by Sprint makes it impossible to hang up on a call if you answer another through call waiting. So, I have had times where I was using minutes on one active call, and the other call that has long ago disconnected also continues to bill.

3: If you use a credit card at Safeway the terminal tries to steer you to entering a PIN so it will be treated as an ATM transaction. It takes 5 or 6 steps to use the card as a credit card, while using an ATM card only takes 2 steps. Why? Safeway pays less for ATM transactions. Meanwhile, you get charged cash advance fees on your credit card if you use it as an ATM card.

Anyone else have examples of these sorts of irritating practices?

A Heart, A Brain, Some Nerve

Check out www.lifesharers.org its a way to do some good, and buy some insurance.