My eagle-eyed readers will notice several new buttons at the bottom of each post. What the hell are they? I’ll tell ya.
The post’s permalink.
A printer-friendly version of the post, suitable for framing.
A form allowing you to email the post.
The post’s comments.
The RSS 2.0 feed for the post’s comments.
Possibly coming soon: buttons for converting a post to PDF and sending a link via AOL Instant Messenger.
This is just plain funny.
I was sending something via FedEx today, and I noticed something interesting about the carrier’s rate schedules. Thanks to the Rate Finder, I was able to find rates and transit times to send an envelope from Houston to South Bend, Ind. For the sake of discussion, I’ll make the following assumptions:
Here’s the data:
Graph the points, and here’s what you get:
Look at the marginal values, and here’s what you get:
This is really the meat of it. Upgrading from the cheapo service to 2Day, Standard Overnight or even Priority Overnight costs a few cents for every hour of improved speed. After all, if you’re torn between 2-day and 3-day service, the package isn’t all that time-sensitive.But First Overnight costs more than $16 per hour of improvement over its cheaper brother, Priority Overnight. I wouldn’t think there are too many situations where 10:30 a.m. isn’t fast enough, but 8:30 a.m. is.
That said, if you’re in one of those situations, it really “absolutely, positively has to get there” first thing in the morning. FedEx knows that in that kind of right-down-to-the-wire, pressure-cooker situation, people will pay. A lot.
I’ve said this before, but I love Southwest Airlines. It’s an amazingly successful company in an industry loaded with money-losing, flight-cancelling, bankruptcy-declaring, customer-pissing-off dinosaurs. I don’t fly a whole lot — maybe four roundtrips a year — but I always try to fly Southwest. It’s faster, cheaper and safer than pretty much any airline out there. Hotter stewardesses, too.
That’s why I was happy to download Southwest’s “Ding” application. It’s a small app that sits in the system tray, displaying the familiar striped 737 tail. Whenever Southwest has a sale or other promotion, it plays a “Ding” sound effect, and I hurriedly click on the icon to see where I can go. Everytime, memories of Caesars flash through my mind.
Here’s what makes it even better. Southwest recently changed its Rapid Rewards program so that credits are good for two years instead of one. What’s more, the company retroactively applied the change, so I’m just two flights away from a freebie. I’m heading to South Bend in a few weeks for The Observer’s 40th anniversary reunion/drinking binge. This summer, I’ll be heading to Medina, Ohio (rhymes with vagina) for Tommy’s wedding. After that, I’ll get a flight (and booze!) for free. Hell yeah.
Lately I’ve been hearing more and more about Bill’s Khakis. I don’t know what could be so special — they’re just khaki pants, after all — but people love these things. Here’s the top review on Amazon:
Yep, these babies are like no other khakis you will ever own. I have two pair, one that I just got. They are the best fitting pants you can get…just make sure you order them a little bigger than your usual size. Take them to a tailor and get them properly hemmed and you will never regret it. I took my first pair to the cleaners often but I’m not going to do that with this new pair…just wash and hang to dry. They look great and will last forever. Bitchin pants!
Wow. Glenn Beck is a fan, too. The folks at Bill’s say their pants are inspired by the pants issued to GIs in World War II. I know for a fact that other designs from that era have withstood the test of time, like the brilliantly simple P-38 can opener.
Here’s the thing, though: they’re $97.50. I’ve never spent that much on a pair of pants in my 24 years on this earth. But if they’re worth it, I’ll go for it. Anyone out there have a pair of these?
I replaced my busted water heater over the weekend. That’s got to be one of the easiest home improvement projects around. From start to finish, it was about two hours, and that includes the trips to Lowe’s and the time it took for the new heater to fill up. And the whole thing cost me about a quarter of what the jackals at Blackmon Mooring wanted for the job. Here’s how it went:
Shut the water off.
Shut the power off.
Drained the old heater and moved it off to the side.
Marshalled my forces.
Removed the old leaky hoses.
Moved the new heater into place.
Teflon-taped the hot and cold water connections.
Connected the hot and cold water hoses.
Connected a drain line to the pressure-relief valve.
Turned the water back on and waited for the heater to fill up.
Turned the power back on.
Voila! Plenty of hot water for cleaning up my filthy hovel.
Piece of cake.
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