I am surprised by what I expect to be a topnotch retail experience that disappoints.

Sandwich

I ordered a ham and Swiss on whole wheat with butter at a neighborhood high end food emporium. I learned that they only use rolls and the sandwich maker suggested I buy a loaf of whole wheat—available at the bakery section nearby–and he’d make the sandwich with that. I went with the roll. Next, he said he had no butter. The store sells a large selection of butter. Seemed strange that the sandwich maker at a boutique food emporium didn’t have standard ingredients at hand in midtown Manhattan.

Delivery

A few things I’d ordered on Amazon arrived as scheduled. Missing was the thing I needed right away. I checked the order online to learn that it wouldn’t arrive for 15 days. I was disappointed that Amazon hadn’t warned me to begin with. I’d have cancelled the order.

It’s an item I can’t find in neighborhood stores. I found another online source that carried it and checked it out—it had good ratings. But it didn’t tell me when the order would arrive. I ordered it anyway. In the confirmation it said it would ship in one or two days. Not soon enough so I found something like it–but not as good–in a store a few bus stops away. The second online order arrived in two days.

What reputable brands are still reliable?

   

In the day that retail stores closed on Sunday, one Saturday there was a grandfather who promised his young grandson a visit to FAO Schwarz the next day if he’d finish his dinner. The child complied. He was devastated when they arrived at the store the next day to find it closed.

Assuming the president isn’t like the grandfather, and he knows where the $trillion to cover the promise will come from, we’ll each receive $5,000 if the midterm elections give Republicans the House and Senate. I thought it would be fun to fantasize about what I’ll do with my bribe.

He said we’d have to spend the money in the U.S. I wonder how he’ll keep track? If I take $5,000 out of savings to buy airfare to Europe and deposit the $5K into my account, am I in the clear?

Can I pay off a year’s worth of insurance premiums? Debt? Rent?

Must I keep receipts of my purchases?

Does donating some to charity count?

Will children receive $5,000? Can they deposit their handout into a college fund?

Have you ever promised something you knew you couldn’t fulfill? What would you do with a $5,000 handout? Do you think such a promise will get people to vote Republican? Is it enough money to soften the blow for Democrats?

   

As we approach 9/11’s 25^th anniversary it’s hard not to think of that shocking day—especially for New Yorkers I suspect—recalling where we were that morning and when we learned about the devastation.

I would normally have been at work but I had a 9:30 appointment in Grand Central Terminal to meet clients. We were going to see what a magazine had done with the client’s products in a decorative installation in Vanderbilt Hall.

I was at the bathroom sink when I heard the hosts of a morning radio show report that they’d just seen a plane crash into the World Trade Center. As I rushed to turn on the TV I called out to Homer who was working in his home office. We were standing in front of the TV when the second plane hit.

I left to meet the clients—I lived a few blocks from the station. The sky was pristine blue. We were in the installation with the editors when we were asked to leave the station. A plane had just hit the Pentagon. Now we were even more alarmed.

My clients walked me home to 35^th street and proceeded downtown to their offices.

Homer accompanied me to my office on West 44^th Street to pick up some work. Madison Avenue was filled with people walking uptown. Nobody spoke.

We saw the top of the Chrysler building from our bedroom. The city lights were turned off—including the building’s iconic art deco necklace—so the city would be less of a target for additional attacks.

The events were so shocking that I didn’t touch the work I brought home. Such paralysis had never happened for me even after the deaths of my parents. Intrepid New Yorkers who never flinched at a siren or jumped at a backfiring truck became on alert all the time.

In a way we are going through a similarly shocking patch in slow motion watching as lives are lost and citizens suffer. A New York Times article by Luke Broadwater and Maggie Haberman sheds some light. The headline and subhead: “As War Grinds On, Trump Relishes Renovation Projects–President Trump is basking in the momentum of the various projects he has spurred around downtown Washington.” Are these projects a modern-day version of the mythical violin that Nero played in 64 AD as the Eternal City burned?

Why is it that we tend to remember the supremely sad days and not so much the moments in which we’ve been lauded or told good news? Where were you on 9/11?

   

I usually know who I am voting for long before an election and nothing short of a legit scandal will change my mind.

This is why I am puzzled why so often it is the candidate with the biggest war chest that wins.

He/she can stuff my mailbox with postcards or cause me to grab for my remote when the zillionth political TV commercial pops on my TV screen either attacking the opponent or showing the person hugging children or seniors. It won’t change my mind.

The New York Times article by Shane Goldmacher and Theodore Schleifer that made me decide to write again about this enigma is “Millions of Dollars in Secret Spending Could Upend the 2026 Midterms–At least $1 billion from anonymous donors is flowing into the midterm elections. Dark money is not new, but it now permeates nearly every major contest.”

This may be a legitimate issue –as is the idea that I support that there should be a limited amount permitted for every candidate to spend–but it doesn’t explain why smothering voters with marketing junk leads to a win. Who falls for the falderal?

   

I remember my transition from writing first drafts of press releases and memos from a lined legal pad then a typewriter to moving straight to a computer—deep sixing the pad. [I couldn’t find one to photograph to illustrate the post.]

There has definitely been a change in my brain because now I think more clearly using a keypad than using a pen or pencil. In addition, long before AI, spellcheck and Google have made me lazy.

My experience is anecdotal and statistically insignificant. But the University of Chicago made a move that gave my observations some credibility.

Starting with the fall semester, “The University of Chicago is introducing an ‘analog’ approach to its undergraduate Social Sciences Core this autumn, requiring students to attend classes in person, keep most electronic devices away and complete coursework without artificial intelligence assistance,” wrote H. Yang in The Educationist.

“The new approach is set out in guidance issued by the university’s Social Sciences Collegiate Division (SSCD), which says the policy reflects a ‘strong consensus’ among Social Sciences Core chairs and faculty that the sequences are best understood as a pedagogical setting ‘without AI.’”

The policy “establishes a broader learning environment centered on face-to-face discussion, human interaction and independent reading, writing and thinking.”

The stated aim is to “equip students to “read, write, and think without dependence on AI” before progressing to higher-level study.”

Students must attend in person, and no devices will be permitted in classrooms.

The instructor/professor will grade the students—no internes or teaching assistants of “large language models.” This caught my eye because as I reported previously on this blog, an assistant gave me a poor grade on an exam while I knew I’d regurgitated precisely what the professor had told us in class. I met with the professor, explained my upset and he changed the grade.

Do you think the students will suffer from turning back the dial on technology or that their experience will enhance their education? Have you noticed how your brain has changed as you use tech advancements?