It was an eye opener decades ago when my husband pointed out to this bargain shopper that I didn’t save money when paying $39.95 for a shirt marked down from $75 because it was only worth $39.95 if that’s what people were willing to pay.

I’m fascinated by people’s spending priorities. Remember the old joke about decorative products? The scene: a big box store. Q from the customer: What’s the difference between the $30 and $50 window shades?” A from the sales associate: “$20.”

Can’t Sneak by This Price

I was waiting over 15 minutes for the bus the other windy day. Those sharing the sidewalk and shivers with me started to chat. Conversations like this don’t happen as much anymore, but I love it when they do.

One of the future passengers had wrenched her knee in a bad fall and was coming from PT at a nearby hospital. She raved about her sneakers that looked rather shabby. She told us she had paid $800 for them. She explained that their distressed, worn appearance was deliberate and the brand’s hallmark look. The only man waiting, his leg in a brace, said “I know about expensive sneakers. I have two teenage daughters.” If you want to pay hundreds of dollars for a pair, check out Golden Goose.  [I am awed by the cost of my wonderful Hoka sneakers that, if on sale, cost $110 and up.]

Canvasing for Totes

Meanwhile Trader Joe’s can’t keep their sturdy pastel mini canvas tote bags in stock. According to Google “Trader Joe’s $2.99 mini pastel canvas tote bags are commanding extreme resale prices in Europe, with some listings hitting between $10,000 and $50,000, and even a $1 million listing for a set, as they become a rare, sought-after status symbol in cities like London.” 

They were sold out instantly on St Patrick’s Day, the first day they were available this spring, but I snagged one the next day for an out-of-town friend who had asked for a bag last year when I’d missed the chance.

What a Gas

How high will the price of gas go before it impacts your commute, errand schedule and excursions? The national average currently flirts with $4/gallon.

How do you determine when to pay what seems a lot to some for a service or product? Are people enchanted by exorbitant price tags for bragging rights? Do they figure that if expensive an item or service must be great?

   

Sometimes you have to scratch your head in wonder.

Drug free

The other day I cleaned out a medicine cabinet, something I should have done ages ago. I found a cache of ancient prescription meds so I dropped into a chain drugstore where I’ve tossed expired antibiotics or painkillers before. It used to sport a giant sign and be easy to find. The druggist was at lunch, so an associate took me to the new spot. The receptacle was hidden behind a giant column—with no sign to identify it. I’d just been in that area and didn’t see it. What’s the point of downplaying such an essential service?

You can’t bank on it.

After conducting business at a bank with very few branches and none near me I asked for the mailing address should I want to deposit a check. The clerk told me you can’t do that. However, when I confirmed this online, I found an address to which I certainly can. Curious. Lack of training?

Thank goodness it Isn’t So

I checked Snopes when I saw terrible news in a Facebook posting. The claim, a Snopes worded it: “NBC News war correspondent Richard Engel was injured while reporting in Israel before March 13, 2026.” Continued Snopes: “This rumor started with content generated by artificial intelligence. Engel said the fake stories had ‘serious consequences’ because the stories would sow doubt and confusion if something did actually happen to him.”

Snopes further quoted Engel: “I just saw a photograph of me laying on my back in a hospital bed with tubes and Mary, my wife, looking lovingly in my eyes as if this is some sort of final moment. Totally not true. Mary, her only comment was, ‘I don’t think my nose looks good in that photo.’ So, nobody’s freaking out on this. I’m not freaking out. Mary’s not freaking out.”

I didn’t send that

I got a threatening demand in an email to pay bitcoin immediately or else all sorts of horrors would befall the documents in my laptop and terrible things about me would be sent to all my contacts. It had the earmarks of a scam, but what unnerved me was that it appeared to have been sent by me.

Do you have similar examples that make you ask “Really????”

   

I first wrote about neighbors in May, 2011. It was a happy post about helpful neighbors.

The other day Alison Stewart, the host of “All of It” on WNYC, spoke with Dylan Redford and Harrison Fishman, producers of the HBO docuseries “Neighbors.” I’m not a subscriber, but the topic—testy, difficult neighbors—intrigued me.

Some of the show’s callers shared doozies. Jenna from Fishkill, N.Y. had a landlord in Brooklyn who moved her things around when she wasn’t home and installed a camera to capture her comings and goings. The last straw: He left a dead rat in her bedroom. She got out of there.

An audience member texted “treadmill in Brooklyn apartment.”

A caller said a neighbor was tossing garbage at the bottom of her yard. Another neighbor caught the perpetrator in the act.

A former acquaintance loved her apartment in a NYC suburb close to Manhattan, where she worked. She’d been there for years and her rent was low. But when her downstairs neighbor, who constantly complained about the noise her boys made, punched her in the face in the stairwell, she had to go. The landlord would not take her side. She felt threatened.

Friends of my parents had a neighbor who disliked the enormous trees that fronted their Westchester property creating a magnificent natural privacy wall. I think the trees, that obviously had been there for decades, interrupted their view. They had the trees chopped down when the friends were away.

I was sued by neighbors in a co-op building. The co-op president pleaded with them to present the bill to their insurance company for water damage to their kitchen caused by the uncoupling of my washing machine in the middle of the night. They refused. My husband had known them for 30 years. We sold the apartment.

Do you have good and bad neighbor stories to share?

   

The premise of the “Antique Road Show” draws viewers who wonder whether the dusty picture or sculpture in the attic, a watercolor inherited from Aunt Mildred or gewgaw picked up for a song at a flea market or garage sale may be worth $millions.

In this regard, owners of a 17^th century painting received good news. The private collector owned a painting, “Vision of Zacharias in the Temple,” (1633) which in 1960 was determined NOT to be by Rembrandt. But they decided to have it examined again.

After a two-year study the picture, on permanent loan to and on view at the Rijksmuseum Museum in Amsterdam since early March, was confirmed to have been painted by the Dutch master. “The Rijksmuseum receives many emails from people asking for information about paintings they have inherited or bought, Dibbits said. In this case, they knew it could be something special.” Taco Dibbits is the museum’s director. Ian Youngs, BBC culture reporter, wrote about the findings.

Youngs reported: “The signature is original and the wooden panel dates from the correct period, the researchers said.

“Its value is not known, but the world record auction price for a Rembrandt painting is £20m, set in 2009.”

Jo Lawson-Tancred wrote on artnet.com, “In the distant past it had been attributed to Rembrandt, and appeared in the first major Dutch exhibition dedicated to the artist at the Stedelijk Museum in 1898.

“After 1960, however, specialists decided the work might have been painted by one of Rembrandt’s collaborators such as Jan Lievens or Salomon Koninck, according to the Dutch news outlet Het Parool.”

Wrote Lawson-Tancred, “a macro-XRF scan that revealed ‘pentimenti,’ traces that reveal a composition has been altered. These are typical of the Dutch Old Masters painting technique.

“The work’s oak panel was accurately dated to around 1625 and 1640 by dendrochronological analysis,” she reported. “A material analysis showed that the paints used were the same as those used in other Rembrandt works from the period. Other factors that support the authentication of this painting include its overall high quality and its thematic similarities with the rest of Rembrandt’s oeuvre, including Daniel and Cyrus Before the Idol Bel (1633) and Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630).”

The picture “portrays the moment the high priest Zacharias is visited by the archangel Gabriel, who announces that he and his wife will have a son—the future Saint John the Baptist. Though the angel is not directly visible in the composition, a burst of radiant light suggests his divine presence,” the European news reporter wrote.

Persistence pays. Have you similarly followed up, in any number of instances, to discover that what at first was a “no” eventually became a “yes?”

   

When my husband was assigned to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, we lived on the base. Americans were guests—the base belonged to Turkey. Our planes had to leave the country after 30 or 31 days or they’d become property of the host country. I don’t know if this is still the case.

So I had a flashback when the state department advised Americans in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen to depart ASAP. An estimate on Google held that this impacted 1+million people.

My parents knew about war. Their lives were impacted by both WWI and WWII. My father’s dad was killed in the first war when he was six and both suffered severely during the second. They never let on but I knew that they weren’t overjoyed about this assignment. While we were there Americans stationed in Libya were told to get out at gunpoint leaving all their possessions behind. We met some of them when they evacuated to Turkey.

We made friends with a Turkish couple my parent’s age. While the military would have taken care of my husband, my parents weren’t so sure what would happen to dependents like me. They felt certain that the couple would see to my safety.

Turkey was under military rule when we lived there. If a soldier pulled you over on the road between the base and Adana, the nearby town, you didn’t hesitate. We were in Ankara when the city imposed a curfew. I was nervous that we’d be delayed returning to our hotel after dinner. You didn’t want to be caught on the street after hours.

Major General Randy Manner described the kind of nightmare my parents feared.

He is a retired U.S. Army officer who had served as Deputy Commanding General of the US 3^rd Army in Kuwait. He was stranded in Dubai where he described the scene as chaotic. What should have taken about 13 hours to reach New York took him 41 he told Erin Burnett host of “OutFront” on CNN. He first landed in Istanbul, Prague, London and Virginia. And he was lucky to get out. Three times he and the other passengers had to evacuate their plane because of enemy fire. On the fourth try the pilot was determined to leave. The plane had an escort of United Arab Emirates fighter jets. And he admits he was fortunate to have found a seat at all.

He felt “abandoned” by the US, he said. Americans were told that the State Department couldn’t help you get out while the Brits, French, Spanish and Czechs at his hotel were being taken care of by their countries. He said that in coordination with the state department, he was able to get Americans out of similar situations in 12 hours.

The Middle East has suffered from hostility and conflict for decades. I was shocked to read on Google last week “The State Department urged Americans to leave the Middle East amid escalating war, but limited evacuation logistics, flight disruptions, and unclear timelines left many struggling to depart.”

Where was the plan? After all these years? We have citizens deployed all over the world. Are there other crucial situations in which there may be little to no strategy in place to address the aftermath of actions taken?