$12 a Year? What a Bargain!

So Donny T. told the "failing" NY Times that health insurance can be purchased for as low as $12 per year for a healthy 20-something-year-old. In what country can this fabulous rate be had, Donny, because it sure isn't available the US of A. I'm sure many 20-somethings would love to have a healthcare plan that cost $1 a month. Clearly, Donny's been watching too many life insurance commercials that tout plans that cost less than $1 a day. (That's what happens when you watch too much TV and you don't know what the hell you're talking about.) A basic understanding of health insurance doesn't seem like something that's complicated to understand but clearly it's beyond Donny's comprehension. Does he ever read up on anything? And, if he doesn't, isn't there someone at the White House who can explain these things to him?

As anyone with half a brain knows, health insurance in this country is not cheap. I'm grateful to have a plan through my employer, but I've been without insurance also and trying to get medical care when you don't have insurance is difficult and expensive. And, as I get older, I worry more and more about being uninsured. Maybe you can skate by with no plan when you're young and healthy, but even the young and healthy could have an accident and end up owing thousands in medical bills without a decent healthcare plan. Hell, I have health insurance and still ended up paying thousands of dollars for an outpatient procedure earlier this year. But that amount would have been substantially worse if I hadn't had insurance.

Mars Cheese Castle

During our drive back from Wisconsin over the weekend, my sister suggested that we stop at the Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha and we did. What a great place! Aside from the wide assortment of cheeses there, you can also buy beer and wine, snacks, and other assorted goods. I spent nearly $50 there and was amazed at how the low the taxes were on my purchases. No crazy liquor taxes and taxes for nearly every freaking thing like we have here in Illinois. I'll definitely stop by the Cheese Castle the next time I go to Wisconsin.

Dollar Deal - July 17

My book Fluidity will be on sale for $1 on July 17 via the JMS website for their Dollar Deal promotion. Click on the book link in the sidebar on July 17 to take advantage of this deal!

Kenny Loggins/Michael McDonald

I went to see Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald in concert in Wisconsin last night. I had just seen Michael McDonald a few weeks ago here in Illinois, but I'd never seen Kenny Loggins before so I was glad to have the opportunity to see them both. The shows were good, but the crowd got more and more inebriated as the evening went on, so my sister and I bailed early ended to avoid having to drive out of the venue with a bunch of drunkards. Seriously, some folks just can't handle their liquor.

Hotel for the Win!

I read a story recently about a woman who was staying at an Airbnb location in Amsterdam and she ended up getting tossed down a flight of stairs because she didn't get out at the agreed upon time. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'd never stay at an Airbnb. I don't want to stay in some stranger's house. I'd rather pay more money and stay in a hotel that actually caters to guests. If you overstay your checkout time at a hotel, they'll just charge you for that. No assault necessary! I don't understand how people can go and stay in a stranger's house, sleep in that stranger's bed, and live with that stranger's things. You could be staying in a serial killer's home and end up drugged and in the basement of that home being told to put lotion on your skin (or you'll get the hose again). At least at a hotel, you expect some levels of cleanliness. Hotels have standards. Sometimes they fail at these standards, but they generally want guests to be happy so they'll come back and stay again. I have never understood the appeal of Airbnb. I also don't understand the appeal of youth hostels. (Shared bathrooms? Bunk beds? No thank you.)

Hire a Clown, Expect a Circus

More fallout from Donny T. and the Funky Bunch, this time courtesy of Little Donny. What amazes me is that Donny T et al. feel they're above the law. They can do what they want and explain their way out of it. They've done nothing wrong and the rules don't apply to them. Rules are for other people. Yeah, right. When you hire a clown, expect a circus!

In other non-Donny-related news, I listened to an interesting podcast with Bret Easton Ellis and Andrew McCarthy last night. (It wasn't new, but it was new to me!) Hearing the backstory behind the film version of Ellis's book Less Than Zero was fascinating to me. I read the book and saw the movie way back when. It was also interesting to hear Ellis talk about meeting McCarthy for the first time at a reading at the Barnes and Noble store in Union Square back in 2010. I was actually in the audience during that meeting. I had no idea Andrew McCarthy had been an alcoholic. Ellis is a very good interviewer and I appreciated that he actually let his guest talk without interrupting him every few minutes. Ellis also talked quite a bit himself, but it's his podcast, so that's to be expected. Besides, he had some interesting things to say about book publishing in the 1980s and the movie industry. I'll have to check out his podcasts more often.

No Wonder

I was out and about yesterday doing the boring things I tend to do on the weekend (buying groceries and other stuff), I realized why so many people prefer to shop online. Shopping at stores is a hassle. First, during a stop for groceries, the kid who was bagging my items couldn't do the job right and I ended up with a bag full of baked chicken grease because the container had come off partially. The bagger, for some reason, either hadn't noticed this or didn't care and just stuffed the half-open container into my bag (because in Evanston, BYOB [bring your own bag] is encouraged). So then I spent about ten minutes cleaning chicken grease off of everything in my reusable bag (that had to be washed after this) and repacking my groceries. People don't know how to bag groceries anymore. They just throw everything in. There's an art to grocery packing. I used to be a cashier at A&P when I was in college. I know how to pack groceries. I need to just insist on packing my own stuff from now on. Thanks for nothing, Jewel-Osco bag boy.

After the grocery store/chicken mishap, I went to a store to buy shorts and ended up stuck in line behind a guy who wrote a check for $1.09. Who writes a check for anything other than bills anymore??? Uh, no one...but this guy. If you don't have $1.09 in your pocket in cash, you shouldn't be leaving the house. No wonder so many retail stores (including the one I was in yesterday) are failing and people are shopping online. At least when you're at home buying stuff, you don't have to wait in line behind some jackal writing a check for $1.09. Before the guy wrote his check, he argued with the cashier about some "points" he had and how he thought he had enough to cover the cost of his purchase ($1.09) but the cashier told him he didn't and, after that, the check came out. Frustrating! I should have just offered to pay the $1.09 myself since I actually had cash on me. Cash is still accepted in exchanged for goods and services, folks.