It’s worth a nickel

Today I got a letter from the Census Bureau. It’s really important… the envelope had messages about “official business,” and “penalties” for improper use.

It told me that I’d be getting my census form next week, and asked me to please fill it out and send it back.

Seriously? Why not just send me the form and ask me to fill it out? Why double your printing and mailing costs by reminding me to fill something out that I haven’t even received?

(Click the picture to read the whole mess of crazy, if you’re so inclined.)

Seriously, people? I understand that the amount of snow dropping on our friends in the mid-Atlantic and southeastern U.S. states might qualify as a “snowpocalypse” for them. Sure.

But in Poughkeepsie, we’ve got about 4 inches on the ground. Schools were all closed (some of them closed yesterday, before a single flake hit the ground!) and people were in a full-on panic. It’s like the Hudson Valley was shut down for nothing.

I’m no fan of the snow. My idea of perfect weather is like 75º Fahrenheit (I love you Celsius folks too: just about 24º) and 20% humidity, tops. Sun. A couple of clouds so that you appreciate the blueness of the sky. But seriously, it’s time to toughen up… a total of 4 inches does not a “snowpocalypse” make.

I’m noticing a trend lately, and I’m not liking it.

In restaurants, stores, and other places, the servers and other employees are getting friendly. Too friendly.

So let’s clear this up.

My name is not dude. I am not your bro. I’m not your boss, either.

I don’t expect to be called sir, or anything like that … “can I get you another iced tea?” is just fine, and for me, much preferred to “lemme fill that up for you, boss.”

Cablevision, I hate you.

In April 2008, we were notified that a few of our channels were moving to the digital spectrum, and we would require a set top box to continue receiving them. As a “courtesy,” they agreed to give us a box for free for one year.

Yeah, one box. So the other two TVs in the house, well, sorry… you now get fewer channels than before, for the same price!

Flash forward to the first week in May 2009. My courtesy box promotion expired, meaning it now costs me $6.75 each month. And, in the same week, Cablevision moved about a dozen more channels into the digital spectrum.

Among these channels was MSNBC, where I get my dose of “Morning Joe” every morning, eschewing the insipid, whiny ramblings of Meredith Vieira, Diane Sawyer and all the other network hacks. And Al Roker, seriously? Does this guy have any credentials at all?

But I digress.

Cablevision will now require me to rent three set top boxes from them, at a cost of $20.25 a month. All this, just to keep getting what I had before. This is nothing more than a sneaky, backdoor way to raise rates and grow their revenue stream.

I called Cablevision to ask them if they’d be interested in keeping me as a customer. They told me no, after making me sit on hold for 23 minutes to talk to someone in their retention department. And they refused to let me speak to a supervisor. And that supervisor never returned the message I left for him.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think Cablevision didn’t care about me. FiOS, want to sell me some TV?