Plugged the proposed NC marriage amendment into wordle.net for kicks. Out came a bunch of litte words and one big, completely inappropriate word.
I thought I’d take look, from a different angle, at how our State’s small claims filing fees have changed over the last quarter century. I wrote a recursive method (using Processing) that generated a line graph of percentage change from each of the 26 years prior to 2010. The blue line represents the first graph, 1984-2010.
Click for full size
As usual, these figures compare inflation-adjusted dollars.
It is interesting to see how the statistics change depending on where you start. In my last post, I wrote that filing fees have increased by 140% in the 26 year period. I thought this was a large change, when compared to other fee increases. But as you can see above, if I had looked at only a 21 year period, I would have been able to claim a 181% increase. Big difference!
(Sources: N.C. Session Laws; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
The civil judicial system in North Carolina has long featured a “Magistrate’s Court” or Small Claims Court at its lowest rung. These courts were created to serve residents of the state who needed an avenue to inexpensively and quickly resolve disputes involving small sums of money. As Eric Steele observed in his 1981 paper “The Historical Context of Small Claims Courts,” these courts focus on “the ordinary day-to-day grievances and disputes involving the common man.” Without assuming that the disputes are simple just because they are “small,” the Small Claims Court has attempted to competently resolve the system’s largest docket of cases. (Continued)
Apple is holding a highly anticipated press conference later today. Cupertino has confirmed that, during the event, it will unveil the latest version of its iPad. It seems like the perfect time, then, to talk about safety razors.
Much has been said already about the self-parody that is today’s shaving razor market. Criticism began in the 1970’s, in fact, shortly after Gillette introduced the first two-bladed “system,” the Trac II. One of Saturday Night Live’s oldest sketches was a fake commercial touting a triple-blade razor, which must have seemed ludicrous at the time (“The Triple-Trac. Because you’ll believe anything.”). It took over twenty years after that for Gillette to introduce the “Mach3.” Seven years later, we had five blades. (cf. The Onion, NSFW perhaps.) Coming full circle, it seems, Gillette also added a single blade on the opposite side of the razor that can be used alone. As Aldous Huxley said, “Technological progress has merely provided us with a more efficient means for going backwards.”
Less often parodied is the escalating costs of ownership in said systems. King Camp Gillette’s disposable razors of the mid-century man were a marvel of convenience and thrift compared to the time and effort required to prepare and use a straight razor. We still have the disposable razors, but the price increases show no sign of abating. It is the loss-leader (or “freebie”) marketing that has infected many of the tools of modern life: the razor is practically free!* The Swiffer is 50% off!* The iPhone is $49!*
*Includes one pack of disposable blades/cloths/apps.
Yet the march proceeds zealously forward to make sure you’re already outdated. A little too zealously, sometimes, for even the law. In 2004, Gillette introduced its “M3 Power” system, with three blades and a battery-powered motor that makes the whole thing vibrate. The company promised that the vibrations “raise hair up and away from the skin” so you shave closer with one “power stroke,” and even that the hairs change angles and extend. By December 2004, four of ten razors sold in the U.S. Were M3 Powers.
The only problem was, it wasn’t true. There wasn’t any good evidence that the M3 Power did what Gillette said it did. At least, that is the conclusion U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall arrived at in 2005. In her decision, Judge Hall found that some of Gillette’s claims were “literally false,” and others, while unclear as to falsity, were doubtful. As a result, the Court granted a preliminary injunction and barred Gillette from continuing to make certain claims in its advertising.
Yes, yes, you may be saying, that’s all well and good. Razor blades are expensive, they rely on an unsavory business model, etc etc. But what choice does one have? If a guy hates electric razors, and wants a quick, easy shave in the morning, he can reach for a multi-bladed contraption and be done with it. It’s progress. It’s efficiency, it’s quality of life. It’s worth a little extra. You’d have to be a Luddite to disagree.
But you do have a choice. The idea that you have to accept the latest advances no matter how costly, or be left behind, is a delusion of the worst kind. It’s an intentional delusion. You do have a choice, but it just doesn’t happen to be the popular choice. A couple of years ago I purchased a Gillette razor that I love, and I highly recommend it. The replacement blades are wildly inexpensive, it has a nice heft in the hand, it’s more comfortable and effective than any electric I’ve used, and just as comfortable and effective as a five blade razor. And it was made in 1964.
The great economist and liberal John Kenneth Galbraith once said, “The drive toward complex technical achievement offers a clue as to why the U.S. Is good at space gadgetry and bad at slum problems.” I doubt he was talking about razor blades, or phones, or “tablets,” but he might as well have been. I don’t want to frame this as a class war-we’re all to blame for the obsession with trees, at the expense of the forest. From the Gillette ad man down to the Angry Birds evangelist. We can all talk endlessly about what’s wrong with culture, what’s wrong with politics, what’s wrong with society. And then we go “just looking” in the store aisles with half-open mouths. As someone smarter than me once said, you can’t imagine a better world if all you’re thinking about is iPods.
I propose that it should no longer be shameful to be called a “Luddite.” We shouldn’t be proud, nor ashamed, to question where we direct our psychic energy. I don’t deny the inevitable: as film is replaced by digital cameras, as books are replaced by e-readers, so the physical is replaced by the conceptual. We already live in a world where, if you want to read the very latest government commission report, or hear the latest Kanye West GOODFridays cut, you have to log in. And for the most part, I think that’s a great thing. But I also believe that it is all too easy to get caught up in hype and hyperbole, and forget that alternatives might exist. In our daily cost-benefit analysis of life, the third dimension often gets left out, either mistakenly or intentionally.
“Is there another option?”
Resources on safety razors, both vintage and modern:
The Wet Shaving FAQ - everything you need to know about safety razors and their use.
RetroRazor Shaving Store – “A greener, cheaper, closer way to shave … and with moxy!”
Learn How to Shave Like Your Grandpa – from The Art of Manliness. “You’ll feel like a bad ass!”
Crabtree & Evelyn Nomad Shaving Cream – My recommendation, if you like to use a brush. My last jar lasted 14 months.
A list of the 20 books I found today, “bargain day” at the county library book sale. Total price: $2.00.
1. The Practical Cogitator: The Thinker’s Anthology
2. Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
3. Say It with Figures, 6th ed. (“A New Edition of the Classic Work in the Field of Social Sciences”)
4. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
5. Studs Terkel, The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream
6. Richard Ford, The Sportswriter
7. Einstein’s Moon: Bell’s Theorem and the Curious Quest for Quantum Reality
8. The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away
9. H.R. Hays, From Ape to Angel (“Exploring the folkways, mores, totems, and taboos of primitive peoples past and present ….”)
10. Richard Russo, Empire Falls
11. The Plant Kingdom
12. The Sky Observer’s Guide: A Golden Handbook
13. Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
14. Story Earth: Native Voices on the Environment
15. Christopher Buckley, Boomsday
16. Charles Allen Edmondson, Seashore Treasures (1st Printing, 1949)
17. John Allen Paulos, Innumeracy
18. Teach Yourself Body Language (2d ed.)
19. Dana S. Lamb, Where the Pools Are Bright and Deep (1973)
20. In Bed With the Wrangler (Desire Series)
Can you tell I spent a lot of time in the nature and science section?
A few weeks ago my parents gave me a dusty metal box, which they had found while cleaning house. I later opened it to discover a mountain of old love letters and postcards. Years of romances gained and lost, documented and memorialized in shades of pink, white, and glittered green.
Poison, I thought. No good could come from reading them, or keeping them in the house even. I’m too old to take them seriously, yet too soft to read them sarcastically. After flipping through them one evening, without spending more than a moment on any in particular, I said a short goodbye and tossed the lot into the trash.
Then, this morning I was sweeping, and discovered that one letter had slipped by unnoticed. I began to carry it to the trash, but as I did, I couldn’t help but notice the words, “I LOVE YOU,” in all caps, bolded, and underlined. Who could possibly discard these words, without reading further?!
Before saying goodbye once again, I thought I’d share a few choice excerpts. I think it’s a lovely bit of nostalgia … it’s so full of that hungriness for human connection, in its youngest vintage.
(July 24) I LOVE YOU – and miss you like crazy. I thought an awful lot about you today. I was wearing your hat and listening to Fresh Prince (Ring My Bell) (Verbal Massage) as I sat at the back of the boat watching the sun set on the edge of the water – it was beautiful!
…
(July 26) Forgive my sloppy handwriting, for I am writing this on the bus as we head toward Paris. I am wearing your hat (and missing you like crazy.) I don’t know why but I love to sit at the back (which is where I am now), I think it’s because I can lay down and sleep. On the bus is a couple from Virginia, who might I add, constantly are falling asleep with arms all over each other. They look rather comfortable.
…
["George" and "Martha"] always sit in front of me on the bus and at this very moment he is passionately kissing the nape of her neck – soon their actual lips will meet – mark my words.
…
I see young couples walking hand in hand – kissing every two seconds – happy to be with each other – and this reminds me of us.
“They were still talking. Donald was yards away. He was walking, backwards. Tipping, leaning, but they were still talking. Loudly. He smiled. Or rather, he didn’t stop smiling. He waved. Still, they were all talking.”
I’m pleased to share with you a little something I wrote, viewable via the link below. Hope you enjoy it.
While on a walk today, it occurred to me that it might be fun to create an audio tour of Raleigh with an eye towards legal-themed points of interest.
One thought led to another, and I ended up jotting down some ideas for a walking tour app. We’ll see where this goes … as always, comments are welcome.
Click mind map to explore
Mind map courtesy of the wonderfully fun and useful bubbl.us.
Don't Be a Bad Dad
I know a guy who smokes. It’s a lazy habit, and he’s hurting himself in many ways by doing it. But, generally, it’s his body to do with what he wants, right?
What if I told you he had a two-year-old son? Would you say it’s still no harm, no foul?
