Reader's Digest Canada rant chapter three - Our Canada · Monday December 14, 2009 by colin newell
On the phone to Reader’s Digest today – and this time they were under the questionable cape of Our Canada magazine.
Let’s look at the Bill shall we? Dated within days of my mom-in-laws passing.
“Dear Mrs. Mother-in-law,
A few months ago, you requested a subscription for Our Canada.
We sent you your first issue in good faith with the understanding that you would honor the invoice and pay it promptly.
We’ve kept our part of the bargain, but so far we have not received your payment.”
Jumping in now…
My Mother-in-law was in the hospital without a phone, radio or television for 4 months prior to her passing and she, in no way, requested a subscription to this shady Readers Digest front.
So. According to the above passage, Readers Digest lies.
Of course during the conversation the very friendly lady said that someone signed my mother-in-law up for the copy of Our Canada.
Let’s keep reading.
“I must ask that you pay the enclosed invoice immediately. If we do not receive payment within 15 days, we will turn your account over to our credit and collection department.”
Can you imagine a little old lady sitting in her apartment. Perhaps she is a tad forgetful. Perhaps she is on a fixed income. These letters and invoices can be scary for our old folks!
The RD invoice I hold in my hand is dripping with intimidation and disrespect for our beloved elderly folks.
Readers Digest. It’s senior-abuse, plain and simple. And it should stop!
My opinion: I feel that RD are weasels that need to be exposed for the abusers of our dear Canadian seniors.
Go on RD. Take me to the carpet on this. I dare you.
Shame on Reader’s Digest Canada – Shame, shame, triple shame.
And to my departed and beloved Mom-in-law, god bless her… At least she doesn’t have to deal with RD ever again.
Read this CBC Marketplace expose of Readers Digest’s questionable nonsense. Watch the video. It is shocking. Activities that are banned in the U.S. appear to be commonplace in Canada.
Shocker: The Canadian government subsidizes Readers Digest Canada to the tune of $2,000,000 a year in postal tariff reductions – reduced postage… so they can scam and harass your parents and grand-parents.
Comment [4]
Baby bottom bugaboos and other bewildering blather · Tuesday December 8, 2009 by colin newell
While waiting in line for my favorite serving of breakfast (a weekend or so ago…) I noticed a young parent plunk down their diapered bambino on the cafe counter adjacent to the POS terminal. You know, where staff put food and beverages…
The young couple had just pushed their way into the cafe with a HUMVEE sized stroller that essentially trapped us mortal folk inside the cafe. In the event of fire or pestilence we would have died happy while grabbing for our favorite baked goodies while fire and smoke overtook our sorry souls.
But this does not bother me half as much as Tim Horton’s HQ who are desperately trying to hang on to their profit share by using some kind of Faith based science in defending their unbridled expansion of drive through extensions in the Province of Ontario.
I use the term Faith in that they must really take themselves seriously if they expect us to believe in the nonsense that they are pitching.
Facing a rising brew ha ha of municipal anti-drive-thru ordinances, Horton’s parent company TDL commissioned a study last year from RWDI consultants, based in Guelph, Ont… comparing total emissions given off by customers’ cars that use drive-thrus and those that use parking lots.
The stunning result: — that cars using drive-thrus produce lower emissions than those using parking lots.
The suggestion is… parked cars generate more pollution than the idling cars in the drive-through. Right.
Fact is, it is a high stakes game because Timmies makes almost 50% of its revenue from un-conscientious smoggers. Yes lots of folks simply cannot get out of their cars because of squalling babies and implacable pets – and there are other reasons.
Timmies supposition that Drive-Throughs work towards a general social good is cynical and deceptive. And we are not buying it.
And neither should you.
Comment [2]
Book review - Driven to Espresso by Ray Weisgerber · Wednesday December 2, 2009 by colin newell
People ask me: What is it about coffee and cafe culture that has given it that certain lasting quality? That particular something that keeps it on our radar time and again… I mean, one need only subscribe to a newspaper or magazine or watch TV to experience how pervasive coffee culture is in society. For me, although not a life vocation, coffee has been a steady source of fascination and creative output.
And I cannot help but admire the person that captures some of the energy and puts it into book form. Because from where I am sitting, books are forever baby!
A successful photographer in his own right, Ray Weisgerber’s has put some of his coffee love into a soft cover book that we can all enjoy – and on several levels.
For the coffee lover, the drive-through espresso stand or kiosk is the alter of caffeine, the church of brew, the mosque of hot, black and satisfying java. And as we now know – the thing that makes the coffee stand or cafe that sacred place is its ability to take you away from the everyday. The coffee house is not your home and it’s not your office. And with the blurring of the work place, the cafe has become that one place where you can chill for 15 minutes to a half hour and get away from all the day to day demands.
Ray Weisgerber’s photos encapsulate a part of the American experience that is familiar and reassuring. He accurately captures the breadth of architectural style that is at once common to the North-west but also unique in its variance.
Driven to Espresso would make a great gift for anyone who enjoys a hot cup of joe or simply wants to share in the American journey. Driven to Espresso is available directly from Ray’s website or via online vendors like Amazon.
Tropical Colors Warm Winds Tour Chapter 3 · Monday November 23, 2009 by colin newell
Sunset. It is a day. A week. A month. It’s your life.
And birth. A death.
Joy. Elation. Celebration. Renewal.
We hang our souls to dry like tropical themed towels at the pool-side.
And while staring into the sun gives clarity and honesty, home is
where the heart is.
Yes. It is here. Some of the time. And it’s back home with friends and loved ones.
After we hung out with a seasoned coffee farmer at Lehuulu Farms we sat in an old theater cafe up-country where they grow coffee.
The Aloha cafe is at 79-7384 Mamalahoa Hwy in Kealakekua, Hawaii – a mere 15 minutes from Kona, Hawaii.
We start to take root. We realize that we now have friends for life here.
And there. Back home.
I guess. Even though our family shrunk by one recently (and we were broken…)
Our World grew a bit bigger today.
Such is life.
