Monday, July 24, 2017

Foretelling Tuesday

I'm told you can do it with algorithms from the past:

"For some, the path of retirement takes a detour to a ferry parking lot" by Katie Johnston Globe Staff  July 17, 2017

HYANNIS — Retirement leads people to many places: foreign countries, the golf course, the couch. For a number of retirees on Cape Cod, the golden years have led to a much more unconventional place: the Hy-Line ferry parking lots.

There’s an ex-DEA agent and a former nuclear physicist among the parking staff for the high-speed ferries, which run to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, and a onetime Formula 1-race-car-driver-turned-Mercedes-dealer. The brawny man helping a driver back into a tight parking space used to be a prison guard. And that guy in the safari hat barking into a walkie-talkie? He was a clinical pharmacist at Partners HealthCare for nearly four decades.

“You can only play so much golf,” said Jim Pender, 82, the former head of the math department at Westwood High School. “I was looking to keep myself out of trouble and out of my wife’s hair.”

Beyond paying them minimum wage or just slightly above to stand out in the heat and the rain, the job offers these retirees new insights into how differently low-wage service workers are treated.

Huh?

In just a few weeks on the job, Bruce Jones, 72, a high school counselor who became a college admissions officer and a novelist, has noticed that some passengers look right through “the help,” unaware of the breadth and depth of experience surrounding them.

“We all have a history that is clearly not observable from our customers’ point of view,” said Jones, who is fairly sure he surprised, and possibly dismayed, a passenger in a Wesleyan cap when he told him he went to graduate school there. “He’s probably thinking, ‘Is this my future?’

“We go through life not knowing what most people’s stories are,” Jones said. “We make assumptions based on what they wear and what they drive and where they work. And assumptions are a dangerous thing.”

For Patrick Hickey, 63, who worked his way up from packer to production supervisor at Cape Cod Potato Chips, getting to know fellow parking employees from different walks of life has also challenged his assumptions.

“State trooper’s got a sense of humor?” he said wryly of one of his fellow retirees at the lot. “I never got pulled over by one of them.”

Of the 65 workers on the summertime staff, about two-thirds of them are men over 60.

Some have had second homes on the Cape for years, and now that they’re retired, they split their time between the Cape in the summer and Florida in the winter. And they are eager for something to do.

Okay. 

Just can't help but think of the pre$$ narrative regarding Americans not wanting these kinds of jobs, and guys not really needing them filling them.

Travelers tend to be stressed when they get to the ferry, often having battled traffic — and the clock — to get to the boat on time, and parking employees are expected to remain friendly yet efficient when dealing with short-tempered vacationers.

Elitism par excellence welcoming you there, tourist.

Manager Jim Lynch, a bearded former Hy-Line boat captain, doesn’t hire people “if they don’t impress me as having a smile or being willing to turn the cheek.”

The dream worker!

Indeed, on a recent humid, foggy morning at the terminal, many passengers were not yet in vacation mode. “Why are you yelling at me?” a woman called out to a fellow traveler over the crowd.

When people return from the islands, their stress levels return, too, said Tony Rossi, 68, a former nightclub owner who later ran a Harley-Davidson rental business before becoming a salesman for the company.

“I wish they were as stress-free as I am,” said Rossi, who, like many of the retirees on staff, enjoys having fewer responsibilities than he used to have.

Some people get flustered trying to back into a parking space, especially when they’re in a hurry to catch a boat.

The “young bloods,” as their boss calls them, often turn to their electronic devices during downtime, but that doesn’t mean they’re not listening to what their older coworkers have to say.

Jesse Fitzhenry, 19, and Tom Grimmer, 22, who are both headed to officer training school after college, said they have learned some valuable life lessons from the veterans on staff, including one that the best leaders know: “Just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean you know more.”

For the most part, the retirees working in the Hy-Line lots aren’t there for the money, but that doesn’t mean they don’t think about it. Lew Hatch, 73, a former real estate appraiser and builder who drives a convertible Lexus, thought about exactly how far his $11 an hour goes during a recent purchase at Jordan’s Furniture. “I had to work 370 hours to buy two couches,” he said with a grin.

The careers that many of the parking attendants once had can make it harder for them to face the abyss of retirement, said John Austin, 75, a retired postal service worker who does the early morning shift at the ferry year-round and keeps an eye on a pair of ospreys that nest near Lot 3.

Some us will never get near the edge.

“Most men identify through their jobs,” he said, “and when you don’t have one, what’s your identity?”

Aaaah, a way to further emasculate them.

The retirees may not forge new identities in the parking lot, but some have formed real friendships....

--more--"

Related:

"Amid an outcry over worker shortages from resorts, restaurants, and other seasonal businesses around the country, the Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it will release an additional 15,000 H-2B foreign work visas this fiscal year. American workers don’t want these low-paying temporary service jobs, small business owners on Cape Cod say, and they have been turning down business and closing one or two days a week because they don’t have enough staff....."

Just wondering if you are tired of the excuses for wealth inequality, and did you see what good work the former governor is doing? They are going to take good care of us all.

Don't go out to see alone:

"Man rescued at sea is said to have killed mom, grandpa for inheritance" by Shelley Murphy Globe Staff  July 17, 2017

A year after Nathan Carman’s mother vanished at sea while they were fishing, his aunts filed a lawsuit Monday accusing the 23-year-old of killing his grandfather, and possibly his mother, as part of a scheme to collect a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

The so-called “slayer” suit alleges that Carman is the prime suspect in the disappearance and presumed death of his mother, Linda Carman, and the 2013 slaying of his grandfather, John Chakalos. The complaint seeks a court order barring him from collecting any money from their estates.

The civil suit, filed in the New Hampshire probate court that is overseeing Chakalos’s $44 million estate, says his three surviving daughters “ask this court to declare that the murderer was Nathan Carman — John’s grandson, their nephew — and that Nathan committed this heinous act out of malice and greed.”

Carman, who lives in Vernon, Vt., has denied killing his mother or grandfather and has not been criminally charged. He could not be reached for comment Monday, and his lawyer did not respond to inquiries.....

--more--"

Good thing Ann Coulter didn't have to go through Logan, huh?

Better put on a Blue Apron for this next butchery:

"Perdue Farms, known for its namesake chicken brand, is rolling out gentler slaughter practices as part of its efforts to reduce trauma and discomfort for birds. The company will increase its use of gas stunning, according to the first annual progress report on animal care released by Perdue on Monday. The process exposes birds to a gas mixture that renders them insensible to pain or distress before slaughter. It’s the latest step in the poultry industry’s campaign to respond to consumers, especially millennials, who are increasingly concerned about animal welfare. The company, the fourth-largest US chicken producer, is pushing for better poultry care, improved relationships with its contract farmers and transparency with consumers, according to Chairman Jim Perdue."

I wonder what kind of gas they will be using.

Is it considered $elling out if I'm with Microsoft and Google, or is it all a fal$e choices?

"His career was salvaged by Francis Ford Coppola, who cast Mr. Landau as an amiable elderly businessman with a huckster streak in ‘‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’’ (1988). The film starred Jeff Bridges in the real-life story of industrialist Preston Tucker, who mounts a star-crossed attempt to challenge the Big Three automakers with a new car....." 

They didn't run all his credits, no Rufio, no Kurtzweil.

Mary Jo Kopechne also died this day, God rest her soul.

"Mark Light, the Signet Jewelers chief executive at the center of a sprawling gender-discrimination case, will retire due to health reasons and be replaced at the end of this month, the company said Monday. Light, 55, was named CEO in 2014 and worked for 35 years at the retail-jewelry conglomerate, best known for its brands Jared the Galleria of Jewelry and Kay Jewelers. He will be replaced by Virginia ‘‘Gina’’ C. Drosos, who has served on the company’s board since 2012. Light’s tenure has been marked by an ongoing class-action arbitration case, during which 69,000 women have alleged a Signet subsidiary, Sterling Jewelers, discriminated against them in pay and promotion practices. Hundreds of women filed sworn statements in recent years alleging they also faced sexual harassment or discrimination, and Light and other key executives were accused of promoting women based upon their responses to sexual demands, attorneys for the women said in a 2013 filing. A company chairman in March called those accusations a ‘‘purported parallel universe.’’

Tell me about it

Time to clean up the in$ide ba$eball, and speaking of the devil, is there a Sox game tonight? It at Fenway?

In the Globe tomorrow?

Blind woman told she couldn’t join a travel tour without a companion

Trump urges Senate to end Obamacare 'nightmare'

You want to relive the dream?

Local officers don’t have to detain immigrants when federal officials ask, court says

You might as well hang out a gangs welcome sign.

Man who allegedly punched woman 39 times outside Planet Fitness is arrested

‘You think you are leaving early, but it is never early enough’

Speaking at White House, Kushner denies collusion and defends Trump

That, my friends, is what is popularly known as a shit-eating grin. 

Joan says he should answer questions in public, as her voice shakes with outrage and special scorn for Trump.

Trump calls out Attorney General Jeff Sessions over lack of Clinton investigation

I've been unhappy with Sessions for his stance on marijuana and fascist forfeiture; however, given the name that is now being floated (well, that will secure the 9/11 cover-up for sure!), I'd rather Sessions stay.

Our coming constitutional crisis

Cohen is hoping.

GOP lawmaker calls reluctance of ‘female senators’ on health care ‘repugnant’

Trump’s approval rating in Massachusetts is second-lowest in the US

Massachusetts living up to its liberal reputation.

Winter in July?

The shoveling never stops.

What won't be in the Globe: 

Wisconsin Firm Microchips Employees: "It's Inevitably The Next Thing... And We Want To Be Part Of It"

One of the problems I'm having with the Globe right now is the complete lack of truth in it, via distortions and lies or simple elite condescension and insult, and the window is already closed if you ask me. It's a rich man's paper, and I'm full up on that slop. I was keeping up for a while, but you don't need to be a prophet to see me going through the motions here and wanting to get the slop up before getting out for the day.

NDU: 

You can decide for yourself how accurate I was, and I'm not seeing a whole lot to read there.