I did, and they are sending replacements. I just wonder where the breakdown was in the pulling/packaging process where they end up putting an empty envelope in the mail
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What’s on your mind?
- Thread starter Gutwrench
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Do you like it?
Do you enjoy using it? Does it give you pleasure?
Does it enhance your life, or your enjoyment of your life?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then, keep it.
If not, well, then, return it.
The very best of luck.
On my mind. My MIA lawnmower. Got them to acknowledge they had it today. But seeing as they signed for it on the 16th, not great.
They won’t even look at it until next week. Hope they have the parts in stock. In the meantime I’ll need one of these.
They won’t even look at it until next week. Hope they have the parts in stock. In the meantime I’ll need one of these.
Well, yes to all of that but it’s more a case of is it worth £1,499 or not? At the moment I’m thinking not. It is a beautiful monitor but there are much cheaper options. Will try it for a week before making my mind up.
Well, if it is not worth it, it is not worth it.
Sometimes, you will have arrived at the conclusion that something expensive is worth it, chiefly because of the pleasure using it (something so beautiful, so well made) gives you.
However, other times, you will realise that no, beautiful as it is, this is not a necessary addition to my life.
Good luck.
I sell monitors for a living. It wouldn’t be where I’d invest £1,499. But depends on what you are using it for. The glossy screen would be an instant no for me.
What the hell! One of the reasons why I haven't ordered off Amazon in years I guess... is because they apparently ship you empty envelopes. Anyway, hope you get a replacement soon!
I had the opposite happen to me. I ordered a food processor, and after just two uses a small plastic piece of the lid broke. It’s still perfectly functional but since it was new I asked Amazon to send me just the tiny piece. They sent a whole new food processor for free, so now I have two.
I am still a Prime member and I continue to use Amazon because they frequently have items that I want/need that I cannot find locally. Sometimes it's a matter of something which never was available around here in the first place, other times it's a situation where the store where I used to buy the item(s) has closed and no other store carries the brand or item, or sometimes a store used to carry the item(s) and now has discontinued it/them for whatever reasons). Anyway, when I can't find something locally and I have checked several times in one place and/or have gone to other stores and still have not found it, that's when I turn to Amazon.
Also, I still look to Amazon when someone has mentioned an item or brand which sounds interesting, so I check out the thing just to learn a little more about it, but while I read the reviews, too, I also take those with a huge grain of salt. If an item has a lot of negative reviews, though, especially if they are not informative and descriptive beyond "I don't like this item" or "package didn't arrive on time," I say "hmm..."
If with further reading, the nature of any actual descriptive negative comments about an item does suggest that maybe it is indeed not worth looking into any further, then I pay more attention to that and will probably dismiss the whole thing. If on the flip side the item has a preponderance of positive, sometimes glowing, reviews, I say, "ehhhh..." and if it is now something in which I have become really interested, will absolutely do further research on the item around the internet before considering purchase anywhere, whether locally or on Amazon. Either too many negative or too many seemingly positive reviews of an item are certainly a red flag for me.
Also, I still look to Amazon when someone has mentioned an item or brand which sounds interesting, so I check out the thing just to learn a little more about it, but while I read the reviews, too, I also take those with a huge grain of salt. If an item has a lot of negative reviews, though, especially if they are not informative and descriptive beyond "I don't like this item" or "package didn't arrive on time," I say "hmm..."
If with further reading, the nature of any actual descriptive negative comments about an item does suggest that maybe it is indeed not worth looking into any further, then I pay more attention to that and will probably dismiss the whole thing. If on the flip side the item has a preponderance of positive, sometimes glowing, reviews, I say, "ehhhh..." and if it is now something in which I have become really interested, will absolutely do further research on the item around the internet before considering purchase anywhere, whether locally or on Amazon. Either too many negative or too many seemingly positive reviews of an item are certainly a red flag for me.
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When you read a 1940 book and can’t understand a pop culture reference.
I had no idea what “The Good Humor man went by in his little blue and white wagon, playing Turkey in the Straw on his music box” meant, so I did what any serious archeologist worthy of his name would do: I googled.
The Good Humor refers to an old brand of ice cream that apparently is still sold.
Man refers to this guy:
Truck refers to this truck:
As far as Turkey in the Straw I never knew that it is the title of that song that ice cream trucks still play in 2023:
Of which there is an amazing first recording with lyrics:
I had no idea what “The Good Humor man went by in his little blue and white wagon, playing Turkey in the Straw on his music box” meant, so I did what any serious archeologist worthy of his name would do: I googled.
The Good Humor refers to an old brand of ice cream that apparently is still sold.
Man refers to this guy:
Truck refers to this truck:
As far as Turkey in the Straw I never knew that it is the title of that song that ice cream trucks still play in 2023:
Of which there is an amazing first recording with lyrics:
Wonderful post, and I love the explanations.
Yes, cultural references can really date a book: They can let you know when a story is set (and, if writing decades or centuries later, this requires a lot of research to get right so that the story sounds and seems authentic), or, if you come across a work written in a particular era, and get (or, don't get, as the case may be) specific cultural references, this can be a way of realising that the book is of a different era, one that does not really resonate witn the "now".
Mind you, I do remember ice-cream vans - and their songs - when I was a kid.
You would hear it, run in to pester a parent, and then hope (with some money in your pocket) that you could actually track down where the vehicle might be parked, your ears twitching almost like a dog's, as your short legs ran to where you hoped the van might be parked, with your brother, and other local kids streaming along to join us.
And the thing is, I don't actually like ice-cream; rather, I liked the ritual of the van, the listening, (that music would start and stop, getting nearer or farther away as was the case), persuading parents to part with pennies, the running, the racing (I was good at running as a child, - better than my brother - and had excellent endurance, and my brother knew that there was a good chance that I could catch an ice cream van if I was with him) and - hopefully - the discovery of a parked, and waiting van.
However, the (unforgettable) scenes with the Child-Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (a movie that was a firm childhood favourite; my brother and I saw it countless times) rather put a different complexion on my already somewhat agnostic approach to ice-cream vans; that music, those lurid colours, this vehicle inviting children to race after it......hm.
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Wholeheartedly agreed. That’s one of the reasons why I am currently deep diving into older pulps; as of now I am too tired and busy to read more intellectual stuff, but by reading these adventures that were written in a past that is yet not too far back I am learning new things, and terminologies. An example is “blue movie,” which I encountered in a novel. While I could certainly figure out by context that it referred to adult movies, it drove me into a small rabbit hole researching the source of such term (spoiler: no verified source), and even to reevaluate the title of one of my favorite movies (Blue Velvet).
One interesting thing is that one possibility for my ignorance of the pop culture reference is that I didn’t grow up in the US, so I never experienced it but rather maybe just an Italian variation of it.
Agreed. The ritual is all. As you, I never really loved ice cream. I have it rarely. But as a child, I loved asking for ice cream. Actually my parents told me that one summer when I was four or five a guy at a hotel they were friend with told some waiter to put an ice cream he offered me on his tab. Apparently I learned faster than a Pavlovian dog that mentioning his tab resulted in ice cream. I had free ice cream, twice a day, for a week, just by mentioning the dude’s tab. Apparently he was a good sport: when he found out he somewhat reprimanded me, then turned around to have a laugh with my parents and never wanted a dime back from them. I don’t have a memory of it and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him again.
I have never watched it, I guess I should.
When I was a little girl we loved hearing the bell ringing as either the Good Humor truck and/or also one of a competing brand which name I have now forgotten would come slowly driving up the street, stopping periodically as the kids gathered. There were also smaller vendors who used bicycles to push a small wheeled cart, too. We'd hear the bell, our mothers would smile indulgently and hand us the coins to buy a popsicle, ice cream sandwich or an ice cream bar (chocolate over vanilla ice cream, mounted on the same kind of sticks that they used for popsicles). I think they also probably carried ice cream in a cup, too, but we kids wanted popsicles most of the time. Personally, I always preferred popsicles to ice cream cones or ice cream in general anyway.
I haven't seen a Good Humor truck in this area, maybe they just aren't available here, but I have seen a guy with a bicycle and a small wheeled cart on a couple of occasions tootling around the residential neighborhood that is just adjacent to the shopping center where our grocery store is.
Ah, the memories....
I haven't seen a Good Humor truck in this area, maybe they just aren't available here, but I have seen a guy with a bicycle and a small wheeled cart on a couple of occasions tootling around the residential neighborhood that is just adjacent to the shopping center where our grocery store is.
Ah, the memories....
In fairness, while I wrote "pester" a parent for pennies, I should also have noted that @Clix Pix had it right; there may have been faux grumbles, sometimes, benign indulgence, but I don't think we were ever once refused pennies for the ice-cream van and other neighbouring parents would check to make sure that you had enough when handing over ice-cream money to their kids.
Fascinating.
I love seeing how language is used - both spoken and written - in older books (such as "hols" in books by Enid Blyton, and R F Delderfield, - in other words, middle class England of the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s).
Agreed.
I loved the ritual, but never much cared for ice cream itself.
However, there are two countries I have visited where the ice-cream is superb: Italy (obviously enough) and the old USSR, where, in the late 1980s, they still used to prepare ice cream the way they way they had done so back in the 1920s; it hadn't modernised, cream and fruit were still the main ingredients, and it was surprisingly, and improbably, and entirely unexpectedly, delicious. I would never have thought to try it is it had not been recommended by people whom I knew who lived there. opnion on, as I never tried it.
What ice cream is like in modern Russia is something I cannot offer an
Yes, you need to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Re Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the story is (very, very loosely) adapted from a book written by Ian Fleming (a book - the illustrated version - which my father bought us, such was our enthusiasm for the story), which was made into a film/movie.
We even had the toy cars that were manufactured - gorgeous things, with working wings; my godmother, bless her, bought my brother and I one each (and they were a shocking price; I had done the maths on how long it would take to save up for such an exquisite toy).
Anyway, I still think it a wonderful movie, but Robert Helpman (who was actually a gay, Australian, ballet dancer) was superb and spine-chilling as the Child-Catcher; actually, he was terrifying - and his graceful movements served to add further menace to his stunning interpretation of his role.
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I had that toy car. Probably worth a few quid if I still had it. Like the James Bond Aston Martin with the rear shield, ejector seat and machine guns.
An original one from the 60’s (it was handed down from somewhere or other) would be sort after I’m sure now.
How sad. I’d missed this completely so thank you for posting.
Sad indeed, what a legend and what a life.
All the cultural references and research notwithstanding, I'm curious what the title and author of the book are.
It reads a bit like a noir detective tale, but that's just a guess.
Oh no....... Just seeing this news now. A legend among legends, an extraordinary artist and individual..... This is very sad news......