Son-of-a-Weizen

I can't let go of my Weber. The ash catcher rusted clean through and separated from the bottom of the grill so I drilled a few holes 'round it and wired it together. My neighbor thinks I'm a cheap p****...but it's a thing.

Thinking about picking up some OJC (and non) items: Cyrus Chestnut - Dark Before Dawn Dave Pike - Manhattan Latin Howard McGhee - Maggie's Back in Town Vince Guaraldi - Bola Sete Brubeck Quartet - Jazz Impressions of Eurasia & Jazz Impressions of Japan. Jaki Byard - On The Spot (particlaly recorded at the famous Lennie's-On-The-Turnpike in Peabody, Mass!!! Anyone ever go to Lennie's) ? Art Taylor - Taylor's Tenors Btw, regarding this 'limit 2 per customer' biz.....a related bit in today's paper about grocery store marketing and the clever use of 'limit' (scroll down) a bit. Anyone try to buy 3 of any particular title at J&R????? When Too Much Is Never Enough How Supermarkets Use Psychology to Get Us to Go Overboard By Joyce Gemperlein Special to The Washington Post Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page F05 In the picture book "Mrs. Pig's Bulk Buy," Sorrol, Benjamin, Sarah, Cindy, Bryony, Hilary, Toby, Alun, William and Garath beat their addiction to ketchup after their mom buys vats of the stuff and serves it every which way -- even for breakfast. I thought of Mrs. Pig recently when, in Aisle 6 of my local supermarket, shoppers competed for bottles of ketchup, each the size of a pork butt, that were marked with a small sign: "2 for $4.99." One elderly gentleman, who most certainly did not have 10 little piggies at home, loaded six 50.5-ounce bottles into his cart. He had a smile on his face that read: It's not every day that a man heroically captures 19 pounds of any condiment, much less America's favorite. Marketers who deal with goods and services that many of us have to be dragged into buying -- colonoscopies and vacuum cleaner bags come to mind -- really should jump onto the buy-one-get-one-free/limit 12/while supplies last bandwagon that is careering through supermarkets. It's not a new come-on, but it seems to be functioning at unprecedented levels in grocery stores, especially in suburban areas. (After all, one must do something with all that cubic footage in the van, the pantry and the huge refrigerator in the newly renovated great room.) Like you, one side of my brain knows why supermarkets run such specials. It's not a favor; they want more of our money. Still, why do scads of us who otherwise conduct our lives fairly wisely buy 12 jars of smoked oysters? Why did my friend Anne Ackerman once come home with three mega-size cans of furniture wax even though, as a newlywed just starting out, she had no furniture? Brian Wansink, who studies such behavior, says shoppers invariably report -- and sincerely believe -- that they buy more than they need because "it is such a bargain." But Wansink, professor of marketing at Cornell University, says we are fooling ourselves. Psychologists, market researchers and advertisers have known for decades that there are deeper psychological reasons why, in such situations, we take leave of our senses. First, take a look at BOGOs, Wansink says. BOGOs are buy-one-get-one-free deals. BOGOs have existed in the grocery industry for many years and are a favorite because they drive up volume and can make a customer loyal to a product or store. The word "free" is key here. Need I explain its lure? "Free" reverberates through the human mind like some sort of endorphin. We are drawn to any product associated with it and feel blessed -- nay, victorious, joyful! -- to have something for nothing. We get a warm and cuddly feeling for the store that allowed us to feel this way. Then there are the bulk deals, the ones that typically offer multiple units for one price. Often the savings is minimal -- I once bought six cans of tuna and saved 1 cent each -- but Wansink points out that signage of any type generally raises awareness -- and sales. (Unless there is too much signage. Signage clutter can actually cancel out the effectiveness of all signs, he says.) Many people mistakenly think that if you don't buy the suggested number in a package offer, you won't get the discount. This misconception works in the retailer's favor. Wansink explains that the number offered for one price is actually a suggestion to shoppers. He says that marketers don't necessarily expect people to buy that many. The number acts as a motivator. It encourages people to raise their "anchors." Anchors are the number of units of any product that a customer goes into a store thinking he or she will purchase. Research shows that when shoppers see a sign that offers, say, 10 for $4, they may not buy 10, but they will revise their anchors upward. Even if the store loses money giving one item away in a BOGO or has drastically cut the price in a multiple-item deal, the retailer benefits. Your purchase means that you will be stocked up and won't be shopping for that item at a competitor's store anytime soon, Wansink explains. "The typical person shops at 2.3 grocery stores in a week, and that includes the 7-Eleven. Typically, 37 items are bought in a major shopping trip," Wansink says. Offering you two units for the price of one or offering you 10 for $3 "locks you out of shopping for that category at another store," he says. "The store may lose money, but that's a lot better for them than you going to another store." Like "free," "limit" makes us humans crazy. Any parent of a teenager or toddler knows that if we are told we can't have it, we want it. Robert B. Cialdini, Regents professor of psychology at Arizona State University and the author of several books on persuasion and influence, says the perception that, say, there is a scarcity of ketchup makes us want desperately to have it. Thus, signs that say, for example, "Limit 10" are meant to trigger the feeling that 11 or more are unobtainable and, thus, more valuable and desirable. (Does anyone know what happens if you try to check out with 12? Does the clerk refuse to sell them to you? I'm too frightened of authority to try.) Cialdini says that in an experiment, testers rated chocolate chip cookies. One jar contained two cookies. Another contained lots more. The subjects routinely rated cookies from the jar containing two as tastier and more desirable than the ones in the jar containing many. When the people were told they could have only two of a batch of cookies because they were scarce, they consistently rated them higher than those that were presented with no limits. The "limit" and "bulk buy" strategies link to another human characteristic that can get ugly. When I saw that man loading his basket with ketchup, with other customers milling around, my pulse quickened. Would there be enough left for me? You could call this greed, but Cialdini more kindly dubs it "social proof." He says I wanted to be a part of the group. Cialdini says humans determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct. This is also linked to the survival instincts of all animals, including us. Competition for resources exists throughout the animal kingdom. He cites "chumming" as an example. Chumming is when fishermen throw out bait and schools of fish flock to it. They snap at it with furious competitiveness. They do so even with hooks containing no bait. "The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it," even if it is only a pound of ground round, according to Cialdini. Wansink and his researchers have done many experiments plumbing the depths of our willingness to buy lots of anything that seems to be on sale. There's only one category in which limits, BOGOs and multiple-unit offers didn't work: 30-pound bags of dog food. Really? I'd buy them. And I don't even own a dog.

Where I'm from, guys who can't drain significant quantities of brewage & properly grill food at the same time are called lightweights!

Captain Crunch w/Crunch Berries!

They'll get one hell of a lump sum pension from the army.......and probably die while engaged in a frenzied online search for all the Pokemon trading cards.

Have they been reading this thread? All "self-proclaimed experts" take two steps forward!! From the latest 'Classic' online newsletter that rolled out this morning: PART ONE - The Foundations of Classic Records With the advent of Web Logs or "Blogs" as they are commonly referred to, it seems appropriate that we use this re-invented bulletin board approach to communication to share information about what we do at Classic Records. As members of the Classic Records team, we will strive to use the Classic Blog as a means to address issues, let consumers submit questions, and to generally educate people in the process of making records. Increasingly, it has become apparent that the internet has become a pulpit for self proclaimed experts (SPE's) to state as "fact" or "truth" ideas that are more appropriately described as misguided speculation at best and the smelly stuff at worst. So consider this the beginning of the Classic Records blog which will soon have a permanent address or link from our web site - stay tuned for those details. So, how to start? By reiterating the foundations of Classic Records and what we are trying to accomplish. The first pillar in the foundation is that of "authenticity" by which we intend to recreate a record that has the same look and feel as an original pressing of the title. That is, if the original jacket was a tip-on construction - printed paper adhered to a cardboard backing - then we should use the same construction on the "authentic" reissue. The labels should be authentic in their color and typography as well. If the original issue had a film laminate then so should the "authentic" reissue. The obvious question then becomes: "Does "authentic" also apply to the sound of the record?" The answer is NO and the reason is based in the other pillar of the foundation which is "Integrity". Interpreted in terms of sound, for Classic Records "Integrity" means that the sound of the LP transfer should preserve the "integrity" of the recording and not that of the original LP issue. Why is that? you might rightly ask. The answer comes from the experience of listening to the sometimes radical differences between the master tapes and the LP's that were originally issued as representations, often poor one's, of what was actually recorded. So am I saying that the "Holy Grail" is the recording and not an original LP transfer of same? Yes, that is exactly what I am saying and anyone with professional recording, mastering or cutting experience would acknowledge the inherent truth in this distinction. Having now assailed and probably offended (unintentionally) the outspoken experts who sit at home comparing multiple different pressings of a 50 year old recording, never having heard anything approaching the master tape from the session, let me say that I find nothing inherently wrong with said comparative pursuits. I personally get a little bored with repeated comparisons of records which seem to be motivated mostly by the outcome of proclaiming a "winner" or more often "owner/winner". That said, SPE's (self proclaimed experts) can announce their finding that a non-vendor copy of said collectible record is the best sounding but I submit that this a purely objective opinion of a comparison among records and has no bearing on the "integrity" of the representation of the recording embodied in the LP they are proclaiming "the one to have" or better, "the one" to be sought after. Having never heard a master tape of a title means that SPE's have a distinct disadvantage when they try and explain why a Classic reissue sounds different (NOT NECESSARILY BETTER OF WORSE) from their fabled and rare original pressing which they have announced themselves as the "winner/owner" and sometimes "dealer" of. There are even those among the SPE's that have been allowed to attend a mastering session with original pressings and master on hand and have later reported that Classic reissues are not the equal of the original LP because the wire used in the studio was not of the proper "audiophile" standards which of course it was (NOT) in 1960 at RCA cutting facilities in New York or Hollywood. The point here is not to try and discredit the SPE's which would be like fishing for goldfish with dynamite, instead it is to make clear that "Integrity" from a reissue standpoint and more specifically with regard to sound, requires focus on the original master tape using copies of original and other pressings from same as a tool in the process rather than the objective. To be continued..... Michael Hobson (Founder and President)

I once directed an uncomplimentary comment toward a mother who had a pair of 3 or 4 year old girls wearing pretty white party dresses w/her at a pretty damn awful gory war flick w/people getting run through w/bayonets and all .....& only managed to catch the 'Hombre Maldito' part of her response...

Not necessarily. You're using the remaining half to soak the wood chips in before adding them (in a nice little foil packet) to the grill half-way through. Down here, if you soak wood chips in coke, there's a penalty to be paid!

I though Storyville was in the Copley Square Hotel??

Don't ever say that again or I'll slap you silly.

Use a 16 rather than 12oz can and the bird'll stand better on the grill. Bud's okay...Guiness is better. A Corona 'tall' would be good too if they made 'em. ......or do they?

Across the street from the Copley Plaza hotel, sits the Westin complex w/a couple of restauraunts visible from the street (Palm? Turner Fisheries) -- it's an access point for the huge covered shopping/food arcade that winds all the way around (skywalks) to Prudential Ctr. One can spend a good bit of time cruising about in there.

Wise decision...........now on deck there's a TOCJ copy that some have been known to wade through croc & snake infested swamps to obtain!

......fixed it.

If you click on that last thumbnail pic I uploaded, can you actually read what it says? When I do so, the pic expands in size by a puny 5-10% and it's still illegible. Is this just a function of my system?

What's with the tiny pic upload feature these days? Can this be adjusted?

Booklet cover (back):

Well, the original Shu/Hardaway "Jazz Practitioners" Bethlehem LP (a copy's now up on eBay) looked like this: But the TOCJ copy I have is totally different. Booklet cover (front):

Got it! Thanks. I'd better add a few more and create a safe little buffer.

I just joined last week.......added a couple of Andrew Hills, a Bobby Timmons and a Charles Munch Saint-Saëns, Symphony No. 3 SACD that some folks were talking up around here. How many items should one add to the queue anyway? a dozen or so?

Geez Ron, I kinda liked DiNiro playing the slightly nuts CIA guy and hooking him up to the lie detector machine and all. Oh well. I walked out on either 'Spaceballs' or that really bad 'Buckaroo Banzai' flick.... bleech!!

I think they're distraught over the fact that 'Dalziel & Pascoe' isn't yet out on DVD. How insane is that?

<<<dinner made for us by a professional chef.>>> That sounds like a pretty good B'day gift. Perhaps you'll be feasting on Hell, anything's good when you're not having to do the cooking!

A still sealed one went for $157 less than 5 minutes ago.

Yes, dozens of times......'Hobo Joe' is the nads!