Here’s a simple explanation for rising grocery costs, from the perspective of a baker:
…and make no mistake, this is happening all over the place.
Can we hold both the mid-term and presidential elections tomorrow?
Category: Bad News
Horrible, unpleasant stuff
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So let’s tuck in…
...but paying for it might.
...what were they supposed to do with it? Give it a state funeral?
...and we thought irony was out of fashion.
...if I had anything to do with missiles over Japan, they’d be going in the opposite direction.
...California Loses Again. To Africa lol.
...moving to Arkansas lol.
...allow me to respond:
And speaking of going under:
...let me know when it reaches $0.00.
...I’m trying to see the problem here...
...so what? Tortellini, linguine, macaroni, ziti, spaghetti, whatever — it’s all the same tasteless shit, just shaped differently.
...this despite sitting on huge coal deposits and natural gas reserves.
...I always liked Rickman.
...you go, girl. We all figured long ago that both your parents were compete assholes, only interested in taking your money.
And in link-free INSIGNIFICA:
…
And finally:
...and here she is:
And that’s all the news that’s fit to run.
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So on with that free stuff.
…but Daddy, aren’t electric cars the [ahem] wave of the future?
...let me know when the “toy” might be one of these:
...alternative: the Royal Navy machine-gunning the dinghies. Or:
…if this doesn’t make you smile, go away, you’re in the wrong place.
...shome mishtake, surely.
…FFS, is there ANYONE IN THE WORLD still unaware of breast cancer?
...I think I preferred it when cardinals protected sex-abuser priests.
...is anybody surprised by this, anymore?
…the word you’re looking for is “crowned” — what happens at a coronation. “Coronated” was coined by Ebonicsmeister Jesse Jackson.
…I think I first saw this headline in 1968.
…and the story is even worse than the headline.
…them girlymen gotta stick together, you see.
...right after they finish arresting people for posting mean tweets.
...a.k.a. what happens when you don’t act your age.
And in War News:
...or to put it another way: we’re gonna go down bonking.
And among the irrelevancies known as INSIGNIFICA:
...here we go:
That’s enough news for the day.
Well, Shit
I see that Denny Wilson, the Grouchy Old Cripple, has spun his wheels for the last time. He was one of the original bloggers, back when this was a New Thing, and he will be sorely missed.
R.I.P ol’ buddy.
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FINE JAPANESE CUISINE
And on we go into the depths…
...I thought we’d done with this little trend, butt obviously not.
...actually, Weimar Germany never did anything like this to its citizens. But the Nazis did.
...because the outcome of that discussion would be President Kamala Harris.
...as opposed to the “rule by unelected bureaucrats of the EU”?
...into a (red) brick wall.
From the Dark Continent:
...kinda torn here, between “nuke the whole continent” and “kill every fucking monkey in existence”. Simian bastards.
...and if you didn’t chortle at that headline, we can’t be friends. Also:
...ah, Africa, where if it’s not one thing that can kill you, it’s another.
And speaking of ugly ways to die:
...because nothing says “patient safety” like “mobile abortion clinic”.
...having eaten steak and ice cream my entire adult life, I can confidently state that this finding is total bullshit. Supporting references upon request.
...just how much more suffering can the Brits stand?
...considering today’s state-schooled youth, that’s hardly surprising.
...either way, their Democrat governors will screw up the disaster management response. As opposed to:
...anyone care to guess how long this would take in, say, New Jersey under similar circumstances?
And in INSIGNIFICA, some breaking errr breeding news:
...like hers. 
...in 300 million years.
...okay, now that the Grauniad has officially declared her a Danger To Humanity As We Know It, I can make my own judgement:
I think she’s totally hot.
And here’s a response to an email from Reader Tom L, who wrote:
Which automobile is the right one for taking the new Italian prime minister for a ride?
How about one of these?
It’s Giugiaro and Bizzarini’s Iso Grifo Spyder, with its 5.4-liter 350hp small-block Corvette V8 engine giving the petite Spyder a top speed of over 170mph.
American power and reliability coupled with Italian design and styling — need I say more?
Back to my traveling companion:
I’d learn Italian just so Giorgia and I could discuss conservative politics (for the record, her “far-right” political position is, in American terms, ever-so slightly right-of-center; a couple of weeks closeted with me, and the Left would become apoplectic)…
…that is, when we’re not eating tenderloin crostini and drinking wine together in some small coastal village trattoria.
Not that I’ve given any of this much thought, of course…
Getting Rid Of The Burden
Café Raymond is a favorite destination and, as usual, both floors, the balcony and the sidewalk tables at the diner are packed with patrons.
None of the people waiting for his signature stack of ricotta pancakes stuffed with blueberries, his home-cured smoked salmon and caper platter or his savory sunny-side-up egg and brisket hash have any idea the man behind the kitchen counter — Ray Mikesell — has placed his beloved restaurant up for sale. He’s calling it quits two decades after he returned home from Baltimore to raise his children and carve out a life in Pittsburgh.
Through tears he says he simply has had enough — not of his customers, not of creating new dishes or specialized drinks, but of all the uncertainty that has dogged nearly every small businessman in the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
“It started with COVID and just over time, the uncertainty, the stress of trying to stay open, the inability to hire people, the underlying tension in society, the inflationary cost of everything you need to purchase to create quality food, that is, if you can get it…” he says, his voice trailing. He stops and pauses to hold it together.
The food costs are crushing him, he said, but so is the cost of doing business, period. His utility bills have skyrocketed, as has the cost of fuel to pick up fresh meats and vegetables from local farms or to deliver food for catering jobs. The costs are crippling, he says, and they are creating a barrier to investing in a business he has loved for so long.
“It just breaks you down no matter how strong you are,” said Mr. Mikesell.
Here’s my take on this. Every time a politician says he cares about small businesses and their owners, he’s lying in his teeth.
This new crowd of socialists (including, alas, the Socialist Lite Republicans) absolutely loathe small, successful businesses, for the same reason they hate people owning cars: having your own car gives you freedom of movement, and your own business makes you part of a community, a community that binds you to itself because they now have the freedom to decide when, where and what they want to eat, and not have to go at specific times to a dreary commissariat like the hapless Winston Smith in Orwell’s 1984, and be fed the same slop and gruel as everyone else.
And the government absolutely hates that you have those freedoms.
If that’s not the case, please then explain to me why commuter and passenger rail systems are so popular with neo-socialist governments and why, when businesses like that of Ray Mikesell experience the same ghastly misfortunes (created, it must be said, by government), the government policy does absolutely nothing to help those businesses except by ladling out one-time, piddly subsistence-level “incentives” instead of addressing the main issues that cripple both the businesses and their customers: soaring inflation (created by the government printing too much money), high fuel prices (even though we are the most self-sufficient energy-producing nation on Earth), the double whammy of ever-higher food prices and shortages (in America!!!), and logistical / transport operations that are crippled by (all together now) government regulations.
I know that anecdotes are not data — except that they are, when the owner of a business like Café Raymond is not a statistical outlier, but just one of tens of thousands in a similar or worse predicament.
Explain to me why Ray Mikesell, and all those other business owners, should not just quit and go somewhere else. Explain also why the millions of ordinary people who are affected by the closing of small businesses and their own personal misfortunes should not be heating barrels of tar, oiling ropes, and loading up their semiautomatic sporting rifles.
But then we’re the bad guys. Yeah, right.