The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has just gotten quite a bit of company: As many as 6,600 graves at the country’s hallowed Arlington National Cemetery for fallen U.S. service members may be mislabeled, one lawmaker said on Thursday.Political movements are becoming ever more like a match tossed into a room full of dynamite: No matter which stick you are aiming for, chances are a lot of others will fire off, too.A drama about a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer doesn’t exactly sound like the most entertaining new series on the fall prime-time slate. But there is more buzz surrounding Showtime’s “The Big C” than perhaps any other series premiering this season, and the incomparable Laura Linney is a major reason why the series is high on critics’ must-see lists.Although facts on the famed Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding, which is rumored to happen this weekend, are tighter than Hillary Clinton’s smile, some details have leaked out. Sources report that groom Marc Mezvinsky has “hurt” his father’s family by not inviting them to the wedding (Ed Mezvinsky pleaded guilty in 2002 to swindling investors out of $10 million.For Paul Rudd, the decision to star in Jay Roach’s new comedy, “Dinner for Schmucks,” was an easy one. “I thought the script was really funny,” he says. “That was it. It was kind of a no-brainer.” Of course Rudd, who’s built an impressive resume of smart comedies, was just as enamored of the man behind the camera. Subletting in NYC typically involves some kind of covert transaction. Try to find a budget traveler who hasn’t enjoyed the risk of Craigslist’s lease-free rentals. But thanks to a bill Gov. David Paterson signed into law last Friday, renting an apartment for less than 30 days isn’t kosher. Fortunately, there’s a saving grace for those in search of short-term living: Jersey City.New claims for unemployment benefits slipped last week, but stayed at a stubbornly high level that underscored the labor market recovery was having trouble gaining traction.Could nail mats like the Acushakti be the next Snuggies?Unless the locals covered you in meatballs and sang “Nessun Dorma” upon arrival, this vacation could hardly be more Italian. For this is a “Vespa vacation” — a two-wheeled tour of the nooks and crannies, the winding back roads and the off-the-beaten-track hidden gems of breathtaking Umbria, a beautiful region located in Central Italy.For many job-hopping careerists, smuggling a resignation letter in their bag like a guilty secret, there are few workplace rituals so hard as saying so long.
My toaster just died. I push the button, and nothing happens: No light goes on, no toast toasts. It is an ex-toaster.
This wouldn’t be so surprising — our national motto these days should be “stuff breaks” — except it’s a Black & Decker, like my previous two toasters. Those lasted roughly ten years apiece; this one barely made it to its first birthday before giving up the ghost. And if Internet reviews are to be believed — hey, if Twitter can be a news source, so can Amazon.com — it’s a trend, with an epidemic of malfunctioning appliances littering our nation’s kitchen counters.
What makes all this more than the story of another once-thriving American institution falling into disarray — like General Motors, or Republican governors — is that over the last 10 years, Black & Decker has undergone a major restructuring, closing U.S. factories and shipping jobs overseas, largely to China and Eastern Europe. Turn my dead toaster over, and it says “Made in China” — manufactured, I can only imagine, by disabled convicts paid in thimbles of uncooked rice, or actually made of uncooked rice glued together with the sweat of disabled convicts, or something.
Boo, greedy Black & Decker, right? Except that exporting jobs wasn’t their idea. As Stacy Mitchell writes in her book “Big-Box Swindle,” a few years back Home Depot and Lowe’s issued Black & Decker an ultimatum: Cut prices by any means necessary, or give up selling at the big-box stores. Suddenly China seemed a better alternative than bankruptcy.
There are many lessons here: Competition, which is supposed to cure everything from the health care crisis to global warming, can push companies to improve, but can also lead to a “race to the bottom” to provide as crappy products (and wages) as the next guy. The folly of “consumer choice”: My toaster didn’t come from a big-box store, but I got the same crappy product. And we need more antitrust oversight — yet another area where we’re still waiting on the Obama administration to produce results.
Mostly, though, it’s a reminder of the high cost of cheap products. In the old days there was no Home Depot, but at least I had toast.
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In the July MMMpod, Young Veins talk about breaking away from Panic! at the Disco, Keith Lockhart talks about Buckwheat Zydeco throwing the Boston Pops for a loop, Zooey Deschanel talks about how Roy Orbison inspired a She & Him song, Derek Miller of Sleigh Bells talks about how awesome Funkadelic is, and we talk about how awesome Jimmy Cliff is, who in turn talks about Sam Cooke and divine intervention. An explosive show for July! Oh yeah, and we also test your knowledge of America songs in the MMMPod medley.
