Category Archives: What? Are They Nuts?

65 Cents Lost

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I found 65 cents on the road this morning. Since that’s a nickle more than I made in an hour on my first job, I was aghast.

Marlboro Reds
This poor, abandoned pack of smokes fell out of someone’s pocket to be run over by at least one small truck.

I always hated it when the pack fell out of my shirt pocket but I hated it even more when it was my Zippo lighter and I was on the boat. If you find a 40-year old Zippo in the grassy bottom at the bend of the Chester River at Devils Reach off what used to be a corn field, it’s mine. It will probably still work.

Regular readers may recall that I quit smoking for my birthday in 1976, in large part because it had gotten so expensive. I smoked Between the Acts, a little cigarette-shaped nicotine delivery device (NDD) made with cigar tobacco. It was a convenient package because one could smoke an entire “cigar” during a short intermission. I liked the taste and the fact that they cost only 35 cents per pack because cigars weren’t subject to the same taxes as cigarettes.

Minimum wage was $2.30/hour in 1976 except for farm workers. Farmers reached parity with nonfarm workers in 1977 but anyone “working for tips” such as restaurant staff and theater ushers remain uncovered by minimum wage laws.

Marlboros (we didn’t have to call them “Reds” in 1976), jumped to $5/carton that year on state taxes and the state legislature planned to add the taxes to cigars like mine.

Minimum wage smokers then had to work about two-and-a-half hours, after deductions for Social Security and a dime of income tax, to buy a whole carton of cigs.

I called the local drug store this morning. That single pack of Marlboros cost $6.03 plus state and local sales taxes for a total price of $6.48 here today. Embedded in the price (and therefore doubly taxed) is $1.339 per pack in excise taxes. In 2013, the same pack of smokes cost $6.00 here in Florida, down 5% from $6.29 in 2012. Last summer, Florida prices came back up 5% to $6.30. We won’t even talk about New York where that same pack would cost you $12.85 or more.

All told, that’s $65 per carton here today.

Every year, the Awl “checks the prices of cigarettes in all fifty legally recognized states of this fair Union.” Founded in 2009, the Awl publishes “the curios and oddities” of the Internet.

The 2015 minimum wage in Florida is $8.05 per hour, with a minimum of at least $5.03 per hour for tipped employees. Plus tips.

Minimum wage smokers today need to work about ten hours or a quarter of a work week, after an 89 cent deduction for Social Security and Medicare and another half a buck of income tax, to buy a carton of cigs.

So I have to wonder, How does anyone afford to smoke, let alone to lose, cigarettes?

 

Individual Income

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Vermont might not tax income received by a non-resident of Vermont. Except when they do. From Vermont’s “Find more information…” pages.

Non-Resident Income From Web or Internet Activities
“Income received by a non-resident of Vermont is not taxed by Vermont when the income results from activity necessary to create or maintain a world wide web page or internet site for the non-resident…

“Income received by a non-resident through a partnership, limited liability company or trust also is not taxed by Vermont if the entity’s activities in Vermont are limited to the above activities and no other activity of the entity creates nexus with Vermont.”[emphasis added]

I’m really wishing that the Vermont Tax Department didn’t feel the need to tell us that a non-resident’s non-Vermont income is not taxed by Vermont under these conditions because it reminds me that the Vermont Tax Department figures it can and will tax a non-resident’s non-Vermont income under those conditions.

 

What a Pile of Doggie Doo

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Miami-Dade Animal Services removed 42 Chihuahuas from a Miami-Dade home today; Animal Services cited “uncontrolled breeding.”

Say what?

There was no abuse, Animal Services said, but the unusually large number of dogs in the home appears to have resulted from uncontrolled breeding.

Say WHAT?

If you have more than four dogs, Animal Services will take them away from you.

Veterinarians examined the dogs, They found every last one is in good condition. Animal Services is putting the Chihuahuas up for adoption.

SAY WHAT???

Looks like you can have as many children as you want but if you have more than four dogs, Animal Services will break down your garage door and take them away from you. Then they’ll sell them to other people for $65 or $75 each.

Is this a great country or what?

 

Random Medical Day

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CRE, the new super bug I had never heard of, is in the news after an outbreak at a UCLA hospital.

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriacea has no known cure. It was transmitted at UCLA via improperly cleaned endoscopes that still contained the bacteria even after they were disinfected. CRE can kill up to half the patients who contract them.

“The moving parts of the elevator mechanism contain microscopic crevices that may not be reached with a brush,” the FDA said. “Residual body fluids and organic debris may remain in these crevices after cleaning and disinfection. If these fluids contain microbial contamination, subsequent patients may be exposed to serious infections.”

The advice is to show your doctor some FDA instructions that recommend additional cleaning practices, including meticulously cleaning the elevator mechanism by hand.

Yeah, that’s what I need to be doing, managing how my doc runs his office. Right after I get done managing how he bills me.

Lordy Lordy™.

 

Splain, Pls

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Partial Zero Emission Vehicle? [Spotted on a Toyota Camry]

PARTIAL Zero Emission Vehicle? PARTIAL?
Last time I checked, “zero” was a unique number. Unmodifiable.

Ahhh:

This vehicle category was created as part of a bargain with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), so that the automobile manufacturers could postpone producing mandated zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), which will require the production of electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

I might have guessed it was California where words cost more and mean less than you think they do.