Service of Inquiring Minds
August 4th, 2022
Categories: Banking, Fire, Forecasts, Jobs, Marriage, Weather
I’ve previously isolated questions in posts even though I end each with at least one.
I started with two in 2016–“Service of Questions” and “Service of Why.” A smattering: Why do mothers give their toddlers in strollers tablets to stare at when there’s so much to see on a walk and why do telemarketers hire people who mumble?
In 2019 in “Service of Questions—Does Google Have All the Answers?” I asked a few more such as how commuters in cars in the New York metro area fill their time in traffic for as long as 90 minutes? How do pet owners of moderate means afford vet bills when they have more than one?
Here are more that I’ve thought of recently:
- How come the rise in interest rates seem to impact borrowers immediately but not those with garden variety bank savings accounts? I asked a random customer service person at a bank branch. He said CDs will reflect the interest rate change first and that it will take a few months for anything to kick in for savings accounts. Hmmmm.
- I marvel at people who work in precarious situations and have snapped shots of some. Is being fearless like this something you can acclimate yourself to?
- Why is the weather forecast on my iPhone so consistently wrong lately especially when it comes to predicting rain?
- Why do people glorify a deceased spouse when for years they confided the person had made their life miserable?
- Why don’t I recall hearing, years ago, about such breathtakingly horrific forest fires as now in the West and in Europe?
What random questions do you have? Any answers to mine?
Good questions!
Maybe partly it’s the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Too pedantic of an explanation?
As far as precarious, the older I get the less I want to be in that kind of situation!
The fires and floods are happening either because of mankind, or in spite of mankind. No matter which, the planet is definitely changing… Maybe this happens continually, but now we are more easily aware of what is going on around the world on a minute by minute basis!
I seem to recall hearing about forest fires and floods in the west over the course of several years. I think our continual access to news coverage 24/7 exacerbates the horror of these occurances.
I think many people, especially widows, glorify deceased spouses because they feel guilty about bad-mouthing them during their lifetimes. And they are probably lonely.
To answer one of your original questions: telemarketing is not a particularrly “fun” occupation and those hiring people to do this kind of work no doubt welcome any warm and willing bodies, mumbling or otherwise.
Hank,
I fear I come to the same conclusion as you do re. interest rates. Playing the float is another instance. I find smaller clients pay quickly but the giant ones often wait a few months.
I have always been too physically timid so I’m in awe of these workers. I can’t imagine going up in one of those exterior elevators on construction sites!
You may be right. News coverage is less parochial so we read of tsunamis in Japan, for example, that we might not have known about decades ago. I can’t imagine losing all my belongings and house to fire in a blink of an eye.
ASK,
Yes, in recent years I too read about devastating fires but to jump back decades, I don’t remember them at all. Pointing to needing to fill the news pipelines 24/7 is a brilliant reason.
My mom had a neighbor whose husband was sooooooooo difficult and today we might say psychologically abusive. There were too many examples. He died and became a saint. I don’t think she felt guilty but maybe so. Friends have shared similar examples.
I don’t know if these comments are pertinent, but here goes:
Why does the media cover clearly illegal and outrageous behavior with totally inaccurate and unrealistic language?
Why do the news stations spend half of repetitive half hour broadcasts on weather(not climate change)) and traffic?
Why do we have endless media coverage of the intimate details of the sex lives of incredibly undistinguished, vacuous so-called celebrities?
Martha,
FABULOUS questions.
My guess about Q 1: Each network and cable news show is in competition with news reporters, bloggers, podcasters and anyone else who can get to a Twitter feed first to break a story….so the details are helter skelter. The thought is they can always update and adjust. The reporter will keep his/her job another day
Q 2: They are paying the meteorologists so they’d best make use of their investment. No doubt they have market studies that tell them that this is what the audience wants to hear. OR they do it because all the others are doing it. Take your pick.
Q3: This is what the audience craves.
I have no answers to your questions and have many more to ask…
•How do outdoor workers stand the extreme weather conditions?
•When will we all decide it’s not that hard to coexist?
I would like to add to your question about the deceased spouse. Why when someone dies do we forget the bad and only remember the good? My mother-in-law passed away recently. Her sons, whom haven’t spoken in years, have reunited like they’d been besties all along. Wonder how long this reunion will last? Why does someone need to die for us to forgive and forget?
Eileen,
If I’m stopped by a light I ask the policeman or woman the question I also ask those staffing a farmer’s market booth in the heat we’ve had lately in NYC: “are you drinking water?” I’m prepared to buy each a bottle but all say they have. As they say on Brit TV and in the UK I imagine “needs must.”
As for your Q 2, I wish I had the answer. Some people love to stir the pot and to cause trouble for others. Get rid of them and we’ll be half way there.
I didn’t experience the last scenario in that I go through stripes re memories about deceased loved ones—some good and some not so good. Clearly something is wrong with me!