Firings

A few moves I feel the need to comment on.

  1. Bell Canada slashing 4,800 jobs, selling 45 radio stations
    I didn’t realize there were that many people still working there.

    I kid, but only a little. In the last few years that company has been gutted until there’s nothing left to gut, and then somehow gutted some more. But in fairness, they only brought in $382 million in earnings this quarter, so what’s a struggling enterprise to do?

    At what point do we stop taking Bell seriously as a media organization? Its radio stations are mostly nationalized, automated husks of what they used to be, what’s left of the local news is getting more and more unwatchable all the time as people who work cheap assume positions on air that they clearly aren’t ready for not to mention that like half the stories on our Kitchener newscast come straight out of Toronto and are of little interest to anyone around here, the specialty channels are mostly slapdash garbage (The Comedy Network is nothing but reruns you can find on 100 other stations, Investigation Discovery spends several hours each day running the same three shows on a loop and what in the hell is the original Discovery Channel even supposed to be now? It’s a total mess.), and I’m sure I could go on. the product we’re getting screams “WE GIVE UP!” Why not just make it official, guys?

  2. Firing a president with a solid mind for and track record in his business, one who has the respect of many of those working under him and who brought the company to levels of creativity and respectability that it hasn’t had since maybe ever is certainly a choice. Replacing that guy with a fella who talks a lot about revenue streams and operational efficiencies? Also a choice. Wouldn’t be my choices, but I’m not in charge of TNA.

    Yes, anthem terminated Scott D’Amore, and it sounds like they did it for all of the reasons you would imagine a company doing something like that.

    “So you’re saying that the company is gaining momentum and that you believe the best way to keep things on the upswing is for us to invest in the product? Sir, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You clearly have no grasp of modern business.”

    We have to give the new guy a chance, of course. Maybe everything will turn out great. Anthem does deserve credit for keeping the company afloat when it damn near died a few years back, so I’ll wait and see. But anyone who pays attention to these sorts of things in basically any industry knows how it generally goes.

    Good luck to Scott D’Amore, and to TNA. I know which one I think needs it more.

  3. Vince McMahon. What the hell do you even say about something like this? I’ve wanted him gone for years because he sucked at many parts of his job, but having him go down in history as a horrific sexual predator wasn’t at all how I drew up the exit strategy.

    For me, Vince McMahon is the ultimate example of having to separate the artist from the art. Wrestling is, no joke, one of my favourite things in life, and Vince McMahon is a huge part of that. You can’t just ignore him and hope he goes away, but you also can’t let him define everything about the thing that you love or see yourself as endorsing him because you happen to love a thing that he spent decades making himself the face of.

    I don’t know if every single allegation made against him over the years is true. Chances are none of us ever will. But lord knows that there’s more than enough out there to make you think that yes, most of them probably are. And it’s nice that after all this time, it’s finally caught up to him. My only hope now is that he faces some real accountability before it’s too late. Shame isn’t enough, because he’s shown himself many times to be shameless. Banishment from his life’s work isn’t enough, because he’s still rich beyond belief thanks to that work. Making all of the people whole that he’s hurt in one way or another is impossible, but not being able to buy his way out of actual consequences for once would go a long way.

Menus4NoOne (Updated)

Update: Thanks to Leah in the comments for sharing the excellent news that the app won’t be going away after all!

By the way, we have a subscription now, and it’s already helped us out a couple of times. I think we’ve even sold it to one of our constantly travelling friends. He watched it in action for just a couple minutes and was immediately like “where do I get this and how much is it? I think I may need it.”

Original: A few months ago, I wrote about an app called Menus4All. It sounded like a very handy tool to have around, and now that stuff doing season appears to be kicking into high gear for us with friends visiting us the next few weekends and some trips on the horizon, this felt like a good time to give it a go. Sadly though, it looks like that won’t be happening.

According to an item in a recent edition of Access Information News, the app is being discontinued at the end of February due to low sales.

I know my subscription wouldn’t have saved the company by itself, but I do feel slightly bad for not signing up earlier. Going to restaurants just isn’t something we’ve gotten back into the habit of doing since Covid. When we eat out, it’s usually delivery. But then again, if I had subscribed sooner and gotten attached, this news would suck more than it already does. You hate to see a good idea not pan out.

Helen Fernety, CEO: Dear Menus4ALL Customers And Supporters: It is with heavy hearts that Stephanie and I announce the discontinuation of the iPhone Menus4ALL app effective February 28, 2024. Over the past year, we have been proud to offer over 1,000,000 US and 80,000 Canadian accessible restaurant menus to our customers. We believe that our app has not only increased independence but also added joy to special occasions, such as dates, holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays at restaurants. Unfortunately, due to low sales, we can no longer provide this service. However, we remain hopeful that someone else will create a similar app to support the accessibility needs of our customers. As an alternative, we recommend using Aira and Be My AI to fulfill your accessible restaurant menu needs. If you have an annual subscription, please feel free to cancel. If you have a monthly subscription, Apple will not bill you any further. As we are a vendor of Apple, everything must be handled through your App Store account. To learn more visit our website. Thank you for supporting this groundbreaking product.

So When And How Are We Supposed To Use The Emergencies Act?

Given that I’m about to spend a weekend with a friend with whom I’ve burned no shortage of hours discussing world events, I’m sure this question is going to come up sooner or later. And I have to say, this column from Matt Gurney sums up my feelings pretty well.

You can count me among those who supported it at the time, no question. It was a sad, disappointed support because there was no good reason we should have gotten to that point, but there we were, and something had to be done. Something had to be done, and it had become pretty clear after three damn weeks that neither the city of Ottawa nor the Ontario government was in much of a hurry to do it. Their inaction, either by design or through incompetence, had served to punt the issue up the chain and to their credit, the feds acted. Invoking wartime emergency measures should be the last thing anyone wants to see happen, but this had gone far beyond the point of peaceful protest. A city was crippled, people were being tortured by constant noise, there were armed border blockades, and there was no sign of it packing up and clearing out on its own, much to the chagrin of the wishful thinkers apparently inhabiting city hall and Queen’s Park. In that moment, the government took charge and made a choice. that choice, thank goodness, put an end to the madness.

But now, we have new madness. And as madness goes, it’s pretty bad. We have Emergency Commission hearings that say, reluctantly, that the government was justified in doing what it did. And we also have a Federal Court decision that says, reluctantly, that it wasn’t. No matter which side you fall on, I hope we can all agree that what we need right now is a rubber match. Not because it’s important to be able to say “My side won!”, but because it needs to be set out in the clearest possible terms when inaction becomes inability and what, in future, constitutes a true emergency and a true abuse of power. that line, as we’ve seen, can be a fine one. And it’s imperative that we get some solid direction as to where it is.

There. Now It’s Broken

If I was ever going to flip my lid over something like this, it would be one of those times when you get a pizza and find that they didn’t cut the slices all the way through. I hate that!

Subway worker Cassandra Pierre-Louis told sheriff’s deputies that De Barros, a licensed building contractor, “became upset with her after finding out that his sandwich was not separated,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
Following a “brief verbal exchange,” Pierre-Louis said, De Barros “began causing a disruptive scene.” After the Subway worker announced that she would no longer be serving De Barros, “the sandwich was thrown at Ms. Pierre-Louis.”
The sandwich–which struck Pierre-Louis in her “mid to lower body section”–is not further described by investigators.

Conservatively, I would estimate that I have eaten somewhere in the neighbourhood of a gazillion subs in my lifetime. Amazingly, I don’t remember ever getting an unsliced one. Not even in the small town I used to live in where half the time the people working at the Subway didn’t seem to know why they were there.

Anyway, when police questioned Alberto De Barros, who they tracked down thanks to the Subway lady getting a photo of his license plate, he admitted to being irritated by his sandwich not being cut in half, but said that he threw it at the counter, not her. Security footage, however, showed otherwise.

He was charged with misdemeanour battery.

At Least He Was Keeping Himself Clean

It’s totally a stereotype and I know we’re all supposed to be better than that now, but be honest with yourself. When you hear a name like Giovanni Impellizzeri, you probably have at least one of two thoughts:

  1. That’s a mobster.
  2. I bet he could make some pretty good food.

I can’t speak to that first one, but if even a little bit of this is true, put me down as a hard no for the dinner party.

Impellizzeri posted “extremely disturbing videos” to Telegram, prompting several tips to be sent to officials with the Elizabeth F. Moore School in Upper Deerfield.
As detailed in a shocking probable cause affidavit, videos obtained by police showed Impellizzeri using “various utensils and items from the school to wipe his penis, testicles, and anus.” Additionally, he could be seen “masturbating and urinating on pillows and kitchen bowls” and spraying bleach on cucumbers later served to students.
As if that was not revolting enough, Impellizzeri allegedly used “multiple pieces of bread to wipe” his anus and genitals “before putting the bread back into the container to be later served to children” at the public school.

Other details are light, so we don’t know yet why any of this was happening or for how long. He had worked for the district as a custodian since 2019 though, which means it could have been a while. So I guess if you’re looking for a bright side to all of those COVID school closures a few years back, you’ve probably just found it.

Shockingly, I Can Breathe

A photo of the NasoCalm nose massaging mask.
Let this zap you for 15 minutes a day.

There’s almost no chance that I would pay actual money for this based on concept alone, but I have enough trouble with my nose on a daily basis that I would for sure try the hell out of one if somebody let me.

Although described as a massager, the NasoCalm doesn’t work like the Therabody Theragun or similar devices that vibrate against the skin to help relieve sore muscles. Instead, inside the nasal mask there are six electrodes that send electrical impulses into the skin to make muscles around the nose and nasal cavity contract, similar to the electrical signals the brain sends out to make us move.
Its makers claim a 15-minute daily massage of “nasal acupoints” with the NasoCalm can “improve nose circulation and promote muscle contractions,” which will, in turn, help relieve congestion and clear airways so users can breath easier.

Users can select five different levels of massage intensity on the mask itself (there is no smartphone app connectivity). While the NasoCalm does produce about 55 decibels of sound while it’s running, that’s comparable to the background noise in the average home. A full charge provides enough power for up to 3.5 hours of continuous use, although mileage will vary depending on the intensity of those electrical impulses.

The company also claims that it can relax you while you’re using it, although nothing about the idea of a mask shocking my face sounds relaxing to me in the slightest.

The lack of smartphone integration is definitely a point in it’s favour, if you ask me. the last thing I want is another damn app in my life, especially when all I’m trying to do is breathe. No need to complicate things.

If you think you might like to pay actual money for one, they’re taking contributions on Kickstarter right now and hope to start delivering this March.

This Being A Day Ending In Y, Your Rogers Bill Is About To Go Up

So remember how letting Rogers buy Shaw was going to be great for Canadians, lowering everyone’s bills and absolutely not leading to out of control rate increases? Three guesses how that’s going.

Wireless phone plans will be getting more expensive for some Canadians this year. 
Rogers Communications Inc. will increase the cost of some of its plans in the coming weeks, the company confirmed to CBC News on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Bell is reportedly increasing some of its existing wireless phone plan prices in February, according to a report by Canadian tech news outlet MobileSyrup. 
The Rogers price hike will impact some customers’ wireless phone plans and internet plans, including customers of its subsidiary Fido, a spokesperson for the telecom giant told CBC News.

While a Rogers spokesperson said many customers will see a price hike under $7, the increases could be as high as $9 per month, depending on the customer’s plan or bundle with their carrier. The hikes apply only to customers who are not on contract.

Customers who have been notified by Rogers will start seeing the new price applied to bills issued after Jan. 17.

It’s not just wireless. Internet and TV rates are going up, too. Based on our most recent bill, those hikes are coming in March. And for us, it means that our already ridiculous bill that we keep getting lowered yet somehow mysteriously keeps creeping back up will be increasing by $21 this year. $4 for internet, $3 for TV and $14 for our two cell phones ($7 each).

Yeah, I know that François-Philippe Champagne said a bunch of tough guy words about non-compliance and whatever, but who cares? Wake me up when he or anyone else in government turns any of that bluster into action. I expect that about as much as I expect a corporate merger to be good for consumers one day. Corporate mergers are almost never good for anyone who doesn’t own the corporation.