WWW Code For Sale as NFT

[Kellemora]

Grandpa had to do that for my dad and his brothers.
Took 3 acres, with 1-1/2 acres on each side and put in a road that was named Cacky Lane.
Uncle Leonard's house was on the back lot, built in like 1890 or before.
Dad's new house was built in the lot in front of Uncle Leonard's house.
Oh after the left and right lots were divided again down to 3/4 acre each.
To the right of my dad was Uncle Clarence, and behind him was supposed to be Uncle Louis.
But Uncle Louis sold his lot to Uncle Clarence, eventually, they just used it for farming.
Uncle Leonard built a new house in our big subdivision behind our farm.
Dad bought Uncle Leonard's lot, and the bought the 1-1/2 acres to his west that belonged to the Mertz family.
He did this so he would have a larger piece of property in order to sell it as commercial property.
They wanted uncle Clarence's property also, but he refused to sell and stay put where he was until he died.
Now I don't know what is there, since I've not been back that way for over a decade now.

I know exactly what you mean! Saw a bunch of it when the Yuppies moved in and caused everything to skyrocket, including the taxes. They had more in loose spending change than most of the folks who lived there their whole life, and many lost their houses because they could not afford all the tax hikes the Yuppies voted in.
You know, Crime was actually much lower in Chicago when Al Capone was taking care of business, hi hi.

[yogi]

The most famous mayor of Chicago in my lifetime was Richard J Daley. He was from an Irish clan. I don't know if they had or have a mafia back in Ireland, but Daley knew how to run a city in spite of all the rules, regulations, and laws. After a while Chicago was referred to as being "the City that works." It's that phrase that I refer to when I talk about Windows, by the way. LOL Yes, you could get anything you wanted or needed from your alderman and the right amount of money donated to his political campaign fund. Everybody knew what was going on, but the truth is that the city did work, and very well. Mayor Daley was not a Don, but he did have the title of "the Boss."

Taxes in Cook County and Chicago could not remain low under any circumstance. The Windy City and it's collar counties was home to 13 million people. Think about it. It can't be cheap to run a bunch of communities with that many people in it. Then every alderman and their henchmen had to get their cut so that high taxes are inevitable. Back in Daley's early days it kind of was a wash with the taxes. You might have got an exemption if you tossed a $100 bill in the hat when it was passed around, but then you got, maybe $100 "for gas" to drive to the polling place and vote. It all worked out in the end, I guess.

[Kellemora]

I hear ya Yogi! This is what we saw happening in Des Peres. It had more to do with changing politics than it did with population growth. Once we lost home rule to political rule, the number of poly-tick-ians doubled nearly overnight, and their salaries all doubled right along with it. Their goal was to squeeze out the little businesses to allow mega-businesses in which filled their pockets with even more money.
As they say, it is ALWAYS about the MONEY, and who is getting it!

[yogi]

When I was young and naive I thought it was love that made the world go around. Now that I'm old and naive I know better. It's all about money. Then again, the people participating in the game are well aware of what they are doing, and you DO need people. Home rule works only up to a certain population level at which point it's no longer possible to maintain a consensus. Too many people with too many different ideas is not conducive to living by the honor system and that's basically how home rule operates. Corruption certainly is tempting when you have a lot of power that can't be challenged, and I am sure some people in political life fall for that trap. But there can be and are people with conflicting ideas and who are honest in intent. Nobody is right or wrong in those situations, but it also seems exceptionally difficult to compromise for a solution. While a consensus might not be possible in governing a large population, the majority still rules in places not run by authoritarian dictators. Thus, if the majority of folks are happy with the way things are under a corrupt government, then that's the way it's going to be.

[ocelotl]

It's all a trade off, based on the cynicism or awareness of the population. Down here, during the "Priato", things were handled in a softly authoritarian way. Many on the ranks got there either by connections or patronage. After the crumbling of the single party system, it all became a trade off, and for what I've seen first hand, everywhere there is a trade off that the people are willing to accept. There can be honorable people in all power levels, but also fully corrupted individuals. The way I see it is that we must be aware that people in power is corruptible, and most of the time they know that we can be aware of that, so, as I said, it all depends on the exigence level of the population based on such awareness.

[Kellemora]

I don't think you understand what Home Rule is Yogi. Many States operate under the Home Rule system, some under the Dillon's Rule system.
Both Illinois and Missouri operate under both Home Rule and Dillon's Rule.
In Illinois, Dillon's Rule applies to those municipalities not individually granted Home Rule.
In Missouri, a municipality is allowed to chose which they wish to govern under.
Here in Tennessee, Dillon's rule only applies to those non-Home Rule municipalities.

I guess what I'm trying to say is Home Rule is the common form of local governments.
They usually adopt Home Rule when their population crosses 5,000 adults.
Otherwise, Dillon's Rule is the norm for the State and County governments.
10 States are strictly Home Rule states, 40 are mixed Dillon's Rule and Home Rule.

The whole idea behind Home Rule is that the local citizens operate their own municipal government, as long as it abides by the laws of the state and county in which the municipality resides.

Now to confuse the issue, in many cases, such as my old home town, it was still called Home Rule after OUTSIDE poly-tick-ians took over the city. That is the problem with being classified as earning the status of being a fourth class city. Although called Home Rule it is technically Dillon's Rule.
Or another way of looking at it, Home Rule is run by the local citizens. Dillon's Rule is run by outsiders, but given the guise of being Home Ruled, since only citizens can vote on some issues but not many of the major issues.

Oceloti basically hit the nail on the head.
In a totally Home Ruled community, there is little to no corruption in politics, because most of them are local business owners, and their families live in the community, go to community schools and shop at the community stores.
But once outsiders come in and take over, the corruption in politics escalates like a wildfire.
Families and businesses are oppressed by their new laws to drive them out.
Been There, Saw That, Lived That, Moved Out!

[yogi]

Perhaps I am in need of enlightenment regarding Home Rule. It is my impression, and I'm pretty sure you are telling me it's true, that Home Rule involves the members of a given community governing themselves. The point I was making is that the Home Rule method of governing has limitations built into it. It only works for small population communities. The ruling members of larger populations start disagreeing with each other, and that is the time self-governing becomes impractical. Something else has to happen in order to bring stability back. I guess that's when they call in the Dodge City Marshall, Matt Dillon, to straighten things out.

[Kellemora]

I think I got off on the wrong foot when I first started explaining how things worked.
An entire county is usually under Dillon's Rule, so an area is covered by the Sheriff, and the laws of the county are upheld, or supposed to be anyhow.
As family farms draw in small locally owned stores, like the general store, a blacksmith, a livery stable, and perhaps even a mercantile store, plus a few taverns, hi hi, things start getting unruly and too much for the sheriff to handle.

In Des Peres, as in most other small towns, The Mutual Protection Society was formed, to help protect the families in the area. They didn't have much legal authority to do much of anything, other than pose a few threats to possible criminals.
Mostly they were there to help farmers who did get robbed, to get back on their feet.
Pretty soon crimes increase to more than the Sheriff can handle, so a local community may form a Law and Order Society, and get permission from the Sheriff to operate as such, and the Sheriff will then Deputize a few members of the Law and Order Society to help maintain Law and Order.
Along with the above, the community decided to become registered as a Town. A small town does not have politicians per se, what they do have is a group of folks, usually the Law and Order Society who become Trustees of the Town, and upon creating this town government with Trustees, is when they become official a Home Rule Town.
But once a town grows to over 5,000 people, they can incorporate as a Town, but the state still gives them Home Rule privilege.
At some point in time as the town grows larger, and the density crosses 25,000 individuals, they are eligible to become a City, the bottom rung of cities is called a 4th Class City. But by becoming a City, you can no longer stop outsiders from running for public office. But instead of Trustee's, you now have a Mayor and Aldermen, etc. They will still continue to operate under Home Rule for as long as they can keep doing so. But at some point, as more and more outsiders get elected to offices in the City, it becomes inevitable to make the change to Dillon's Rule. Also the city has usually stepped up from a 4th Class City as well.

I Know I've mentioned in the past that my grandfather was the Trustee of Des Peres, and later the first and long time Mayor of the City of Des Peres. But his goal of getting Des Peres on the Map as a City, is what changed us from Home Rule to Dillon's Rule. And now being run by mostly outsiders doing what they wanted to do, and to heck with the lifelong residents of the town, the old ways just disappeared almost overnight.

[yogi]

I have vague memories of your explaining this, and the role of your grandfather, when you posted about Des Peres in the past. It's a bit of an irony to see your home rule town deteriorate into a city under Dillon's Rule simply because it was successful. It's a lot like parenting children. You spend twenty years teaching them about how to deal with life, spend tons of money feeding, clothing, and educating therm, nurture their illnesses, and give them all the love and affection in your heart; and then they get married and leave home.

It can be said that your children are you legacy, and Des Peres is part of your family's legacy. They are not what they started out to be, nor did they mature into your dreams and visions of them. But they are in existence because of you, and your family. It truly something to be proud of in spite of the disappointments.

[Kellemora]

Yes, we were a proud family, one who everyone thought was rich when we were not.
Sure, great-grandpa broke rock for 12-1/2 cents per day to get his start and buy a farm.
And back then everyone and their brother were farmers, it was the only way to survive.
But he and his sons started raising flowers, which at the time was like a growing fad that never died out.
They were in the right place at the right time to make it into a success.
But such success is fraught with problems. Weather, and escalating costs, growing faster than what the market would bear for the products.
All the fancy new buildings and greenhouses were all too soon old hat and expensive to operate.
And way to expensive to replace on what little income was left over after all the expenses.
And as the families grew, there were many more mouths to feed from a slowly failing business.
One that could have done better if the parents were not so set in their ways.
The funeral flower industry was their primary source of income.
But the obituary ads bearing the phrase "In Lieu of Flowers, please donate to," really hurt the floral industry big time.
And as we all know, about 85% of what is donated goes into some big shots pocket and not for the reason the charity was founded.

And such is life!

[yogi]

Everybody can tell a story similar to yours. Indeed you depict life as a human being vividly. Today there would be over seven billion similar narratives, but each one is unique. That makes them special and of value. Judging by what I've read here about you and your family, your contributions to and influence upon the lives of many people are numerous. All that effort got you where you are today, which might not be where you were hoping to be. But, you know, there is some truth in the trite saying, "Whether you win the game or lose is not important. It's how you play the game that matters." Well played, my friend. Well played.

[ocelotl]

But the obituary ads bearing the phrase "In Lieu of Flowers, please donate to," really hurt the floral industry big time.
And as we all know, about 85% of what is donated goes into some big shots pocket and not for the reason the charity was founded.

And such is life!

Had to check a translation o really understand the meaning... I find it quite offensive... ¿What do they mean? ¿Do they consider receiving flowers not worth their deceased relative? ¿Must people refrain to express their feelings to the family by sending flowers? It should not be a "one thing or the other" stuff. I'd prefer an "to honor XXXX life please consider donating to YYY" and let people send flowers if that's their choice. It also may be my cultural heritage speaking... Oh, well... I'll leave it like that.

Regarding your personal heritage, Gary. Many people think of people with a good standing or some influence to be also rich, without knowing how things really are... Yet the people remembered is not always the rich or the powerful, but the ones that influenced the most on their surroundings. Not many will get to be recognized as part of history, but at least, your family has earned your page. Second the call. Well played. Well played.

[yogi]

Somewhere about the middle of my life the custom of sending floral arrangements to the funeral home of the deceased was challenged. The reasoning went along the lines of the flowers being very expensive, and taking a lot of energy to produce, and having a very limited life span, and disposing of them so quickly was so wasteful. Giving the equivalent in money to a charity would be more productive and, well, friendlier to the environment. It was a line of thought that gained momentum and is pretty much the accepted practice these days.

I had and still have mixed feelings about it all. The flowers, and the entire memorial ritual, are for the benefit of the survivors. It's all performed to honor the life of the dearly departed, but that departed soul can no longer appreciate such accolades. We all need closure when death takes a loved one from us, and the whole funeral rite helps mitigate the grieving. The act of giving flowers is a beautiful tradition, but if something must be given, cash to the departed one's immediate family (a most worthy charity) would be appropriate and well appreciated in most cases. I can see how people might feel uncomfortable giving cash directly to the departed one's family, and thus the donation to an impartial third party could be seen as more socially acceptable. Then again, if the reason for not sending flowers is based on economics, gifts of cash to a grieving family could be a better expression of honor to the dearly departed.

[Kellemora]

Thank you Oceloti, much appreciated! Yes sir, you figured out how demeaning it was to see that in the paper, not only to the florists, but to the families as well. There were several instances where when the family arrived at the funeral parlor after adding that to their departed's obit notice, and after finding no flowers there at all, called up and ordered them themselves. Then it is up to the florist to stop what they are doing and design a casket spray and two standards for them, which is all handcrafted work by a floral designer, and get a driver to rush it out to the funeral home before the rest of the visitors arrive to pay their respects.

Yogi - Considered the prices for our higher quality than most other florists, was cheaper than all other florists, sometimes by half as much. For example: No other florist sold a full-sized casket spray for under 125 bucks, and they were sparse also. Ours was priced at only 85 dollars for the cheapest one, and had more flowers in it, or just as many as a full-sized spray, because it was full-sized.
Flowers are not like produce that is shoved in a bag and shipped by the case loads to the store.
Each arrangement is hand-made to order, and often to the specifications of the customer.
And if folks knew what it took to raise long stemmed flowers suitable for arrangements, and how quality of the flowers extend their lifetime for the purchaser. They would gladly pay the price. Heck, look how much money those addicted to the Speed Drug sold as Coffee pay for a cup of Joe. They think nothing of being price gouged for a cup of coffee!

Although the times have changed since we were in the business. 90% of the flowers ordered as gifts for a funeral home, sold for anywhere from 10 to 25 dollars, with $12.50 being the average cost each of all the flowers sent to a funeral home. We've also sent small planters and the like for 5 to 10 bucks also, for those who didn't want to spend more. In some rare cases, we sent a single rose in a bud vase for 2 bucks.
For most folks, making a donation to a charity usually means 25 to 50 bucks or more. For 50 bucks the family will receive a gift card showing the donation was made on their behalf. What I'm saying is, those who donate instead of flowers usually spend more than double what the flowers would have cost, and sometimes four to five times more.

FWIW: My wife and I chose not to have a funeral at all. No funeral homes involved, only the cemetery who will handle everything for us. It is all paid for, including the opening and closing costs, which are normally not prepaid.
If my wife survives me, which she probably will, she will have a small gathering at S&S Cafeteria for light buffet dinner, and we set aside moderate funds to cover the cost for that too, if necessary. In other words, we won't be a burden to anyone!

[yogi]

My comments and observations about flowers for a funeral are indeed my own personal point of view. The idea that money is being wasted by sending flowers was not something I originated nor encouraged. Well, I did add that donation note when mom died, but that was something she requested to be done. Plus she is gone 13 years now and the trend away from sending flowers to the funeral home was already well established and customary. I can only speak for the neighborhood and culture I grew up in. Traditions certainly could have been different 300 miles away from there. There is no doubt in my mind that the flower business was grossly affected by the change in traditions. It is unfortunate that it happened, but business conditions change every day. It's part of the risk one takes when serving the public. The public is a fickle lot and can't be relied upon to remain constant in their tastes for more than a few weeks.

The costs of funerals in 2021 is outrageous. Mom knew how expensive it was and requested minimal services, but even so we are talking many thousands of dollars for one days' memorial. As mentioned earlier I do not believe the deceased is conscious enough to know what their survivors are doing to commemorate their lives. With that in mind I have no instructions for what to do with my corpse. Send it to a dog food factory for processing for all I care. The people who will miss me, and I'm certain there will be one or two, would feel differently so that some kind of memorial will likely take place. I'm leaving no instruct ions and that should be enough to let people know how I see it all.

And, as an aside, my wife will be out of town for her birthday. So yesterday I decided to get her a dozen roses to enjoy before she leaves. Dierbergs had zero roses in their cooler, which was a shock and disappointing. In fact they didn't have a lot of flowers at all compared to other times I visited their flower store. On the way home I stopped in Schnucks and roses were missing there too, all but a vase full of beautiful long stemmed red ones. The gal apologized for not having any arrangements for sale, but suggested I could come back in an hour or two to get one for $15. Nahh, this is special. Make up a bouquet with those red ones which only cost $3.49 EACH. Yes, my sweetheart is worth it, but something is vastly askew in the flower marked these days.

[Kellemora]

Ouch, and I though 1.50 each was high for long stem roses. Guess I haven't checked lately.
Last year I bought my wife a vase of 1 dozen long stem yellow roses, and it was 17.50, including the vase, arranging, greenery, baby's breath, and delivery.
And to think, we rarely if ever got over 10 bucks for a vase of roses delivered. And we had premium roses that lasted over a week.

FWIW: I paid $2.50 cents each for long stem yellow roses for our wedding reception tables, using our own bud vases. Part of that cost was air fare to get them here, since no local florist had the kind I wanted.

The wife and I chose cremation and each of us have a niche. In fact I also have a niche in St. Louis still I never sold.

[yogi]

Shortages of all kinds and duration are becoming a way of life. That ubiquitous supply chain is being blamed for a lot of the variations in shelf space at the local groceries. While the shortage of labor in certain markets might be affecting the supply chain, Schnucks in particular has always been lax in keeping their shelves stocked fully. Dierbergs seems to be better organized, but my guess is that the individual store managers have a lot to do with how supplies are kept up. Regardless, I was very surprised to see few flowers in both stores. Roses have always been expensive but it was possible to get long stemmed ones for $15 a dozen when I first moved down here. The prices change dramatically depending on how close to the holidays it is. Valentines Day is a notoriously expensive time to buy flowers, which mysteriously seem to be overly abundant at that time of the year. I think it's a small miracle that any fresh flowers survive the supermarket environment. I don't know what they do to make it all happen, but the gears of progress need some lubrication at the moment.

[Kellemora]

Well I can tell you that both Coke and Pepsi have been VERY LAX at keeping their products on the store shelves, for YEARS.
Of course they keep their mainline first line products in overabundance at all stores. And the stores make so much money off Soda Water, they don't mind tying up massive areas with Soda displays.
But when it comes down to their other things, even when the Soda Drivers are there with product every other day, certain fast selling soda products the shelves sit empty 90% of the time.
Namely PepsiONE, and Diet Coke w/Splenda. You have to be at the store when the driver comes if you wanted either of those, because the minute he put them on the shelf, they were gone in a flash, that is how well those two products sold. But because the drivers never brought enough to meet demand, the shelves sat empty, which caused sales to be low, so they Discontinued one of their fastest moving products for all the wrong reasons. And after wasting hundreds of thousand of dollars in advertising them so heavily. Makes no sense to me!

Nearly every product has different prices based on seasons. Perishable products more so than non-perishable, but even they fluctuate heavily as well.
Let me ask you this. If you spent six months raising 350,000 Poinsettia's for the Christmas sales season, and due to weather conditions, power outages, or some other reason, they did not come into full bloom until January after Christmas, do you think you could still sell them for the seasonal price, or do you think you will have to throw them all away, because who want's them after the holiday is over.
How do you think that loss will affect the price of Poinsettia's the following year?

[yogi]

You're posting questions in areas with which I am not familiar. If a poinsettia grower does nothing else to generate revenue other than growing poinsettias, he might not be in business a second year after a total crop failure. I have no idea what it costs to grow 350,000 poinsettias to be market ready, but I'm guessing millions of dollars. The grower who can afford to lose that much in a given year and then buy again what it takes to try again a second time is probably non-existent or has a better credit rating than the US Treasury. You are implying that the cost of a previous year's crop can be recouped with a successful second year crop but I find that hard to believe. The people who buy poinsettias know what they should cost and will not pay twice the price just because some unfortunate grower didn't do well in the past. I would further speculate that the poinsettia grower has more than one source of revenues just to cover situations you describe.

Regarding soda sales, I have my doubts about the delivery truck driver being the one who controls the market. He may not deliver enough of what is a hot item, but I'm fairly certain it's not his decision. He works for Pepsi or Coke and must follow their orders even if he is an independent trucker. If he doesn't follow orders from the soda maker, that trucker soon will be looking for something else to deliver. I can't come up with a reasonable explanation for why the quick selling Pepsi/Coke sodas disappear the day they are delivered and are not replaced. It has to be an economic decision on somebody's part. Perhaps the profit margin is too thin for those diet sodas, or more likely, Pepsi and Coke are not interested in promoting them and do what they can to discourage people from buying it. In that case too it's got to be an economic benefit to operate that way.

I have experienced much the same kind of disappointment with products not being available or disappearing altogether. Schnucks used to be my main source for spaetzle and and gnocci, ethnic dumplings. That was five years ago. Somebody decided not to stock those items anymore. I can buy them online or if I'm really really really desperate I could possibly find them at WalMart superstore. When they did stock those things I would buy all I could - I generally left at least one package for the next guy, but apparently there was no next guy. Well, that's what the clerks tell me when I ask what happened. If that were true then I seriously have to wonder why they stocked those items in the first place.

[Kellemora]

My uncle bought rooted poinsettia cuttings for $3.50 each, raised them for 5 months, then sold the plants for $3.00 each. That was a major loss that was impossible to overcome.
You may not realize that most plants have Patents on them, so you can't just take a plant and make cuttings from it and raise your own. Although there are many that are no longer under Patent or were never patented which we can use to make our own cuttings. But you are not going to get the big fancy Eckie's poinsettia's you usually see for sale everywhere.
That being said, we did have several hybrid plants that we owned. We were the registered breeder for most of them, but never bothered to get Patents on them. Mainly because nobody else could either since they were now Prior Art and Registered as such.

I do know PepsiONE was cheaper to manufacture than Diet Coke Splenda, because PepsiONE used the generic sucralose.
The wholesale price to the stores for PepsiONE 12 pack was $4.99 for Diet Coke Splenda 12 pack was $5.44.
Diet RC when they made it was like $4.04 and Diet Rite Pure Zero was only $3.15 per 12 pack cans.
All the above prices were within the same time period.
And also, just like car dealers, the soda water companies give a volume discount to the stores, so they are actually paying a little less than the quoted wholesale prices.
But you might ask yourself. How can the Dr. Pepper Company sell Diet Rite for $3.15, and Coke charges $5.44?

The amount of money Pepsi spent advertising their PepsiONE product was crazy. You couldn't walk by a TV without seeing an ad for PepsiONE when they first came out with it.
But to give you some idea of the discrepancy on stocking shelves.
They keep regular Pepsi in stock with over 350 to 500 cases still in the store when they deliver again.
But for PepsiONE, they only placed 4 to 6 cartons on the shelf. I have been in stores where the slots for PepsiONE would hold 8 to 10 cartons, but there too, those slots were empty because folks bought it up right away.
To me this means they are not delivering enough to the store for the number of sales that product is generating.
Why have 350 to 500 excess in the store of one variety, and always be out of another variety? Makes no sense!

Most of the shelf space in larger stores is actually leased to a vendor. Sometimes this vendor may carry 25 or 50 different products, and they try to utilize the space they are leasing for the highest return.
There may be products that the store always had, but moved super slow, and only got one slot on a shelf. But then one day you go buy and you see that product now has six slots on the shelf and you wonder why. But the next day you learn why, you see that product advertised on every TV channel. They got people to try it, and the store had it, but then sales fell back off again, so the store was back down to only one slot, and if the product didn't move and expired, that slot gets dedicated to something else.
But that doesn't explain the fast moving items people keep asking for but the slots always remain empty.
The store will tell you the Soda Water company is who decides on what to stock, and the Soda Water company will tell you the Store is who allocates the shelf space for the product. In other words, they always blame each other for the shortfall.