Bounty

Two Fishermen - Max Pechstein, 1923

This print gets thrown up in the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday we have coming up here. This print also reminds me of the halcyon days of my late adolescence when I hung out with an interesting cat who was apt to make woodcuts in a similar vein (in my dining room) and listened to the Primus (no Dr. Seuss hat though, sorry Lex).

Screw You Pegasus Pizza

Oregon's minimum wage won't be going up this year. Which is fine. We fine citizens of this great state passed a ballot measure (the horror!) that ties the minimum wage to the cost of living. If the cost of living goes up, so does the minimum wage. This year we had some deflation here in the state of Oregon, so the minimum wage is rocking steady.

All well and good. Except that the media (that's right, I am a wingnut railing about the media. yip. yip.) can't report on the goddamn minimum wage without digging up some business owner that is willing to advance, yet again, the thoroughly discredited idea that an increase in the minimum wage leads to a loss of jobs.

Tara Reader, a manager at Pegasus Pizza, near the University of Oregon campus, said she was glad that the minimum wage wouldn’t change next year, and she wishes it would stay put beyond that.

“The minimum wage increases should come to an end, and given Lane County’s unemployment rate, I think it’s even more important now,” she said.

“For companies like Wal-Mart, a yearly minimum wage increase doesn’t affect them,” Reader said. “But when you’re a small business, and the only costs you can control are labor costs, it ends up being significant. It can be a devastating blow to small business.”

Of course a small increase to the minimum wage can just destroy a small business. I believe this is why they are called "small" businesses. What really gets my goat is that Ms. Reader goes on to say that actually an increase to the minimum would have no effect at Pegasus, as all their workers are paid above the minimum because they are such valued employees. My God, if you think the minimum wage is crap, why are you decrying its potential increase? You run a small business, you have to know what crap this argument is.

Let's look at the numbers here.

Oregon's minimum wage is $8.40 an hour. Let's say the economy recovers and a pizza joint like Pegasus (well not Pegasus) is facing a 4% increase to the minimum wage. This means your dough slinger would be pulling down $8.74 an hour, or $.34 more than he's making now. Will Poor Man's Pie go under? Well, let's assume that PMP is open 12 hours a day and needs an average of 5 employees to keep the masses fed. That's 60 person hours a day. With that body-blow 4% increase to the minimum wage, that's $20.40 a day out of the till in labor costs. My God, PMP would have to sell one more large pepperoni with extra cheese per day just to cover that! Let's hope that newly recovered economy can cause such an increase in business.

But wait Dave3544, you're thinking, it's not just increased labor costs. What if PMP was thinking about adding crew, increasing employment in Lane County and providing a solid job for a teen who needs spending cash a struggling father who just wants to keep his youngins in Pampers-brand diapers?

Well, in the first place, pizza joints just don't add crew for the hell of it. It's not like the owner of PMP was sitting in his mansion surrounded by luxury goods thinking, "Well I've got everything I need, why don't I share the wealth by hiring a minimum wage employee I don't really need, this way everyone can slack off." No, he either has the business to necessitate hiring another employee or he's thinking about expanding. Either way, he's thinking that he can make more money than it costs by hiring a minimum wage worker - it's called capitalism (oh, and exploitation!)

If PMP pizza owner is thinking about adding an employee, one has to wonder if the increase in the minimum wage by $.34 an hour is really going to be what compels him to hold off on that decision. Is his margin really so narrow that $.34 an hour is the make-or-breaker here?

Now, I will acknowledge that there are probably businesses out there that can't readily expand to the equivalent of one pizza a day. They may have hundreds of person hours to worry about. Maybe they need to exploit their workers down to every last penny in order to just stay alive. Fine. But if that is the case, then the Register-Guard needs to go find one of those business owners and Tara Reader of the Pegasus Pizza should stop babbling bullshit talking points that have nothing to do with her business.

More Proof That I Might Not Be 100% Young

I ate three pieces of my (formerly?) favorite (American) pizza (Joey's pepperoni with extra pepperoni) last night and was up early this morning with a bad case of indigestion/heartburn.

For-Dee

Like any abusive relationship, I am having a hard time ending it. Hell, it is 3:14 pm and I needed a ruling from Wes to do it, but I am officially ending the diet. I hit my weight goal of 185 this morning.*

I have lost 40 pounds over the last 18.5 months. This was the goal I set for myself September 7, 2008 when I just one day decided that I was going to lose forty pounds and set about doing it. I have lost six pant sizes, from 40 to 34, although my 34s are kind of loose on me. Two shirt sizes, from XL to M, although I find it silly that I would wear a medium, partly because since circa 1991 I have only worn clothes that are big enough to not actually touch my body (and, yes, I wore an onion on my belt, as was the style of the day).

Those who have followed the diet exploits, or have been forced to listen to me prattle on endlessly about it, know that it has not been easy. I could say that I did it with diet and exercise and not be completely lying about. I walk to and from work each day and play two hours of full-court on Fridays. When I am "on-diet" I eat little-to-no fat, never having even the littlest of treats, diet cola, American-style lager most of the time, apples, oranges for snacks. I try to keep it under 1200 calories a day. When I am "off-diet" I try to do all of these things as well, but not quite so religiously. I have been alternating 100 days on, 100 days off (or so).

While I could say "diet and exercise" and be done with it, that would really be a lie. When I am on-diet, I rival the worst teenage girl when it comes to what I eat. I obsess over it constantly. When I weigh-in a pound up, I beat myself up for snacking (a bag of microwave pop corn, 240 calories) the night before. I know the calorie count of most foods. I cook meals for others that I don't eat, having a bowl of soup instead (220 calories for the noodles, just 200 for the rice, 160 for the "chicken and vegetable"). I know exactly how much to subtract from my scale weight when I am wearing clothes (8 pounds for sweatshirt, pants, and shoes. 5 pounds without the sweatshirt and shoes. 3 pounds without the pants) so that I can estimate my next-day weight. When I feel good about myself and how I look, I remind myself that I am x pounds overweight. Did I mention that I talk about it endlessly?

Which is to say this, thanks for putting up with me. Jesus, thanks for putting up with me. Thanks for encouraging me, even if it was only to discourage me from going too nuts about it. At least I will be living longer to bore you with my food habits.

As effing cheesy as it sounds, I did this mostly because of health concerns and a desire to be around for a long time to see my daughter grow up. I had quit smoking, and cut way back on the drinking, but I knew that my liver and weight were still issues. I think (still too afraid to go into the doctor for fear of bad news) that I have eliminated those concerns. Cholesterol and blood pressure were always good.

As I mentioned in the opening, I will still struggle with this. You don't just go off Focusin. My weight will creep back up. I will try to tell myself that if I weigh 195, that's 30 pounds less than I was. I will try to stop reminding myself that I am still 10 pounds overweight when I am feeling good about myself. I doubt I will accomplish these goals and we may be here again some day, talking about my weight and diets, but for now, I did it. Hopefully I will be able to feel good about it, for now my brain still won't let it go, a large part of me wants to keep going. This is the part I fear. As I said, I ahev to get out before it destroys me.

Which is a pretty fucked up way to end a post celebrating the end of a year-and-a-half long diet, but there it is. My name is Dave, I weigh 185, and I am trying to be okay with that.


*Partial transcript of an IM conversation with my wife I had this afternoon might explain some my ambivalence, and give some insight into my mental state, in the comments.

Ooh La La, Royal Crown Cola

Did anyone else have homemade soda pop when they were a kid? We bought the syrup in pumps and you had to mix it with soda water (I think. It might have been tap water and some carbon dioxide injection). It was not what you would call good. I can't remember if we bought this because we were poor, or because high-fructose corn syrup was just being introduced and Coke Shasta was still relatively expensive.

Anyone else share this childhood memory?