I'm about to drive from PA to Toronto, maybe through Buffalo, this weekend.

What route did you take that lets you avoid Buffalo? I'd like to plan an alternate if there's weather problems.

> So you’re going to demand to see every log book?

This already happens with fuel taxes, and has been this way for 20+ years.

If you buy 200 gallons in New York, and drive all the way to, say, Illinois, the fuel tax is divvied up between all the states you pass through.

See: IFTA

Kosher Chinese? Should be called So Su Mi.

> Children ... will do whatever an authority figure tells them to do

You've never had teenagers, have you?

:-)

You don't remember EITHER version?

Do you watch broadcast TV in Pennsylvania? It's kind of hard to avoid that commercial.

Just watch it yourself. What do you think?

It's clear the actors are not really singing, for example. But it seems that the actual actors ARE doing the speaking parts, not voiceovers.

No, it was entirely re-shot from the ground up. They used the same script and I think the same music. You'll notice the actors look similar but they're not the same (newsstand guy in particular).

There's a short 10-minute documentary about this, somewhere.

GREAT work!

Those still exist??

I haven't been at one since 1992 when I got out of college. They were popular in the western PA area, but there are none around me now.

I'm just amazed that they went to the effort. They didn't have to re-shoot a commercial shot-for-shot. They could have just cranked out a totally different commercial. The sets, the actors, all timed perfectly, beat for beat.

But something about that commercial just resonates with the audience. Who among us doesn't know exactly when to sing the "Five Cash Fives!" line?

I made the mistake of going to it thinking I'd get to pet a lot of doggies.

Nope. Those dogs are for looking at. Not for touching or giving head scritches.

Whoa!

Oh yes, I remember Locast.

I seem to recall that it worked just fine on my phone, but there was no option to cast it to the TV. And I think I tried finding a Locast app for the TV, but that wasn't a thing yet.

Yeah I scanned. I get many other channels just fine.

> You’re doing something wrong

That's a little presumptive. Are you 20 miles from the transmitter, where I am? Are you in a hilly area, where I am?

I'll give it a try later tonight. Thanks.

> Ask your landlord if they’d be willing to let you put an antenna on the roof?

Good idea ... but this landlord won't even have the ancient inadequate heater serviced, so I doubt he would even entertain a conversation about antennas.

Plus I'm in a condo, and the HOA would definitely forbid it.

Sorry you're getting downvoted.

The rig I bought comes with an amplifier. I think the problem is that I'm just too far from the transmitter, and can't get good line-of-sight to the antenna.

I tried. I searched far and wide for a way to stream Channel 6, there are no options that aren't part of a TV package that costs me about the same as Cable TV.

I'm not the best Googler there is, but I think I did a good job.

Agreed. I searched far and wide for a way to stream Channel 6, there are no options that aren't part of a TV package that costs me about the same as Cable TV.

I'm about 19 miles from the transmitter. That may be my problem.

Thanks, I'm going to go try it after work!

#ELI5

Scientists studying things about the human body, often study the same things in animals. Like, they might test a drug on mice, because if they get it wrong, and the mice die ... well that's sad, but it's not as bad as a human dying.

So at one point, pretend they test some drugs that "makes people smarter". They test it on rats first (in case it kills the rat!).

They put normal rats into a maze, with cheese at the end. Then they time how long it takes the rat to get to the cheese.

Then every week they give the rat a little of the "smarter drug". And then they re-test the rat, to see if it found the cheese faster.

Sometimes they put smart AND dumb rats in the same maze at the same time. Now it's a race to the cheese, and maybe the smarter one wins?

Okay so far?

Now imagine what it's like to be that rat. Your entire life, your entire reason for existing, is to navigate the maze, and find the cheese. Did you find an all-expense paid vacation? No. Did you find a truckload of gold? No. You just found ... cheese.

And once you find the cheese ... what then? Well you eat the cheese, and you're happy for a few minutes. And then you go back into your cage, and do the same damn thing again tomorrow, and the next day, AND THE NEXT DAY.

Now you're an office worker.  You work at your desk.  You try and do your job.  You get paid at the end of the week.  You take your paycheck home, buy food, pay rent, buy gasoline .... 

And then you wake up Monday morning and DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.  For what?  For wealth?  For a life of ease?  No.  You do it for "cheese", for a tiny bit of happiness.  And your entire life is just this repeated daily repetition, over and over, for apparently no big benefit.

**Don't you feel a little like that rat??**

Don't you feel like you're in a "rat race"?

Demand.

They're not charging based on the airline's costs.

They're charging more for the flight that has higher demand.

More people want a direct flight, so they charge more.

Buddy of mine has had one of these for ... oh 20 years?

It's solid as a rock, and hasn't rusted.

But it can only fit packages up to a certain size.

Since it's mounted at the street, which is a good 50' walk to the house, most delivery people are glad to save themselves the walk and put things into there.

You might get some schmucks putting trash or other crap in there.

There's a lot more to think about. You're 17 or 18 so maybe you haven't thought about it.

Transportation. You need to get to these homes. You need to transport your materials to these homes. Have you given thought to fuel costs? How about wear and tear on your vehicles?

Payment. How are homeowners going to pay you? If they use cash or check, you need a bank account to deposit that into. But people use credit or debit cards far more often. So you need to look into a credit card processing system.

Taxes. Unless you're making $5 operating a lemonade stand, you will need to list your profits as income, and you will need to pay taxes on it. How are you going to figure out how to do that?

Capital investment. Where are you getting the money to buy the equipment, supplies, and door hangers? My point: You need some starter money, in order to actually make money. You know, Facebook ads aren't free either. So you need some up-front money for that. You need a logo, you need a dedicated phone number and email address for your business. There's set-up costs.

Division of labor, division of profits. There's going to be three of you. Will one person handle all the phone calls and emails? How many people will go out to a house at the same time? How will the profits be split? Who put more money into the startup supplies? This kind of stuff might even need a contract.

Materials. Some woman is going to ask if your cleaning products are toxic to animals. You better have an answer. Are you using rags or paper towels? Rags need to be washed. Paper towels need to be disposed of ... are you going to throw them into customers' trash cans or will you have a way to dispose of them yourself?

Liability. Some windows are on the second floor ... or higher! What happens if you fall off the ladder? What happens if you break a homeowner's window? You can't always say "we promise we'll take care of it", you have to show proof that you have a plan for this. This comes in the form of insurance.

Look, man. Reach for the stars, don't let me stop you. Huge companies were started by a bunch of kids in their garage. It can be done, for sure.

But it's going to be hard. Making money is a lot easier when you have someone (an employer) worrying about all the things I listed above. Yes, minimum wage labor sucks, but you have to start somewhere.