Month: October 2020

Extended Warranties Yes or No?

On By Author Edmond GagnonIn EntertainmentLeave a comment

Cathryn and I were on a tour of the canals off the Intracoastal waterway in Fort Lauderdale a few years ago, ogling mansions of the rich and shameless, when the guide pointed to the biggest shack on the block. Guess who owns that? he said. The guy who invented the extended warranty.

So, now you know where all that money goes when you never make a claim on the extra cash you pay for anything from a USB cable at The Source, to your new refrigerator. If you’re a wise soul like I think I am, you look at the clerk like he’s got two heads and ask what can go wrong with a simple cable.

But when I buy appliances I think about what moving parts they contain and the chances of something going wrong with them over their lifespan. Common sense, wouldn’t you agree?

The problem these days is that electronics have creeped into everything we own now, from alarm clocks to the cars we drive. And circuit boards run all the fancy do-dads that we like to have. I think you know where I’m going with this, especially if you’ve already fallen victim.

Shit ain’t made to last these days. Cases in point – my brother’s three and a half year old washing machine, and our three and a half year old smart TV, both of which were no longer under warranty. Should we have purchased the extended warranty? I can’t speak for my brother, but I thought, what can go wrong with a brand new television?

So, to skip the whining and complaining part, we decided it wasn’t worthwhile to spend $350 to fix our ‘old’ TV when we could get a ‘newer and better’ one for about a hundred bucks more. Hence the extended warranty dilemma. Add another $150 to the price tag for the four year warranty, guaranteeing a new TV if ours fails. (And btw, you should know extended warranty prices are negotiable)

The bottom line here, my friends, is that almost everything manufactured these days is disposable and not worth fixing. You simply budget and plan on replacing it within five years. And if you’re lucky, and have purchased the extended warranty, you can replace it even sooner at no cost.

Food for thought, ain’t it?

Honest Thief

On By Author Edmond GagnonIn EntertainmentLeave a comment

Do you remember the days, long ago, when you could go to a special place to see movies on a big screen? I’m not talking about your living room to watch Netflix on your sixty inch TV. I mean a real movie theatre with a screen as wide as your house, sound that vibrates your love handles, and freshly buttered popcorn that costs as much as your monthly cable bill.

Well, guess what? If you look up your local theatre you might just find they’ve dusted off their projectors and are actually playing some newly released films. Cathryn and I went to Lakeshore Cinemas last night to see Honest Thief, with Liam Neeson.

The movie is about what the title suggests…a bank robber who’s never hurt anyone, and decides to go straight when he meets a woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. It’s an action movie but not like many of Neeson’s other flicks where the body count is higher than Covid.

Turning himself into the FBI doesn’t go exactly as planned and the retired bank robber has to fall back on his military skills to keep a couple of bad agents from cashing in on his windfall. It’s a thriller kind of love story that both Cathryn and I enjoyed. We both rate it 10 out of 10.

Our only complaint was with Lakeshore Cinemas who obviously didn’t clean or sanitize our seats before the show, popcorn and refuse left behind were big clues. Cathryn also complained the back of her recliner smelled of dirty hair. She complained to one of only two staff working, who did nothing. We will say more later in a written complaint to the company.

The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis

On By Author Edmond GagnonIn EntertainmentLeave a comment

The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy
by Michael Lewis
Edmond Gagnon‘s review Oct 07, 2020 


This is not the type of book I normally read but the author’s name caught my attention. Michael Lewis wrote Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, and The Big Short, all stories that I’ve seen as movies. And being that the Fifth Risk is about Donald Trump, I figured it was worth a read.
The book caught my interest early, tempting me with how the Donald botched his transition into the White House. The author compares past presidents Obama and Bush and how they came to office prepared, and with experts who could fill the important top positions in various departments of government.
It was no surprise to me how the businessman turned president was totally unprepared for the massive undertaking and came in with only his family and a few friends to take over one of the most powerful countries in the world.
The story is about how the president took up to six months to fill some of those jobs for departments like energy where they control unimportant things like nuclear weapons. It goes on to tell how the Donald filled positions previously held by experienced scientists with wealthy buddies who had no idea what they were getting into and no interest it what the job was all about. Scary stuff.
Lewis talks about how the president has surrounded himself with yes men and how no one is allowed to tell him anything negative. They are fired if they do.
Much of this book was dry and boring…parts where the author went into all sorts of detail and backstory about the people who were replaced by the incoming president.
If you want a scary look inside the Trump administration, The Fifth Risk is worth a read.