======= ======= ====== ====== ====== ===== ==== ====== ====== ===== ==== ======= ======= ====== ====== ====== ===== ==== ====== ====== ===== ====
It’s oppressively humid here in Boston, so my weekend was spent remaining very still and trying not to sweat. It was also my first totally free weekend in a while so all of that lying still wasn’t unwelcome. But while I spent the weekend on the couch watching SVU, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,, and Hallmark movies, there were some people out there who didn’t have such a good weekend.
Coke Drinkers
A while back, I gave up caffeine. I have to be honest, it felt great – but eventually, caffeine found me and I was back on my regular iced coffee/soda regimen. While I’ve accepted the ridiculous amount I pay for my Iced Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte at Starbs, I now may also have to start paying for more for the other half of my little caffeine habit.
The Coca-Cola Company recently announced that they have raised prices on its products to the newly imposed 10% tariff on imported aluminum, which has made Coke cans more expensive to produce.
CEO James Quincey discussed the issue on the company’s earnings call Wednesday, saying:
Obviously, while [customers] may understand the cost pressures that are out there on freight, on the increases in steel and aluminum and other input costs that affect the bottling system and affects some of our finished products, clearly, these conversations are difficult.
A spokesman further outlined that the increases will vary depending on the retailer, saying:
We have not commented on specific U.S. price increases, as they vary by channel and by customer (which is a retailer who sells our products). Also, note that increases are at the customer level. Customers have discretion in what consumers are charged on the shelf.
Well, guy at the convenience store in my building – you better not raise the price on my daily Coke Zero fix. [via CNNMoney]
Charles Michael Hager
Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we are all addicted to our phones. So we can all sympathize about how frustrating it is when said-phones aren’t working. Of course, I’d like to think that none of us would take that frustration as far as Mr. Hager, but who knows?
The 74-year-old Hager arrived at a Verizon store Thursday in Raleigh to get his cell phone fixed, but found that the store was closed. According to a witness, Hager yelled at the employees inside the store, “My damn phone’s not working. I need help. Open this damn door,” and shattered the glass on the door with his foot, before getting into this 2016 Volkswagen Jetta and driving it into the storefront. Luckily, none of the employees in the store were hurt, but Hager may have bigger problems than a dead phone – he was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and damaging property.
There’s no word on if Hager was given bail – or if he will be switching to Sprint. [via Daily Mail]
Michael Dumas
I don’t really care for the beach. It’s hot, I get sand in uncomfortable places, and seaweed grosses me out. And now after seeing this Facebook post, I’m all in on staying away from the beach.
The species of hookworm that Michael contracted after being buried in the sand is animal hookworm, also known as zoonotic hookworm, meaning a species of hookworm that lives in an animal’s intestine, and usually results in a skin infection in humans. In contrast, human hookworm, the variety of hookworm that lives in the intestines of humans, can infect a person’s intestines and lead to protein deficiency or anemia.
So while Michael “just” has the skin-infection version, he does still have worms growing in his body. Yuck. [via The Huffington Post]
This Lady
If worms potentially living in your skin wasn’t enough reason to stay off the beach, maybe the possibility of being impaled by a beach umbrella will be?
For the second time in the last two weeks, a beachgoer on an East Coast beach has been stabbed by a flying umbrella. The first, a tourist on a New Jersey beach, was stabbed through the ankle after an umbrella took flight. You could write that occurrence off as a freak accident, but then came umbrella victim number two.
On Sunday, an unsuspecting beachgoer in Maryland was impaled by yet another rogue umbrella and this time, it was a whole lot worse—the umbrella stabbed her straight through the chest, MD Coast Dispatch reports.
According to Vice:
The 46-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, who has yet to be named, was relaxing on an Ocean City beach Sunday afternoon when a strong gust of wind uprooted a nearby umbrella. As she sat in her beach chair, the umbrella reportedly sailed toward her, pole first, and impaled her near her left shoulder, under the collarbone.
Luckily for the victim, lifeguards and fellow beachgoers leaped into action to hold the umbrella still until paramedics arrived. They cut the shaft of the umbrella and then transported her to a local hospital, where she is in stable condition.
Yep, there are no worms OR wayward beach umbrellas on my couch, so I’ll be staying right here. [via Vice]
All Of Us
The headline on this TODAY story really says it all:
Study: Bachelor, bachelorette parties are why millennials can’t afford houses
Well, that’s just great. The theory of said study is that we are all spending so much money on attending bachelor/bachelorette events that we aren’t saving to buy a home. Kristen Maxwell Cooper, The Knot editor in chief, told TODAY Home,
According to our most recent study of wedding guests and wedding party members — The Knot 2018 Wedding Guest Study — members of the wedding party spend, on average, $584 attending each bachelor or bachelorette party. This price includes their costs to travel, accommodations and gifts. Additionally, our study found that members of the wedding party aren’t the only ones attending bachelor and bachelorette parties — in fact, one in four guests who aren’t part of the wedding party are also attending these pre-wedding parties.
As we drop a few hundred attending these pre-wedding events (nevermind the cost of attending or **gasp** being in the actual wedding), the article posits that we are chipping away at funds that we could be saving for potential downpayments, and given that home values on the rise, having enough money set aside to buy a home may be more distance with every penis-straw-filled adventure.
After shaming those who choose to party instead of purchase a home, the article ends on this note: The bottom line? Just be choosy about where you go, and what you do for all those bachelorette parties. Your true friends will understand if you just can’t afford to spend a week in Vegas.
I don’t know who the hell your friends are, TODAY, but mine certainly would not. [via Today] .
Respond
Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
@JennaLCrowley
@donttakeitfromus
Wait, I thought avocado toast is why we can’t afford to buy houses? Or it is bachelor/ette parties too? Dammit, baby boomers, get your damn story straight!
Spending money is the reason we can’t spend more money!!!
The La Croix halo effect is underway
soooo the Verizon store incident is 10 minutes from my house and I didn’t know about it until I read it here…. but really, that Verizon store is the worst.
Always nice to see Raleigh get a shout out.
Jesus, and here I am bitching about the $100 I’m spending on my buddy’s Bachelor party.
As a member of this God-forsaken generation who is fortunate enough to own a house, I am willing to pay an average of $584 for Kristen Maxwell Cooper and the staff of The Knot to join me at my annual “Go Fuck Yourself” party.
Millennial can’t afford [basics standards of adulthood] because of [living our best lives]
Absolutely agree on the last one. Agreed to go on a bachelorette party that’s in two weeks because I legitimately want to visit the city and this gave me a good reason to go. I’ve already spend NINE HUNDRED AND EIGHT DOLLARS and haven’t even left Missouri yet.
The real reason why Millennials can’t afford houses is because foreign investors and development companies are swooping in on for sale properties, paying cash, well over asking price with no stipulations. Also, we can’t save money when we are in a generational debt bubble due to student loans while working our lives away to try and afford inflated rent values near urban areas to avoid commuting 3+ hours a day because our country’s infrastructure is held together by spit and duct tape and can’t accommodate population increases in high paying areas. Trying to save 20% for a down payment on a $600k house that needs restoration isn’t feasible unless you want to live In parts of the country where no one wants to live. This could all be prevented if people were allowed to work remotely because of this wonderful tool called the internet and it would also stimulate depressed parts of our economy where affordable housing is if people could keep their salary for their job but live in a cheaper area while helping struggling local businesses with that disposable income. I literally just solved our economic problems so if I get shot while running around my neighborhood in attempts to blow off uneeded stress of being alive in a greed filled wasteland, you know who did it…so yeah, since We can’t afford real things, why not buy good food to try and forget about all of these facts lol
An ice cold coca-cola is great on a hot day.
Because so many of its drinkers are fat as fuck.
Great on any day, honestly. I’m tired of all the hate soda is getting