WTF-Beta

I officially give up.

@ShiroKuro said:

but it is most definitely an aesthetic take

No one I know goes to McDonald's for the food, coffee, or atmosphere.

We have a friend who goes to McDonald's every day for a gathering with a bunch of buddies. Every day at 10 and they're there till noon. During COVID they would sit outside on the benches.

In the olden days, it would have been a group of women and it would have been called a "coffee klatch".

It's all about the people.

I'm beginning to think that no one read the article....

C'mon guys, all together now: "GET OFF MY LAWN!!"

So it's 1980. People meet in person, right? At school, at work, at church? If you had told me back then that I would have a bunch of online friends whom I've never met and that I've been part of the group for nearly 20 years, I would have thought you were crazy. And that some of us would meet and marry, having first met online? Fantasy world!

For a bunch of a different reasons, you couldn't drag me to a shopping mall, a Taylor Swift concert, or a Star Trek convention, but clearly a lot of people find those venues inviting, and I think that's great. They've found their comfy places to land, to be with people who share their interests. Costco nerds are just another flavor of that.

This thread has gotten into what we like/don't like about Costco and the bigger point that's being missed is recognizing that we human beings continue to find new ways to connect with each other. Costco is just one example. Not a terribly important one, but just another way. And it may not be yours.

It's not that complicated.

On a typical Tuesday, NOAA biologists were deep into their standard routine—analyzing data on sharks and studying fish populations. Then, staff heard an unmistakable tapping sound at the building's glass entryway. Standing on the stoop was a brown pelican, repeatedly rapping its beak against the door.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/knocking-help-pelicans-unlikely-rescue

Guess you guys aren't doing what the people who were profiled in the article are doing!

How ProPublica figured it out.

https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-jr-wedding-umar-kremlev-reporting

Uptick in registration requests recently, at least five or six a day.

Something seemed a little too slick about the site. There are interesting discussions on reddit about these kinds of operations. Apparently some of them may be total scams, and others aren't entirely truthful about the story.

And there is a separate shipping fee to get your bottles. Not sure about tariffs, but I'm guessing yes.

Bottom line: Caveat emptor.

They have some pretty cool products in the UK. The deli platters look way more interesting than ours.

https://services.costco.co.uk/deli/

And look at this Hot Buy!

https://www.costco.co.uk/Appliances/Cooling-Air-Treatment-Heating/Tado-Wireless-Smart-Thermostat-Multi-Room-Starter-Kit-2x-Smart-Thermostatic-Radiator-Valves/p/589511

@Rontuner said:

Melrose Park

My hometown!

Much as I love Costco, I was sad to see the Kiddieland that was on the site demolished to make way for the warehouse.

Thank a Republican voter!

Gas prices going up quickly around here. I bought gas at Costco for $4.39 early in the week and it's up to $4.89 today, up 20 cents since yesterday.

@AndyD said:

the crush of the unwashed hoards

We go to a warehouse that is five minutes from our house, but there are a couple of others within 15 minutes or so that we go to occasionally because they do carry different products than our store does. Each warehouse has its own personality.

The one in the town where rich people live is our least favorite. The members and the employees all seem to have the same sour attitude and it's pretty unpleasant to shop there. People fight over parking spaces and the employees look haggard and are rude to customers.

There's another one in a middle class suburb where there are a lot of Indians and Pakistanis, and where we can get a wider variety of the food products from those countries. It's insanely busy but everyone is really nice.

The third one is in an area that is multi-ethnic, with lots of Southeast Asians and that is near a suburb that has a large Jewish population. They have the best selection of foods I'm not likely to see anywhere else. The place is crazy busy, too, and has the feeling of a market. But in a fun way.

Bottom line: The rich people are entitled snobs and make everyone else miserable.

Eric Topol does a deep dive on the new improved Apple Watch.

On September 9th, Apple announced it was revamping its Apple Watch Health Sensing System, rolling out a Readiness score (0 to 10), and increasing the frequency of heart rate variability (HRV) outputs 24-fold. This can be viewed as upping its competition with various other consumer wearable sensors. These “readiness scores” as a composite of multiple metrics, with heart rate variability (HRV) being front and center for most. The majority of Americans are now using wearable sensors, which equates to well over 100 million adults. HRV and Readiness scores are increasingly being marketed as a measurement of autonomic nervous system health, a digital marker for future disease, a clock for biological age, and a holistic metric to promote healthspan and even longevity. (Apple also introduced a new longevity tab and “Health Age”.) None of this has been proven. In this edition of Ground Truths I am going to review what we know about heart rate variability and readiness scores.

https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-big-holes-in-wearable-heart-rate?publication_id=587835&post_id=215540121&isFreemail=true&r=1v8sh2&triedRedirect=true

My takeaway: No Apple Watch or other wearable for me. And I'll still eat my ice cream.

Never heard of it, but I poked around and see there are a bunch of places that are doing the same thing.

I wonder if you have to pay a tariff on the oil they send you!

@Mik Made me think of Retro Bistro!

Apparently I follow all the rules re eating steak frites, despite not being raised in France....

wtg said:

Yea, this is a statin that I had never heard of, pitavastatin. And this is the generic, not a brand name. Not sure why it costs more than other statins. Mr wtg tried several of the others (simvastatin, atorvastatin) many years ago and couldn't deal with the side effects. The cardiologist said this one seems to have fewer side effects and he thought it was worth a try.

After three months on the lowest dose of pitavastatin, Mr wtg's total cholesterol is down to 135. His LDL dropped to 79 from a high of 122. The original goal was to get his LDL down below 70, but when we talked to the cardiologist a few days ago after the lipid panel came back, he said the most recently issued guideline (for someone like Mr wtg who has had a stroke already) is an LDL of 55. Talk about moving the goalposts!

This statin has been way more effective with no side effects for Mr wtg. The max dose is 4 mg; he's increasing from 1 mg to 2. Hopefully that will do the trick.

OTOH, maybe you should just eat your cheese...and ice cream....

https://www.npr.org/2026/07/13/nx-s1-5884664/zeke-emanuel-optimize-health-long-life

Oh yea...big draw is the optical department. I know some folks do online prescription glasses but I like the in-store model better. Decent glasses at a fair price.

And toilet paper and paper towels. Laundry detergent. Kitchen stuff like aluminum foil, parchment paper, Ziploc bags. Vinegar, which we use as fabric softener and for household cleaning chores.

@AndyD said:

My uk summary:
Big & overly busy, crowded even despite size, always long queues at the tills, buy in bulk so need storage.

Easy parking.
Good for food generally.
Some interesting products. Cheaper even after membership fees, yet I always come out having spent £100-300. So it encourages spending.
Very little seating in the cafe/takeaway, they want you to pay and go.

I really dislike it, worst shopping experience in the UK

Our warehouse is one of the smallest in the Chicago area and doesn't tend to attract as many people as a lot of the others do. Our store on a weekend isn't as busy as the others are on a weekday. A few months ago Costco initiated Executive Member hours; we can get in an hour before the warehouse opens to Gold Star members. I'm there at 9 and out by 9:30 (I do self-checkout and I'm wicked fast!).

We don't get stuff at the food court (portions too big, nutrition is lousy), so not an issue for us.

We've known some of the employees since this location opened 20-some years ago. Friendly folks.