Why on Earth ....

My ramblings about some unrelated stuffs - each of which I am not able to reason out rationally.

My swimming trunk has 5 pockets just like a Jeans pant. What on earth could a person possibly be carrying in his pockets while swimming that warrants 5 pockets. After a couple of laps do they expect a swimmer to stop and check one of the pockets if his SSN or DL card is still there or if they have drowned to the bottom of the pool, or worst, a cop swimming right behind pulls over a swimmer to the lane side and ask for an ID of some before checking him for SUI (swimming under influence)!!!

If you have been following the various Finance related websites - Google Finance, Yahoo Finance - you would have realised this. These sites typically boast "the most sensational yet utterly useless headline" of all media sites. If the market is open they will say something like "Dow down 100 points" while the graph next to it would convey more news than that. To top it all, they would try to come up with an explanation as if they know what they are talking. Once in a blue moon, an event like Lehman Brother's collapse helps them save their skin when explaining. With the real time updates on the indicies reflected on the websites in no time, the headlines now-a-days look more foolish than ever before trying to keep up. Today Google Finance said "Dow up on consumer confidence" while the realtime quote showed the index down by 30 points. They could use a software script to auto-generate the headline at the same speed the index is being updated so that, however hilarious, atleast it looks in sync with the number.

After 8 long years in America, I am tired of (or rather used to) organizations/businesses using superlative terms to describe themselves - the best, greatest, cheapest, most-this, most-that etc etc. Here are some funny superlative statements I came across -

• SDCCU (San Diego Country Credit Union) claiming that it has been voted as the "BEST credit union in the County by the readers of the San Diego Union Tribune(UT)" - How many credit unions can there be in SD county (not even double digits) and even among them, how much of a circulation does UT have and of that much circulation how much would have taken the pains to participate in such a poll. Is that even a category to claim anything meaningful ?
• Kia, the automaker, in an add recently boasted of an award from JD Power and Associates. Kia.com Ranks HIGHEST Among ManufacturerWeb Sites in Satisfying New-Vehicle Shoppers - When was the last time you or someone you know visited an automaker's website for buying a car as lame as KIA.
• Monterey Bay's - The world's MOST beautiful 17 miles - Drive. This was a total let down. We agree that drive was roughly 17 miles. Other than that, it was anything but beautiful. Our relative warned us but still we wasted 10$ on the entry fee. It was just another innovative way the filthy rich have designed to further rip off the less opulent. The drive had 21 so called "vista" points of which the most hilarious one was Ghost Tree.

J D Power and Associates is a friendly agency to any business. Give them their fee, they will surely find a category so obscure that your business will be the best of that category. Remember the Kia example. It would only be fitting for them if they come up with a "Most Over-rated Tourist Attraction" category and award that to the Monterey Bay 17-mile Drive. See today's pic of the Ghost Tree - one of the so called vista points- in the 17-mile drive.