When did their leather notebook covers get so flimsy? My old one is so much more..."supple" than the new ones I just got. Hmph I feel cheated.

Squishy wrote:

When did their leather notebook covers get so flimsy? My old one is so much more..."supple" than the new ones I just got. Hmph I feel cheated.

When a penny became worth more than it is worth.

(Currently, it costs 3.9 cents to mint a penny)

Maybe we should do what Australia and New Zealand did and get rid of pennies.

Bring back the two-dollar bill, and have the only coin be the quarter (and perhaps the loonie, being the symbol of our existence and such).

I've converted a lot of coins over to Canadian Tire money.

Squishy wrote:

Bring back the two-dollar bill, and have the only coin be the quarter (and perhaps the loonie, being the symbol of our existence and such).

I've converted a lot of coins over to Canadian Tire money.

Yeah, but you forget about the taxation structure of our government. A $100 purchase ($99.99) costs $112.99 after tax. It works even worse for a $75 purchase.

Squishy wrote:

When did their leather notebook covers get so flimsy? My old one is so much more..."supple" than the new ones I just got. Hmph I feel cheated.

see cheaply made products everyday. pretty much everything has become cheaper only to not last as long. We used to buy solid core tennis balls for our dogs to use. The balls lasted about 3 months, well company cheaped out and changed the composition of the core and now the ball lasts about 6 hrs and it is destroyed. Back to regular tennis balls, at least they last 1 day.

Let me know if you get a line on "quality" tennis balls. Ours last about 18.3 minutes.

hwybear wrote:

We used to buy solid core tennis balls for our dogs to use. The balls lasted about 3 months, well company cheaped out and changed the composition of the core and now the ball lasts about 6 hrs and it is destroyed. Back to regular tennis balls, at least they last 1 day.

Use hippies instead. I heard there are still a few left over

hwybear wrote:

see cheaply made products everyday. pretty much everything has become cheaper only to not last as long. We used to buy solid core tennis balls for our dogs to use.

"Wal-Mart effect." Products made cheaper, consumers flock to the lower price, but as always, "you get what they pay for." About the only exception to that are most groceries; local stuff is usually cheaper and decent/better quality because it doesn't have to be brought in from 2000+ miles away, hence lower transportation costs.

It's getting harder to find Made in Canada...I don't think there are any more pens made here. Still, I bought a Merangue pen (remember the old pencil crayons?) so they can get riiiich and build a factory here.

I wouldn't mind the thinner Triform cover so much except that it doesn't really fit as well as it used to. The old one (just marked D24C) was a tight fit at first but a few days in my pocket moulded the leather to the size of the notebook. The new one (LD24C) is about 1.5 cm too long and I end up with round corners at the top and bottom, instead of having the leather conform to the notebook with relatively sharp corners. Now I have to adjust the position of the notebook every time I close the clasp. Damn it, Walmart!

Speaking of "made in Canada," the Triform notebooks say "Published in Canada by [Carswell?]..." What does that mean? Same as "Distributed in Canada," or is it like "Printed in Canada"?

Squishy wrote:

Speaking of "made in Canada," the Triform notebooks say "Published in Canada by [Carswell?]..." What does that mean? Same as "Distributed in Canada," or is it like "Printed in Canada"?

"Published in Canada" instead of "made in Canada" might have something to do with the recent restrictions on labelling something as "made in Canada," but I can't say for sure, although it's more or less the same thing... I think... That's a weird choice of phraseology.

Squishy wrote:

It's getting harder to find Made in Canada...

No kidding... although I deliberately look for Foodland Ontario symbols or "product of Ontario" at grocery stores; if not available, I look for "product of Canada" or products made by Canadian companies. It is harder for stationery products and other things, though... our economy is transitioning to from manufacturing/resources to tech/finance/resources.

Parker used to make several pen models in Canada, but they've stopped. The ones I saw were Made in UK or Taiwan, I think.

I'll need a new bicycle chain by the end of the year...know any Canadian manufacturers? So far it seems like I've found Canadian manufacturers of everything but chains. Lots of frames made here.

I looked for chain manufacturers but had no such luck.

Darn, I'll have to stamp my own chain links out of Canadian Steel. How hard can it be?

I know my work shirts are "made in china"