Yesterday I stopped at a store selling all sorts of things for Halloween. I bought a bag of spider web stuff, a big fuzzy spider and a plastic crow. The crow looks fairly life like, it even has real feathers on it. As I walked to my pickup there are 3 crows tearing at a fast food bag. As I walk by they notice the fake crow, suddenly their attention has turned to their commerade being held hostage by the biped instead of the paper bag. I sat the fake crow on the roof of my truck and put the other stuff inside. I stood back a bit to see what would happen. 2 of the crows flew up to the roof of my truck, the other to a car next to my truck. All 3 are cawing at the fake. I was able to walk right up next to my truck and watch them. One started pecking at the fake in an apparent attempt to get it’s attention. I was able to reach out and pull on that crow’s tail feathers. The third crow flew over to my truck even though I was standing right there. For 5 minutes I pulled on various feathers of the 3 crows, it would disrupt their attention for a few moments then it went back to the fake. Then one crapped right in the middle of my roof. I decided to end the game before the other two left a deposit. I waved my arms and made a growling noise, all 3 immediately took flight. All 3 followed me as I drove out of the parking lot. I stopped at a carwash a few miles later and as I washed the crap off my truck I noticed a crow sitting on a fence watching me. I don’t know if it was one of the 3 but I did’nt want to wash my truck again so I left the fake crow in my truck.
Yesterday afternoon I went in to do my picket duty as a union member on strike against the big Seattle based airplane company. As I drove to the plant gate I stopped at a 7-11 to buy a newspaper and something to munch on. Candy bars were priced 99 cents each or if you bought 2, they were 75 cents each. I grabbed a 3 Musketeers bar and a Mounds. I then picked up the day’s newspaper, it would be another 75 cents. As I waited in line to pay, I pull out $2.25 for my purchase. The clerk rings up everthing and tell me I owe $2.73. I tell him the candy bars are only 75 cents each and point to the sign on a candy display on the counter. He punches a few keys on the cash register then says I owe $2.53. I ask how he came up with that. He tells me that I have three 75 cent items and that 3 times 75 cents is $2.53. I tell him he needs to check his math, he tells me that the cash register figures things like that and he doesn’t have to. I again tell him he’s wrong so he calls over another clerk. He tells her that he rang up the 3 items and the cash register came up with $2.53 for the total. I tell her I am buying three 75 cent items and that 3 times 75 cents is $2.25. She clears what the other clerk rang up, rings up all 3 things again. She then says I owe $2.73. I point to the sign again that says all candy bars are 75 cents each when you buy 2. She punches a couple keys and some how does the exact same thing the other clerk did, the total now shows $2.53. I have decided that I have had enough of them and toss 75 cents on the counter and grab the newspaper. The first clerk tells me I don’t know math very well. I tell him that there is a reason he is working at a 7-11 making minimum wage while I am on my way to perform picket duty because I want to make $37 an hour instead of $35 an hour. I wonder if they ever did figure out what they were doing.
Maybe they enacted a 12.5 cent sales tax in your state while you weren’t looking?
Either that or their cash register is rigged. You should have sicced the crows on them.
Is there no sales tax on candy in your city or state? Here, it would be just over 10%, I think (Chicago has different taxes for food and for other sales, but I think candy bars are taxed as “other sales”. I could be wrong about that) or…$2.40ish.
There is no sale tax in Washington on candy. It is considered a food item, there is no tax on food. As far as messing with the crows, I thought the title of this forum was Mundane Pointless Stuff. If that isn’t as pointless as any other post in this forum, I’m in the wrong forum. The 5 or so folks that watched me thought it was funny.
There’s both GST and PST on candy here. On newspapers just GST. I think. So I would have paid them whatever the hell the cash register told me to because it would have been impossible to figure it all out!
Oh, I thought the crow thing was cool. As long as you weren’t pulling their feathers OUT or anything. I’d love to pet a wild crow. And I bet it was fun watching them get all up in your fake crow’s, uh, craw. They probably thought he was an interloper and wanted to rough him up a bit before deciding if he could be a part of their murder.
As a matter of fact, there is taxon candy in the state of Washington. Candy, much like going out to eat is not considered a necessary food and therefore is subject to tax.
They probably thought he was being held captive. Crows will come to the defense of other crows, even if they aren’t part of their murder. They are cool birds…
racer’s lucky they didn’t turn on him to defend one of their own and peck at his eyes to get at the sweet, sweet eye juices.
Okay, I’ve done the math several times and even if there is a 6.5% sales tax on candy I am still not coming up with $2.53, even if they charged the tax on all the items. What he got charged was 12.5% over. It sounds a little shady on the part of the 7-11. Maybe their register is programmed wrong. I bet a lot of people are getting overcharged.
I called my daughter, she is a checker at a local Fred Meyer grocery store. She said there is no tax on candy, it is considered a packaged food. She said when she worked at a gas station mini mart many years ago, they charged tax on all the food they sold, her boss said all the food they sold was ready to eat, not packaged food. The food tax in King County is charged at restaurants to pay for the football and baseball stadiums. There are also additional taxes on soda pop, beer and wine, these are included in the prices of the items and not added at the time of purchase.
I think fucking around with wild animals as amusement. Pigeons will freeze when you shine a laser light at them, squirrels will spend 5 minutes trying eat unpopped popcorn kernels and geese get pissed of when fed bread that has Tabasco sauce on it.
Crows are incredibly smart birds and I’d put money on the crow at the carwash being one of the three you met in the parking lot. I’m trying to recall where I read this other anecdote (it may have been National Geographic) where an ornithologist doing field studies of crows got “recognized” by one of his subjects on campus, miles away from the nesting site, and the crow sat in a nearby tree making all sorts of accusatory noises. Later that day after the guy came out of his office building the crow was still there and proceeded to kick up a further fuss.
It was cool you got to mess with 'em a little bit, though. I’d love to play with a crow.
Also: Solidarity! Victory to the IAM! If I were anywhere near WA State on the 9th, I’d sure as hell be at the C-39 barbecue.
