FACT:
In 2019, federal tobacco excise tax revenues totaled $12.5 billion. Excise taxes on tobacco are imposed on a cents per unit basis. Accordingly, real revenues decline due to inflation unless tax rates are raised, which happened most recently in 2009.
I sell rodents (African soft-furred rats) as a side hobby.
The thing I shouldn’t have to - but do - tell people who are coming to buy an undomesticated rodent that can jump a foot high from a standstill & run faster than your eye can track?
Bring a travel container. WITH A LID.
Shoutout to the one dumb lady a couple years ago (before I started including that - admittedly insulting to experienced rodent people - message to buyers) who showed up with a shallow shoebox WITH NO LID and she nonchalantly was all, “Oh, it’s only, like, ten minutes to my house.”
I was like, “You’re not gonna make it from my door to your car!”
(Wound up stashing old to-go containers, lettuce boxes, etc. for the people who showed up to buy my rats empty handed. But I always gave them a side-eye. Where were you gonna put five adult soft-furs, your back pocket?)
We bought a kitten from a breeder. Said kitten came with a 2 page contract. The top line had BRING A CARRIER in large print. People is dumb.
When I went through my orientation for state employment, one of the things specifically mentioned was that smoking medical marijuana in the restrooms was not allowed.
Smoking tobacco in state buildings hasn’t been allowed for over a decade because nobody likes second hand smoke. The only reason that rule was made and emphasized was because someone had as much sense as the above mentioned kitten.
It is perfectly OK to have a bird feeder. Or two.
It is also the right thing to do to leave out water during droughts or near wildfires.
Do not release the balloons into the air.
Or smokers stench.
Or Axe spray.
They sell travel boxes in bulk. Buy them, and add to your cost.
This is a odd byproduct of something great- fewer smokers and not having to work with, eat with and even live with the stench.
Peoples noses are now more sensitive. You can now smell things, your olfactory nerves are not deadened by the constant assault of tobacco smoke.
They’re especially more sensitive to tobacco smoke. We now notice faint traces we’d not detect before. For example, I once got into my car after having some repair or service done and noticed a fairly strong tobacco odor. No, the guy who drove it around their lot didn’t smoke in the car, but he had smoke on his clothes from smoking on his break.
Yes! I can now smell cig smoke at 65mph from two cars in front of me.
I once rode in a Lyft car that smelled very strongly of cigarette smoke. I suspect the driver smoked in the car in between passengers. I wrote a comment about it to Lyft after the ride was over. They told me they’d make sure that I didn’t ride with that driver again.
In the city park behind my apartment building, smoking is prohibited, and if you light up a cigarette, the park police will be all over you instantaneously.
However, since the park is blanketed in clouds of weed smoke, and people sit at the picnic tables and on the benches smoking blunts the size of nightsticks, it is apparently assumed that since the “no smoking” signage doesn’t specifically mention marijuana, “no smoking” means no smoking of tobacco. Apparently you can smoke anything else you want, and the park police will leave you alone.
So maybe we do need to tell people that “no smoking” includes marijuana.
Never mind smelling your perfume, if I can taste your perfume on the roof of my mouth it’s way, way too much.
We’re seeing a resurgence of hawks in our area. Apparently, they’ve figured out that the songbirds hang out by the bird feeders, so they hang out by the bird feeders, too!
Not that I’m complaining - I love raptors.
Last summer I witnessed a hawk take down a full grown robin right out of the air in my garden. It was very cool.
If I had small pets or chickens I would be less thrilled, but as it is I’m very happy to have a hawk hanging around.
Is it perfectly OK to have a hawk feeder or two?
Still a “bird feeder”, eh? 
Yes, we have a Coopers hawk that takes advantage of ours.
Anything bigger is driven away by our Ravens.
Don’t intrude on other people’s conversations if you literally have nothing to add (old people take notice)
There’s a coworker at my job I always go out of my way to not talk anything substantial around because they’ll immediate intrude and then try to hijack the conversation.
Friend - I’m planning on going to Hawaii next year.
Me - Cool, I can recommend you some great places to check out, so last time I was there…
Coworker - OH MAN YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN TO HAWAII? IVE NEVER BEEN TO HAWAII. WHAT OTHER PLACES HAVE YOU GUYS GONE ON VACATION TOO? I ONCE VISITED TIJUANA 20 YEARS AGO WHERE I…
I went to the mall today and there was a woman standing outside of a store. I think it sells lotions and stuff. There’s always someone outside being annoying so I NEVER go in. Some corporate asshole decided they need to stand there and aggressively approach every passerby but they never do the math that for every person they pressure to go in, X number of people refuse to even consider it. Anyway, she kept yelling “Ma’am!” at me. I saw her do it to the person in front of me so I knew it wasn’t like “Hey you have a hole in your pants” or “Watch out behind you!” This lady started SNAPPING HER FINGERS at me to get my attention. I yelled at her, like “What is wrong with you?”
So you shouldn’t need to tell people you don’t snap your fingers at strangers to get their attention to sell them stuff.
Good! She was rude as hell.
Yeah, I’ve taken notice… kid. Now knock it off or I’ll tell your mama on you.
If the door was closed when you came in the room, then close the door when you leave. Likewise if the light was off when you came in, turn it off when you leave. This is especially true in an office, but somehow needs to get repeated every time.
//i\\