Coronavirus and Media hype… equals a loss of common sense

Pete

Pete

Member
Location
Texas

The shelf today at Kroger/Fred Meyer where there should be some toilet paper.​

….for 14 of the 20 years I lived in Alaska I lived in a remote off-grid cabin and learned, (sometimes the hard way), to always ‘prep’ for any eventuality. Mostly this meant during the winter being ready to not be able to get to town to get needed supplies. Over the years I have watched from my warm home in the woods as people in the lower ’48’ went nuts every time the weather man reported on a hurricane or snow storm.

Well the dog has turned when I went shopping today. I have gotten used to the lower ’48’ way of life of running out to buy whatever is needed at the moment and that has come round to bite me on the ass.



The picture above says it all,
with the virus harmful mostly
to older people
the rest of them for some reason
believed they needed
every roll of toilet paper
in Texas.​
 

Pete said:
….for 14 of the 20 years I lived in Alaska I lived in a remote off-grid cabin and learned
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I hear ya, Pete

Living in town for the last nine months taught me that the stores kept things for me
That's why they're called 'stores'

….riiiight

Living at the cabin taught me to plan for the worst winter ever
Never ran out of anything

Here...in town.....it can fool ya'

Wonder when the stores will git their heads out and start rationing stuff

Bottom line;
There's many other ways of taking care of yer backside
 
I'm still confused as to why people purchased sooooo much toilet tissue. We always keep a pretty good supply to last for a while. I want FOOD. I can't eat toilet paper, nor does it kill viruses. Don't get me wrong it serves it purpose..but hmmm :unsure: I'm sure people have their reasons. All the things the stores ran out of, I already have.. hand sanitizer, bottle water, toilet tissue, Lysol. I always keep these things on hand. Thank goodness.
 
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Ladybj said:
I'm still confused as to why people purchased sooooo much toilet tissue. We always keep a pretty good supply to last for a while. I want FOOD. I can't eat toilet paper, nor does it kill viruses. Don't get me wrong it serves it purpose..but hmmm :unsure: I'm sure people have their reasons. All the things the stores ran out of, I already have.. hand sanitizer, bottle water, toilet tissue, Lysol. I always keep these things on hand. Thank goodness.
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But when you eliminate that food, hopefully daily, how are you going to clean yourself if you've run out of toilet paper?
 
Gary O' said:
Bottom line;
There's many other ways of taking care of yer backside
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....I agree "Gary O"
I found myself a number of times on a remote hunt or fishing trip without any,
and back at the cabin when I have had visitors
I have come upon what you see in the picture below.

DSCF0373.JPG
 
The sheeple are following the herd of mass hysteria. People tend to be followers. Also some are actually scared they won't be able to do normal replenishment. Must admit I purchased a 4 pack about 2 weeks ahead of schedule over a week ago.
 
I was watching ESPN this morning and someone was being interviewed about stopping golf tournaments because of the virus. This person said if you are 60+years you chance of dying is 2X, 70: 4X and 80: 8X the norm of young people.
Wow! I thought that is scary but then it showed who the person was. His name is Andy North and his profession is a golf analyst for ESPN!! So I ask how is he qualified to throw out such numbers. Answer: He is not. This is how rumors and panic starts. ESPN ought to apologize for that fool and it's entire organization.
 
Yes,common sense has flown the coup until people sit back and realize they may be one of the 80% who survives okay if they get it! Shoppers have gone nuts I see and I got mad when I saw them on tv (hoarding ridiculously) but realize it's not their fault, they may be predisposed to anxiety like me, and need to realize the facts to calm down.
 
WhatInThe said:
The sheeple are following the herd of mass hysteria. People tend to be followers. Also some are actually scared they won't be able to do normal replenishment. Must admit I purchased a 4 pack about 2 weeks ahead of schedule over a week ago.
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I agree. Humans have a strong herding instinct and we are seeing it now.

From my vantage point, this whole thing is way over-hyped.
 
fmdog44 said:
I was watching ESPN this morning and someone was being interviewed about stopping golf tournaments because of the virus. This person said if you are 60+years you chance of dying is 2X, 70: 4X and 80: 8X the norm of young people.
Wow! I thought that is scary but then it showed who the person was. His name is Andy North and his profession is a golf analyst for ESPN!! So I ask how is he qualified to throw out such numbers. Answer: He is not. This is how rumors and panic starts. ESPN ought to apologize for that fool and it's entire organization.
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Just by the way, FM I live down the street from the ESPN campus. There were very few cars in one of the lots that I go past. Usually that one of full.

Want me go over and slap him for ya? LOL// he was probably working remotely, anyway.
 
oldman said:
Here's a picture of pair 89 before the clerk bagged theView attachment 95436m. (I'm sitting here shaking my head back and forth.)
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I'm waiting to see what she wears these shoes with. It should be interesting. If she wears them and someone makes a comment that she takes as being negative, I will hear, "Those new shoes hurt my feet." and then I have to say, "Well, quit wearing them." That gives her the out.

Do we know each other, or do we know each other?
 
I'm not taking a mini bath or shower every time I pee. I'll move to newspapers before going that route.

TP will be back in stock before we know it. A March 13 article in The NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/business/toilet-paper-shortage.html.

I'm not sure if it's behind a paywall because I'm a subscriber, so I copy/pasted enough of the article to give the gist.

“You are not using more of it. You are just filling up your closet with it,” said Jeff Anderson, president of Precision Paper Converters, a paper product manufacturer with 65 employees outside Green Bay, Wis. “What happens in the summer when demand dries up and people have all this extra product in their homes?”
Mr. Anderson’s business focuses on facial tissues, which are also in high demand, and he is paying employees overtime to work longer shifts. “We can’t make as much as they want right now,” he said.

Perhaps more than in its recent past, the paper industry seems well positioned to meet the surging demand. After decades of declining sales, as newspapers and printed documents lost out in the digital age, many manufacturers converted to making tissue products, like toilet paper and wipes. That means there is more manufacturing capacity that can be brought online.

In more normal times, toilet paper demand grows by only a few percentage points each year, mirroring population growth.

The vast majority of toilet paper consumed by Americans is made in North America. But about 10 percent of the giant rolls of paper that are used to make the rolls that end up in American bathrooms come from China and India. Those imports have been delayed because of the broader bottleneck of shipments from Asia, as the region begins to recover from the virus outbreak and factories come back online."
 
Maybe U.S. manufacturers will learn from this tragedy. We should be making more of life’s necessities here at home, not overseas where it takes weeks to get here via ship. I know they sure aren’t going to fly it here. Sending goods by airfreight is super expensive.

Out of curiosity, I once applied for a job with FedEx as a pilot. After my second interview, I received a phone call from their HR department offering me a job as a pilot flying a B-767, which is the plane that I was flying at the time. The offer came to about $2000.00 more per month than what I was earning at United. I thought to myself, “Holy cow! How much does it cost to ship stuff via airfreight?” It has to be very expensive. Then, I found out how they determine price and it really blew my mind.

I turned down the job because at the time a lot of freight carrying planes were going down because the payload crews weren’t experienced enough to know how to properly load the planes to keep them properly balanced and also properly tied from moving around. There were also a few serious fires onboard that brought a few planes down. Now, the freight airlines use fireproof containers and the crews “must” be certified in payload balancing and containment. My wife was vehemently against me taking the job. I think the neighbors even heard her. I was just inquiring, but she didn’t want to hear it.
 
exwisehe said:
In the first few years of my life we used the Sears catalog in our outhouse.
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Someone stated using “corncobs.” I had never heard of that. Wouldn’t that hurt? Yesterday, I was with an older gentleman and we were talking about how to get through tough times. He brought up the issue of using corncobs.

I remember my dad telling me stories of his days during WWII and they had just left England and arrived in France. First thing off the plane, they were allowed to use the latrines. Everyone going into one of the latrines was given only two sheets of tp. I told him that he had to be kidding. He told me no one kids about that. He also told me that guys were selling cigarettes for a quarter each. Today, that would be cheap.

BTW, talking about England, my dad said that he had the privilege of watching Churchill address the U.S. Troops right before they left for France. He said that he was very impressed with his short speech.
 
What gets me is that all of the people flooding into stores right now are walking into a crowded potential coronavirus breeding ground. Just because so few have been tested doesn't mean that many don't already have the virus.

I'm another who always has a good supply of staples on hand, but that's mostly because I'm sort of, well, cheap. I buy when things we regularly use are on sale so always have a steady supply available. Plus, I'm in Florida, and we're kind of used to always being prepared for hurricanes.

As for the toilet paper, I grew up on a farm and wouldn't recommend corn cobs. Instead, I'd probably try a sort of poor woman's bidet -- a spray bottle with water. Seeing all of the toilet paper hoarding, I'm sorry I dismissed buying a few shares of International Paper when I was looking last year. Silly me, I thought that with everything going digital, there wouldn't be as much need for paper.
 
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