The Rage Diaries

How well do you score -- and no search engine "research," please

Common Core asked high school students 41 questions about the humanities. The results have shocked and appalled people -- the word "ignorant" is used to describe the kids ("Survey Finds Teenagers Ignorant on Basic History and Literature Questions," NYT, Feb 27, 08). Evidently, a quarter of American teenagers didn't know Hitler was Germany's chancellor during WWII. (There was no reportage on whether or not they thought he was merely the FTW gambit in any online argument.)

Naturally, I was curious to learn exactly how little the generation that'll be funding my social security (ha!) knew. Slate has the test in their "Hot Documents" feature ("A Depressing Survey of What High Schoolers Don't Know"). Showing a little stunning ignorance of my own, it took me until the second pass-through to realize the correct answers were starred.

I was able to answer all but one correctly. And before you all point out that I have the benefit of college on my side, let me point out: thanks to AP testing, I waltzed into Virginia Tech with my humanities, social sciences and literature requirements all but completed. My college education was left-brained in the extreme. Any liberal arts education I have, I got courtesy of living in Virginia ("400 Years of History and Counting") and reading constantly. Anyway, I biffed #24, as did 50% of kids tested. Mrs. Cantwell, I'm sorry I forgot the purpose of the Federalist papers. AP government was 19 years ago.

In any event, take a look at the questions and see how many you can answer.

How to complain so it's worth your time

And wrapping up this month's "What does your time cost?" question ... I thought today's Fiscally Fit column, "Complaining the Right Way" (WSJ, Feb 28, 08), did a great job of outlining how to address customer service issues effectively. This is appropriate because hey -- be sure you're getting the most out of your time.

The helpful points, below:

• Make sure you have all your paperwork in hand before contacting the company
• Know what you want from the company before you contact them
• If possible, go back to the salesperson who initially helped you
• Get the first person who you speak with to want to help you -- be polite, friendly and do not hesitate to ask, "If you can't help, who do you think can?"
• Even if you can't get the problem resolved right away, don't forget to thank people for their time.
• If you need to escalate the problem to writing, be sure you're contacting the right people. Check a company's website for the correct points-of-contact first, and the correct address.
• When writing a complaint letter, be polite, be specific, and lay out your case clearly with ample documentation.

Would you like to know how not to behave? Go read Not Always Right.

Another handy tip: Teri Cullen loves Gethuman.com and I do too. It's super-handy if you don't have the time or patience to sit through a phone tree.

Fiscal fitness -- What did we learn this month?

So, I learned this month that everyone else has a pretty good idea of the tradeoffs they're making between time and money. There are two tradeoffs that now are part of my monthly routine: a cat-food run at Petco instead of the grocery store (total savings: 33% over the old prices) and a Trader Joe's visit for cereal (one box: $3.49) instead of A) paying more for the same cereal at Nob Hill, or B) paying nearly $2 per day for a less-healthy breakfast at work.

Another time-money experiment I did: I "joined" Couponmom.com to see if I could get anything new or useful out of the coupon-collection sites. Joining required me to assess and turn down no fewer than 30 "offers" for crap I didn't need, and when I got a newsletter from them two days ago promising a free e-book on saving money at the grocery ... I had to repeat the same registration process before downloading a PDF. I get that the site has to make money somehow, and selling qualified leads to businesses is how they're doing it. But when I read through the PDF -- with its advice like "shop the sales circulars" and "know your store's double-coupon policies" and "sign up to use the tools on my site," I thought, This wasn't even worth my time.

This leads to my last question for the month: what money-management efforts have you made that just turned out to be more trouble than they were worth?

The Internet makes Lent easier

My church has a Wednesday night soup service during Lent-- come for the dinner, stay for the liturgy -- and one of the things Phil and I are doing this season is providing soup each week. We still have the day jobs and the freelance jobs and all, so a minor logistical problem has arisen: how do we keep our soup-making obligation without boring our fellow congregants to tears by making the same old faithfuls each week?

Fortunately, the weblog The Joy of Soup is here to help. I'll be test-driving the tomato-thyme recipe this evening and am eyeballing the wild rice and mushroom soup for next week. If any of you cooking geniuses can tell me how to adapt the beef-barley soup for a non-crockpot household, I'd be much obliged. And because Phil has been so sweet about the soup obligation I signed us up for, I may just reward him with some drunken crab soup.

And now, I have to stop typing "soup" because it's begun to look and sound funny. Soup soup soup soup sooooooup.

My heart belongs to [brand name here]

Market research firm BrandKey has just released their 2008 index of brands that have the highest customer engagement. In laypeople terms: the winners in each category are the brands that most consistently meet whatever consumer expectations they've created. They "engage customers, engender loyalty and drive real profits."

Among the winners: jetBlue and Southwest Airlines; Toyota; New Balance athletic shoes; Sam Adams beer; Coors Light beer; Aquafina bottled water and Fiji bottled water; L.L. Bean; the Olive Garden; Dunkin' Donuts (for coffee!); Apple computer; ABC evening news; W hotels; Wal-mart; Tide laundry detergent; Amazon.com.

The big surprise for me was discovering that Pepsi and Diet Pepsi apparently have higher customer engagement than Coca-Cola products. I know plenty of people who are passionate about their Diet Coke -- indeed, I used to be one of those people -- but I have never met any Pepsi partisans.

It's an interesting list of what brands people feel are worth their while. And it got me thinking about the brands I patronize, despite my fond illusion that I focus on value first, vendor second. I do go out of my way for Method home cleaning products, Lands' End t-shirts, Jones soda and Friskies wet food (prime fillets only, the cats have made clear). Which brand names do you keep an eye out for? Which ones do you feel a little guilty buying when you notice a competitor with a lower price?

Get ready for slumurbia

[T]he story of vacant suburban homes and declining suburban neighborhoods did not begin with the crisis, and will not end with it. A structural change is under way in the housing market—a major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work. It has shaped the current downturn, steering some of the worst problems away from the cities and toward the suburban fringes. And its effects will be felt more strongly, and more broadly, as the years pass. Its ultimate impact on the suburbs, and the cities, will be profound.

-- "The Next Slum?" Atlantic Monthly, Mar 08

The article makes the argument that over the next decade or two, the populations that used to pay the kinds of property taxes that made for great schools and safe neighborhoods will continue shifting back to cities -- which means far-flung bedroom communities will see their real estate values flatten or drop, the tax base will dry up, and those little 'burbs will soon breed the kinds of social woes that used to be associated with inner-city living.

Fiscal fitness -- two things

Quick cash update -- I spent $11.47 on Valentine's Day for potatoes, ice cream and a bottle of wine. (Rest assured -- we also had a salad and a tri-tip roast to go with it). And then last Saturday, I spent $10.47 on In'N'Out for our lunch, and darned if it wasn't the most delicious use of $10.47 ever. All of you need to come to California so you can experience the french fries for yourself.

Now, returning to our theme for the month ... if you can get to a library and find the March 2008 issue of Money magazine, go read Jean Chatzky's "Your Money or Your Life." She talks about whether there's ever a point when the bargain-hunting eats up so much of your time, it is actually costing you other opportunities.

I personally feel this way about coupon-clipping. Putting aside the issue that few, if any, coupons I see are for items I like (one notable exception: this Krispy Kreme coupon, which I found via WantNot) ... I can't see the savings, because the time involved in clipping, sorting and maintaining the coupon files is just not worth it to me. I don't see the savings relative to the time spent.

However, there are areas where I will gladly sink the time: I usually make my lunch for work; I read through the grocery fliers each week and comparison-shop the sales items; I brave the Costco mob once every few months; I keep on top of Craigslist in the off chance that the sisal rugs or Arizona flagstones I want are being unloaded at bargain rates.

Remember how we had our "Hell, no" line for what we were willing to do in terms of lower-impact living? What's your "hell, no" line for time versus money?

Does working at home mean working on the home too?

I have the luxury of working at home a day or two every week, and among the things I've noticed about the work-at-home days is that my concentration goes up -- and I also get some housework done.

Hear me out: on work-at-home days, I don't have to commute, so I've got an hour's head start on working, and when I finally need a break ... I can get up and sweep, or put a batch of muffins in the oven, or scrub the sink. Then I'm back to work and I can focus, because the little voice in my head reminding me of all the stuff I have to do when I get home has been shut up. On work-at-home days, I don't hit YouTube because if I want a break, I can pull weeds or change laundry loads or whatever.

So I read Jeff Opdyke's little exchange with his wife -- who doesn't understand his reluctance to multitask while working at home -- and thought, "Really? Really?" I was heartened by the commenters on the blog who also had the "Really? Really?" response.

Any of you who work at home -- have you found that it helps with maintaining some sort of overall equilibrium in your life? Or do you have to pretend nothing else exists but your work? How does working at home work for you?

Interested in the outcome of the Democrat nomination?

Then read "Keeping Tabs on the Superdelegates" in today's NYT. Not only does the article link to the sites where you can find out how the superdelegates in your state are likely to go, it also outlines how the new transparency is mobilizing everyday citizens -- and possibly horrifying party insiders.

I don't know: I sort of like the idea that having a super-special superdelegate vote means you have more responsibilities that go along with it -- like making that vote out in the open, so everyone knows what you voted for and why.

"We're white, we're white, we're really, really white ..."

So I found Stuff White People Like and was cracking up reading the posts. Whoever's writing it is a comic genius; the anthropological approach and deadpan tone absolutely kill me. (And, in my opinion, kicks the ass of the deadpan John Hodgman/McSweeney's precious-ironic-overgrown-kid "comedy.")

Also, that person (or people) have a wickedly accurate eye for consumer class signifiers. I was reading through and nodding, "Farmer's markets, organic food, making you feel bad about not going outside, wine, David Sedaris, marathons, Wrigley Field, the Colbert Report,  renovations, Arrested Development, Apple products, public radio, the Sunday NYT, living by the water, recyling ... oh, it's true. I deserve the stereotype. I am a white people."

(I am looking forward to seeing future installments on VH1 Classic, the New Yorker, overpriced chocolate, and Hanna Andersson clothing.)

But what I really find thought-provoking are the outraged comments on the "About Us" entry. The people insisting that the entries aren't about all white people, and how dare there be such stereotyping ... it's funny watching how people react when they're the subject of stereotyping and they're not used to it.