EclectEcon

In Defense of United Airlines

I may have missed a few things but here is a possible back story for the United Airlines scenario:

• A person who is a doctor books one of the cheapest tickets possible, not realizing that doing so means he opens himself up to the risk of being among those who are most likely to be involuntarily bumped from a flight.
• He has appointments to see people the next morning at his office. He will still have office expenses and he will lose considerable revenue if he doesn't make it to the office first thing in the morning.
• He is shocked, stunned, and irate when told he has to leave the plane.
• He plays the "God card". I have met far too many physicians who have said (or behaved as if they believed), "I am a doctor. I save lives. I am the next best thing to God that you will ever meet. I deserve special treatment."
• He doesn't get the special treatment and decides to cause a PR headache for the airline as a result.

In defence of the customer:

• I had no idea that airlines could bump people involuntarily. I knew they could overbook and then ask for volunteers to be bumped, but I had no idea they could bump people.  I don't read the fine print. I have volunteered to be bumped in the past when I wasn't in any big rush. There have been other times when I really wanted to be on time, didn't want to be bumped, and wouldn't have volunteered to be bumped for any amount of reasonable compensation.
• It puzzles me that United Airlines didn't know this situation well enough in advance that they could have asked for volunteers or done the involuntary bumping in the departure lounge BEFORE the plane was boarded.
• The customer seems to have been treated roughly by the security personnel. [in their defence, it looked as if the customer actively resisted. It is difficult to be kind and gentle with someone engaged in active resistance. Contrast the customer's behaviour with that of those who engaged in non-violent passive sit-ins during the Civil Rights sit-ins of the 1960s.]

In my law and economics courses, I always taught the students to ask two questions:

1. What is the risk?
2. Who is the least-cost bearer of the risk?

In this case, what is the risk? The unlikely event that someone will be involuntarily bumped? Or that four flight crew members will be needed (unexpectedly??) in Louisville first thing the next morning? If the latter, it looks as if the airlines are asking people to sacrifice something to cover up poor planning on the part of the airlines, which doesn't look good. Or at best the airline is asking customers to buy insurance against possible poor planning by the airline. And then enforcing the insurance contract.

Who is the least-cost bearer of the risk? The airlines essentially sell insurance against being involuntarily bumped; they do this via their ticket pricing. If you pay more for a ticket, you will be less likely to be involuntarily bumped. If the doctor knew this, he essentially declined the insurance.

Again, it is most likely possible that United Airlines was the least-cost bearer of the risk and will (or should) make sure people are involuntarily bumped in the departure lounge and not once they board the plane. If United Airlines didn't anticipate this situation far enough in advance to keep people from actually boarding the aircraft, they could possibly charter a private jet to ferry the four crew members to their next location. I expect this option will look much more attractive to airlines in the future.

How many of us know about the greater possibility of being involuntarily bumped when we book a cheap ticket? Not many before the weekend, I expect. More should know it now. But instead because of the news coverage, we blame United Airlines and the Chicago airport security staff for the incident.

Most of my friends seem to disagree with my take on this situation, arguing that the customer should not have been removed violently. But the customer was actively resisting, causing a large fuss. Maybe he owes all the other passengers compensation for having delayed the flight by two hours and for having disturbed them so much.

I may have missed a few things, so I'm perfectly willing to adjust my take on the situation.

Planning an Escape

All the snow melted yesterday afternoon, but we had more snow overnight, enough to do another snow stomp art piece (albeit barely enough).

The bitter wind and cold, coupled with the snow, makes people think of escaping to warmer climates:

Three interesting things about doing these pieces of snow art:

1. Today's work was not technically snow stomp art. There wasn't enough snow to stomp. This piece, as well as many others this winter, is better thought of as snow-foot-drag-art.
2. The goose droppings don't bother me much if they're frozen.
3. It's amusing how many champagne bottle corks I run across as I do the artwork. I guess it's fun and romantic to stand on the balcony and pop a cork out over the lawn.

My previous snow stomp art:

      Planning an Escape (this post)

      Caught in the Net

Surf's Up

Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe, Part 2

      Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe

      Pikachu

      Happy New Year, 2017

      O Tannenbaum

      Nativity Scene

Special Weather Statement

Think Tropics

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

 

Surf's Up

Yesterday morning I woke early and looked out the window. Yea!! Lots of new snow on the lawn in front of our building. So I dressed quickly and went outside to do some snow stomp art. I knew the temperatures would rise this coming weekend, and that made me think of surfing. The street lamps were still on, and the sun hadn't risen yet.

As I said, I expected the image wouldn't last very long because the forecast says we will have temperatures up over 10C (50F)* this weekend. But I hadn't counted on the wind blowing so much of the snow away.

It did, though, so I went out about 10 am to fix it up a bit.

The wind continued, though. I figured the whole thing would be gone by evening, but here's a photo I took of the work at about 11pm last night:

The writing was gone, but the surfer dude in the pipeline survived in great shape!

And he is still there this morning!

But he is fading fast.

True story: I taught at the University of Hawaii in the autumn of 1986. I regularly went to the beach between classes and learned to surf. Students in my afternoon law & economics course would laugh and point at the sand on my feet "We know where you were!"

I never was very good at surfing, but it was fun and it was great upper body exercise. We also spent a LOT of time at Bellows beach using body boards and catching waves. So much fun!

*Reminder: C = Canadian, F = foreign when talking about temperatures.

My previous snow stomp art:

Surf's Up (this post)

 

Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe, Part 2

      Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe

      Pikachu

      Happy New Year, 2017

      O Tannenbaum

      Nativity Scene

Special Weather Statement

Think Tropics

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

My, What a Lovely Bunch of Co-incidences

Next week I'll be out in Regina, Saskatchewan, visiting with friends and relatives, performing with the Saskatchewan Roughrider Pep Band, and giving seminar in the economics department, "Property Rights and Contract Enforcement in the Post-Zombie Apocalypse".  I'll also likely be doing some Pokemon hunting.

The coincidences:

• I thought my plane arrived at 8:30 pm and I'd have to miss some band performances that evening. It turns out my plane arrives at 5pm and the performances begin at 6pm. I can just make it to the performances if I wear my band uniform on the plane, pack my new green plastic trumpet in a carry-on bag, and don't take any checked luggage. No problem; I can do all those things.
• It also turns out that one of the two performance venues that evening will be at a seniors' residence where the aunt and uncle of Ms. Eclectic live, so I'll be able to see them more than I expected while I'm there! I like them a lot and always try to spend time with them while I'm in Regina, so this is an added bonus.
• Also, it looks as if things have worked out so I'll be able to stay with my granddaughter, who lives out in Regina, and so I'll be able to spend much more time with her than I had thought. She's a terrific person, and I'm delighted!

Life is good.

Now to get to work on the paper. And practice the trumpet.

Who Plays Pokemon Go?

Recently someone in a local Facebook group asked members to post their ages. In the twelve or so hours since that posting, these are the ages of the people playing Pokemon Go and who are members of the group and who responded (a selective non-representative sample, for sure). Here are the results, grouped unscientifically. They wouldn't be much different with other groupings.

Total number responding:

• Under 20:    6
• 20-25:       34
• 26-30:       23
• over 30:    11

As it was easy to observe while out in the parks, meeting the Pokemon Go players, the bulk of them are in their 20s. But I also met many others who are older (none as old as I am) but who are likely not members of the local Facebook group and/or who aren't willing to post their age. [I listed mine as "under 90" of course; see this].

I've been having fun, catching Pokemon, meeting new people, getting exercise. Ms Eclectic would say it's an obsession now, if not an addiction for me. I expect it all to fade, though.

 

Snow in April? Think Tropics!

I woke up to see snow on the ground this morning! Yea!!!!! More opportunities for snow-stomp art!

This one was far less complex than my previous work (Qubix) but somehow seemed appropriate:

Rum! Palms! A hammock!  No wonder it also looks like a stylized happy face!

Links to most of my previous snow-stomp art:

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

 

Cairo and the Pyramids

I always knew the great pyramids of Egypt were right near Cairo, but the photos of them always show them as if they are totally isolated in the desert. I was surprised, and amused with myself, when I looked at Google maps and Google Earth some years ago to see just how close modern (comparatively?) building has come to encroaching on the space around the pyramids.

Perhaps zooming in a bit makes the point better:

But while I'm sure there are numerous photos of the pyramids like the one below, this one brings home just how close the pyramids are to the bustling metropolis of Cairo.

45 Years Ago Today

45 Years ago today I visited London, Ontario, on a recruiting trip to The University of Western Ontario. I think I had probably been through here once as a child, but this trip was essentially my introduction to the city and to the university.

I flew into town the evening of January 24th, 1971, spent the day of the 25th meeting with future colleagues, and left town on the 26th.

Those were different days for the economics department at UWO. It was known as a revolving door, hiring ten people a year, and firing (actually, not renewing) 8 or 9 each year. The department was growing in size and stature and was serious in how it approached the hiring-firing decisions. Several of my future colleagues groused about the uncertainty and what seemed like inappropriate or unequally applied standards (to them), but they also all agreed UWO would be a good place to have been.

I had always hoped to go to a small liberal arts college to teach. I didn't want to write anything more than what was required for my dissertation. (What a change I went through. See this). But UWO looked like an exciting place to be, and my future colleagues convinced me it was worth coming here for a few years.

The day of interviews was gloriously warm, for late January. The sun was shining. We walked around campus in our sport coats and basked in the sun. People joked about how the snow-sculpture contest was going to have to be canceled.

Lunch at the faculty club, meetings with more future colleagues, dinner with a former gradskool classmate. An exciting day. But nothing like what was to come...

The Blizzard of January, 1971

The morning of the 26th, I got up early and went down to the lobby to catch a limo/bus to the airport. It had started snowing, and the snow looked as if it was pretty heavy, but the streets to the airport were okay, and I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

Those were the days with no security checks at the airports. Those of us who were due to fly out stood by the window, looking at the runway, a bit worried about the intensifying snowfall, and speculating about whether we would make it out.

Soon, breaking through the clouds, we could barely make out the Air Canada plane that was due to arrive (and which would be our return flight to Toronto).

We saw the plane approach the runway, and then pull up.

Massive groan.

But then we saw it come back for another  attempt at landing.

It pulled up again. Another groan.

It made a third attempt but again pulled up. The pilot didn't feel safe landing because he couldn't see the runway!

In those days, with fares as high as they were (in real dollars), airlines took on many more obligations than they do nowadays. We all queued up at the ticket desk, and the Air Canada ticket agents rebooked our flights out of Toronto and then put us all in taxicabs to the Toronto airport. I was put on an American Airlines flight to Chicago and had plenty of time to make it.

The trip to Toronto was interesting. By coincidence, I was in a cab with Levis Kochin, an economist who went on to have a very successful career at The University of Washington.

We arrived in Toronto in plenty of time. I checked in at the American ticket counter, and we boarded the plane while the sun was still shining.

Then the snow hit with a vengeance. American canceled the flight and told us to disembark and reschedule.

I think I must have joined 5-6 different queues during the next 24 hours, changing flights, getting vouchers for a hotel and meals, catching a cab to some hotel, rebooking flights again and again. At least in those days the airlines put us up when bad weather interrupted our flights.

I managed to get out by noon the next day, but it sure was a challenging welcome for a recruiting trip.

I was reminded of this recruiting trip by the blizzard that hit the US middle-east this weekend.

The blizzard that hit London that year was pretty serious (though not as serious as the blizzards of 1977-78). According to one report,

1971 A 5 day long blizzard in London, Ontario dumps 62cm snow and kills 3. It was the worst blizzard in decades

And here is a column from newspaper in a nearby town describing that storm.

We may complain about weather forecasting, but it is one heckuva lot better now than it was 45 years ago!

Related articles

What's in a Name: Western University

Pay This Guy $2m and Fire Him

Truth in Flying

I am always annoyed when flight attendants go through the nonsense about how to use airplane seatbelts. I'd like to hear some attendant make fun of having to do that. And I also think it would both amusing and interesting to hear the flight attendants launch into a discussion of how and by how much various things reduce the probability of dying or suffering serious injury should there be an accident. This piece in The Economist points out similar issues. [via Tom Palmer]. The opening paragraph:

“GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.

The article continues in a similar vein and is an enjoyable read.

Westjet doesn't quite do that, but it is a fun airline to fly in Canada.

 

Muskegon Michigan High School Band Alumni

At this time tomorrow, I will be on my way from London, Ontario, to Muskegon, Michigan, the town where I was born and raised.

Every fall, for the high school homecoming football game, all the alumni of the high school marching band are invited back to join the current marching band to participate in the pre-game and half-time festivities. Someone tells me this has been going on for nearly 40 years, but I started going only about ten or so years ago.

• We meet up, socialize, and rehearse late in the afternoon.
• And then we rehearse with the current high school marching band.
• The band alumni form their own procession and "march" to the stadium playing a school song [It's no long thighs parallel to the ground and 8-to-5 as it was when we were younger, but we sure have fun].
• We play school songs* with the high school band during the pre-game show.
• We participate in a portion of the half-time show, playing some piece to which we will have received the music only during the rehearsal a few hours earlier. One year we did 25-or-6-to-4, a great Chicago hit.
• Every time the football team scores, we play school songs (which seems often since the team is pretty good).
• After the game, the homecoming court is crowned (while the band members stand around and freeze our noogies [or so it seems], no matter what the actual temperature is).
• And then the combined bands march from the far end of the field through the tunnel under the stadium. The fans are lined along the walls of the tunnel and hoot and cheer us the entire way. What a thrilling feeling it is, marching to a really catchy cadence from the drum section, swinging our horns in unison, and straight-faced the entire way as the fans go wild!  Here is a video of the event from last year:
  
  
• After the march through the tunnel, the combined bands march down the street to the old high school gymnasium/auditorium, where the drums set  up in the middle of the gym floor and go through a complex series of cadences  while band members, old and new alike, prance/dance/jog around counter-clockwise in a huge circle. It struck me as a bit weird my first time there, but since then I have wholeheartedly joined in and loved it.
• After what feels like ten or fifteen minutes, the pulsing, sweating bodies break out and form a huge circle, holding hands and sing the high school Alma Mater (yes, I still remember the words).
• And then we race (figuratively, not literally) to Fricano's for pizza, etc.

I have made it back for only about four or five of these events in the past ten years. But for this year, I made sure I had no other commitments for the homecoming game because I have made so many friends during these band reunions and have renewed so many other friendships.

*The Muskegon Big Reds have four school songs.

1. "Indian Boy." The high school band is no longer allowed to play this for PC reasons, but at the end of the third quarter, the band alumni go into the crowd and play it. It is all totally unapproved of and actually disapproved of by the current band leadership. But they tolerate it because we love doing it and fans in the stadium love it.
   
2. "On Muskegon". Some school across Lake Michigan over in Wisconsin seems to have usurped this song from us (as have the Saskatchewan Roughriders!). When I played french horn in high school 87 years ago, we had afterbeats; now I play alto horn, and we have the trombone part, which is much more fun.
3. "Red & White",  a  really kick-ass fight song written by William Stewart, an amazing musician, conductor, composer, designer, mathematician, geometer, inspiring leader, and stern taskmaster. He died of a heart attack during my last year in high school, a severe loss to the music programmes in the Muskegon area.
4. "Alma Mater". A truly beautiful piece of music, also written by William Stewart. These two pieces by Stewart move me every time we play them. I'll try to attach some audio files of recordings made by our band back in 1959. The files are rather large MP4s:
   

   Red & White

   and the

   Alma Mater

   
   

Yes! Increased Competition in the Taxi Biz

Trono is a major market where UberX has been expanding rapidly and eroding the market power of licensed taxicabs. Trono is now considering bringing UberX into the fold:

Before any [UberX company] could obtain a licence, it would need to provide proof of insurance, confirm that drivers have had a criminal background check and driving record screening, and sign an agreement that protects the city against any losses related to the private vehicles-for-hire.

As only a quasi libertarian, I don't mind these possible regulations. But here is the kicker that had me cheering when I saw it:

Another of the report's recommendations is to reduce the starting fee for a taxi ride, also known as the "drop fee," from $4.25 to $3.25, effective Nov. 1 to make taxis more competitive with Uber.

I love this result. More competition, better and more available service, and slightly lower prices! Vive la competition!

Sherlock in Eastbourne

There's a new Sherlock Holmes film out that was filmed mostly in East Sussex: Hailsham, Eastbourne, etc.

It doesn't have Benedict Cumberbatch in it, but I still want to see it (and Ian McKellen is no one to disparage).

Here [via Kath] is a photo of an article about the film:

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McKellen plays 'Mr. Holmes' like you've never seen him

Uber and Insurance

Every person I know who has used Uber has been extremely pleased with it. The cars are clean, the drivers are polite and generally quite knowledgeable, and the smartphone app lets both driver and customer know what's what.

So why is there a problem with allowing Uber to compete with taxis and with limousine services? As most of you know, I am strongly in favour of limiting restrictions on competition in the taxicab industry, having played a role the local changes that allow limousines to compete more directly with licensed taxicabs.

The only problem I see with Uber is insurance. In Ontario, we have no-fault auto insurance. Furthermore, Uber charges for (and is believed to provide) liability insurance for their drivers, even if they aren't carrying a passenger, so long as the driver is logged onto Uber as "available". So customers are probably covered, as are third parties (but see below).

The problem comes with the drivers themselves. If they carry paying passengers, they need to carry "commercial", not "personal" auto insurance. To drive for Uber and to have only personal auto insurance is taking a personal gamble, as well as possibly imposing a risk on potential third parties; and it is quite possibly defrauding the insurance companies. 

I asked my insurance agent for RSA, with whom we have our auto insurance, about this and here is what she replied:

At this time, a Personal Policy with RSA will NOT provide any coverage for UBER driving.

As you would now be “carrying passengers for hire”, you would need to get a commercial policy if that was something you were interested in.

Although UBER may provide some liability in a lawsuit situation, there are other factors (Accident benefits / damage to your vehicle etc) which would also have to be dealt with.

Part of the application does specifically ask about carrying passengers so we are required to disclose it to the insurance company.

... [W]ith this being new to London, the companies are just reacting to [it] now. This may be something that changes in the future; however at the moment it is not something they are willing to cover – and all coverage would be denied in the event of a claim. [emphasis added]

To be clear: no, I am not intending to drive for Uber (though I would consider it if personal auto insurance were sufficient).

What this means, then, as someone pointed out somewhere on Facebook, is that if you ride with Uber (in London, Ontario, as of now), you are likely signaling that you are willing to give business to someone who is likely lying to their insurance company.

And with that in mind, I probably will not be using Uber in the near future.

Curse Words, Frequency of Use by County

Regular readers of EclectEcon know that I try to avoid swearing here and on Facebook. At home, around friends, and in the classroom my Edward Hyde side emerges, in a sense. In this list, I use all but "Gosh" and "Darn" with varying and sometimes great frequency.

Almost a billion tweets, from October of 2013 to November of 2014, were collected by Diansheng Guo at University of South Carolina, totaling nearly 9 billion words. Here’s how Grieve explained what happened once the data was collected:

For any word ... we measure its relative frequency in each county by diving the total number of occurrences of that word in that county by the total number of words in that county.

We take that raw map and smooth it using a hot spot analysis (a Getis-Ord Gi local spatial autocorrelation analysis). 

Here is the map for "Gosh". There are seven different maps for seven curse words along with more details and explanations at the link.

A 40mph Segway Knock-off!?

I am really, really tempted to get one of these.

 

If it is available at a sizable price reduction for Amazon Prime Day, I'll be tempted even more.

 

I loved using a real Segway 5 years ago, and those rental units were limited to only about 12 mph.

 

 

 

But the more I think about it, 40mph sounds a little dicey on one of these.

 

Furthermore, the subject line on Amazon says 35-40kmh, not mph :-(

 

That makes more sense.

 

 

 

Maybe I should settle for the less expensive and slower model. It will do 20mph (or is it 15-20kmh? It is difficult to determine based on what the Amazon listing asserts).

 

Afternoon Tea at the Sparta House Tea Room

Yesterday we went to the Sparta House Tea Room for afternoon tea.

Sparta is a truly quaint little village about 45 minutes south of London, Ontario. It is filled with historic buildings and historic markers describing all of the locations. The history alone makes the village worth a visit. Visiting the Sparta House Tea Room will add to the pleasure.

Disclosure: The Sparta House Tea Room is owned and operated by Ken Roberts, an energetic and ingenious friend I met and worked with while rehearsing for the April-May production of Neville's Island at the Princess Avenue Theatre in St. Thomas. Ken devised many of the gadgets and gizmos that we used on stage during that production. He also played an important role in designing and building the amazing set for our production of that play.

The Tea Room is a restored building that was once an inn, nearly two centuries ago. Despite the high-ish temperatures outside, the tea room was cool and pleasant inside.

There must be several hundred teapots on display around the spacious tea room. They are grouped by themes and (this must take a lot of work!) all seemed to be dust-free. We felt very at ease and very comfortable there.

We started with a glass of wine each. House red for Ms. Eclectic, house white for me. They were fine -- served in small-ish glasses and filled to the top, which I know would offend some wine snobs, but it was just fine with us [and $6/glass is like a gift, compared with most city prices].

When the server brought our wine, we let her know what tea we wanted and, after she asked, let her know that we would be happy to have our food brought at the same time. As usual, I was too hungry; it might have been a good idea to have the food brought later in separate presentations. However, having it all presented together at once certainly was spectacular and definitely added to our enjoyment.

For someone with my experience and eclectic tastes, the tea list is disappointingly short. I pretty much had a choice between Earl Grey and English Blend. There were others, too, though -- maybe as many as ten or twelve. Ms. Eclectic had lemon tea.

One amazing thing about Sparta House is the huge amount of food they provide, especially given the comparatively low price [only $18.95/person; contrast that with maybe $80 - $100 per person in Mayfair]. Here is a photo of the spread they brought us (Unfortunately, I forgot to take the photo until after we had already eaten six of the mini quiches).

That is one heckuva spread! The sandwich platter on the right contained

• 7 mini quiches: egg, cheese, and spinach. All very good.
• 14 sandwich quarters: salmon on brown, egg salad on poppy-seed brown, and ham & cheese with mayo, some on white and a couple on brown. They were all good, fairly standard for Southwestern Ontario, fresh, and tasty. I thought the mayo on the ham & cheese was a tad heavy, but that's just me.
• I don't know how many pinwheels cut from roll-ups. There were tonnes of them under those cucumber slices. Some were turkey, I think, and lots had cream cheese in them, along with tomato bits or green onions. I really liked them.
• a good-sized sausage roll in pastry, cut into 6 convenient bite-sized pieces.

We completely decimated the sandwich platter. Then we moved on to the two-tiered dessert and scone presentation. It included

• Two raisin scones, halved, buttered and topped with whipped cream and strawberries. More about these later. 
• Two glorious chocolate fudge-like wedges. These were my favourites of all the desserts.
• Four petite-fours, two chocolate and two white. They were ok, but didn't tickle my fancy. Ms. Eclectic gave 'em a miss.
• Two caramelly coconut wedges. Ms. Eclectic loved them, so I let her have both (I'm not keen on coconut in most baked goods).
• Four mini cream puffs -- delicious.
• Four slices from a custard-filled eclair -- also delicious.
• Four buttered slices of banana nut bread. I had two or three of these, trying to figure out what the flavour was. The server checked for me and assured me they were banana nut bread, but I tasted zero banana flavour. They seemed like a very nice nut bread with some slight unusual additional flavour.
• Four raspberry tarts. We shared one, but were probably too full to enjoy it, and so we left the rest.
• Two frosted cupcakes. We were too full to try them.
• Four small-ish pieces of yellow cake with vanilla and lemon topping. I had one. It was ok, but not spectacular.
• Copious pieces of fruit: strawberry halves, grapes, orange slice quarters.

We were joyously and happily stuffed when we quit (without finishing all the desserts!). We were very happy with our time at the Sparta House Tea Room.

Both Ms. Eclectic and I thought the overall experience was better than afternoon tea at either The Boathouse in Guelph or Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina (see below for my rankings and links to other reviews).

The sandwiches were not super fancy -- not like those in the top-rated places (see below), but they appropriately had the crusts removed and were quite tasty.

The desserts were, for the most part, excellent.

One nice effect is that since they brought out so much food at the beginning, we had no reason to be disappointed that they didn't offer additional sandwiches or scones (extra sandwiches and scones are typically offered in Mayfair and at the St. Regis). We could see from the outset that there was more than enough food for the two of us.

And, bless them, although they do call this "high tea", they also make clear on their website that it is also called a proper afternoon tea. For the distinction, see this.

A side plus: we managed to nose two more deer signs on this expedition.

Here are some suggestions for what I'd like to see to make it closer to a proper afternoon tea:

• Broaden the tea selection. I know it probably doesn't matter in Southwestern Ontario, but offering a broader selection would be nice. And, of course, I would love to see lapsang souchong on the menu.
• Refine the tea presentation. The tea is provided in teabags. For the price I can understand the use of teabags, but loose tea with tea balls or infusers would be nice.
• Pay more attention to the fine points for tea. The tea cozies on the teapots are very nice, but don't leave the teabags in the pots --- bring them on the side, and do offer refills of hot water.
• Scones: I realize this is likely not possible at any reasonable price in a village in Southwestern Ontario , but I really like clotted cream for the scones, not whipped cream. Also, it would be nice if the scones were served separately, fresh, and warm. And some jam (fresh, in small ramekins, please, if you can do this!) would be a welcomed addition.

Clearly these suggestions would likely add to the costs, and I'm not sure most potential customers would be willing to pay more to cover these additional costs.

Most important, though, we stuffed ourselves and had a wonderful time. For my friends in Southwestern Ontario: it is worth the drive to Sparta for afternoon tea at the Sparta House Tea Room. Call ahead to make a reservation if you want to go there for afternoon tea, but they also offer a number of other traditional British menu selections.

The Sparta House Tea Room is a fairly popular place. While we were there, at least 20 other people arrived. The others customers seemed to want either cream tea or other food from the menu. But the afternoon tea was what we went there for, and we didn't regret it.

Afternoon tea for two, wine, taxes, tip: $66 Cdn.

- - - - - - - -

My previous reviews, ranked in order of preference:

      These three were superb. Highly recommended:

• The Four Seasons, London, England
• The St. Regis Hotel, Houston, Texas
• The Lanesborough, London, England
  

Those in this large middle group ranged from very good to just okay. I would consider returning to them, but those in the upper portion of the list were significantly better than those in the lower portion of this section:

• Claridge's, London, England
• The Dorchester, London, England
• The Ritz, London, England
• Brown's, London, England

           ----------

• Scolfe's Tea Room, Boreham Street, England (superb, but not really afternoon tea)
• The Pump Room, Bath, England (also superb, but not really afternoon tea)
•  The Windsor Arms, Toronto, Canada
• The Fairmont Pacific Rim, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Spartahouse Tea Room (this review)
• The Saskatchewan Hotel, Regina, Saskatchewan
• The Boathouse, Guelph, Canada
• The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, England 
• Langdon Hall, Cambridge, Canada

These next two were unacceptable:

• The Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, England
• The Queen's Hotel, Portsmouth, England

  * * * * 

The chronology of when I visited each place probably affected my ratings, so here's a chronological list:

1. The Four Seasons, London, England
2. The Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, England
3. The Pump Room, Bath, England (superb, but not really afternoon tea)
4. Claridge's, London, England
5. The Boathouse, Guelph, Canada
6. The St. Regis Hotel, Houston, Texas
7. The Queen's Hotel, Portsmouth, England
8. The Dorchester, London, England
9. Brown's, London, England
10. Langdon Hall, Cambridge, Canada
11. The Windsor Arms, Toronto, Canada
12. The Ritz, London, England
13. Scolfe's Tea Room, Boreham Street, England (again, not really afternoon tea)
14. The Lanesborough, London, England
15. The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, England
16. The Saskatchewan Hotel, Regina, Saskatchewan
17. The Fairmont Pacific Rim, Vancouver, British Columbia
18. Sparta House Tea Room, Sparta, Ontario

High-fly Wi-Fi

I have never used wifi on an airplane. I can imagine that I might want to use it sometime in the future, but it is expensive and not all that easy to use. This paragraph probably captures the reality very nicely:

In-flight WiFi is basically the worst. To get online at all, you usually have to run the gauntlet of a complicated transaction page, typing in your credit card number or performing some kind of log-in. Then you have to fork over three or four coffees' worth of money just so that you can get speeds that rival your parents' dial-up Internet.

I Figure the Odds are Good that I Would Like One of Theseself-balancing unicycle with a seat and hand grip

Available from Amazon.com.

Neville's Island Resumes This Evening

Neville's Island by Tim Firth (who also wrote Calendar Girls) continues tonight at The Princess Avenue Theatre in St. Thomas. Tonight's show is pretty much sold out, but there are still tickets available for Friday and Saturday (8pm) and Sunday (2pm). After these shows, it's done, so don't put it off.

It's a comedy with tonnes of darkness and sarcasm, filled with intensity. It will likely be worth the drive to St. Thomas to see it.

You can get tickets for Neville's Island via Bellsbookbin 519 878 4452 or by Paypal on Elgin Theatre Guild's website.

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Neville's Island, Gala Opening Tonight

After we had a wonderful preview show to a packed house last night, the official gala opening of Neville's Island is tonight at the Princess Theatre, St. Thomas, Ontario.

Neville's Island is set on Rampsholme Island in the Lakes District in the northwest of England, not far from the Yorkshire Dales. Here is a photo of Rampsholme Island.

The play continues with performances

• 8pm tonight and tomorrow night
• 2pm Sunday
• 8pm next Friday and Saturday (the Thursday performance is sold out)
• 2pm Mothers' Day

 

Saskatchewan

When Ms Eclectic and I traveled to Saskatchewan a number of years ago, I was absolutely blown away by the beauty and the lovely openness of the province. Most of the areas we drove through had rolling hills, gorgeous valleys, and big sky awesomeness.

One weekend while I was teaching out there, I rented a car and drove to the SW region of the province and hiked in the coulees. Photos are here and here. The hikes there reminded me of the openness I had come to love in the foothills near Plateau Mountain in Alberta, in the Three Peaks district of the Yorkshire Dales, and along the Seven Sisters and South Downs in SE England.

The other day Ms Eclectic's cousin sent us this video about Saskatchewan. I'm not a fan of C&W music, and the video doesn't really emphasize the rolling hills and coulees the way I would, but I love the video anyway.

A Geography Lesson?

I just bought some Atlantic salmon, a product of Chile:

I thought, "Huh?" Chile is on the Pacific Ocean side of South America. But then I checked, and indeed down near Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, Chile does appear to reach over to the Atlantic Ocean.

But that is likely irrelevant when it comes to Atlantic salmon.  These salmon filets are almost surely from salmon farms in Chile. From Wikipaedia,

Aquaculture is a major economical activity in Chile. Among the diverse aquacultures practised in Chile Atlantic salmon aquaculture is the overwhelmingly largest sector. Until 2007 Chile experienced over 15 years a huge growth in its salmon aquaculture becoming the second largest salmon and trout producer after Norway.^[1][2] By 2006 Chile contributed with 38% of the worlds salmon volume just behind Norway that produced 39% of it.^[1] In 2006 salmon from Chilean aquacultures was the third largest export product in terms value, representing 3,9 of Chilean exports...

The Coase Theorem and Airline Seats a clear exposition and example

The "problem" of people reclining their seats on airplanes has given rise to this wonderful piece by Virginia Postrel.

In it, she explains the Coase Theorem, the importance of the assumptions underlying the theorem, and how to deal with situations when the assumptions are not satisfied (which is what makes both the Coase Theorem and her article so good).

A lengthy excerpt:

Airline seats offer a perfect illustration of Ronald Coase’s famous analysis in his 1960 article, “The Problem of Social Cost.” Coase’s crucial insight was that the way we tend to think about unwanted spillovers misses half the story. “The question is commonly thought of as one in which A inflicts harm on B and what has to be decided is: how should we restrain A? But this is wrong,” he wrote. “We are dealing with a problem of a reciprocal nature. To avoid the harm to B would inflict harm on A. The real question that has to be decided is: should A be allowed to harm B or should B be allowed to harm A?”

The traditional sort of thinking leads people on both sides of the airline-seat debate to get self-righteous, arguing that legroom and the ability to work is more important than comfortably reclining, or vice versa. Each camp finds the other rude. Each camp wants to improve its situation by inflicting harm on the other. It’s a “problem of a reciprocal nature.”

Essentially, the recliner says, "there wouldn't be a problem if you weren't behind me or if you didn't care about my reclining." And the tray user says, "there wouldn't be a problem if you didn't recline."

Postrel continues,

But, as Josh Barro has observed, the airlines have clearly defined the property rights. Passenger A (the recliner) has the right to harm Passenger B (the unfortunate soul behind him). Citing a common simplification of Coase’s work, Barro claimed that “it doesn’t matter very much who is initially given a property right; so long as you clearly define it and transaction costs are low, people will trade the right so that it ends up in the hands of whoever values it most.” So, he argued, “If my reclining bothers you, you can pay me to stop.”

This solution, however, is highly unrealistic. It waves away the central theme running throughout Coase’s work: the problem of transaction costs. Making and enforcing contracts, Coase emphasized, isn’t free. And when it comes to airline seats, it’s a lot more costly than Barro admits.

In theory, I could have offered the guy in front of me money to sit up, but even assuming that my fractured Italian had been up to conducting the negotiations and that he wouldn’t have gotten nasty in response to my overtures, how would I have enforced the deal? It’s not a simple problem, and certainly not a cost-free one. Suggesting that as long as property rights are well-defined, you can simply make a deal misunderstands what Coase was all about. He was obsessed with transaction costs. They explain why we have institutions (including firms), not just individual bargains.

Let's face it: many, if not most, of us would find it extremely uncomfortable/bothersome/annoying/unpleasant to be bargaining with a stranger about the exchange of the right to lower or not to lower a seat on the plane. These psychological costs mean that otherwise value-maximizing transactions rarely occur. I cannot imagine offering $20 to the person in front of me if they won't recline. Nor can I imagine offering notto recline if they compensate me by $20. [or fifty dollars or whatever deal we might strike]. Negotiation and transaction costs are important, and hence the initial assignment of property rights (or legal entitlements in general) is also important.

Postrel notes that the airlines have the property rights and assigns them with the sale of tickets. She offers one solution that airlines might try, but commentors have offered others as well. Likely there is some scheme that could lead to more value for passengers (and hence for the airlines).

It is as if she read Coase, Demsetz, and Calabresi and folded them all into one nice exposition.

My own version of the Coase Theorem:

• If property rights (or more generally legal entitlements) are clearly defined and easily enforced, and
• If transaction and negotiation costs are low,
• Then resources will move to their most highly valued use regardless of the initial assignment of the legal entitlements.

The theorem itself is trivial and not much different from Adam Smith's "invisible hand". It becomes rich, however, in the consideration of its assumptions. And that is where Postrel's piece shines. It doesn't just look at Coase; it looks at the assumptions.

 

The Fun-Loving Folks at WestJet

I will likely have some extra luggage when going to Regina next week to give my seminar on "An Options Market for Human Organs", so I went to the WestJet website to see what the charges might be.

Here is a portion of the explanation of the fees at their site:

If you are paying a fee at the airport, we will accept Canadian dollars or the equivalent amount of the local currency. Much as we'd like to, we can't accept payment in the form of songs, yardwork or feats of strength. [emphasis added]

Some interesting, digressive notes:

• My extra luggage will be full of things for my granddaughter who is moving to Regina the day before I go.
• The Roughrider Pepband regularly plays at the WestJet Hangar in Regina for the WestJet employees. In exchange, WestJet provides food for the band and waives extra charges for transporting instruments when the band flies to perform at Grey Cup games.... so dya think that maybe if I offer to play "Green/White Fight" on my green trumpet at the ticket counter, they'll waive the fees for me??

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Yossarian: "They Have the Right to Do Whatever They Cannot Be Prevented from Doing"

One of my very favourite lines from Catch-22 is Yossarian's statement (paraphrased),

They have the right to do whatever they cannot be prevented from doing.

I was reminded of that line by this story from the CBC [via Ms Eclectic] which outlines how law-enforcement officials in the US take cash from people's cars.

Across America, law enforcement officers — from federal agents to state troopers right down to sheriffs in one-street backwaters — are operating a vast, co-ordinated scheme to grab as much of the public’s cash as they can; “hand over fist,” to use the words of one police trainer.

Roadside seizure

It usually starts on the road somewhere. An officer pulls you over for some minor infraction — changing lanes without proper signalling, following the car ahead too closely, straddling lanes. The offence is irrelevant.

Then the police officer wants to chat, asking questions about where you’re going, or where you came from, and why. He’ll peer into your car, then perhaps ask permission to search it, citing the need for vigilance against terrorist weaponry or drugs.

What he’s really looking for, though, is money.

And if you were foolish (or intimidated) enough to have consented to the search, and you’re carrying any significant amount of cash, you are now likely to lose it.

One bit of advice in the article is not to carry much cash with you, which makes sense to me.

- * - * -

Digression: about ten years ago when I was taking a minibus from London, Ontario, to the Detroit airport, a US immigration official asked "How much money are you bringing with you?"

I replied "Fourteen dollars."

He reacted with faked shock that I thought I could get by on so little cash, insinuating I might become a homeless vagrant.

I somewhat sarcastically replied that I was going to the airport, but I knew they had ATMs all over the US, and I had no wish to carry much cash with me, especially through Detroit.

I have no idea why they didn't pull me aside for being sarcastic. Whew.

Update: Raffi drew this article to my attention:

A Nebraska judge ordered cops to return $1 million to a California stripper after the cash was confiscated during a traffic stop.

Update #2: The actual quote from Catch-22 is from Chapter 39:

“Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing.”

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If You Build It, They Will Come

Regulation and Competition: The Taxi Industry

For decades, I have advocated for reduced entry regulations* in the taxi/limousine industry. Over the past year or so, though, it has begun to look as if competition and innovation using smart-phone apps would do what local regulators refused to do.

But of course the industry incumbents have fought back, challenging Uber, Lyft, et al. (private car services) both legally and politically. From the Washington Post (via Sean),

"The taxi industry has donated $3,500 to state legislators for every dollar that Uber, Lyft and their smaller competitor Sidecar have given . . . This massive discrepancy in political giving may also explain why, since the start of 2014, at least 12 states and the District of Columbia have introduced new regulations aimed to limit these popular ride-sharing applications."

Sean writes:

It's much cheaper and easier to compete for anti-competitive regulations through lobbying than for customers through efficiency and innovation.

Interestingly, 35 years ago Washington DC was considered a low regulation taxi market with few entry restrictions and with zone pricing.

*Please note I'm referring to entry regulations here. See this: Regulation by Municipal Licensing (co-authored with J. Bossons and S. Makuch). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984.

I have less objection to ways of assuring vehicle and driver quality, possibly via huge liability insurance policies advertised by the umbrella firms, which would then have an incentive to vet the drivers and cars.

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Regulation and Competition: The Taxi Industry

What Was the Taxi Strike Supposed to Accomplish?

Taxi drivers across the world went on strike last week to protest the growth of Uber, a car-ride-share service based on smartphone apps. The result? Customers, already frustrated with problems in the taxi industry became even more upset with the licensed taxis, and many of them switched to Uber. It strikes me as unusual, to say the least, that  a business providing customer service would shut itself down to protest the inroads into their business by upstart innovators.

It was as if they were saying,

We're angry about the increased competition, so we are going to force you to try using the services of our competitors just to see how much they can improve the product we have been providing under the protection of entry regulation and licensing.

Alberto Mingardi has more at EconLog:

Uber has been a game changer...

[A]t the end of the day, the story is rather simple and similar everywhere. The number of taxiS allowed to operate has been limited over time. Black cars were forbidden to pick up passengers on the street. Now technology makes that available, but also allows for simple citizens to attempt to provide a similar service, if they want to (UberPop). In the world of GoogleMaps and GPS, you don't need to paint your car white (as in Milan) or black (as in London) to signal that you'd be happy to transport people if they're to be charged. ...

Is Uber the taxi of the future?

We don't know, but certainly the company is pretty smart in managing the protest. Instead of building bridges with taxi drivers, Uber used the strike as a marketing device, offering big discounts to clients and attracting new ones. So theWashington Post reports that "Uber's British ridership went up 850 percent yesterday thanks to black cab protests that left Londoners snarled in traffic".

Look for increased sabotage, violence, and many more legal challenges.

Addendum: Interestingly, there is no mention of Uber in the Wikipaedia entry for "Taxicabs of the United Kingdom"; at least there was no mention as of last weekend.

 

How Long Does It Take to Get There By Dragon?

Google often has fun with its various maps. I recall some directions that suggested swimming to Japan or jetskiing to China. But check this out [via MA]:

Travelling from the Brecon Beacons to Snowdon in Wales would take 21 minutes by dragon. 

 

Riding Nessie between Fort Augustus and Urquhart Castle, which sit on Loch Ness in Inverness, Scotland, would take 28 minutes - four minutes faster than taking the bus.

 

Punting between Magdalene College and Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge takes 45 minutes, versus 18 minutes on the UNI4 bus.

While Magdalen College to Wolfson College on a punt in Oxford, weaving around the River Cherwell, takes 1 hour 32 minutes.

 

And it takes 1 hour 16 minutes to travel along the M4 between Windsor Castle, and Buckingham Palace.

Dragon travel is shown on this map:

 

 

Private Sector Green Initiative

With fossil fuel prices continuing to rise and be uncertain, heavy users of fossil fuels have a strong incentive to look for alternatives or to look for energy-efficient ways to reduce their uses of fossil fuels. Here is one interesting example [via JR]:

Container Ships to Use Kites to Save Fuel

Minnesota based Cargill has just signed an agreement with Skysails that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping business by using a giant kite. That’s right…a kite. Skysails, based in Hamburg, has developed a patented  system which uses a  kite to propel large shipping vessels across the sea. The wind-harnessing propulsion system, In theory, could end up reducing fuel consumption by an impressive 35%.

Here’s how it works: A monstrous 3,444 square foot kite is attached, via rope, to a control pod that electronically manipulates the kite to maximize potential wind benefits. The kite itself flies anywhere from 300 to 1300 feet in the air, whipping around in a figure 8 formation. Since the system is controlled electronically, it requires little attention from the crew. The computer system makes all the necessary adjustments to maximize available wind and relates telemetry back to a monitor located on the ship’s bridge.

What intrigues me about this example is that these container ships will not be using solar panels or windmillls to generate electricity. They are using the wind power directly. Furthermore, they will be instituting the plan in response to market forces, not gubmnt subsidies.

Another Reason to Use Noise-Cancelling Headphones When You Travel

I find that when I'm on a plane or train, my noice-cancelling headphones are a wonder. Even if I don't listen to any music or podcasts, the noise canceling dramatically reduces my discomfort and maybe even reduces stress levels.

Here is another reason to wear them [via MA]. They will likely make the food taste better.

[S]eparate research revealed the sort of noise we are subjected to inside aircraft cabin affects taste buds, reducing our sense of saltiness and sweetness - and increasing crunchiness.
To test the theory, 48 diners were blindfolded and fed sweet foods such as biscuits or salty ones such as crisps, while listening to silence or noise through headphones at Unilever's laboratories and the University of Manchester.
Each volunteer rated the foods for flavour and said how much they liked them.
Background noise led to the foods being rated less salty or sweet. They were also perceived as more crunchy.

I'm not at all sure I believe this. And I'll grant that carrying over-the-ear noise-cancelling headphones is just another thing to worry about on an airplane. But often the bother is worth the effort.