Wednesday

Who said you couldn't go home again?

Bobby Petrino, the former Arkansas football coach, last heard explaining (poorly) the presence of a pretty, young blond on the back of his motorcycle when he crashed it last Spring, has not-that-surprisingly landed another head coaching job.  The Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky.  In the world of big-time college athletics, winning means money to the universities.  So while Petrino brings baggage, his record on the gridiron keeps him relevant.  I'm saying that he will win at WKU.  The Over/Under on his tenure there?  Three...and take the Under.

My substitute RCL was in again yesterday.  She continues to star.

I've had a couple of items occur within the last month that illustrate the encroachment of service fees on to functions that seem to me to employ a counter-intuitive logic.  First, I had a UPS package (letter actually) that needed to go out on a Saturday a few weeks ago.  (We use UPS rather than FedEx or DHL, but the concept is the same.)  As is the case with most of these service companies, they don't have a regular Saturday pick-up at their drop-off boxes.  And while they use to allow for drop-offs at the office of their transportation hub, they now only accept Saturday drop-offs at their retail locations known as The UPS Store.  (I found this out the hard way, but that's another story.)

Anyway, I did drop off my letter that Saturday morning at The UPS Store, and pulled my copy of the manifest sheet just like always.  When the bill actually came a couple weeks later, I was surprised to see a $15 Saturday pick-up charge for the letter.  So what is normally a net $9.75 after our CPA discount, became over $25 after the Saturday charge and a store fee of some sort.  I do the work of getting it directly to them, and they charge me for the privilege?  What a deal.

The second example came from the bank.  One of my clients pays our annual fee from an insurance holding account.  And the insurance company requested that the payment be made electronically through a wire transfer.  OK.  Sounds easy and efficient.  So it was handled that way.  When we received our November bank statement, there was a $15 fee without an adequate description.  We inquired, the banker investigated, and she came back with the explanation that it was for the receipt of the wire transfer.

Historically, I've always been aware of a fee to send a wire transfer.  It never occurred to me that there would be a fee to receive a wire transfer.  I mean, what work is done to make an electronic deposit?  Will they start charging user's a fee to receive direct deposits?  Electronic deposits of tax refunds?  Welcome to the New World. 

I see in the news this AM that musician Ravi Shankar has passed away.  This obituary is probably relevant only to his family...and crossword puzzlers.  The unique combination of letters in his first name, and his association with an unusual instrument (also with convenient letters), gave puzzle authors some flexibility.  Clue: Musician Shankar; Solution: Ravi.  Clue: Shankar instrument; Solution: sitar.

Busy day.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT