Author Archives: The Old Wolf

Berlusconi, more hated than Bush II… and that’s a tough challenge.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Edit: This did not age well. Donald Trump is orders of magnitude worse than Berlusconi ever was.

Berlusconi is at it again. Americans pay very little attention to the politics of other countries [1], but this guy is a train wreck of the first water. “Douchebag” is an insult to all the douchebags in the world. It makes me realize it’s time to dust off this old bit of genius, and I’m only sorry I can’t give the proper attribution to the author.

Ode to Berlusconi

L’onorevole Berlusconi si puo’ definire un por-
tento di abilita’, oltre che un uomo politi-
co di prim’ordine. Meriterebbe di essere de-
cantato con rime sacre come ad altri è gia’
capitato. Meriterebbe un monumento di ster-
minata mole marmorea che fungesse da e-
co indistruttibile nei secoli, in modo che il fe-
lice e caro nome di questo grande comunica-
tore potesse tramandarsi in eterno. Stron-
catore di malgoverni e uomo tutto d’n pez-
zo come nessun altro, il cavaliere ci incu-
te rispetto e ammirazione. Di Berlsconi si par-
la in lungo e in largo e ci condurrà fino alla mi-
tica era di benessere con la sua onesta faccia e
seria. Tutti noi cittadini dell’europa unita scor-
giamo in lui l’uomo del destino e perciò lo sor-
reggeremo con tutte le nostre forze nel mu-
tevole clamore delle folle, alzando un applau-
so a Lui e al suo Governo!		 Prime Minister Berlusconi can be defined as a marvel of ability, and in addition, a first-class politician.  As has been done for others in the past, he deserves to be extolled with sacred rhymes. He is worthy of a marble monument of immense size which would serve as an indestructible echo through the centuries, so that the beloved name of this great communicator might be known throughout eternity. A man who crushes misgovernment, a man of impeccable character like no other, this knight arouses within us feelings of respect and admiration. Berlusconi is spoken of far and wide, and with his honest and serious face, he will lead us into that mythical era of prosperity.
All citizens of a united Europe see him as a man of destiny, and as a result we support him with all our energy amidst the ever-changing clamor of the crowds, raising plaudits to him and his government!

Now…
Read Every Other Line…
L’onorevole Berlusconi si puo’ definire un por-
co di prim’ordine. Meriterebbe di essere de-
capitato. Meriterebbe un monumento di ster-
co indistruttibile nei secoli, in modo che il fe-
tore potesse tramandarsi in eterno. Stron-
zo come nessun altro, il cavaliere ci incu-
la in lungo e in largo e ci condurrà fino alla mi-
seria. Tutti noi cittadini dell’europa unita scor-
reggeremo con tutte le nostre forze nel mu-
so a Lui e al suo Governo!		 Prime Minister Berlusconi is a first-class pig. He deserves to be beheaded. He is worthy of a monument of dung, indestructible throughout the centuries, so his stench might be passed down through eternity. A turd like no other, he buggers us far and wide and will lead us into misery. With all our energy, we citizens of a united Europe will fart in the face of Berlusconi and his government.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] Why should I care? I care because half my family is from Italy, and a big percentage of my relatives still live there. They deserve better than this festering heap of camel ejecta.

International monetary units

Posted on by The Old Wolf

                                         Dollars and Cents around the World

Pursuant to my previous post about hyperinflation and thinking of Greek lepta, I remembered that I had this list of units and fractions tucked away, and decided to share it for no good reason. Many of these currencies are historically obsolete, having been revalued multiple times or abandoned, but it’s interesting to see what was used.

Afghanistan                                        1 afghani = 100 pul

Albania                                                1 lek = 100 qindar (plural=qindarka)

qindarka

Algeria                                                1 dinar = 100 centimes (santimat)

Andorra                                               1 diner = 100 centims

Angola                                                1 kwanza = 100 lwei

Argentina                                            1 peso = 100 centavos [still valid?]

Armenia                                              1 dram = 100 lum

Aruba                                                  1 florin = 100 cents

Australia                                              1 dollar = 100 cents

Austria                                                1 Schilling = 100 Groschen

austria

In Villach in 1975 there was a dry-goods store that had a once-a-year “1-groschen sale” – for a 1-groschen coin, you could get a yard of cloth. By this time, the 1-groschen coin was rare enough that the store came out ahead.

Azerbaijan                                           1 manat = 100 qapik

Bahamas                                              1 dollar = 100 cents

Bahrain                                                1 dinar = 1000 fils

Bangladesh                                         1 taka = 100 poisha

Barbados                                             1 dollar = 100 cents

Belarus                                                1 rubel = 100 kapeek

Belgium                                               1 franc = 100 centimes

Belize                                                  1 dollar = 100 cents

Benin                                                   CFA franc

Bermuda                                             1 dollar = 100 cents

Bhutan                                                1 ngultrum = 100 chhertum

Bolivia                                                 1 boliviano = 100 centavos

Botswana                                            1 thebe = 100 pula

Bosnia-Herzegovina                            Dinar/Deutsche Mark [?]

Brazil                                                   1 real = 100 centavos [still valid?]

British Virgin Islands                          1 dollar = 100 cents

Brunei                                                 1 dollar = 100 sen

Bulgaria                                               1 lev (plural leva) = 100 stotinki (singular: stotinka)

stotinka

Burundi                                               CFA franc

Cambodia                                            1 riel = 100 sen [still valid?]

Cameroon                                            CFA franc

Canada                                                1 dollar = 100 cents

Cape Verde                                         1 escudo = 100 centavos

Cayman Islands                                  1 dollar = 100 cents

Central African Republic                    CFA franc

Chad                                                   CFA franc

Chile                                                    1 peso = 100 centavos

China (PRC)                                       1 yuan = 10 jiao = 100 fen

China (Taiwan)                                   1 New Taiwan Dollar (yuan) = 10 chiao = 100 cents (fen)

Colombia                                             1 peso = 100 centavos

Comoros                                              Franc

Congo                                                 CFA franc

Cook Islands                                       1 dollar = 100 cents (tene)

Costa Rica                                           1 colon = 100 centimos

Croatia                                                1 kuna = 100 lipa

2003 Croatian 20 Lipa coin

Cuba                                                    1 peso = 100 centavos

Cyprus                                                 1 pound = 100 cents

Czech Republic                                   1 korun = 100 haleru

Denmark                                             1 krone (plural: kroner) = 100 ore

Djibouti                                               Franc

Dominican Republic                           1 peso = 100 centavos

East Caribbean States                         1 dollar = 100 cents

Ecuador                                               1 sucre = 100 centavos

Egypt                                                  1 pound (ginayh) = 100 piastres (qirsh) = 1000 milliemes (millimat)

Egypt Half millieme

1/2 Millieme, Egypt, 1938

El Salvador                                         1 colon = 100 centavos

Equatorial Guinea                               CFA franc (franco)

Eritrea                                                 Dollar

Estonia                                                1 kroon = 100 senti

Ethiopia                                               1 birr = 100 santeems [still valid?]

Falkland Islands                                  1 pound = 100 pence

Fiji                                                       1 dollar = 100 cents

Finland                                                1 markka = 100 pennia

France                                                 1 franc = 100 centimes

centimes.jp

In France, there were about 5 Francs to a dollar for the longest time. This 20-centime piece would have been worth about a nickel.

French Polynesia                                 CFP franc

Gabon                                                 CFA franc

Gambia                                                1 dalasi = 100 bututs

Georgia                                               Lari

Germany                                             1 Mark = 100 Pfennig

Ghana                                                  1 cedi = 100 pesewas

Gibraltar                                              1 pound = 100 pence

Great Britain                                       1 pound = 100 pence

Not to mention quids, bobs, mags, tanners, joeys, threepenny bits, florins, half-crowns, and all the rest of that nightmarish system. That’ll be two and six ha’penny, thanks.

Greece                                                 1 drachma = 100 lepta (singular: lepton)

Guatemala                                           1 quetzal = 100 centavos

Guernsey                                             1 pound = 100 pence

Guinea                                                 franc guineen

Guinea-Bissau                                     1 peso = 100 centavos

Guyana                                                1 dollar = 100 cents

Haiti                                                    1 gourde = 100 centimes

Honduras                                            1 lempira = 100 centavos

Hong Kong                                         1 dollar = 100 cents

Hungary                                              1 forint = 100 filler

Iceland                                                1 krona (pl. kronur) = 100 aurar (singular: eyrir)

India                                                    1 rupee = 100 paisa

pie

1 rupee had 16 annas, an anna had 4 pice, and 1 paise had 3 pies. This little coin was therefore worth 1 pie, or 1/192 of a rupee.

Indonesia                                            Rupiah

Iran                                                      Rial

Iraq                                                      1 dinar = 1000 fils

Ireland                                                 1 punt = 100 pence

Isle of Man                                          1 pound = 100 pence

Israel                                                   1 sheqel (plural: sheqalim) = 100 agorot (singular: agora)

Italy                                                     Lira

5lira

The 5-lira coin was still in use in Naples in 1970. It was becoming more scarce, and the 10-lira coin was most commonly seen, but they were still around. In those days, a “normale” (standard shot of espresso) cost 50 lire or about 8 cents, so collect 10 of these and you could get a cup of coffee.

Jamaica                                                1 dollar = 100 cents

Japan                                                    1 Yen = 100 Sen = 1000 Rin

sen

Japan 1-sen coin, 1944

Japanese 1-Rin coin

The rin was discontinued after 1892, and the sen was demonetized in 1953.

Jersey                                                  1 pound = 100 pence

Jordan                                                 1 dinar = 10 dirhams = 1000 fils

Kazakhstan                                         1 som = 100 tyin

Kenya                                                  1 shilling = 100 cents

Kiribati                                                1 dollar = 100 cents

Korea (ROK & DPRK)                      Won

Kuwait                                                1 dinar = 1000 fils

Kyrgyzstan

Laos                                                    1 kip = 100 att

Latvia                                                  1 lats = 100 santimu (singular: santims)

Lebanon                                              1 livre (lirah) = 100 piastres (qurush)

Lesotho                                               1 loti (plural: maloti) = 100 lisente (singular: sente)

Liberia                                                 1 dollar = 100 cents

Libya                                                   1 dinar = 1000 dirhams

Liechtenstein                                       1 franc = 100 rappen

Lithuania                                             1 litas = 100 centu (singular: centas)

Luxembourg                                        1 franc = 100 centimes

Macao                                                 1 pataca = 100 avos

Macedonia (FYROM)                        1 dinar = 100 deni

Madagascar                                         Ariary [still valid?]

Malawi                                                1 kwacha = 100 tambala

Malaysia                                              1 ringgit (dollar) = 100 sen

Maldive Islands                                  1 rufiyaa = 100 laari

Mali                                                     Franc

Malta, Republic of                              1 pound = 100 cents = 1000 mils

Malta, Order of                                   1 scudo = 12 tari = 240 grani

Mauritania                                           1 ouguiya = 5 khoum

Mauritius                                             1 rupee = 100 cents

Mexico                                                1 peso = 100 centavos

Moldova                                              1 leu (plural lei) = 100 bani

Moldova-Trans-Dniestria [ethnic Russian secession zone]     Rouble

Monaco                                               1 franc = 100 centimes

Mongolia                                             1 tugrik = 100 mongo

Morocco                                              1 dirham = 100 santimat

Mozambique                                       1 metical = 100 centavos

Myanmar                                             1 kyat = 100 pyas

Nepal                                                   1 rupee = 100 paisa

Netherlands                                         1 gulden = 100 cents

Netherlands Antilles                           1 gulden = 100 cents

New Caledonia                                   CFP franc

New Zealand                                      1 dollar = 100 cents

Nicaragua                                            1 cordoba = 100 centavos

Nigeria                                                1 naira = 100 kobo

Norway                                               1 krone (pl. kroner) = 100 ore

Oman                                                  1 rial = 1000 baiza

Pakistan                                               1 rupee = 100 paisa

Panama                                                1 balboa = 100 centesimos

Papua New Guinea                             1 kina = 100 toea

Paraguay                                             1 guarani = 100 centimos

Peru                                                     1 sol = 100 centavos [still valid?]

Philippines                                           1 piso = 100 sentimo

Poland                                                 1 zloty = 100 groszy

Portugal                                               1 escudo = 100 centavos

Qatar                                                   1 riyal = 100 dirhem

Romania                                              1 leu (plural lei) = 100 bani

Russia                                                  1 rouble = 100 kopeks

kopek

Russia – 5 kopeks, 1974

Rwanda                                               Franc

St. Helena & Ascension                      1 pound = 100 pence

St. Thomas & Prince                           1 dobra = 100 centimos

San Marino                                          Lira

Saudi Arabia                                       1 ghirsh = 5 halala (riyal?)

Senegal                                                Franc

Seychelles                                           1 rupee = 100 cents

Sierra Leone                                        1 leone = 100 cents

Singapore                                            1 dollar = 100 cents

Slovakia                                              1 korun (pl. koruny) = 100 haleru

Slovenia                                              1 tolar (pl. tolarjev) = 100 stotinov

Solomon Islands                                 1 dollar = 100 cents

Somalia                                               1 shilin = 100 senti

Somaliland                                          Somaliland shilling

South Africa                                       1 rand = 100 cents

Spain                                                   1 peseta = 100 centimos

Sri Lanka                                             1 rupee = 100 cents

Sudan                                                  1 pound (ginayh) = 1000 millim

Surinam                                               1 gulden = 100 cent

Swaziland                                           1 lilangeni (pl: emalangeni) = 100 cents

Sweden                                               1 krona (pl: kronor) = 100 ore

Switzerland                                         1 franc = 100 rappen or 100 centimes or 100 centesimi

Syria                                                    1 pound (lirah) = 100 piastres (qirsh)

Tajikistan                                             Manat [?]

Tanzania                                              1 shilingi = 100 senti

Thailand                                              1 baht = 100 satang

Tonga                                                  1 pa’anga = 100 seniti

Trinidad & Tobago                             1 dollar = 100 cents

Tunisia                                                 1 dinar = 1000 millim

Turkey                                                 1 lira = 100 kurus

Turkmenistan                                      1 manat = 100 tennesi

Tuvalu                                                 1 dollar = 100 cents

Uganda                                               1 shilling = 100 cents

Ukraine                                               Karbovanetz (coupons)

United Arab Emirates                         1 dinar = 100 fils

USA                                                    1 dollar = 100 cents

Uruguay                                              1 peso = 100 centesimos

Uzbekistan                                          1 sum = 100 tiyin

923061-0-20130226075602

With 1000 Uzbeki som being worth $0.60 (as of 2013), the 1-tiyin coin was reported to be the “most worthless coin in the world,” with a value of 1/1999¢. Given constant fluctuations in world currencies, and constant devaluations, this honor will probably not last.

Vanuatu                                              Vatu

Vatican City                                        Lira

Venezuela                                           1 bolivar = 100 centimos

Vietnam                                              Dong

West African States [currency union of former French colonies] CFA franc

Western Samoa                                   1 tala = 100 sene

Yemen       ?                                        [since reunification in 1990??]

Yugoslavia                                          Dinar/Deutsche Mark [since 1994]

Former Yugoslavia – 1 Dinar, 1963. The earlier dinar was equal to 100 para.

Zaire                                                    Zaire

Zambia                                                1 kwacha = 100 ngwee

Zimbabwe                                           1 dollar = 100 cents

The Old Wolf’s Two Penn’orth.

220px-1865_two_cent_reverse

Hyperinflation

Posted on by The Old Wolf

When I was little, my mother (who served as a Red Cross worker during World War II) used to tell me stories of people in Weimar Germany taking wheelbarrows full of money to the store to buy a loaf of bread. “Haha,” I thought, “that’s a good one,” being too young to really get the concept.

WeimerHyperinflation

German woman burning banknotes, which burned longer than the wood that they would buy.

Then I grew up and traveled to Serbia, where I discovered that hyperinflation is not relegated to the furnaces of history.

500 Billion Dinars

This is the 500 billion Dinar note that was printed at the end of Serbia’s period of hyperinflation (I also have a 50,000,000,000 Dinar note as well) and I thought these were quite unique. [1] Until I heard about what happened in Zimbabwe.

zimbabwe money

Off to buy a pack of gum

url

Even this didn’t help the situation; From Wikipedia, “The Zimbabwean dollar is no longer in active use after it was officially suspended by the government due to hyperinflation. The United States dollar ($), South African rand (R), Botswana pula (P), Pound sterling (£) and Euro (€) are now used instead. The United States dollar has been adopted as the official currency for all government transactions.”

But none of these monsters can touch what happened in Hungary in 1946:

p136_b

This is the 100 quintillion pengő note, the largest banknote ever issued for public circulation. That’s 100,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 1020 pengő, which is a lot of pengő no matter how you slice them.

One rather interesting side-effect of inflation in Greece (before they gave up the Drachma in favor of the Euro) was that 5, 10 and 20 lepta coins became so worthless that it was cheaper to use them as washers than to go to the store and buy them.

LeptaCoins

Prices keep going up here in the USA in the early years of the 21st century, but I’m grateful we’ve never experienced this sort of madness here. Well, almost never.

Just enough for 3 gallons of gas. [2]

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] This one is still unique to me, because I have one.
[2] The $100,000 dollar note was never circulated – it was used only for transactions between Federal Reserve banks.

Health Food… Not

Posted on by The Old Wolf

A few of my favorite food-related health cartoons.

Diabetes with large stroke

Bizarro © Dan Piraro

Food Supply

©Tribune Media Services

HotDogPoison

Bizarro © Dan Piraro

“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.”
– John Godfrey Saxe


Retail - Hot Dogs

Retail © Norm Feuti

TerroristFood

©Mike Peters

The Old Wolf has *burp* spoken

 

Congressional Approval Ratings

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Found over at Public Policy Polling, it appears that Congress is really not popular at all, especially when more people approve of cockroaches. The following chart, digested from the article, shows Congressional approval compared to some other things:

 Compared with Opponent Congress
North Korea 26 61
Meth Labs 21 60
Lobbyists 30 58
Communism 23 57
Fidel Castro 32 54
Gonorrhea 28 53
Ebola 25 53
Kardashians 36 49
Lindsey Lohan 41 45
Telemarketers 35 45
John Edwards 29 45
Playground Bullies 38 43
Cockroaches 45 43
Donald Trump 44 42
France 46 37
Genghis Khan 41 37
Traffic Jams 56 34
DC Pundits 37 34
Root Canals 56 32
Used Car Salesmen 57 32
Nickelback 39 32
Colonoscopies 58 31
Carnies 39 31
NFL Replacement Refs 56 29
Brussels Sprouts 69 23
Lice 67 19

Congress can take comfort in knowing that they are more popular than LiLo or North Korea, but that’s meagre comfort, given that they are less than 1/3 as popular as lice.

Think they’ll pay attention to this recent poll?

Nah.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Meanwhile, in Australia

Posted on by The Old Wolf

While Utah suffers under the effects of a temperature inversion, Australia is so bloody hot they ran out of colors for their heat map.

art-weather-620x349

Sorry, mates. One of my friends suggested opening a bunch of Aperture Science portals between places – I know a buddy in Sydney and a buddy in Fairbanks, Alaska who would really be down with some serious thermal exchange right about now.

Portal

(Yes, I know portals don’t float in midair like this. Buzz off.)

Short of that, finding one of Larry Niven’s transfer booths would be a good solution for a respite.

The Old Wolf has Spoken.

This is called “an inversion,” children

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Our local news station gives us the following forecast:

ksl

And AccuWeather adds insult to injury with this one:

Accuweather

Folks, it’s nowhere near 31° today. In Payson, the current temperature is 14°, because we’re sitting under one of these:

web-322875

Image: The Deseret News

We live in a valley, and when a layer of warm air floats over, it caps the valley like a saucer on a bowl, trapping cold air (and ever-growing pollution) beneath it.

temperature_inversion_full_size_portrait

Image: waow.com

This is not uncommon in our area – we put up with it just about every year – but when it lasts a long time, it really sucks. People with respiratory issues are advised to stay inside, and it just keeps being cold, cold, cold.

The only thing that helps is a a low-pressure system which effectively “lifts the lid” and a good storm will scoop out the air, but we don’t look to get one of those until Thursday, and it will probably be a weak one.

Yuck.

On the upside, people at the ski resorts are enjoying divine weather, and many Utahns escape to the slopes as a respite for the cold hqiz below – which is good for the economy.

The “plastinated” models of the Sansevero Chapel

Posted on by The Old Wolf

While living in Naples, Italy for 14 months or so back in 1970, I took the opportunity to visit the Sansevero chapel.  There on display are two intriguing anatomical models, which were represented at the time as being the earliest known examples of plastination, popularized by the Body Worlds exhibits.

From Wikipedia:

These “anatomical models” (macchine anatomiche) were thought to be examples of the process of “human metallization” (metallizzazione umana) as implemented by anatomist Giuseppe Salerno ca. 1760 from a commission by Raimondo di Sangro. The exhibit consists of a mature male and a pregnant woman. Their skeletons are encased in the hardened arteries and veins which are colored red and blue respectively. Previously, historians have surmised that the corpses could have been created by injecting the hardening substances directly into the veins of living subjects.[4] However, recent analysis shows no evidence of techniques involving injection. Analysis of the “blood vessels” indicate they are constructed of beeswax, iron wire, and silk.

Whatever the case, these models were amazingly detailed, and even the manufacture of them at the time would have been a master undertaking.

Naples - Sansevero Chapel - Raimondo de Sangro Female skeleton

The female model – Photo ©1970-2013 Old Wolf Enterprises

Naples - Sansevero Chapel - Raimondo de Sangro Male skeleton 2

The male model – Photo ©1970-2013 Old Wolf Enterprises

Naples - Sansevero Chapel - Raimondo de Sangro Male skeleton

Male model – Closeup – Photo ©1970-2013 Old Wolf Enterprises

macchina

Color photo of the female model from the official website of the Sansevero Chapel Museum.

If you’re ever in Naples, this museum is worth a visit – if only to see the Veiled Christ of Giuseppe Sanmartino, but if you do go, be sure to check out the anatomical machines – they’re brilliantly executed and would have taken forever to make.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

 

Life Insurance: Spam ‘n’ Scam

Posted on by The Old Wolf

The Internet is a perfect place to steal people’s money legally. All you have to do is write something, post it, and the equivalent population of Belgium will take it as gospel truth. There’s a lot responsible for this phenomenon, but lack of education appears to be the primary culprit.

GlobeScam.jpgq

This appeared in my mailbox last night, typical of the kind of UCE (junk mail) that Comcast’s filters allow to slip through.

Warning: NEVER buy life insurance from Globe Life, this is not an endorsement!

I could smell the rotting fish almost before I opened my malibox this morning. Red flags:

  1. The fact that they’re spamming at all. Ethical companies don’t spam.
  2. The “marketer” or affiliate being paid to send out this putrescence is “Future Modern Logistic” which has no internet presence and a UPS Store PO Box for a mailing address
  3. The bait-and-switch tactic using a huge headline plus an asterisk[*] followed by lots of small print is immediately suspect.
  4. A quick search of “Globe Life Insurance” brings up page after page of consumer complaints.
  5. Using shills to promote the company, even if the writer couldn’t get a “C” on a third-grade composition. Have a look at this “endorsement” I found at nationwide-insurance.org – the website is a black-hat SEO spamdexing site which provides no useful content but rather spurious data and backlinks to other sites in an effort to boost their search ratings:

“Globe Life Insurance Scam-Our Honest Review

There are some insurance companies that do scam except is the globe life insurance scam legit? Globe life insurance corporation is a great company who offers a great insurance policy. When we are asked if we think they are one of the insurance scams our answer is no. They have great insurance deals and if you seem up insurance reviews you will notice their reviews are great. Plus you can go online and get free insurance quotes for life and health insurance. When you get an insurance quote make sure you select the right semester life insurance. Also they supply event insurance in case you want to connect to two. We also have a protective life insurance company scam you might want to check out”

Bad punctuation, horrid grammar, and it goes on for about 8 more paragraphs of the same kind of liquid dung. I mean, who in the name of Mogg’s holy grandmother would consider doing business with a company that descends to this kind of tactic? Perhaps the kind of people who believe the “Cash4Gold” infomercials…

The Internet is a huge place, and I don’t anticipate that a small voice like mine, crying in the wilderness, will have a large impact. But if one single person reads this and as a result, refrains from doing business with Globe Life or another disreputable company of the same caliber, it will have been worth the time.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

*Like this. By reading this blog post you are legally obligating yourself to send $50,000 per year to the blogger in perpetuity, and to eat nattō three times a day without complaining about how slimy it is.