Notice came on my iPhone this AM that there was a charge to one of my credit cards for a bit over $100 from “Travel Reservation USA.” Not anything I recognized. So I called the credit card company for details of the charge to see if it was legit. All they could tell me was that it was through Expedia. They had no other details, but said they’d call Expedia to find out more. Time passed and the agent told me that the wait time for their call to Expedia was over 30 minutes, so he’d call me back once he could contact them.

Later in the day, I contacted Expedia directly. I got myself in line for a call back in 30-40 minutes and indeed got one. Problem became that all the information I had was what was on my credit card site – Travel Reservation USA and the dollar amount. Of course, I had not received any confirming email from Expedia nor does the credit card site show any transaction number. The agent said she could not just look up my name without knowing was it airline, hotel, etc. Of course, I don’t know what it was since I didn’t make it. I asked for a supervisor to see if that would do any good. Had to wait on hold for over 20 minutes. Supervisor was good. He took my name and credit card information and, lo and behold, they show no such charge to my card. And he said he didn’t know who or what Travel Reservation USA was. Thus, deadend here.

So, I called credit card company again. Talked to Fraud person who told me that the transaction was through a company in Nevada and not Expedia she thought. She called the numbers they have on the charge to inquire. Of course, I had to answer the obligatory questions about whether anyone else had my card, access to it, knew my numbers, etc. Card only leaves my wallet when I take it out to charge something!

Another 20 minutes passed while I was on “hold.” So, I cruised the Internet and found Trip Advisor persons who had the same problem I have had. But a response said that Travel Reservation USA was how Expedia’s charges come through. The credit card agent came back on the line and she had gone in circles with Expedia/Travel Reservation USA and could not get an answer, just voice mail. Consequently, I had to take the “nuclear option” and cancel the card, notify those who have automatic charges to it with a new number when I get it. And wait for the fraudulent charge to be credited in a few days. 

Mom and Dad’s wedding 1933

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o70TJ6I0zRQ

Mom and Dad in 1982: He was 76+, she 69+, I was 41+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivCGeDvmVI8#t=828

Bud’s “Sorry Don’t Mean a Bag of Beans”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMJYeoJ3kIc

Bud’s “Crepe Fromage”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PodNx_2zr94

Jeff’s Moments in Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrvUQJvUOd4

There was quite a bit of controversy recently when Indiana passed a law that looked as if it infringed on the rights of LGBT citizens. There was a mood to boycott Indiana. Organizations like the NCAA weighed in as did businesses. In some minds, even though the original law was amended, the fact that the Indiana legislature passed and the governor signed the original law was evidence that regardless of any backtracking, this is a state to be avoided for tourism, sports, business – boycotted.

Now we get to the Charleston massacre. It’s clear this was a domestic terrorism attack. Here is the FBI’s definition:

"Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:

• ▪               Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;
• ▪                Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and
• ▪                Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/terrorism/terrorism-definition

So we have a domestic terrorist from South Carolina, a state that flies the Confederate Battle Flag at its statehouse. Some thoughts on the flag itself:

“The battle flag was never adopted by the Confederate Congress, never flew over any state capitols during the Confederacy, and was never officially used by Confederate veterans' groups. The flag probably would have been relegated to Civil War museums if it had not been resurrected by the resurgent KKK and used by Southern Dixiecrats during the 1948 presidential election.” Martinez, James Michael; Richardson, William Donald; McNinch-Su, Ron (2000). Confederate Symbols in the Contemporary South. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. pp. 284–285. Retrieved 2 April 2015.

“It is no accident that Confederate symbols have been the mainstay of white supremacist organizations, from the Ku Klux Klan to the skinheads.  They did not appropriate the Confederate battle flag simply because it was pretty.  They picked it because it was the flag of a nation dedicated to their ideals, i.e., “that the negro is not equal to the white man.”  The Confederate flag, we are told, represents heritage, not hate.  But why should we celebrate a heritage grounded in hate, a heritage whose self-avowed reason for existence was the exploitation and debasement of a sizeable segment of its population?” Rhea, Gordon (January 25, 2011). "Why Non-Slaveholding Southerners Fought". Civil War Trust. Civil War Trust. Retrieved March 21, 2011.

This is not just a single law as in Indiana. It’s a pervasive longstanding symbol of discrimination, as repugnant as the apartheid flag patch and the Rhodesia patch the terrorist wore on his jacket. Where is the same censoring of the State of South Carolina (long overdue) for its display of the symbol of slavery? We boycotted South Africa during its apartheid era. How about South Carolina?

I had a question for Canon and a separate question for the New York Times. For each, I went to their websites, looked a the FAQ section, looked at chat streams all in vain. I could not find an answer to my question online. Well, each site had a way to send an email to customer service. I was very precise in the question I asked of Canon and the question I asked of the New York Times.

The question to Canon was about whether a particular lens was going to be updated and, if so, when. The response was generic boilerplate about Canon lenses and a link to their catalog. The language was such that it was clear the person who responded had not read my email question but had just seen the word “lens.” When I pointed that out in a second email, he/she responded with the answer to the question I asked.

For the NYT, I had a question about joint subscriptions (Kindle and those for online viewing). The response said that they could not find my email address in their database so I should please register or tell them an address I’d used when I subscribed. Well, I was clear in my first email that my subscription was through Amazon on my Kindle and not an online one. This time, I was a bit snarky in my email back to them:

Well, you seem to have ignored what I wrote about. I said I have a KINDLE subscription. That's through Amazon and not through you as you well know.

Let's go back to what I asked rather than the non-answer you gave me. I have a KINDLE subscription to the NYT that I read on my Kindle, obviously. I would love to have a joint subscription that I could also read either on my Kindle app on my desktop or iPhone or just on my laptop through NYT rather than through Amazon. I do not see any option that would allow that. The only options for online subscriptions (NOT ones from Amazon/Kindle) are for a combination of different computer/phone/iPad devices. Seems silly for me to pay you $19.99 a month for my KINDLE subscription and then have to pay an additional fee of about that or more to be able to read NYT on my laptop or iPhone or iPad. So, that is the basis of my question.

This time, and I'm sorry for being so direct about my disappointment in your first answer which did not address my questions at all, I hope you will respond with answers. 

Canon sent me an email survey about my experience with customer service. Had fun filling that out.