[TAG] The Public Domain: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

[Mike Orr]

Jimmy O'Regan wrote:

> Mike Orr wrote:
>
>> 22.9% interest?  That's even worse than putting it on a credit card.  
>> The maximum credit cards can charge here is 18%.  But if they're 
>> talking loans and APR, that's different than I was talking about.  I 
>> was talking about something more like a subscription.
>
>
> I don't have a credit card, so I can't say for sure, but I think that 
> rate is roughly on par with credit card charges here. I did mention 
> that it was hire purchase, I assumed you knew what that meant, though 
> I will admit I was wrong to say "they're not calling it 'hire 
> purchase' anymore", it quite simply *is* a loan.


The word 'hire' surprised me because we use it only for people, not 
things.  So you hire a gardener but rent a lawnmower.  Or you hire a 
taxi but rent a taxicab.  (That is, assuming you wanted a taxicab.  
Maybe your really weird friends are getting married and want to drive it 
to their honeymoon.)  You rent a video but hire a video production 
company.  I understand in Europe you rent real estate but hire 
everything else.  So I translated 'hire' to 'rent' and then to 'lease'.  
Leasing is the same as renting but with a long-term contract.  So you 
rent a car by the day but lease it for six months.  Or you lease an 
apartment for a year, then it becomes a month-to-month rental (and the 
landlord can raise the rent).  With products you usually have the option 
to buy it for the remaining purchase price ("rent to own"), but the 
price is high.  The kind of lease I'm talking about is basically a 
subscription.  There may be a "rent to own" option but it would defeat 
the purpose if that was emphasized.  I don't know what a 'hire purchase' 
is, but I guess you mean buying something with a financing plan, like a 
home mortgage. 

23% interest, ouch.  Here the unscrupulous cards charge 18%, but the 
better cards are 6.9%.   When I was in Russia in 1996, interest was 10% 
per *month*.  And when the banks were closed for lunch, you changed 
money with the tough guy standing in front of the bank with a stack of 
$100 bills in his hand.  Because nobody kept their savings in rubles, 
inflation was too high.  But you had to buy things in rubles.  I always 
went into the bank because it had a better exchange rate, but my Russian 
friend went to the guy in front of the bank to show that he was rich 
enough not to care about a few extra dollars.  I always wondered how 
these money changers could do it every day without getting mugged, but I 
guess guys who wear dark sunglasses don't worry about things like that.  
And he was wearing dark sunglasses, as was my friend.  When you go into 
a bank, a guard meets you at the door and asks what you want, then lets 
you in one at a time.  I have no idea if it's still like that.  My 
friends say, "You wouldn't recognize Moscow; there's been so much 
construction."   

More stories.  In 1998 he was living in Germany and I went to visit.  
One weekend he wanted to see a girl in Liege.  I'd convinced him to be a 
cheapskate, so we made it from Duesseldorf to Liege and back for a 
ridiculously low $12 each.  We had a weekend railpass and went to 
Aachen.  It was $50 to Liege so I asked for the nearest stop in Belgium 
(Verviers) but that was still almost $50.   (Oops, I pronounced it 
"Ver-VERSS".  She corrected it "Fer-VYAY".)  I asked if we can walk 
across the border and she said no.  I asked why, is it illegal?  She 
said you just can't, and pointed us to a local bus.  The bus went to 
Eupen.  I was expecting a passport check and a sharp differentiation, 
but it was just the outskirts of one small town merging into another 
small town on a narrow, windy, hilly road.  Gradually the ordinary signs 
turned from German to French, but the luxury signs (cars and real 
estate) remained German.  At the bushof there was a problem with our 
ticket.  My French was minimal; my friend's was nonexistent.  I asked, 
"Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"  The driver said, "Seulement francais."  So we 
were shouting at the neighboring driver to translate.  "The driver said 
this ticket was good all the way to Liege.  ---Who said that?  ---The 
driver from Aachen."  He said "Aachen!" dismissively, as in "Those 
Germans!", but stopped hassling us.  At Verviers we transferred again to 
Liege.  It was 8pm and there was a hotel across the street, but my 
friend said we'd find something better and we went into a bar.  First I 
experienced the ATM.  The smallest amount was 100 franks.  I had no idea 
how much that was but the big number was scary.  I finally assumed that 
if that was the smallest amount, it must be around $20.  It turned out 
to be $33.  We went into the bar.  The bartender spoke only French.  My 
French is just enough to order a beer, so we drew pictures on napkins 
for a conversation.  He put on cowboy music to make us feel at home!  
I'm American but I don't like country music.  My friend is Russian but 
he likes to pretend he's  American so he gets treated better.  So the 
bartender got us both wrong.  I bet he never knew.  My friend called the 
girl and found out she's working in Brussels now (oh no!) but she's in 
Liege this weekend visiting her parents (yes!).  We arrange to meet the 
next day.  I get more and more paranoid about finding a hotel that's not 
full, so at 11pm I force my friend out of the bar.  We walk around 
looking for a place.  Being a yank I assume there'll be motels 
everywhere.  Not in Liege.  We walk for three hours and don't see 
anything except a Holiday Inn (too expensive).  Finally we come across 
an outdoor map and discover there's only three hotels/hostels in the 
city.  So we return to the original hotel at 3am and check in.  On the 
way we see a sign for a town called Huy.  We took a picture of it 
because huy means penis in Russian.
http://sluggo.kicks-ass.org/pix/199801_germany/199805-069-1.jpg.html