Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 26, 2024, 11:09:32 AMAs much as a LOVE panning around on Google Earth and the like and enjoy it when there is new imagery to browse, I have a pang of nostalgia for the days before the ubiquity of such online resources and my efforts to keep our copy of the Delorme atlas for Wisconsin updated amid a flurry of rural expressway/freeway construction in the state.
Quote from: J N Winkler on April 28, 2024, 01:31:04 PMIf I had my druthers, merchants would not be allowed to sell anything with a deferred-redemption component unless the full value of said component were kept available to the customer without expiration. This would mean:
* Store gift cards and gift certificates would never expire.
Quote from: J N Winkler on April 28, 2024, 01:31:04 PMIf this forced supermarket chains to phase out loyalty programs, I would not shed a tear.
Quote from: J N Winkler on April 28, 2024, 05:08:47 PMQuote from: SEWIGuy on April 28, 2024, 04:33:33 PMBut it is not required that returned merchandise be returned for cash. (It's almost always in-store credit - which is basically a gift card.) So I have no idea why gift cards should be. I mean these are gifts.
That has not been my experience. On the few occasions I have returned things for a refund, I have typically received a chargeback on the card I used to pay. I can't remember the last time I was asked to settle for in-store credit or a voucher that I could spend only at the business concerned.
Quote from: J N Winkler on April 28, 2024, 05:08:47 PMQuote from: kkt on April 28, 2024, 04:37:59 PMOkay, but what does "never expire" really mean? Businesses don't stay around forever. They don't have any way of knowing how to get ahold of people who have gift cards they issued, and I wouldn't want to be on their mailing list if they did.
"Never expires" means that the value of the card (or other deferred-redemption instrument) would remain a liability against the business indefinitely. Realistically, I think it would have to be dischargeable in bankruptcy, even if this meant that customers would have to settle for pennies on the dollar.
Quote from: Road Hog on April 28, 2024, 11:06:08 PMThe Edgar Allen Poe Bridge.Trusses cause an unkindness.
Murder out the trusses.
Quote from: Brandon on April 28, 2024, 05:45:12 PMQuote from: paulthemapguy on April 24, 2024, 04:24:27 PMQuote from: Rothman on April 23, 2024, 10:11:47 PMState maintained =/= state route.
Wat.
It's state-maintained and it's a route. It's a state route. It may not be a State Route, but it's a state route. The adjective "state" and the noun "route" are both correct.
IDOT maintains plenty of roads that are not signed routes. Besides signed numerical designations, there is a separate internal set of numerical designations for various roads across Illinois, state-maintained and otherwise (shown as "FAP", "FAU", etc.). But I don't think that's even what appears at the top of these mile markers. The process of deciding these numbers for the top of these mile markers has always been a mystery to me. Such numbers are usually in the 8000s or 900s (though 316 is an oddball).
Bill Burmaster's (rmsandw) site has covered a plethora of these unsigned state highways: https://www.billburmaster.com/rmsandw/illinois/misc/il900.html
And these are just the ones IDOT marks in the wild. District 1 has a number of unmarked state routes that lack any sort of signage whatsoever to denote them as state routes, including the circular postmiles. The spur of the IL-53 freeway between Dundee Road and Lake-Cook Road comes to mind as just one example.