This Is Dessert?

At a restaurant in Prenton on the Wirral.

This Is Dessert?

At a restaurant in Prenton on the Wirral.

An Uneasy Juxtaposition

A butcher and a transplant storefront (with a photographer’s entrance between the two):







in Ayr, Scotland.

Let’s Face It: Georgian Architecture Is Boring

The city of Bath in the UK prides itself on the sameness of the architecture of all its buildings. Many refer to Bath as a quintessential example of Georgian architecture; in fact, if you go to the Wikipedia entry for Georgian architecture, one of the photos you will see is of The Royal Crescent in Bath.



But Bath takes things to impressive, ridiculous, boring extremes. Building owners must use only white paint on the window trim [exceptions are permitted for the ground floor of businesses in most places, and some window trim seemed to be more on the creamy side of white than pure white]. Also, the buildings must have either Bath limestone or (more recently) similar limestone exteriors. And the roofs must be slate or slate-coloured. So everything looks alike. Just look at these photos, each one taken in a different location in Bath.







Interesting architecture. I might even say it is fascinating, stupendous, or amusing to have an entire town done up in such similar architecture. And as Tim Worstall recommended, just walking around the streets of Bath is a great experience (well, except maybe on weekend evenings when the younger crowd seem to take over).



There are, of course, a few minor exceptions to the basic rules. First, the backs of the buildings do not have the same degree of sameness as the facads. Also, O’Neill’s pub near the Roman Bath has blue trim, not white, on the windows on the upper levels:



When I asked them about it, they said they had special permission because blue is their official colour. But I am skeptical. Flan O’Brien’s, just down the street, doesn’t have green trim on the upper windows. Also, the O’neill’s pub in Mayfair doesn’t have blue trim on the windows on the upper floors.







There were a couple of other minor exceptions as well. A brick building near the river,







and a few businesses down a side street:





Lest you receive the wrong impression: I think this insistence on the maintenance of similarity in architecture is admirable, interesting, and worth seeing; but it is still boring. Nevertheless, despite the boredom of the architecture, I had a terrific time in Bath and will almost certainly want to revisit the city.

Let’s Face It: Georgian Architecture Is Boring

The city of Bath in the UK prides itself on the sameness of the architecture of all its buildings. Many refer to Bath as a quintessential example of Georgian architecture; in fact, if you go to the Wikipedia entry for Georgian architecture, one of the photos you will see is of The Royal Crescent in Bath.



But Bath takes things to impressive, ridiculous, boring extremes. Building owners must use only white paint on the window trim [exceptions are permitted for the ground floor of businesses in most places, and some window trim seemed to be more on the creamy side of white than pure white]. Also, the buildings must have either Bath limestone or (more recently) similar limestone exteriors. And the roofs must be slate or slate-coloured. So everything looks alike. Just look at these photos, each one taken in a different location in Bath.







Interesting architecture. I might even say it is fascinating, stupendous, or amusing to have an entire town done up in such similar architecture. And as Tim Worstall recommended, just walking around the streets of Bath is a great experience (well, except maybe on weekend evenings when the younger crowd seem to take over).



There are, of course, a few minor exceptions to the basic rules. First, the backs of the buildings do not have the same degree of sameness as the facads. Also, O’Neill’s pub near the Roman Bath has blue trim, not white, on the windows on the upper levels:



When I asked them about it, they said they had special permission because blue is their official colour. But I am skeptical. Flan O’Brien’s, just down the street, doesn’t have green trim on the upper windows. Also, the O’neill’s pub in Mayfair doesn’t have blue trim on the windows on the upper floors.







There were a couple of other minor exceptions as well. A brick building near the river,







and a few businesses down a side street:





Lest you receive the wrong impression: I think this insistence on the maintenance of similarity in architecture is admirable, interesting, and worth seeing; but it is still boring. Nevertheless, despite the boredom of the architecture, I had a terrific time in Bath and will almost certainly want to revisit the city.

Let’s Face It: Georgian Architecture Is Boring

The city of Bath in the UK prides itself on the sameness of the architecture of all its buildings. Many refer to Bath as a quintessential example of Georgian architecture; in fact, if you go to the Wikipedia entry for Georgian architecture, one of the photos you will see is of The Royal Crescent in Bath.



But Bath takes things to impressive, ridiculous, boring extremes. Building owners must use only white paint on the window trim [exceptions are permitted for the ground floor of businesses in most places, and some window trim seemed to be more on the creamy side of white than pure white]. Also, the buildings must have either Bath limestone or (more recently) similar limestone exteriors. And the roofs must be slate or slate-coloured. So everything looks alike. Just look at these photos, each one taken in a different location in Bath.







Interesting architecture. I might even say it is fascinating, stupendous, or amusing to have an entire town done up in such similar architecture. And as Tim Worstall recommended, just walking around the streets of Bath is a great experience (well, except maybe on weekend evenings when the younger crowd seem to take over).



There are, of course, a few minor exceptions to the basic rules. First, the backs of the buildings do not have the same degree of sameness as the facads. Also, O’Neill’s pub near the Roman Bath has blue trim, not white, on the windows on the upper levels:



When I asked them about it, they said they had special permission because blue is their official colour. But I am skeptical. Flan O’Brien’s, just down the street, doesn’t have green trim on the upper windows. Also, the O’neill’s pub in Mayfair doesn’t have blue trim on the windows on the upper floors.







There were a couple of other minor exceptions as well. A brick building near the river,







and a few businesses down a side street:





Lest you receive the wrong impression: I think this insistence on the maintenance of similarity in architecture is admirable, interesting, and worth seeing; but it is still boring. Nevertheless, despite the boredom of the architecture, I had a terrific time in Bath and will almost certainly want to revisit the city.

British Letterboxes: Edward VII

Several people in Bath told me that there had never been any love lost between Queen Victoria and the people of Bath. Supporting evidence of this view is that while I was in Bath, I so no mailboxes with “VR” on them, despite having seen several of them in other towns. I did, however, come across several mailboxes with E-VII-R on them, placed during the reign of Victoria’s son, Edward VII, in the early 20th century.







By the time I left England, I still had not seen any mailboxes with ER VIII on them, even though I guess at least one exists.



And from a distance, I continued to mistake these things for mailboxes:







Fortunately, I never tried to mail a letter in one of them.

A Study in Contrasts

In a shop window in the Mayfair District of London:

At the Carnegie Library in Ayr, Scotland:

Notice the padded backrest in the lower model. I confess to having looked for a pistol behind the tank [cf Godfather I].

.

And while we’re on the subject of toilets, here is an amusing sign on the public facilities in Newhaven, UK.

.

Addendum: At the Cliffs of Moher in western Ireland:

A Study in Contrasts

In a shop window in the Mayfair District of London:

At the Carnegie Library in Ayr, Scotland:

Notice the padded backrest in the lower model. I confess to having looked for a pistol behind the tank [cf Godfather I].

.

And while we’re on the subject of toilets, here is an amusing sign on the public facilities in Newhaven, UK.

.

Addendum: At the Cliffs of Moher in western Ireland:

Disequilibrium, Equilibrium, and Flexible Exchange Rates

Many years ago, while I was talking with an esteemed colleague, I said something about some market’s being out of equilibrium. He reacted pretty strongly, saying that if a market appears to be out of equilibrium then I hadn’t taken into account all the relevant variables. Good advice.



So what is happening with prices in Canada and the U.S. now that the U.S. price of a Canadian Loonie has risen to about 94cents? Back when the U.S. price of the Canuck Buck was 84 cents, prices of goods seemed to pretty much reflect purchasing power parity, and there wasn’t a tonne of cross-border shopping. But now goods from the U.S. are so much cheaper. Manufacturers in Canada are finding it harder to sell their products in the U.S., and many more Canadians are engaging in cross-border shopping. I find it much more attractive, myself, to order things from the U.S. than from Canada.



As an example, consider any item listed at both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. A year ago, the price spread was off-putting, but not so much as to keep me from ordering things now and then from Amazon.ca, especially since the Amazon.com free shipping offer for large orders does not apply to shipments to Canada. But now, even without free shipping on larger orders, most things are much cheaper when ordered from Amazon.com instead of Amazon.ca. Prices in Canada and the U.S. simply are not adjusting to the shifts in supply and demand that follow from the recent, sizable jump in the U.S. price of the Canadian Loonie.



In a model of purchasing power parity in a flexible exchange rate regime, one would expect that the prices of goods and the prices of currencies would adjust so that the same book would cost the same for me to buy in either Canada or the U.S. But prices and exchange rates simply are not adjusting that quickly. Books still have Canadian prices stamped on them that are maybe 30 – 50 percent higher (nominally) than the U.S. prices.



Of course many other things determine prices and exchange rates (try oil and other resource price swings, inflationary expectations, political uncertainties, etc.), but if the prices stay the way they are, also look for Amazon.ca to have to lower its prices eventually. Also look for Chapters-Indigo to have to lower its prices, too. If they don’t, watch for some outlets to close.



But these changes do not happen overnight or instantaneously. Rather, it takes time for customers to adjust to purchasing things from different sources. And it takes time for many merchants to adjust their prices to new market realities.



It is easy for us to draw the graphs and shift the curves, but we are not price searchers in an uncertain world; these movements do not happen automagically and immediately without decision-makers contemplating them and trying to reformulate their own expectations. Retail merchants, though, should be seeing these changes on the horizon and making plans now to deal with them.