Episode #143: Granddad Is Iffy About Cadillac Products

There are times where I want this dog's life. This, is one of those times.

Yes, the title of the blog post accurately reflects a proper change in parental status. Young Master Colton made his entrance into the world back in mid-September 2022.

As I'm want to do from time to time while perusing social media, my mind has a tendency to wander. Occasionally it'll latch onto a certain idea, which in turn makes me pause and squee in delight because it means I have something to blog about.

Today's idea is what I like to call, "Cadillac products". No, I'm not talking about the car, but instead I'm talking about the various products that set the gold standard for their line and make everyone else in that product line pale by comparison. Let me share with you a few examples and you can let me know if you agree or disagree with my examples.

Cable t.v., specifically, HBO. Now, most of you know that I'm the original MTV generation, that channel started when I was a junior in high school {1981}, but you can call me an HBO Boomer as well, as the channel was founded in 1972. Now, I consider HBO to be the gold standard for pay t.v. channels, simply because of the high cost of adding/maintaining it to your cable subscription

Note, the quality of the content HBO presented coupled with being the originator of the premium cable channel, made it on one hand, the channel to have when you were getting your cable t.v. subscription set up (this was waaaaay before streaming, etc.), while on the other, it often became the first casualty of your subscription when you were looking for cut costs to your subscription, simply because on how expensive it was (in the late 80s/early 90s, it was about $20 per month with about 2% increases every couple of years with our subscription). Ultimately, it became the channel that everyone wanted to aspire to be like.

Commercial coffee stores. Now granted, my opinion is regional, but I find that both Starbucks and D&D have set the gold standard for commercial coffee product. I give them a tie only because each one has a particular customer base that is often hard to float between. A close third would be those solid mom & pop stores that sadly I don't have in my local town.

Coffee brands: again, this one is personal preference, but this is based on instant coffee, as I do not do K-cups. I think I've consumed only 48 K-cups during the entire existence of the K-cup, and those were in the 4 months preceding and 3 months during the pandemic when I was still employed. I've tried about a half dozen brands, so I have a strange three way tie for the top: Nescafe, a niche brand called Juan Valdez and single serve Tasters Choice. Everything else for instant pales by comparison. Those three mentioned are actually worth the high price you pay for them.

And finally, just to throw everyone a slurve, computer OS. Again, this is a personal preference. I have never used a Mac, nor any Apple product for that matter, in my entire adult existence. I neither like nor hate Apple computer products, they're just not my thang. But, having used Windows 6.0; XP, 7 and 10 (all four work related, with the middle two personal), and ultimately detesting all Window OS, my personal preference has been, since 2019, Chrome OS. I found that OS very easy to use, and their various office suite programs equal to, if not slightly better, than the Windows office suite programs. And most importantly, quite convertible going both directions. Overall, I find Chrome way less aggravating than Windows to use.

So, my fellow readers, what products do you feel are the gold standard for that particular product line?

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved