3611 Telephone protocol

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Half the American people have never read a newspaper.

Half have never voted for president.

One hopes it is the same half.

-- Gore Vidal --

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Daughter has never telephoned someone when I'm around, so I don't know if the following is a general pattern with her, or reserved for me.

My phone:  "Ring ring..."  Phone display says it's her.
Me:  "Hello."
Her:  "Hi Mom."
...silence...
...silence...
...silence...which will continue until...
Me:  "Um, you called me.  You get to pick a topic."
Her:  "Oh, yeah, I'm going to the store.  Need anything?" (or whatever her topic is)

Every single call! 

Is the problem mine?  When she says "Hi, Mom", am I supposed to say hello again, or ask what's up, or "how are you", or something?  Is my understanding of phone protocol wrong?  Isn't the person who made the call supposed to take the lead?
.

3610 Truth and fish stories

Wednesday, September 6, 2012

Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient,

for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

-- Bertrand Russell --

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It amused me that in Michelle's speech, the sentence "The truth matters" got a huge cheer.

I can forgive Paul Ryan his misstatement about his marathon time.  We all tend to misremember things that happened many years ago.  We remember the feeling, that it was especially good or especially bad, that we were especially proud or especially angry, so we tend to take whatever the details were and add or subtract numbers, points, inches, minutes, whatever to make it as impressive to others as it was to ourselves.

My daughter's GPA, awards, and birth weight, for example, keep growing while her toddler tantrum count keeps falling.  I feel no need for accuracy or apology.  I just subconsciously want others to be as impressed as I was.

I cannot forgive the flat-out lies in political ads and speeches though.  I read somewhere about a Republican TV ad that everyone, even the Republican party, admits is a wild untruth, but that the party continues to run because "it's effective".

"Effective" is more important than "true"?  We are doomed. 

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Glenn Close was on "The View" today.  I adore Glenn Close.  Just sayin'.

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Perhaps because of a casual mention somewhere, I decided to Google Jan-Michael Vincent.  A "whatever happened to" kind of thought.  I ended up at a poignant article in "LOST Magazine".  Very sad, but somehow ok.

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Did you know you can get nasty worms (anisakis) from sushi and sashimi? The fish must be frozen before use to kill the worms.  Special fish, "sushi-grade" fish, that's been through a flash-freezing process is used for sushi/sashimi.  It's very dangerous to use supermarket or fish market fish, especially wild sea fish.  How come I'd never heard that before?

I am amused that certain people will eat sushi only in certain restaurants because they insist it's "absolutely fresh" there.  Little do they know.  It better not be....
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3609 Fairy dancer

Wednesday, September 6, 2012

I have the body of a Corvette. A '66 Corvette.

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From the WSJ Law Blog:

"A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked a Minnesota campaign finance law that it said overburdened corporations that want to spend money to influence elections."

Think about that a bit, especially the last five words. Full story at the above link.

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Beautiful!  I swear I can see a spirit dancing inside.

[http://youtu.be/1C_40B9m4tI]

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I dislike people who think fashion is more important than substance, so forgive my commenting on Michelle Obama's clothes, but too often I think her clothing is too tight across the bust, and it hurts me!
 
Photo by: Alex Wong/Getty Images

I get pain in my breasts every time I look at hers.  I feel like I can't breathe.  There's something weird about her bra - it seems to flatten her on the sides.  It looks like it hurts.  It makes it difficult for me to see or hear anything else.

Free the girls, Michelle!  Let them breathe!

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My new Kenmore refrigerator arrived last Thursday.  I like it.  But it arrived with the doors hinged on the right.  I had ordered it hinged on the left, and I'm sure the salesman noted that because he asked me to verify the order before he hit Enter.  The delivery guys said they couldn't change it, it should have been done at the warehouse, so I'd have to call service.

Now, understand that one consideration that went into this purchase was the availability of service.  Sears services everything they sell, as opposed to, say, Sam's Appliance Sales.

It has taken me four days, four phone calls, a trip to the store to talk to the salesman, a threat to return the damn thing because what was delivered was not what I ordered, and two attempts at online chat --- to simply schedule a service call, and they can't come until the 12th.

I am spitting nails.

(I did look at the manual to see if I could do it myself, but the directions mention a certain "set screw" that doesn't seem to exist.  There's nothing but smooth metal where the arrow in the illustration points.  Hercules looked, too.  He couldn't figure it out, either.  I'm beginning to wonder if that's why the warehouse guys didn't do it - they couldn't figure out how.)