 Hello? Hello? Curses!: The cell phone saga continues — tired of VoiceStream's mediocre sound quality, Pat and I switched to Verizon Wireless (and I chose a high-tech Motorola 270c with speakerphone and voice dialing and a tiny joystick to navigate menus), only to find the audio was even worse; when I called my mom in New Hampshire, her every sixth or seventh word was drowned out by buzzing and twanging that sounded like a dial-up modem connecting.
So back to the mall and a weary 40 minutes just to return the phones; I still have to call Customer Service to cancel the service. (Don't you love it when Clerk #1 taps and frowns at her computer for 15 minutes, only to say, "Clerk #2 will help you," referring you to start over again with her colleague? Especially when C1 then manages to drop your receipt just so it falls through the crack under her shelf and gets lost?) Now I'm trying a nice pocketable but not-too-small navy blue Nokia from Cingular, which is clearly my destiny since they have a product-placement deal and the store is full of posters for the Spider-Man movie. Apparently, in the climactic battle with the Green Goblin, Spidey whips out his wireless and says, "Not so fast, Analog Boy, watch me use the power of the Web on my Cingular phone!"
Speaking of spiders, I recommend Ruben Bolling's comic strip "Tom the Dancing Bug"; if the Salon.com archives didn't seem to be incomplete you could soak up the whole saga (Billy Dare, Boy Adventurer!) and especially the epic adventures of God-Man, the superhero with omnipotent powers — who sometimes sneaks in a sage editorial comment, as in today's episode (even if it's vaguely reminiscent of a story in The Onion's justly famed post-9/11 issue).
And what's this, linked by fightin' Democrat Oliver Willis? Why, can you believe it? Now that new left-wing regulars James Carville and Paul Begala are actually challenging their right-wing cohosts and guests on CNN's "Crossfire" with facts and arguments, instead of rolling over and letting themselves be silenced by the shouted slogans and untruths that pass for wisdom on Fox News, a frightened GOP leadership is whining about boycotting the show! Poor bully babies! Let 'em appear on MSNBC, which Barry Crimmins notes "features a show called 'Alan Keyes Is Making Sense.' To whom? Moonies freebasing LSD?"
By the way, my new phone brochure says it's NO-kia, not no-KEE-ah as I've been saying for years. Finnish for "I don't want that Korean car."
8:20:15 AM 
|
|
