Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
The Fortress of LOLitude
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2010 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
I took the train from New York City to Providence on Friday morning. My first seatmate: a salesman who was discussing with a fellow sales executive why he should get a unified sales quota, rather than one for software as a service and one for permanent licenses. He then switched to complaining about a colleague. "He thinks he has territory? He doesn't have shit." His phone call was in several parts, like a miniseries or that one set of Taster's Choice commercials with Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, due to bad cell reception. I think he used every variant except "Can you hear me now?" out of cliche aversion. A man after my own heart.
He left at Stamford. My next seatmate phoned someone and complained about a daughter? daughter-in-law? whom she'd just visited. "She doesn't have any good breakfast food in the house," she confided. "She doesn't even have breakfast bars." I am unsure of the implication. Are breakfast bars the most essential component of a breakfast pantry, or the worst adequate choice?
Actual QuahogCon entry to follow.
Comments
Zack
http://www.owlfolio.org/
28 Apr 2010, 0:19 a.m.
Martin
28 Apr 2010, 21:19 p.m.
I concur with the "worst adequate" interpretation, yes.
There is an interesting aversion behavior associated with "Can you hear me now?" Someone should do a study on advertising catchphrases that overlap with real-world useful phrases. On second thought, there's probably something better they could be studying.
I think I'd assume "the worst adequate choice" on the breakfast bars.
I've only ever seen Anthony Head in Buffy the Vampire Slayer so it breaks my brain to think that he would be drinking coffee of any sort, never mind instant coffee.