Posted on by LA · 48 Comments

Does This Make Sense?

Scenario 1

A few months ago my husband went for pizza with his co-workers. They ordered two pizzas, different toppings on each. The server brought the pizza’s and people started taking slices.

I mean, this is what you do at a restaurant: you get served your food and you eat.

One person had taken a slice from pizza A. It turns out pizza A was made with something wrong.

No harm, no foul. Mistakes happen. Server quickly rectified the errant pizza situation.

What my Husband thought was bizarre about this encounter was that the restaurant took back the pizza that had been served incorrectly and was missing a slice.

Now, according to health and safety, that pizza can’t be served to anyone. So should the restaurant have just cut their losses and left the pizza there?

Scenario 2

I sometimes still have trouble finding hand soap, so occasionally I order from Amazon.

Recently I ordered a four pack of hand soap.

When the hand soap arrived, I only received one thing of soap. When I contacted Amazon about the issue, they said I had to send back the one soap, and they would send me a set of four.

Why wouldn’t they send me three additional soaps instead of me returning one?

FYI- after I returned the one soap, when they redelivered they again sent me one soap instead of four. My lesson was when I see soap in the store I buy multiples…

Question:

Have you ever had a weird experience when you’ve received the wrong thing? How did you handle it? Did it get resolved to your satisfaction?

Discuss

Posted on by LA · 37 Comments

It Reminds Me Of…

PBS used to do a show “The Bletchly Circle” about women who had worked as codebreakers during WWII. Loved it. I recently found out that there was a new version with some of the British characters but taking place in San Francisco. Unfortunately it is only available on BritBox, a 6.99 addition to Amazon…seriously- I don’t pay enough for Amazon already? But…they did have a 7 day trial…and my family was away for four days…

So I binge watched British murder mysteries for four days…

After I finished Bletchly, I tuned in to the Jane Hickson Miss Marple series from the 80’s. I am a huge fan of Marple. Those were the first Christie books that I had ever read, and I have an affinity towards the working of the Marple mind. I remember watching these adaptations when they first came out and thinking that Hickson might be the quintessential Marple. And after rewatching them, I know that she was.

I will watch any Agatha Christie show in any form- movie, mini series, PBS…I even recently saw an off Broadway production of “Death on the Nile”. If there were an all Agatha all the time channel I would watch it (as long as I didn’t need to pay 6.99 a month- I mean- I have my limits) By now, I have become a connoisseur of sorts. I know my Marple.

Since the Hickson series of the 80’s, PBS has had a few other actors play Marple. Geraldine McEwan in the early 2000’s, followed by Julia McKenzie. Both are wonderful actresses. I have no problem with either of them being cast as Marple. What I do have a problem with is the actual interpretation of the sleuth.

The beauty of the character Miss Marple was her brain- she had a great intellect for deducing things. Marple didn’t crawl along floors or hide behind curtains to solve crimes. She used her own brand of logic. Her particular specialty was her ability to draw comparisons. She was a great observer of people and their habits: she was able to figure out a person’s character rather quickly. Whenever she met someone knew she would come up with a comparison  with someone from her village- “Oh yes that Tom chap- he reminds me of the nephew of my neighbor, always seemed to be way too flattering of the neighbors flowers, turns out he was stealing from them” or something of that sort. Marple was able to see through to someone’s true nature and character. She was observant and a solver of puzzles. The Hickson interpretation showed this clearly. The other versions did not show this at all. The writers simply eliminated these personality traits from the series. There were no more references to crosswords, jigsaws or chess. No more folksy comparisons. I’m going to have to rewatch the other series to see exactly how Marple solved the crimes. (but not for 6.99 a month)

Why do writers eliminate parts of a character that actually make up the character? Why would you take out the essence of a character?

I realize that people want to modernize things. I know that things need to be brought up to date, and a screenwriter has the license to adapt something any way they please. But if they eliminate the main trait of a character, why bother doing the adaptation at all? Why not just adapt something else? Or start fresh?

So- have you ever watched a recurring character and see a screenwriter change the major parts of a character? Have you ever seen a character you loved in a book brought to screen and you just want to scream “No! That’s not how it’s supposed to be?”

Posted on by LA · 50 Comments

Holiday Shopping

My Daughter and I went shopping the other day.  Our intention wasn’t to buy things though, we sometimes like to just see what’s out there.  During the holiday season, a bunch of little outdoor markets open up.  They set up a bunch of stalls, and different artisans come and ply their wares.  There is usually a lot of cool handmade jewelry, a plethora of hats and gloves.  There are organic beauty products, and organic anything.  I think the word organic is the greatest marketing tool ever- how can a pen be organic?  We love to see the slightly unusual products- this year our favorite was the slightly S&M candles that creates a lotion from the dripping warm wax.  It smelled good.  There is usually a fair amount of upcycling, jewelry made from coins, hats made from socks (though I really question whether I want to wear upcycled socks on my head)

Along with the quaint holiday village, we also visited a very upscale mall.  Now a mall in Manhattan is not quite like a mall in the suburbs- there is no Cinnabon.  But there is Coach and Michael Kors.  There are also two of the most expensive restaurants in the city, where I believe the tasting menu starts at 500$ a plate.  Needless to say, these stores are beautiful to look at, especially all decked out with twinkles.

Now, in this mall there is an Amazon book store.  I know, I know- Amazon has no right opening a brick and mortar, especially in about the same location as Borders used to stand.  My daughter looked aghast when I said I wanted to walk in.  What? That bookstore?  She cried.  But yes- the siren call of books was way too great.  I literally can not pass a bookstore and not go in to hold, touch and smell a book.

Now, the front of the store had displays of all those virtual assistants.  We stopped to read about them, found out the cheapest version was on a ridiculous sale.  You know we bought one.

We set it up when we got home.  And you know, when you get a new toy, you really play with it.  Check out all it’s features.  We loved being able to ask it to play music. You can say play 80’s music and it does.  It tells you the weather.  You can set up timers. You can play trivia.  My family and I were having so much fun.

On Sunday night, my Husband the sports fan was watching ESPN.  This is not unusual.  What was unusual is that he was watching collegiate Corn hole.  Yes.  There is a college sport for the game of Corn Hole.  For the uninitiated, corn hole is a beanbag game.  There are two slanted boards with a hole in them.  The object is to stand a distance away and attempt to toss your beanbag into the hole.  Simple.  We’ve played it before- it’s very popular at backyard barbecues and days hanging at the beach.

But corn hole as an actual competitive sport?

My daughter asked our virtual assistant about the rules of corn hole.

I am going to be very clear about this:  be really careful if you ask your virtual assistant about this word.  We got more than one answer, and let’s just say one of  the answers made us all look at each other and burst out laughing.  Not an answer for the under 13 set…..

So the lesson here- in this holiday season, if you are tempted to purchase a virtual assistant, they are wonderful, they are fun and they are helpful.

But they also have a very dirty mind…..