No, this is not some uninformed anti-globalization rant. (side note: Firefox’s dictionary doesn’t have “globalization” – talk about blissful ignorance!) This is an anti-telephone rant. Specifically, telephone calls from WaPo.
One of the few persistent conflicts my darling girlfriend and I have had through our relationship has been over one of my favorite rituals: Sunday morning with the newspaper. It’s just not a relaxing weekend till I’ve spent an hour or three with some a lot of coffee and the paper.
The problem is that my dear dislikes sales calls in general and repeated “upgrade” calls in particular. And there’s no more sure-fire way to get WaPo to call you and ask for money than to give them a taste of it by opting for the Sunday-only option. They’re pretty clear that you don’t get to subscribe without harassing calls – phone number is a mandatory bit of information to subscribe. So since I’m the household luddite who prefers his news to leave black stains on my fingertips where my darling girlfriend is an online reader, it didn’t seem fair to ask her to suffer for my obsession. So if I didn’t want to scare up 6 quarters and walk a quarter mile to the machine I lived without my newspaper.
Solution? AIM digits, AOL’s new venture into online telephony for those who don’t already have too damned much phone in their life. If you’re one of the poor souls who uses the AOL client then this might make your computer ring, but as a longtime Trillian user all it does for me is generate voicemail that I ignore. WaPo gets to call and leave messages begging for service upgrades, I get my Sunday paper, and my darling girlfriend gets peace and quiet… or at least as much as one can have with me in their life…
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
