Lunedi Lunacy

I may have mentioned that when I switched to an iPhone back in Roman times the young man at the Vodaphone store shook his head sadly and commiserated with me over the fact that I would have to deal with Rogers Communications when I got back to Canada. I had heard so many bad things about their service that when I was setting up my systems here - home phone, internet, mobiles etc - I automatically went with Bell Canada. I've been a Bell customer off and on for over 40 years with never a problem so why should it be any different now! Right? Wrong!

I won't go into all the nonsense that has been involved in setting up fairly simple things such as voice mail and an added listing in the directory. But I've wasted upwards of six hours, left three voice mails and spoken to seven people to get it straightened out.  As I came off the line from conversation number 4 I was reminded of a comedy classic by Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Coming out of the Second City tradition of  intelligent observations on the vagaries and absurdities of daily life they were frequent guests on the old - and much lamented - Jack Parr show.   Notice no vulgarity, no swearing - just witty jabs at those little annoyances that plague our existence.

Today Bell Canada has no faux-sympathetic Miss Jones working for them; her kindly Ma Bell tones have been replaced by the faux-enthusiastic, peppy and preppy voice of go-getters like young Kent - am I being curmudgeonly in assuming he was 15 years old? - solving problems for poor, frustrated fools like me.  I'm not sure which is more annoying?

*Everyone in a Nichols and May sketch seems to live on Huguenot Walloon Drive. It cracks me - and usually the audience - up every time Mike Nichols says it.  It is just one of those silly sounding combinations that hits the funny bone.  But a bit of research revealed that a group of Huguenots from the Walloons first settled in New Netherlands (New York State) in 1624 and that the stamps issued in 1924 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of their landing are considered collectors items by stamp enthusiasts. I wonder if Nichols knew that or it was just a name that he pulled out of a hat?  

15 agosto/August 15 - Assunzione di Maria