The Family That Blogs Together…

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Mrs. R was busily vacuuming when the vacuum cleaner began to make a horrible noise. Since I was (cough, cough) home from work that day, I undertook a CSI-level investigation and quickly determined that the drive belt had broken. As anyone with a vacuum cleaner knows this is a common occurrence and can be easily diagnosed by a 4th-grader. Nonetheless, I heroically patted myself on the back for making such an insightful discovery.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a replacement belt in stock. And since we were expecting a few people over for the holiday, this was becoming a minor emergency. I called the store where we purchased the vacuum cleaner, explained that the machine was 3 or 4 years old, and asked if they carried the replacement belt for our model. I was switched around the store before I spoke with a polite young woman, Sally, who worked in the vacuum department. Boy, that job must suck. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself there…)

I explained my situation to her and she said that they no longer carried those belts.

“Hmmm” I thoughtfully replied.

“Have you tried the manufacturer?” she asked.

“No” I said. “We were hoping to get this taken care of this afternoon.”

“I see” she replied. “If you’ll bring your vacuum in, along with all of the attachments, we’ll replace it at no cost.”

“But we no longer have the receipt” I said.

“It’s okay, we’ll do that, just for you” Sally replied.

So we did, and they did. Pretty amazing huh?

There was one catch though. It turns out that I have to take Sally’s cousin to dinner in a couple of weeks. Sally tells me she’s a sweet girl with a great personality…

Anyway...

I’ve noticed recently that simple math is a difficult concept for some folks. The other day, while at work, I was reading a report prepared by an engineering firm that described a new, innovative product. The report stated that this product was “exclusively one-of-a-kind.” Yikes…

While watching a college football game this weekend, the announcers were breathlessly singing the praises of the offensive coordinator for one of the teams, pointing out that since he had come to the school their offense had been scoring considerably more points than in the past. Right on cue a graphic popped up showing that since this person had become the offensive coordinator, the team had had scored 30 or more points 19 times. The graphic also said that their record in those games was 16-2. Hmmm…

It’s time to present some more Designating Underachievement in Marketing By Advertisers Selling Stuff awards.

This month’s DUMBASS award goes to Verizon Wireless for their inane ad which features two women who both want the last phone at the Verizon store. The commercial begins with one asking the other, “One phone left in the Verizon store, who gets it?” When the other gal replies “I do” she is either shot in the neck with a tranquillizer dart or handcuffed to the chair.

Nice work Verizon. Who is your ad agency, Mrs. Jones 8th grade class?

The coveted DUMBASS Lifetime Award goes to Dodge Trucks. You may remember that we’ve been critical of Dodge Trucks in the past when they used Rockem-Sockem robots to demonstrate the toughness of their trucks.

Suburban Rogue February 17, 2007

The new Dodge Trucks ad features the trucks being driven through walls of fire, between swinging rusting truck bodies, that sort of thing. I know commuting is rough these days, but sheesh…

Imagine a well-written transition paragraph right here….

Daughter Rogue is a less than tidy housekeeper. Recently she decided to clean-up her apartment and in the process found the cables for her computer printer. She was very excited because these cables had been lost for about 15 months. DR hooked up her printer, sent a file to print, and was very disappointed when a blank paper came out. She repeated the process and achieved the same result. DR then opened the printer cover and discovered that there were no ink cartridges in the printer…

It is this same young lady that recently took a big step, traveling to Dallas for the 45th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. DR is a history major and is intrigued by the story of the Kennedy family. She did all of this on her own, and I think it’s pretty cool. You can read her blog at:

Daughter Rogue's Blog