Email: Netflix Support

Title request: The Book that Wrote Itself (1999)

Email: Netflix Support

Title request: Fishing with Gandhi

Musings: Personal soundtracks

Forget personal ring tones. What we need is personal soundtracks, personal theme songs that play in the background of our phone calls, lending a musical backdrop and an aural texture to our phone conversations.

I got this idea while listening to Muzak on hold via my cell phone. The music would fuzz and rarify as the signal ebbed and flowed. (I'm in a building with storms in the area.) A personal audio backdrop to our cell phone calls would mean no more wondering about dropped calls and regular questions like "Are you still there?" or "Can you hear me now?"

Just a smattering of Kenny G or a fine patina of Pachelbel. Or your whole MP3 playlist rendered mutedly underneath every phone call. What do you think, ring tone vendors?

Anything but Gasolina, 50 Cent, or the O Song -- please!

Language: Get uber it

For maybe 8 years, the uber prefix has been gaining in ubiquity. Now a Quizno's commercial refers to beef as the "uber meat."

Musings: You must be this clueless...

Maybe it's because the Houston Rodeo is in town, not to mention the questions some doctorate holders ask me on a daily basis, but I'm picturing a cartoon where the technical support person has a sign on the wall that reads: "You must be _this_ clueless to ask a support question."

Typos: This file containers (contains)

This file containers [contains] both formats.

(From an email. See what happens with a president who is a "deciderer"?)

Email: Netflix Support

Title request: Femalien, Femalien II

Email: The Business of Strangers [CH]

My favorite line in The Business of Strangers is when Julia Stiles says to Stockard Channing: "Hey! Uber-frau!"