Unhelpful “Help”: Profit Center For Them, Aggravation Center for Customers Tied up in knots recently with Intuit’s “Quicken” financial software, I reluctantly popped another $35 for access to their help line for 3 months. Yup, Intuit charges for customer service (make that, “premium customer service”). Which just made me even more aggravated, given all the 27...Read More
Modern Magic “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” –Clarke’s Third Law OK, so it’s not India — Israel’s only 6,200 miles away from Minnesota, not 8,000. But, that’s where my 14 year-old son was this morning when he diagnosed and fixed my Internet connection problem (we were communicating via FaceTime, and I held up the camera...Read More
After the Deluge (Hopefully) Yes, I know that the habitats of everything from timber wolves to moose to monarch butterflies are now stressed and shrinking. But, thanks to anywhere from 5″ to more than 10″(!) of rain so far just this month, the metro area is literally awash in new ponds and wetlands. Like this...Read More
Apparently, just so there won’t be any confusion about its clientele, the full name of Hoagie’s diner on Main Street in Hopkins is “Hoagie’s Family Restaurant” (per the sign on the awning, above). Sure enough, the place was packed with families around 10 a.m. this morning (I was in the area running errands). I got great...Read More
No, that’s not something that Berkeley parents tell their kids (at least not in this case). And, it’s not some sort of broad, life philosophy.* Rather, the sign pictured at right is on a Golden Valley golf driving range; it’s instructing duffers to avoid the road (and cars) immediately to the west. *I’m sure I could dig up a couple “Aim...Read More
What’s on the Crumpled Green Post-It Note?? With all the cameo’s and NFL game footage, it’s hard to tell where the fictional “Draft Day” ends and the (just-concluded) real Draft Day begins. Suffice to say that the multiple plot lines are reasonably suspenseful, and the movie is a fun way to spend two hours —...Read More
