Saturday, June 7, 2008

Henrietta Gets Stupid

Henrietta used to know her way around...but now she's become somewhat unreliable.

Henrietta is the name I gave to the female voice that emanates from my Magellan Roadmate 2000, a Global Positioning System I installed in my car in January of '07. As I mentioned here and here, I found her generally helpful and in some cases, extremely useful. You can't follow the instructions mindlessly but she's handy to have in the car, especially when one is venturing into new frontiers. Or at least, she was.

Recently, I ordered and received their new software upgrade for the unit, and I had my assistant install it. The graphics are better, there are a few new features and there are updated maps...but in the process, Henrietta got stupid on me. I've used her to guide me on seven trips since the upgrade. Twice, she was fine. Twice, the route she suggested would have gotten me to my destination but not at all by the swiftest, most direct route. And three times, she simply pointed me in the wrong direction, thinking addresses were not where they truly are. This is not a passable batting average. She seems to be especially bad — and she wasn't before — at avoiding situations where I'd have to cross a busy eight-lane boulevard at an intersection without a traffic light. Also, her voice has gotten a bit surly and defensive...like she knows she's screwing up but is determined to make it my fault.

I am mentioning this here because I recommended the Magellan and a number of you bought one on my say-so. In fact, some of you bought yours via one of my Amazon links so I feel especially responsible. Beware. Newer and fancier is not always better.

Soon as I have time, I'm going to phone the Magellan folks and ask them if others have complained to the point where the company is scurrying to upgrade the upgrade. If the answer is no, I'm going to see about rolling back to the old software...and if that can't be done, I'll probably dump Henrietta for someone else. I know it sounds cruel but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

• Posted at 9:32 PM · LINK

Saturday Morning

I tuned into Hillary Clinton's concession speech in the middle...at a point where the rhetoric was all about "Me, me, me," with the subtext that a vote for anyone but Hillary was a vote against women's rights. You can imagine my disappointment...the latest in a long line of Clinton-related disappointments I've had during this campaign. But then I rolled the TiVo back, watched the speech in its entirety, and got a different impression. Keith Olbermann, who's been slamming Hillary as badly as any Republican has or would, is saying she had 6-8 great minutes in there, and that sounds about right. If you only catch the sound bites, depending on how they're chosen, you might get an erroneous impression, either way. You could edit this thing down to make her look very good or very bad. Catch the whole thing if you get a chance.

• Posted at 11:17 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Okay, let's watch a commercial I saw incessantly when I was a kid — a spot for Andersen's Split Pea Soup. In fact, let's discuss pea soup in some depth.

I didn't know it when I was seeing this commercial every eight minutes on my TV but the voices were done by the great Bob and Ray. Bob Elliott had the lead role and then he and Ray Goulding played the chefs. The commercial was designed by Paul Kim, who was responsible for a lot of ads produced in New York in the fifties.

I used to love Andersen's Split Pea Soup...or at least the version served in their signature restaurant in the little town of Buellton, California. Buellton is (I just Mapquested it) 138 miles northwest of Los Angeles and is known for that restaurant and almost nothing else. The restaurant used to be alongside Highway 101 and there was a California tradition: When one was driving from L.A. to San Francisco or vice-versa, one would stop off in Buellton for a bowl of guess what at Pea Soup Andersen's. A lot of people would also spend a few hours in Solvang, a nearby city with a Danish motif and wonderful gift shops and bakeries.

Split Pea Andersen's is a bit farther off the 101 than it used to be but it hasn't moved. The 101 did. In the early sixties, the freeway was rerouted and the old 101 is now the main street of Buellton. Still, people hop off the 101 to eat pea soup. It's been years since I've been there but I'll bet people still do. I remember a couple of trips with my parents in the sixties where we wasted an hour of vacation time waiting for a table there. The menu was coffee shop standard and a common meal was to order a sandwich and "all you can eat" pea soup. Your waitress would roll a little soup cart to your table and fill or top off your bowl.

The pea soup was great and I assume it's still great. On the other hand, the canned version of it, which this commercial promotes, always disappointed me.

What I really liked was the version of it my mother made. Someone gave her what was alleged to be the Pea Soup Andersen recipe. I doubt it was that but it was pretty good...and quite labor-intensive so she didn't make it as often as I would have liked. These days, my favorite Split Pea Soup is served at Canter's Delicatessen on Fairfax in Los Angeles, but they only have it on Wednesdays.

Okay, that's a lot more about Split Pea Soup than you could possibly want to know. Here's the commercial that got me to thinking about it...

• Posted at 12:48 AM · LINK