Customer Service Failures

Celebrity Death Watch: Larry Kramer was a playwright, best known for The Normal Heart. Christo was an artist, known for his large installations Norman Lamm was the President of Yeshiva University for many years and a major force in defining Modern Orthodox Judaism. Irene Triplett was the last living recipient of a Civil War pension. Pat Dye was a college football player and coach. Bruce Jay Friedman was a comic novelist and screenwriter, best known for such movies as Splash and Stir Crazy. Rupert Hine was a songwriter and record producer, who produced work by such people as Tina Turner and Bob Geldorf. Steve Priest was a bassist and singer for The Sweet. Keiko Ito was a haiku poet. Kurt Thomas was a Hall of Fame gymnast who won world championships in the late 1970’s. Vicki Wood was one of the first women to compete as a NASCAR driver. Thomas Freeman was a debate coach whose students included Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barbara Jordan. Bonnie Pointer sang with her sisters. Claudell Washington played outfield for several baseball teams, including a World Series winning A’s team in 1974. Harry Glickman cofounded the Portland Trail Blazers. Mike McCormick was a pitcher, primarily for the Giants, with whom he won a Cy Young award. Sally Banes was a dance historian and critic. Charles Webb wrote The Graduate. Dame Vera Lynn was an English singer, best known for “We’ll Meet Again.” Sir Ian Holm was an actor whose roles varied from King Lear to Bilbo Baggins. David Perlman was a science journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Lester Crystal was a news executive at PBS and NBC. Ralph Dunagin was a cartoonist, whose work included both editorial cartoons and comic strips. I know I owned a copy of his book Dunagin’s People at some point and may still. Thomas Edward Blanton Jr. was the terrorist who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, killing four African-American girls. Milton Glaser designed the I (Heart) New York logo and co-founded New York Magazine. Julian Curry was an actor, best known for playing Claude Erskine-Brown in the TV version of Rumpole of the Bailey. Tom Finn was a founding member of The Left Banke, best known for the song, “Walk Away Renee.” Henry Martin was a cartoonist whose work was published often in The New Yorker. He was also the father of Ann M. Martin of Babysitters Club fame and illustrated a couple of children’s books she wrote. Sir Everton Weekes was a cricket player for Barbados, who is noted for integrating the sport. George Ratzinger was a religious musician and the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI. Max Crook wrote the song “Runaway.” Earl Cameron was a British actor, whose career included being the first black actor to play various sorts of roles. Ennio Morricone was a composer of film music. Mary Kay Letourneau raped her teenage student and later married him. Ronald Graham was a big name in discrete mathematics, which I don’t understand well enough to tell you more about. Charlie Daniels was a country music singer-songwriter. Louis Colavecchio counterfeited coins for use in casino slot machines. Naya Rivera was an actress best known for appearing on Glee. Kelly Preston was an actress who appeared in numerous movies, including Jerry Maguire. She was also married to John Travolta. Judy Dybble was a founding member of Fairport Convention. Joanna Cole wrote the Magic School Bus series of children’s books. Grant Imahura was a roboticist, most famous for appearing on Mythbusters. Zizi Jeanmarie was a ballerina.

Jean Kennedy Smith was the younger sister of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver and was last of her generation of the Kennedy family. She worked on issues involving people with disabilities. She also spent 5 years as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland. She had been on my ghoul pool list last year, but fell off this year because there are just too many options.

Johnny Mandel was a composer, best known for film music. His best known pieces include “The Shadow of Your Smile” and the M*A*S*H theme song, “Suicide Is Painless.”

Carl Reiner was a very funny man, both as a performer and a writer. His most classic role was as straight man to Mel Brooks for The 2000 Year Old Man. He also won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2000. He was not on my ghoul pool list because I was sure he would live to 100. I feel robbed of two or more years of his brilliance.

Hugh Downs was a television host. His work included being a news anchor and a game show host (for Concentration). He had held the record for most hours on commercial network television for many years, though was surpassed by Regis Philbin in 2004. He had been on my ghoul pool list last year, but I fogot about him this year.

Nick Cordero was an actor, best known for roles in Bullets Over Broadway, though I think his greatest significance was originating the title role in The Toxic Avenger off-Broadway. He also was, alas, well-known for his lengthy struggle with COVID-19, documented by his wife. He earned me 13 ghoul pool points.

John Lewis was a civil rights activist, who went on to become a respected (and effective) Congressman. He seemed like a genuinely good man, who fought hard and dangerously for what he believed in. Plus, he liked cats, which is generally a good sign of character. His death was no surprise as he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December (which is why he was on my ghoul pool list, earning me 18 points). By the way, C. T. Vivian, who was another important civil rights activist, died the same day.


Non-celebrity Death Watch: Marvin Stokes was an organizer of volksmarch events, primarily in Florida, though I first met him at a walking weekend he put together in Savannah, Georgia.

General Thomas Moorman was a significant leader in Air Force space, including serving as Commander of Air Force Space Command. He also led lots of independent studies after he retired from the AF and was on the board of directors for my employer.


Minor Customer Service Fail: ( bought a laser printer (actually, multi-function). I explicitly asked about cables if I want to use it non-wirelessly and the sales guy told me it came with a USB cable. He lied. This was easily remedied via a trip to Staples (which I needed to do anyway, since I couldn’t find printer paper in my house) but it was annoying to have been lied to.

I also still have to find time to finish setting things up.

More Significant Customer Service Fail: My air conditioning failed on Tuesday. Of course, that was just before the temperatures were predicted to rise to the high 90’s. I wanted to try a couple of things (e.g. changing the filter) first, so I didn’t have a chance to call to call until Friday. I have ceiling fans in every room, so things were not intolerable, but were definitely getting uncomfortable. (It got up to 87, which is hot, even for the likes of me, who normally sets the AC at 80.) Anyway, I got an appointment for first thing Saturday morning. And the guy didn’t show up. After two calls to the company (which didn’t bother to call me when he didn’t clock in), they cancelled. They offered me an appointment on Sunday, but a friend had recommended somebody she had used and I called him instead. I was concerned when he showed up half an hour late. But he fixed the problem quickly (needed a capacitor replaced) and everything was fixed in an hour or so.

All is well now, but I was decidedly hot under the collar.


Other stuff: I’ve continued playing board games (Code Names, Dixit, Fibbage, and others) one or more times a week. I went to two story swaps in the past week, as well as listening to a couple of storytelling shows and some music programs, including the Urban Arias production of Why Is Eartha Kitt Trying to Kill Me? which is a very amusing opera.

I am also crazy busy with work. And it seems horribly unfair that caffeine is not an adequate substitute for sleep.