Ambush Grammaniac

The interactions I have with people are the most fun part of this job, and the two fun things about today spanned the spectrum of possible interactions, from laughing with people to laughing at them, or rather, him. I helped out on a segment called "Ambush Makeover", where we choose two women from the crowd to makeover, and reveal the new 'them' to their family and to themselves as well. The two ladies that were picked really enjoyed the experience, if you want to see the segment, click here and scroll down the page a bit, and on the slight left hand side you'll see videos and another small scrollbar, scroll down that one a bit more and you'll see the video. One lady was here with her husband, 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter. These kids stole the show, they were almost too cute and candid to handle.

Yesterday I answered a call from an older gentleman who was peeved by a bit of incorrect grammar in a segment that, he said, he's watched for years, and has been incorrect for years. The segment is called 'Today in 2 minutes', and apparently at the beginning the announcer says "here are some of the stories we'll cover today" or something like that. He claims that every time the video only reviews one story, and that plural isn't necessary.

True, if the video actually did review one story, but it hardly ever does. He called again today to complain and asked to talk to my supervisor because I failed to change it for him yesterday. Little did he know that I do more (than I should) to help callers than anyone else at my desk, at least in terms of sympathizing with their lonely existences, so when he talked to my supervisor, he was shocked at the tone he received. After an impressive three minutes on the phone, longer than my supervisor ever puts up with useless callers, he got hung up on. Lo and behold he calls back, I answer, and he asks for my supervisors name, threatening to write an angry email.

Of course, I'm not going to give out his name, so I tell him his name is Ben... Jacobson, with the pause and everything. To me at least it seemed like the falsest of monikers, but it gave me enough juice to improv some more bullsquat about 'Ben Jacobson', and why he's in a bad mood, until my supervisor got bored with my fabrications and hung up on him for me. He didn't call back, although we were waiting so we could block his number, but I'm sure somebody's going to get a well written email complaint about a 'Ben Jacobson', look him up in the system, and delete the email, thinking it was sent to the wrong address.