Interesting factoid: If I understood the story correctly, my step-mom invented the "conference call". It was during WWII and she was working for the Southwestern Bell phone company.
She figured out a way to plug in the wires to the switchboard in such a way that she could connect calls from servicemen to multiple people on the other end at the same time, enabling them to all hear their loved one during the very brief calls the soldiers were allowed.
Later the phone company techies of the day ran with her idea and, in the true spirit of capitalism, perfected a way to charge us extra for it.
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They are officially zero. I'm talking about the odds that I will ever travel to India. Before I read today's paper my odds of visiting India were about the same slightly lower than my sweeping Scarlett Johansson off her feet and driving off into the sunset with her beside me in my vintage Ferrari.
It seems in the northern Indian state of Uttar Prapesh the heat spiked to 117 degrees and the power company shut down. The story said that on a good day power only works for a couple of hours anyway, but now they don't even get that.
And being the super intelligent folks they are, they rioted, took the electric company employees hostage, and burned down the electric substations. Yeah, that'll show 'em!
So now they have 200,000,000 people (literally) running around without even their usual 2 hours of electric service a day. And to make matters worse, I'll bet you $100 the stores are all sold out of deodorant, too. Man, they can't buy a break!
Nope, sorry. No air conditioning, no Scotty boy. Texas in the summer is bad enough. I'm not going looking for trouble.
Stay cool everyone. :)
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So she invented conference calls and of course the big company probably didn't give her a dime for it. The Chubby Chatterbox had a good time in India it looked like but that place looks way too crowded and dirty for me.
ReplyDeleteIf I need to visit India, I just drive 10 minutes away to Edison , NJ. Much cooler.
ReplyDeleteWow - how neat that your step-mom found a way to have people make conference calls!
ReplyDeleteAbout ten years ago, I worked for Trane (the air conditioner company). That picture of the AC company van made the rounds way back then via emails. :-)
Gee, it's only 94 here right now. Just another average Arizona day.
ReplyDeleteYes, but "it's a dry heat." *wink* :)
DeleteI've been to India and I didn't encounter much air conditioning outside our bus. And not much deodorant either. But if you want to see the Taj Mahal that's where they keep it.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting up to 90 and there are few houses with AC in Germany. Have to go for a ride in the car to stay cool.
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