Operator
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
These days I work at home, and that means sitting in front of at least one computer screens, if not four. So it is common knowledge that maps.google.com, or traffic is just a click away in this day of mobile phones.
I once got a call from my daughter Aleksa about the best way to get onto US 101, I think it was. This would be in Los Angeles. Or another call about where Rand Road and Palatine road intersect. And other miscellaneous direction-oriented calls about obscure addresses in the suburbs.
Mind you, I find this kind of fun. I am not complaining. I remember a tv show decades ago, about some kind of investigative unit, in which one of the key characters was wheelchair-bound. His job was to answer the phone to other members of the team and hand out particular bits of information, or summon hidden resources. Of course, there was this enormous tape recorder running in the background, along with other related electronic equipment. He would answer the phone "operator", but he was not the usual kind of telephone operator.
So the other day I got another navigational question about an address on Buffalo Grove Road, and was tempted to answer "operator". Not sure if anyone would get the joke, but it does sound like it would galvanize the calling party to form a brief question.
I was going to title this My Life As A Map, but I resisted.